Last year I spoke to solstor about doing fridge work to and from Europe they was offering £1.25 per mile.
Even if they was getting £2 a mile for the load that’s still a good deal for the supermarket.
Winseer:
Without cushy T&Cs therefore, I suggest that euro work is pants and not worth chasing for it’s so-called “Novelty value”.
On the other hand, even I would jump at the chance if it were paid by the hour like other agency work, but it isn’t available to agency for that very reason!
If that was right the agencies would be able to offer loads of international work to any driver who wanted it so long as they don’t mind being paid by the mile instead of the hour and loads of drivers saying no thanks they’d prefer to get paid more per hour to do local building deliveries and multi drop. 
limeyphil:
What would you say the cost of a supermarket sending an artic from manchester to madrid and back is?
There’s fuel, wages, tolls, ferries, and the cost of the truck.
Now what would a subby get?
Whatever the latest east european rate for the job is.
At the rate solstor were paying a year ago that would work out at 1500 quid each way plus the tolls and ferry. Not sure what this would come to on top say 750 that’s 2250.
So 4.5k round trip and your suggesting going out empty.
Bet they get a load of fruit done for well under 3k
kr79:
At the rate solstor were paying a year ago that would work out at 1500 quid each way plus the tolls and ferry. Not sure what this would come to on top say 750 that’s 2250.
So 4.5k round trip and your suggesting going out empty.
Bet they get a load of fruit done for well under 3k
The costs work out to about £2500 round trip. The supermarkets are charged much more, Around £5000 one way. But some owner drivers seem happy to do the work for £3000 round trip. And they’ll have higher overheads due to running out loaded.
This has to be the daftest idea I’ve ever heard - and I’ll try to explain .
Supermarket Driver- turns up , gets keys and trip sheet ,does daily walk round checks , finds trailer ,hooks up ,checks trailer, reads risk assessment , follows route to store , does delivery , collects rubbish , takes it back , drops trailer , fuels up , parks up, does paperwork hands back keys , signs out and goes home .
Lets try to send him to Spain for a load of grapes .
Supermarket tries to get a load out from UK to France or Spain .
Driver has no gear for the truck because it’s double shifted so no fridge or cooker .
As its a basic spec supermarket truck - no Air Con, no Topline /Globetrotter /XXL/ Superspace cab .
Did anyone ever see a fuel card in a Supermarket RDC truck ? - me neither .Never mind vigenets , CMR’s ,payages.
Anything else I’ve forgotten ?
If and thats a BIG if he ever got to the packhouse and did manage to get loaded , a CMR filled in , the last thing he would do is look at the paperwork and set the fridge for +6 before leaving .
10 miles up the road I recon the grape juice will be running out the back doors .
Fruit and veg would be 10 times the price . We would all have scurvy.
Why would the paperwork be the last thing he’ll look at, and am sure he’ll set the right temp. A bit of an insult to supermarket drivers that last post.
Supermarkets use their trucks to distribute product from RDCs to their stores, not to bring product into their RDCs and this applies to domestic as well as continental RDC intake. Virtually everything that arrives at an RDC comes in with a third party haulier.
beefy4605:
This has to be the daftest idea I’ve ever heard - and I’ll try to explain .
Supermarket Driver- turns up , gets keys and trip sheet ,does daily walk round checks , finds trailer ,hooks up ,checks trailer, reads risk assessment , follows route to store , does delivery , collects rubbish , takes it back , drops trailer , fuels up , parks up, does paperwork hands back keys , signs out and goes home .Lets try to send him to Spain for a load of grapes .
Supermarket tries to get a load out from UK to France or Spain .
Driver has no gear for the truck because it’s double shifted so no fridge or cooker .
As its a basic spec supermarket truck - no Air Con, no Topline /Globetrotter /XXL/ Superspace cab .
Did anyone ever see a fuel card in a Supermarket RDC truck ? - me neither .Never mind vigenets , CMR’s ,payages.
Anything else I’ve forgotten ?
If and thats a BIG if he ever got to the packhouse and did manage to get loaded , a CMR filled in , the last thing he would do is look at the paperwork and set the fridge for +6 before leaving .
10 miles up the road I recon the grape juice will be running out the back doors .
Fruit and veg would be 10 times the price . We would all have scurvy.
What a load of tosh.
Carryfast:
Winseer:
Without cushy T&Cs therefore, I suggest that euro work is pants and not worth chasing for it’s so-called “Novelty value”.
On the other hand, even I would jump at the chance if it were paid by the hour like other agency work, but it isn’t available to agency for that very reason!If that was right the agencies would be able to offer loads of international work to any driver who wanted it so long as they don’t mind being paid by the mile instead of the hour and loads of drivers saying no thanks they’d prefer to get paid more per hour to do local building deliveries and multi drop.
The moment you’re not paid by the time period, you’ve circumvented the agency and have gone self-employed.
Agencies don’t send people on plate work either as far as I know. Without that defined wage coming in for defined hours, you’re gonna get ripped off left, right, and centre - and you do!
