Righty oh boys, i can sort this one.My good man,i got ten trucks,this job of ours, is sadly like no other job out there, lots of things change, the best laid plans fail, people, everywhere let us down, if you find that running a few hours in to base on a sat, for a few quid, goes agains your grain, then im thinking your in the wrong job.If your in this for the money solely, your also in the wrong job.If ya can live with it, you will go far ! Best of luck.
Bang on the money, both of you, Dennis, the square peg round hole scenario is a nightmare for all concerned, some drivers, such as myself, wheelnut and many others will be round pegs wherever we can, some drivers are square pegs no matter what, I’m shaking my head as I type this, because it seems to me that a lot of the licence holders that ■■■■ and moan on here are in fact square pegs, what they’re doing in transport is beyond my comprehension, mind you it’s logistics now, transport is no more 
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werni shakmy ead everyfing goes wonky. 
yes i have done this and i would in future, nature of the job ect…
on the other hand I have come across this, this week infact but its not a knock at the original poster as his circumstances ect may be different…
couple of weeks ago busy as hell drivers asked to do that bit more, no problem for most of us money in bank ready for xmas ect… well some drivers got 65+ hours in, some drivers refused to do anymore then 50 saying employer was taking ■■■■ ect, well last week we had probs due to weather and a lot of mon to wed loads were cancelled so the drivers who refused to do that bit more were sent home after 8 hours (as in contract) well as weather warmed up a bit yesterday the loads came back on and we got busy with saturday available… guess which drivers were fighting for the saturday? which drivers got the offer to work saturday?? … what goes around comes around…
the guys who refused to help out a bit and got sent home were also not asked to work saturday…
i,m the lucky one and managed to get all mine done and home by midnight, so no saturday
Hiya… going back to the days when your pay was a percentage of the lorry earnings you always had friday night
out and run in saturday for no actuall pay… times seem to be changing as drivers just did what was to be done.
In 1973 my boss said do you want christmas day off, i said yes, he said go christmas night .
Three trips from newark to Peterbourough with a tipper trailer.(40mph on twin track) he had 9 lorries running all 24 hours
double shifted,that job run from september to march if you wanted a job you worked the hours. mind you i can,nt
write on here the money we was erning…home life NIL but you could afford anything you wanted.
Edwin Shirley trucking would,nt employ any driver with a relationship at one time, he did,nt have time
for people saying they needed to be home for a special day.
I,am not having a go at anyone just saying how times are changing.
John
I know a chap from a few years back who would not stop out if he was less than four hours from home
fuse:
I know a chap from a few years back who would not stop out if he was less than four hours from home
Hiya… i,ve known people be nealy out of time in Glasgow and just managed to get back to the yard in time…(Stoke on trent)
That was not me…One morning i started early and got held up so i phoned in(from a call box)and said i would have to have
a night out(this was 3pm)the boss replied its not dark yet (meaning get back here)only 4 hours to get back.I did,nt.
got a rollocking next day.
John
If you get night out money and four and ahalf hours at time and a half just do it,inthe days of log books where it was shall we say a little more flexable you could do your accountancy and the vehicle would be in the yard you would be home in bed and paid for it …every body happy
Reading the OP and all the replies remind me of myself & also post I put on TNUK about a year ago.
To sumerize … In the past I was one of those Bolshi people who put his family & social life before work. I wouldn’t work weekends, I would only do day work M-F with starts no earlier that 6am.
A perfect working scenario you’d think … For a short while it was. Especially while I was working in a warehouse earning £294 a week. I was skint but happy.
