Working for as HGV driver.. and hopefully eddie Stobart

Working for as HGV driver.. and hopefully eddie Stobart

Author
Discussion

agent006

12,029 posts

263 months

Thursday 26th December 2013
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Why do you all do it if it's so st?

Getragdogleg

8,736 posts

182 months

Thursday 26th December 2013
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agent006 said:
Why do you all do it if it's so st?
Family business and I am trapped by the mortgage and responsibilities, also the fact I am good at my job and have been doing it so long I would struggle to work for anyone else. I stayed away for 10 years and did work for the AA and others as a Mechanic but went back to the family business in order to take it over.

I am sending it down the workshop/storage path more and more because trucks are a dead end.

iva cosworth

44,044 posts

162 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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agent006 said:
Why do you all do it if it's so st?
Not much good at anything else TBH.

s p a c e m a n

10,752 posts

147 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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Because all of my skills revolve around the haulage industry and all of the other options are just as crap because it has got to the point where everything is run on a shoestring to survive. I could go find something else to try, but so far everything that I have looked into seems to be on the same boat. I now do my normal job for the guaranteed earnings to keep paying the bills and spend my spare time doing other random things on the side to try and find another path to the good life, still looking..

Sometimes I wish that I hadn't got itchy feet all those years ago and stayed up the city dressed like a posh tt hehe

Justaredbadge

37,068 posts

187 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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Trapped by mortgage and responsibilities.


After this last week I never want to see another truck again...yet here I am, sat on a bay in a back of beyond depot where i am being ignored by the forklift drivers. This despite being told I wasn't working boxing day.


As someone said above, it is a job. never consider it a career because it isn't. The only progression is in to the office...which is the exact thing that most of us were trying to avoid by diving trucks.


In short, don't bother. You won't ever get that 2k back.

sat1983

Original Poster:

1,252 posts

183 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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Right. Well that answered my question!

Don't want to be stuck in an office and I generally hate communicating with 'team members'. Hence my love of driving!

Oggs

8,813 posts

253 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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As a balance not all driving jobs are st.
The story's above a general haulage and contractors on delivery sites, I deliver to a supermarket so I do shop work which is fine and supplier collections which can be a pain but generally it's ok.
I would not do general haulage and I'm happy where I am.

I hated the 1 night out I did when I worked agency doing a container run, never again the height of summer trying to sleep from midday.

There is all different types of delivery work see what suits in all cases it's other road users which frustrates the most.

pimping

759 posts

173 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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I've lately been doing HGV class 2 with ADR for an agency at £8 an hour and it is not what I expected.
I was always told its well paid and a great job but as mentioned it is ste. Gripes include st pay, manual scania crap truck, Volvo much better. On some jobs you're more of a labourer than a driver. Dodgy warehouse staff on the rob, trying to drive in major cities with selfish knobs all cutting in whilst trying to reverse into your port,. I've never been spoken down to or in such a tone since working as a driver, one posh restaurant owner after she spoke to me was surprised as she said she thought all drivers are ex cons/stupid.
I don't know what killed the industry but I'd rather work the doors than do this its st.

spike50

121 posts

153 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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i think if you go into it as a career you are on a hiding to nothing , i did it because i loved the mystery of whats over the hill ,
always looking for something new ,
not good at being in one place for long periods ,
not being good with being watched by the management ,
being in control of my own day.

i worked for a few people over the years but found most enjoyment running my own trucks even though i did get the company too big for my liking at one point so downsized it to one truck again .
i know it sounds funny but it gave me a hatred of truck drivers but do realise it is just a type of drivers i hate .

i`ve packed in now , too young to retire but too pissed off to work for someone , i tried with an agency but the first time i walked into a transport office in a big warehouse my stomach hit the floor and i just couldnt do it .
the idiots behind the desk i could of slapped quite easily , im not a know it all driver , i do enjoy learning if there is something new but these people must still have their mums tying their shoelaces for them in the morning .

Getragdogleg

8,736 posts

182 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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I couldn't see a profession like teachers putting up with all the crap we get, they would soon strike.

The problem is that the professional trade bodies that are supposed to represent drivers and the industry are totally toothless and are failing to tell the Government what to do to make the job a bit more acceptable.

The public image of a truck driver is utterly rock bottom, we are looked down on by everyone. You just have to see the "elephant racing" threads on here to see how much hate and resentment is out there for us.

Two things would help me, Raise the speed limit from 40mph to 50mph on normal roads, make the hours rules simpler.

AF1

309 posts

201 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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The attitude of the office staff and all the waiting around is what ruins the job for me. All I used to want to do when I grew up was drive, however once I got my license and got out there I realised there is no way I could put up with the attitude of some of the staff in the offices at these RDC's.
I'm polite and courteous to all the staff I encounter but some of them speak to you like something they've trodden in, I don't encounter this attitude when dealing with sometimes even the same people in my other job role and it seems they deem it acceptable as your just a driver!
I still enjoy the job as I only work when I want but im not sure I'd do it full time even for a huge salary. I take my hat off to those that do and manage not to murder some goods in staff!!

Getragdogleg

8,736 posts

182 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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One fork lift driver in a warehouse we go to got 9 pallets into loading me up (12 pallets total that day) and he then went on his lunch. took the keys to the lift truck with him and fked off. This is a place we are on good terms with.

