RogerOut:
Well surely it depends who you work for?
For instance, I’ve looked at two companies that are near me, Palletline and Bidfood. Apparently it’s Monday to Friday work, I believe Palletline is something like 7-5 hours.
Are the supermarket drivers on a rota?
I understand of course that things happen on the road, and you can’t always guarantee when you’ll finish.
I’m just fed up of being on bus wages ( 11-12 ph) when the real money seems to be on trucks.
I’ll give you the money myself if you do 7.5 hrs per day every day in any HGV job. It simply won’t happen.
Expect 12 hour days with an occasional 10 hour day, and a fair amount of 13-15 hour days.
It sounds to me as if the HGV route is probably not the one for you.
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Again doesn’t it depend who you work for? Warburtons apparently start at around 4 am and are done by 1pm, maybe 2pm.
Palletline says their day drivers work from 7-5.
And Bidfood is apparently early starts but done by the afternoon generally.
None of the companies I just mentioned involve nights out, it’s more local distribution, not driving across the country.
Of course it depends what job you’re doing, who you work for.
Who wants to get up at 3am to start work at 4am? WTF! Warburtons you load and unload your own truck. How quick that happens depends if there’s a bay free and an empty trailer available. It’s graft. You’re basically a warehouse worker and HGV driver in one. So 2 jobs for the pay of 1 job. That’s why they’re always advertising, much the same as Aldi.
Palletline, realistically 6 til 6. You get in at 6 and hope the hub trunk decker is already back so you can get it unloaded, scanned in and load its stuff for your run on your truck. You then chase your arse all day trying to get all your deliveries done by dinner time and then chase your arse some more trying to get all your collections, then fight rush hour traffic to get back to the yard, unload, scan in and load on the decker for the hub. Again, it’s graft and the only way you’re doing 7 til 5 if it you drive like a [zb] everywhere, tipping and loading on tacho break.
Bidfood, again it’s hard graft. Stupid o’clock starts and lots of hotels, airports, schools and town centre pubs with nowhere to park/unload, kerbs, cobbles, steep slopes, overloaded cages with broken wheels, double compartment boxes where you need to get a cage of frozen out of the front compartment but you have 20 cages of overloaded chilled to move out of the way to get to it. Then you have all the empty cages to pick up and find somewhere to stow without blocking in all your cages for your next deliveries.
Bloody hell mate,that portrait you sketch has given me the fear I’m amazed anyone puts up with that level of pain day in,day out.
RogerOut:
Thanks for your reply. How far in advance do they let you what your doing when it comes to days off?
It depends, some are quite reasonable. But most expect you to say “how high” when they say “jump”.
If your time off requirements are fixed days off each week long term, driving ain’t for you. Unless you do the bins or local builders stuff.
I drive ad hoc so I can work when I want - but I have another business too so dont need the driving so to speak.
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Well on the buses we work a rota so we know what we’re doing each day, months, even a year in advance. If HGV drivers have families , surely they need to know within reason what days they are working, what days they’re off? No wonder the industry struggles to keep people if they have no idea what they’re doing day to day.
As for when they say jump, who are you working for a dictatorship? Are you a slave?slaves? I’ll do my job and do as my manager/ boss says, providing its legal, but I’m not a skivvy for anyone.
Oh dear. You’ve a lot to learn about HGV work.
It’s nothing like the buses.
I’ve yet to see anywhere than didnt take the ■■■■. Some take the ■■■■ beyond all reason.
You are just a number. They don’t care what you think or that you have a family. As long as you’re happy doing 60 or 70 hours a week you’ll be fine. If you’re expecting 37.5 hrs a week, you’re in for a disappointing experience I’m afraid.
RogerOut:
Just had a look on the Wincanton website. They take on new drivers, including ex forces drivers. They provide training also, to get new drivers ready for the road.
They also state they will accommodate shifts to suit you, where they can.