If you were paid for Eurowork by the mile, then guess what? - You won’t know where you are going right upto getting on the ferry, but surprise surprise, you find you won’t be going to Malaga on arrival, but Nobbies yard up the dunqerque road instead… ■■■■! You’ve spent more money on the ferry than you’ll get paid for this run. Bon Voyage!
beefy4605:
This has to be the daftest idea I’ve ever heard - and I’ll try to explain .
Supermarket Driver- turns up , gets keys and trip sheet ,does daily walk round checks , finds trailer ,hooks up ,checks trailer, reads risk assessment , follows route to store , does delivery , collects rubbish , takes it back , drops trailer , fuels up , parks up, does paperwork hands back keys , signs out and goes home .Lets try to send him to Spain for a load of grapes .
Supermarket tries to get a load out from UK to France or Spain .
Driver has no gear for the truck because it’s double shifted so no fridge or cooker .
As its a basic spec supermarket truck - no Air Con, no Topline /Globetrotter /XXL/ Superspace cab .
Did anyone ever see a fuel card in a Supermarket RDC truck ? - me neither .Never mind vigenets , CMR’s ,payages.
Anything else I’ve forgotten ?
If and thats a BIG if he ever got to the packhouse and did manage to get loaded , a CMR filled in , the last thing he would do is look at the paperwork and set the fridge for +6 before leaving .
10 miles up the road I recon the grape juice will be running out the back doors .
Fruit and veg would be 10 times the price . We would all have scurvy.
If they did bring the produce in themselves, Then i’m sure they’d have a dedicated fleet with dedicated drivers for the job.
Alot of it isn’t just one hit runs from spain to the uk, it will go to different dc’s along the way to be processed and packaged.
Tescos and Sainsburys are collecting alot of there own stuff from suppliers as a backhaul to the DC. uk work
only , anyone with a ounce of common sense knows this. 
Harry Monk:
Supermarkets use their trucks to distribute product from RDCs to their stores, not to bring product into their RDCs and this applies to domestic as well as continental RDC intake. Virtually everything that arrives at an RDC comes in with a third party haulier.
Asda and Tesco collect from some of their suppliers.
All those extra stops must cost the haulier money compared to a straight-through run.
If I were to hire a removal firm to cart my stuff from say, here to across town compared to here to the other side of the country, then I would not actually expect to pay much more than the fuel/driver cost for getting it across country!
It’s all the handling on and off that should cost the money, putting pressure upon depots to become more efficient.
All this worry about distance and driver’s rate is looking in the wrong direction for “efficiency savings” entirely!
Supermarkets you’d think would save money by getting their supplier wagons to come directly from the factory that kicks out the cakes, pies, whatever.
Taking it to umpteen depots along the way cannot but cost a lot more money surely? 
Winseer:
Carryfast:
Winseer:
Without cushy T&Cs therefore, I suggest that euro work is pants and not worth chasing for it’s so-called “Novelty value”.
On the other hand, even I would jump at the chance if it were paid by the hour like other agency work, but it isn’t available to agency for that very reason!If that was right the agencies would be able to offer loads of international work to any driver who wanted it so long as they don’t mind being paid by the mile instead of the hour and loads of drivers saying no thanks they’d prefer to get paid more per hour to do local building deliveries and multi drop.
The moment you’re not paid by the time period, you’ve circumvented the agency and have gone self-employed.
Agencies don’t send people on plate work either as far as I know. Without that defined wage coming in for defined hours, you’re gonna get ripped off left, right, and centre - and you do!
If you were paid for Eurowork by the mile, then guess what? - You won’t know where you are going right upto getting on the ferry, but surprise surprise, you find you won’t be going to Malaga on arrival, but Nobbies yard up the dunqerque road instead… ■■■■! You’ve spent more money on the ferry than you’ll get paid for this run. Bon Voyage!
Over here in the colonies distance work is paid by the mile all well and good until you have a breakdown or have to wait for a reload.
Winseer:
All those extra stops must cost the haulier money compared to a straight-through run.If I were to hire a removal firm to cart my stuff from say, here to across town compared to here to the other side of the country, then I would not actually expect to pay much more than the fuel/driver cost for getting it across country!
It’s all the handling on and off that should cost the money, putting pressure upon depots to become more efficient.
All this worry about distance and driver’s rate is looking in the wrong direction for “efficiency savings” entirely!Supermarkets you’d think would save money by getting their supplier wagons to come directly from the factory that kicks out the cakes, pies, whatever.
Taking it to umpteen depots along the way cannot but cost a lot more money surely?
Do you honestly think that would work? 1 box to shop A, 3 boxes to shop B etc etc. There is a very good reason it goes to an RDC as it makes stock control/replenishment far easier.
waddy640:
Asda and Tesco collect from some of their suppliers.
I very much doubt that either of them bring more than 5% of their intake into depot on their own vehicles and that doesn’t alter the fact that neither of them are geared up to do mainland European transport.
I see asdas own motors reloading dog food out of melmerby most days
tinytrucker77:
I see asdas own motors reloading dog food out of melmerby most days
Yes, they used to load at Rhys Davies but they massive majority of produce arriving at an Asda RDC does so on third party vehicles. And Asda would not be geared up to collecting loads from say, Spain, in any way shape or form.