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Wincantski are the Number One Rate Cutters. A Load of TOSSERS.

Hi all,
Thought if anybody would know the answer to my question it would be the trampers.
At the moment I am covering the yard at my place and shunting.
Forgetting the WTD of 60 hours (I can POA that) is there a maximum shift duty time for a week?
It’s looking like I’m going to be hitting close to 70 hours over 6 days and I am still under tachograph rules not a casual worker so they require me to do manual entry everyday.
TIA

Back on topic. If you’re in the yard then neither EU or domestic rules apply. Clearly youre doing daily records so that should you have to go out driving you will readily have your 28 days records.
Presumably you know what to do should you start driving again.

Feel sorry for new passes, get their licence and very few firms will give them a start, go knocking on doors and speak to people, online applications will just get ignored mostly due to your age and lack of experience, hate to say it but agencies can help sometimes, get in somewhere on agency and build experience, when I passed years ago most firms would take you on straight away, all changed now though.

I worked for Culina for 4 years. One of my best mates is a shift manager at one of the depots. You're unlikely to get any sick pay. Pension is probably an okay perk of the job, so dont opt out otherwise you're giving away part of your salary. Brace yourself for some long hours & do not bend or break any working time or tacho rules. Also dont falsify your tacho entries. They have a fleet compliance dept monitoring drivers & managers. Dont be afraid to take a 15m break on the way to your first shop. It can buy you another few hours of working time. When you do a 13 hour shift, it's very easy to break the 6-hour rule at the back end of your shift, so space out your breaks throughout the day instead of taking a 45 at 5h59m duty time. Take a 15 & 30 or a 30 + 30 if you prefer.

No offence if you've broken down. Do print out now write on back reason your over. Then if you have yo move to get to safe parking do a print out when you get there write on the back reason again. Don't stress about it sometimes sh**e happens. No one will hang you for a breakdown as long as its recorded on printouts.

💯 dvsa look for patterns of infringements.

Indeed they do.

The amount of people that don’t realise that they can’t carry LQ loads or loads under the Small Load Threshold without ADR Basic Awareness training and a 2kg fire extinguisher on board never surprises me.

Depends what you carrying, for an example bleach is corrosive but can be bought from a shop and carried by anyone at all, as soon as you get above certain limits the rules come into place, you dont need to be aware or have 2kg extinguisher for everything.

If you’re carrying them commercially for hire and reward purposes then you need a minimum of ADR basic awareness training and a 2kg fire extinguisher. It’s the same with compressed gas that you’d use for your BBQ at home. If you’re doing the collection for personal reasons then you don’t need the training or 2kg fire extinguisher, but if you’re doing it for commercially for hire and reward then you do. That’s what we’ve always been taught by the fella who does our training anyway.

As far as agencies are concerned they will get paid regardless of whether you actually work, you just have to turn up at the specified time. If you refuse to drive due to the vehicle not being roadworthy tell the customer and let the agency know asap as they should pressure the company to sort things out for you as well. If agency sides with customer and insists that you take out an unsafe vehicle find a new agency!

And one more thing, I can guess, tacho can start counting each day starting from your first day of the week, so question is what time did you start your week?

It doesn't make sense, you've got diferite companies to deliver some open late some open early,some are 24/7 open. You cannot start every day the same. I've started my week 4.45 but today I have collection at 9, what I'm supposed to do, to start 4.45 because the TachoMaster wants it. The f**king AI is already doing more harm than good.

No it doesn’t just because you start at three Monday doesn’t mean you have to start everyday at three.

I know it, just I can guess what tachomaster do count like that.

Flood the industry with new drivers who can't afford to be picky about wages because they need the experience and hey presto, easy way to force the wages to stay low. I don't know what's in the water lately but everywhere you go to make delivery and collection, some t**ts got an attitude.

Trg / Tesco Dc......You will struggle to get anything similar locally.

Do they keep you busy? I presume it's an agency.

Yes it's agency work but it gets your foot in the door. It is normally quite in January but you can earn very good money on the build up to Christmas.

Good Job!

Our trailers are 16,3 and we get under all the HGV canopy's without issues, we all do set routes and we only go to a few shell garages and service stations, but I've never come across one I couldn't get under. The is also plenty of places to fuel up with no canopy's.

Leave keys with person in charge. Taxi to the hotel, 9 hours in the hotel, taxi back. All receipts as expenses on arrival back to depot.

With no overnight bag no sod that.

You can always buy basic things you need any supermarket on the way to the hotel and put as expenses also. No need to be overdefensive if the things went wrong. Other thing is company attitude to that. If management is not approachable better to look for another job ASAP.