Is this too good to be true? Seems they are promising the Earth…
Lots of work, not enough drivers. Wincanton are our subbies and at Bellshill they seem to go through a few drivers. There’s a core who’ve been there for years but you regularly see new faces. Mind you what they do involves a bit of graft and physical effort strapping down a chipboard load with 12 or 15 straps once or twice a day. Wages aren’t also the best, not bad but there’s better paying.
Wincanton is one of those companies where although there is a company “plan” for everything, the reality is it varies vastly from depot to depot depending on the management. When I worked for them I had 3 different managers in 6 years. The first one didn’t stay long enough to have any effect, the second one was brilliant, but he got promoted onto a different contract, and the third one was ineffective. He even admitted he wasn’t a people person!
DCPCFML:
You’re basically a warehouse worker and HGV driver in one. So 2 jobs for the pay of 1 job. That’s why they’re always advertising, much the same as Aldi.
Apologies if this had been mentioned already. But at my bus depot on our Unite Union board, there is an article about Argos , Wincanton up in the north west. Apparently the union has negotiated a 30% pay rise for the drivers.
The hourly rate was something like £11.50 to over £15 ph.
This pay rise seems quite remarkable.
Apparently Wincanton declined to comment.
RogerOut:
I’ve posted this elsewhere but here goes anyway;
Apologies if this had been mentioned already. But at my bus depot on our Unite Union board, there is an article about Argos , Wincanton up in the north west. Apparently the union has negotiated a 30% pay rise for the drivers.
The hourly rate was something like £11.50 to over £15 ph.
This pay rise seems quite remarkable.
Apparently Wincanton declined to comment.
Anyone else seen this?
Look either go to Wincanton or don’t. Your starting to sound a advertisement for them
Nearly there again:
Look either go to Wincanton or don’t. Your starting to sound a advertisement for them
If it is the fully flexible on duties, heavy lifting, handling cages and multi drop all under the heading of ‘trunking’ contained in an ad won’t help them to find many takers.
RogerOut:
I’ve posted this elsewhere but here goes anyway;
Apologies if this had been mentioned already. But at my bus depot on our Unite Union board, there is an article about Argos , Wincanton up in the north west. Apparently the union has negotiated a 30% pay rise for the drivers.
The hourly rate was something like £11.50 to over £15 ph.
This pay rise seems quite remarkable.
Apparently Wincanton declined to comment.
Anyone else seen this?
Look either go to Wincanton or don’t. Your starting to sound a advertisement for them
Well that particular depot isn’t in my area, I was more interested to see if this is happening across the industry.
I was on £15ph with Wincanton 2 years ago. Their rates vary enormously from contract to contract. We had the advantage that they had to match the wages of a similar local operation or all their drivers would jump ship and go there.
RogerOut:
Thanks for your reply. How far in advance do they let you what your doing when it comes to days off?
It depends, some are quite reasonable. But most expect you to say “how high” when they say “jump”.
If your time off requirements are fixed days off each week long term, driving ain’t for you. Unless you do the bins or local builders stuff.
I drive ad hoc so I can work when I want - but I have another business too so dont need the driving so to speak.
Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
Well on the buses we work a rota so we know what we’re doing each day, months, even a year in advance. If HGV drivers have families , surely they need to know within reason what days they are working, what days they’re off? No wonder the industry struggles to keep people if they have no idea what they’re doing day to day.
As for when they say jump, who are you working for a dictatorship? Are you a slave?slaves? I’ll do my job and do as my manager/ boss says, providing its legal, but I’m not a skivvy for anyone.
Oh dear. You’ve a lot to learn about HGV work.
It’s nothing like the buses.
I’ve yet to see anywhere than didnt take the ■■■■. Some take the ■■■■ beyond all reason.
You are just a number. They don’t care what you think or that you have a family. As long as you’re happy doing 60 or 70 hours a week you’ll be fine. If you’re expecting 37.5 hrs a week, you’re in for a disappointing experience I’m afraid.
I’m amazed anyone puts up with that level of pain day in,day out.