Another place used to let vans unload first even if you had been queued up waiting and it was your turn any vans that arrived would be let in, sometimes when busy there would be 6 lorries all waiting and never moving because of all the vans that would arrive and jump straight ahead.

We got taken to court for an insecure load on a 100% empty lorry and lost because we could not prove the piece of wood that blew up from the road as we passed was not from us.

At one MOT test we were failed because our rear mudflaps were 6mm too high. the new tyres had put the flaps higher and we had to remove and refit lower to get a test.

s p a c e m a n

10,752 posts

147 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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Yeah, general haulage is the worst version. Everyone you deal with just assumes that you are an illiterate foreigner with a fake driving license who is wanted for war crimes in your home country , so you just have to work up from there. I did quite a few years as an owner driver and it just became too difficult to find decent work that paid, the amount of people getting knocked for money was getting stupid too so I just jumped onto paye and left all of the hassle behind.

The only way you can get on in this job without wanting to kill everyone is if you just don't care about it. Everyone around me moans about other drivers, office staff, not wanting to go to certain places whereas I just turn up, tune everyone else out, do my hours and don't give a flying fk about how much work I achieve in that time. Not my problem if I get held up because I just keep on going and then aim towards home when my shift ends, if you want to feel like you've done something constructive with your time at the end of the day then haulage is not the industry you want to be in hehe

StuntmanMike

11,671 posts

150 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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Getragdogleg said:
I couldn't see a profession like teachers putting up with all the crap we get, they would soon strike.

The problem is that the professional trade bodies that are supposed to represent drivers and the industry are totally toothless and are failing to tell the Government what to do to make the job a bit more acceptable.

The public image of a truck driver is utterly rock bottom, we are looked down on by everyone. You just have to see the "elephant racing" threads on here to see how much hate and resentment is out there for us.

Two things would help me, Raise the speed limit from 40mph to 50mph on normal roads, make the hours rules simpler.
Very good post, amazingly that month I did with Stobart was an eyeopener, I was actually popular with Joe public.

Panda76

2,569 posts

149 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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Got to be said I,m much happier shunting than being down the road. You work more closely with the customer we contract too and there is a lot more "respect" from the office. Rain or shine if it wasn't for the shunters the job wouldnt get out of the yard and they know that.
A lt of drivers moan about us,the shunters, because we do a three week rotation of an 8 hour shift. They see the 8 hour shift only and not what comes it. Last night for instance, in full wet weather gear, dodging curtain poles in the wind, swamped with forklift drivers under the canopy so needed eyes in the back of your head when curtaining. Last night ended up being a 6 hour shift as we got it done, but it was cold,wet, windy and at times dangerous. I'm in tonight on OT on a job knock basis and the weather seems worse.
Some of the drivers are just gobby wkers though, moan about us but aren't actually prepared to our job as they know it's not just sitting on your arse all day/night with the radio on.

a4cabrio

898 posts

158 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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For my sins I'm a class 1 driver and I'd never recommend anyone getting into the transport industry for reasons that have been said a plenty in this thread, BUT if you must get into this game, I'd suggest working for one of the supermarkets, one that runs it's own transport, you get a decent hourly rate,£11p/h+, pension, holidays, staff discount. Supermarket work is hard to get into due to them paying good money for not much work and nobody really leaves.

As for Stobarts, avoid like the plague if you can. Yes they will give you your chance if you've just passed your test, but they pay crap money, I went for an interview and walked out after being told the money was £7.30 p/h for the 1st 12 months and then it went to £8.30 p/h, they try decorate the poor hourly rate by paying £15 per day meal allowance and £5 per day fuel bonus, but if you have 2 weeks holidays, you only get your crap hourly rate money, so are losing the £100 a week in meal allowance and fuel bonus. If your looking to get a start you could use them to get some experience and then jump ship.

GC8

19,910 posts

189 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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sat1983 said:
Right. Well that answered my question!

Don't want to be stuck in an office and I generally hate communicating with 'team members'. Hence my love of driving!
Try a more esoteric discipline. I think that driving a tipper (either earth moving, aggregate or insulated tarmac & aggregate) is very different its another world to more conventional driving, with far fewer of the pitfalls and problems described above (most of which I agree with).

Someone will be along in a moment to tell you that its like the film 'Hell Drivers', but it isnt really, not that much...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzhzoRjg6tIwink

Edited by GC8 on Friday 27th December 22:04

pimping

759 posts

173 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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I'm glad I've only had a taste of this work and am off to greener pastures soon.
People treat you like illiterate convict scum just because you drive a truck.
Agency work is even worse. The agency just want slave number #3947 and the jobs are all the ones no one else wants.

Heliocentric

898 posts

202 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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GC8 said:
I think that driving a tipper (either earth moving, aggregate or insulated tarmac & aggregate) is very different is another world to more conventional driving, with far fewer of the pitfalls and problems described above (most of which I agree with).
Tipper work is just as st if not stter than anything else. It is different to conventional driving, flat out all day every day, bending the rules all day long too.


GC8

19,910 posts

189 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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It depends what youre doing and where. Operating a scheme tarmac tipper I was perfectly happy over the course of a year and I saved over £20,000 too.

Of course, driving a st shifter for £6:50 an hour for a disreputable operator, doing mind numbing runs on terrible jobs would be very, very different and I wouldnt touch it with a stty stick...

Edited by GC8 on Friday 27th December 21:59