When I became a driver I was in for a rude awakening, being Bolshi, because Id got my C+E licence, i was far too proud to lower myself to drive anything less than C+E, I'd walk off site if I was given the keys to a puddle jumper, or 7.5T. You probably know what mean. No doubt At some point we've all done it But as I was a new agency driver, so obviously there wasn't many companies who where willing to give me shifts & hours that suited my so called perfect lifestyle :neutral_face: The end reality of it was that I only earned £7K max that year! So after being sat down by a mate and basically being told some very honest truths about myself by him. I was advised by him to swallow my pride, & wind my Bolshi neck in, and be more flexible with my attitude towards how & when I was willing to work. afterall we do live a 24/7 society and IF I wanted to carry on as a truck driver an attitude adjustment was reqd. So not surprisingly with my new tempered attitude, in the following years things have improved remarkably, and my earnings increased to levels Id not seen for years.
Now even without major detriment to my home & social life I find myself taking my 45/24 on sun/mon/tues. (this week sun/mon). So I still get to see my family & friends. But that don’t matter as the same old faces are still sat in the same places in the pub when I do get there, moaning that they’re skint & can’t earn a decent wage between 6am & 6pm mon - fri. Because they`re too proud to give or take a little to get the job done.
As for nights out, I soon figured out that running 15hrs and max’ing out & getting within an hour of 2 from the yard before nighting out. I’d max out the earnings potential with minimal inconvenience the next day.
Hell …I’ve even max’ed out and had several nights out parked in truckstops Inc the Stockyard, even on a Saturday night or 2 (some of you will understand why I don’t mind a night out parked in the stockyard) 
so long as I can make it there before closing time, is another added bonus too
Also I regularly driver puddle jumpers, cars, vans and many other trucks. So long as its got wheels, its safe & legal and I can earn some £s from it Im not proud who`s money I take
Hiya… in 76 the firm i worked for took on a job fron nr Dagenham(iicr frog island) i had tipped South woodham ferris
and run to this job and was going to run home and say nowt.well when i got to this loading place 6 of our other trucks
was already their and a couple was loaded. we stayed together all got chained and roped up, but we did,nt run north
through the city untill saturday morning. the reason been we had three logs on each trailer, the logs was 2ft square
and 54ft long and we had all got 40 trailers.14 ft overhang so we had to sneak up to Stoke and then to Liverpool on the
monday.Job done no probs.
I think you,d struggle nowadays,
John
Ill run in on a saturday morning, cannot see the problem with it, the quarry is only open until 10am so to me its back,load for Monday and home by half 9 at the latest and still being paid until 12.The other thing is youve got your first load on your back for Monday so aint starting at 5am to be chasing your ■■■ all day.
I used to all the time.
I realised that I was getting to stressed battling the Friday traffic and by the time I got home I was that knackered and stressed I didn’t enjoy my Friday night pint. I ended up parking up early on the Friday, hopefully somewhere decent, or where the company was decent, and running in on the Saturday morning.
Wheel Nut:
We are slightly running away with the thread but to comment on Marks reply, yes whatever goes into the bank is wages.I worked for several companies who rewarded you for a “good” day. It would look quite strange to write too many 17 hour shifts on your timesheet, but you could always book a few extra nights out
One of my drivers, after a good day, would tell me he was booking extra hours/night out etc. He knew how much the truck earned and had an excellent idea how much it cost to earn that money. I used to admire his honesty.
When I did containers I could of got to the yard which was in FX docks on a Friday night but the prob was that I had to swap boxes & so it would mean sleeping in the yard with no N/O money & swapping Sat morning so it was a no brainer to sleep 1 hr. away from the depot & get paid for it.
Night out money is not wages so £20 for a saturday is not great
brett73:
Night out money is not wages so £20 for a saturday is not great
Nobody said it was wages, they just said it was money
Just a secondary thought, after a bit of reflection,w hat other choice have you got? and would it be any better, ie, getting someone from base to come and get you, which is going to get you home, but probably too late to enjoy any of it, or dont do the job, then not get paid at all, or run bent and risk the vosa and law problems,?I regulary have a man run in from southampton on a sat morn, every other week, gets an extr night out, which i give him £23 pounds for and books 4 to 5 hrs and he washes his truck, he gets £12,50 an hr for that, he doesnt seem to mind.
