Hi all, as I have said I have a regular area I cover with reasonably regular customers. while some drops might be every day others might be once a month or even more infrequent. the regularity of it means I have built up a knowledge of where to go and how to get from one drop to another and most places are friendly and helpful. It also means I know where i can have my breaks without causing any issues and where I can have a quick smoke if needed. This is done in a 7.5 tonne.
In the next few weeks the site assessor is coming back from furlough so I have the chance of going up to a class 2 I think the biggest rigids they have are 26tonne (might as well be an artic to me almost in physical size) if I did this I would then be put on general and while the pay is slightly better I wont know where I am going from one day to the next or where any of the drops are. as well as the hassle of finding privet addresses parked cars etc etc. the few occasions I have done general because there wasn’t enough work for me on my usual job. I seem to get some silly customer that has ordered something silly and treats you like they would rather a sack of the brown stuff had delivered their item. on top of that its always the biggest and heaviest item that cant be delivered that was the first drop. and is in the way all day.
I know I have only done this a few times and I struggled with the first option for the first week or so.
which option would people prefer I know im being a wet blanket as far as general goes hence the post
We all like and thrive on different types of work, just as we like and fancy different people, be a bloody boring world of we became the clones they want us to be.
You like you niche, good for you, doesn’t hurt to try other things and give them a fair crack to see if they work for you.
I hate modern general haulage and i wouldn’t do it, like you i have regular deliveries, only one or two deliveries a day and home every night, love it and wish i’d found it 30 years earlier.
If you have found yourself a good little number,.and you have the opportunity to keep it, that is the option I would take.
If you are considering the alternative just because it is on a bigger vehicle then why?
Put it this way, if I could do the job I’m doing on a 7.5 tonne, I’d be there like a shot (as long as it had a decent bunk ).
Nothing ‘kudos’ about driving an artic or even a big rigid mate, and there are more bad jobs in this game than good uns…trust me.
If you are also thinking of it maybe paying a bit more money, then that depends on how much, and whether or not it is enough to sacrifice a bloody good gig that you have evidently got sussed and enjoy, over a run of the mill crap general haulage job that you most probably won’t.
I also have managed to get a nice little number I enjoy, and a couple of years ago I got the chance to go back on a foreign outfit doing European (after previously always pestering them for work before I managed to get the niche job in my firm I have now.)
More money, and a flash lhd top range motor, …but on other hand back to doing long periods away from home. an unknown quantity/better the devil you know scenario… I decided against it within 5 minutes.
Depends on what your delivering as to which is better, I work for driving agencies a few months each year, sometimes more sometimes less. I get different work all the time, class 1, 2, and 7.5 ton. I really don’t care what class I am driving. I have delivered roof trusses on class 1 to building sites around London and would have been much happier delivering pastries local to me on 7.5 ton in comparison. I have delivered flat pack furniture and have had to hand ball it all off which also is a pain. It’s not the class of vehicle that makes the difference but your actual load that can make a big difference. The money between each class is negligiblein most cases.
Something different every day for me would be ideal. Unfortunately I don’t get that currently, we do have a wide variety but going to the same place twice in the same month ■■■■■■ me off, never mind daily!
There’s nothing I like better than receiving the panic phone call changing my job to a different one that requires me to sort some sort of problem out.
We do the same drops, all abet in different orders on different days, we sometimes get moved from fridge work to curtainside work, again having done most of them for other customers, Get given my notes and just get on with it, I did have a nice little run for a while, until the rate cutters moved in… Just carry on point A to pointB and get paid, it’s easy enough.
By all means get assessed by the company so you can fill in while someone is on holiday or sick but for the every day job go for 7.5t every time. You are now doing the London deliveries which probably most of the other drivers on the company hate doing, the future for haulage is uncertain to say the least since there are difficult times ahead. Play to your strengths, by the sound of it you are becoming someone who can be relied upon to just go out and get the job done; that offers a greater prospect of job security within the company, which is going to be important.
Why would you want to handball off 10 or 16 tonnes when you can get almost the same money for handballing about 3 tonnes? Why would you want to struggle around narrow streets in a town you don’t know in a bigger vehicle? Why would you want the aggravation of finding a kerbside spot long enough for a bigger delivery vehicle? why would you want the worry about whether delays further away from base will mean you might not get home in your hours?
For me, it would be down to the balance of
Pay increase vs Stress
From memory you are a new-ish pass? So having experience on the bigger rigids might help if you might move on to another company and want to put the Class 2 experience on your CV? But big rigids in residential areas would increase the risk of damaging the truck/other people’s vehicles etc and the stress that comes with that…
If you plan to stay where you are, I would try and keep to what you are happy doing, taking into account the above money:stress balance.
I drive 7.5T or Class 2 on agency when I have a Class 1 licence and I’m happy. I could drive the Class 1 for £1-£1.20 more an hour but it isn’t worth it to me right now.
I agree with the above poster. If the company knows they can rely on you to go out and get the job done, you are more of an asset to them
Spot on Cav, everything has changed in the last couple of months, but it hasn’t dawned on most yet.
Almost all of us (private sector) will have job and possibly income changes thrust upon us to varying degrees, we can jump up and down in futile protest but at the end of the day if several million more people are put out of work then the attitudes of some will have to be modified or the door will beckon, this isn’t wimping out it’s dealing with a new reality.
The next click on the ratchet is the curtailing of furlough scheme, already seeing small cost effectively run businesses who you would think would ride out the storm closing down because they can see what’s coming and shoring up their own situations before keeping on people they have no hope of providing future work for bleeds them dry and there is nothing left to build back up from.
All this because we have an inept panicked governing class who believed some bods figures, once again plucked from his arse, and destroyed our economy on the strength of it (with the backing of the media don’t forget), with much of the rest of europe following suit, whoda thought Sweden would be the western country most likely to come out of this with an economy intact…not to worry the electorate will put the same two parties back in tweedle dum tweedle dee style next time round
For many yrs folk told me to go on long distance instead of the job I tolerated and they tolerated for 21 yrs but after change oi management the job c changed for the worse. I moved to Canada and enjoyed my first job , once all paperwork was done I got a deadman’s shoes job half a mile from my door and minimal Saturday working . ■■■■ near a o/o job start at 630 Finnish about 640 pm. 900 km a day hr pay and ot paid at 1.5. Unknown over here. Lasted 6yrs what I mean to say. The money might get better a new truck but hate every day … I decided to enjoy my work and as long as the bills are paid all is well but after my accident I might be finished driving but got 39 yrs in Jimmy
I’m lucky. The majority of the time is spent going to the same drops but every so often I’ll spend a couple of weeks on days doing store deliveries which is nice to break up the monotony of the routine but driving around trying to find places you’ve never been to before is definitely more stressful and I can google every single one of our 650+ stores and in 99% of cases get decent directions but there’s still the “is there a low bridge or weight limit” to contend with and some of them are in right pain in the backside places to get at.
I think as you get on in the job you just want easy. Go to work, potter around, come back, go home, pick up wages on Friday.
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