Im away every friday night now,id rather get parked up early as poss avoid the friday traffik then crack on sat morning running in,night man doesnt end up usin the motor plus no-one uses it sat either,sorted!
My Mrs enjoys sat mornings just her and the kids bit of a steady mornin for her not avin to rush about for the kids so think i would be in the way if at home so i rock up just after dinner everyones ready to go shopping,everyones happy,happy family well worth me been away friday night for 20notes in my opinion.
Some interesting replies, only just had a.chance to read up since Friday.
Not surprised pavoroti had another personal dig, as did shuttle spanker <Personal attack removed, attack the posts not the poster>
Quite a few have the same opinion as me yet don’t get the same abuse asme as per normal it must be so hard being so perfect and never making mistakes.
Anyway I enjoyed my home time enough to know my decision was right for me, I’ve ran in on sat before as I said to those thick enough of not read my post properly but wouldn’t do it again for the sake of 2 hours pay. Just as a few others did and they didn’t get told they’re in the wrong job…wouldn’t employ you…get 9-5 etc you idiots don’t even know me but if you give up a night at home for 20 quid then more fool you! I spoke to a driver on Friday who had the same conversation with the office and he won’t stop out Fridays either for such crap pay and neither will most maybe none of us should drive a lorry? I’ve worked many a weekend over the years but had time off in the week instead and I’ve also spent 5 nights in my cab and come home on a sat as the money on offer made it worth my while.
Thanks to a few who gave constructive replies without resorting to school playground replies its a wonder folk ever come on here at all with the childish responses you get and It’s all over this board I think some are pathetic.
As it goes now I still won’t run in unless they can give me a days work to make the days pay worth stopping out as my me time is worth more then that, clearly I have a better home life then a lot on here so I’ll take the time off over having someone take the ■■■■ out of me by keeping me at work for 2 hours pay on me day off.
Tar
I work tue to sat tramping and was looking at being done 8pm saturday but was asked if i would run back in sunday and do a collection on my way back, so night out and 3 hours work so about £55 and i was done and home for sunday dinner
OllieNotts:
Some interesting replies, only just had a.chance to read up since Friday.
Not surprised pavoroti had another personal dig, as did shuttle spanker <Personal attack removed, attack the posts not the poster>Quite a few have the same opinion as me yet don’t get the same abuse asme as per normal it must be so hard being so perfect and never making mistakes.
Anyway I enjoyed my home time enough to know my decision was right for me, I’ve ran in on sat before as I said to those thick enough of not read my post properly but wouldn’t do it again for the sake of 2 hours pay. Just as a few others did and they didn’t get told they’re in the wrong job…wouldn’t employ you…get 9-5 etc you idiots don’t even know me but if you give up a night at home for 20 quid then more fool you! I spoke to a driver on Friday who had the same conversation with the office and he won’t stop out Fridays either for such crap pay and neither will most maybe none of us should drive a lorry? I’ve worked many a weekend over the years but had time off in the week instead and I’ve also spent 5 nights in my cab and come home on a sat as the money on offer made it worth my while.
Thanks to a few who gave constructive replies without resorting to school playground replies its a wonder folk ever come on here at all with the childish responses you get and It’s all over this board I think some are pathetic.
As it goes now I still won’t run in unless they can give me a days work to make the days pay worth stopping out as my me time is worth more then that, clearly I have a better home life then a lot on here so I’ll take the time off over having someone take the ■■■■ out of me by keeping me at work for 2 hours pay on me day off.
Tar
shuttlespanker:
did you ever get paid by the agency that you was on for, when you abandoned the truck and caught the train home?
where was that having a dig at you?
i asked a simple question that has not been answered in the original thread about it
oh, and why the need for the personal attacks? all you have done is show yourself up to be the idiot that some members think you are!