Oops wrong tread. 🙈

I would hazard a guess that 6300 is the second figure from the top (in my case 5500) which relates to the maximum combination weigh permitted for van AND TRAILER some vans are 6300, some go up to 7000.

Whats correct?

Part of the original conversation went. After 1h he call me back where he told me my friend on the plate attached to the driver seat it says 6300kg, so you're completely wrong my friend . I was suggesting the GVW figure of 6300kg they were using off the plate was for van and trailer. THEY ARE WRONG to use this to calculate payload of the van by itself.

The question was for recommendations of a tour that does it thats wasn't leger, shearings is a different brand and different tours.

Well pardoned me for driving them but I think you’ll find it’s Silver Service do the Poland trips.

Never seen your name on the glance sheet W14HEP/1 is the shearings tour. I know cause I ran it this year but feel free to tell me I'm wrong. 😅

I’ve seen yours. What I said was they are the same company just different colours.

You work for a guy and they give all your money to another guy, who then calculates what tax and NI you owe, he then keeps the money for your tax and NI plus a fee for his time and gives you the rest. Then he may actually pay your tax and NI and all will be well, but he might not and you'll be facing a big bill at the end of the tax year while he sets up again having screwed many like yourself, and there'll be nothing you can do about it.

Nice one for arguing with your trainer, if new guys don’t get trained correctly we end up with people actually asking these questions because they don’t know! Numerous answers depending what sort of “daily” you mean!
1. 9 - 10 twice a fixed week
2. 12 on a Friday (before a weekly rest)
3. 13.5 if your in a rush
I don’t think there’s anymore!

If DVSA were really serious about RBTs, they would have scrapped the format of the reports long ago. How can they be serious when the bottom results on the report are less than the legal minimum yet still show as a pass?

Operator has a licence for 3 vehicles, is the wording correct with Extra 3? Or does it need to be specifically 6. I have emailed them and they corrected to extra 6, now extra 3 but doesn't say total number. 🙄

It's easy to reach the earnings target but the hours will be a shock to the system. As a new driver you will be working long hours to achieve that money. 13 and 15 hour days. There is a lot more than just driving as well to deal with. It can be very stressful as well. Different variety of jobs though to specialise in though once you get your experience you can find something that suits you. It's a long hard learning curve though and one that you will pay for along the way with blood sweat and tears and obviously money. Like Marmite you'll either love it or hate it. Luckily for me I enjoy it 18 years in though now and still learning believe me. If you've got tough skin and aren't afraid to skivvy and be treated like sh** for a couple of years go for it otherwise I'd look elsewhere.

1 of my biggest hates of this job now is waiting rooms. Absolutely pointless degrading sh**holes. It would take a big platform to get it changed back to waiting in our own space in the cab.

Unfortunately some of us as drivers caused this problem for ourselves. 10 to 15 years ago it was the norm to chuck your car keys in instead of your truck keys and go for a sleep on the bunk. I did it myself back in the day. One day however I was called by my boss to head down to Portsmouth as one of the drivers had pulled off the bay on a red light and the forklift driver inside had come out of the back and been killed. When I questioned the driver he'd woken up on his bunk, checked the wrong light so thought he had a green light, he didn't get out and check and just pulled off the bay.

Yes I remember it happened a few times like most of the problems we suffer we have brought it on ourselves. Drivers. Own worse enemy. I have been places more recently where they drop a big stillage type thing...

Can anyone recommend a taco card download reader & software to keep freelance drivers legal with card downloads if they work for various companies & can’t always get to a company office within 28 days & the taco head doesn’t automatically download.

How can you not download before you leave the operator?
And do so consistently on several occasions.

I been o/d nearly 40 years rates less now than 10 years ago everyone running round on back load rates last week busy this week 1 days work, so no work no wages you won't get sick pay or holiday pay 90 days off last year so won't pay much tax no hp all kits paid for. Just watch who you work for some take 60 days home some never pay at all but you already put £9k through the tank plus hp on truck trailer tyres insurance you could shell out £30k before you get a penny back. But yes if you got all your work directly not 2nd or 3rd hand working for yourself feeling is good.

When you applied for your O licence you should applied for more vehicles than you operate or known as vehicles in the Margin which allows you to bring in trucks as and when needed.

We only wanted to run 2 trucks but we have been approached we turned the work away but they want to use us.

Apply for a variation on VOLS and interim authorisation. You'll need to supply a copy of a newspaper ad and proof of financial standing.

The easiest way is to arrive at port get in lane put on rest end country and then when ready to move onto ferry scroll to ferry mode press ok proceed onto ferry once on ferry parked up put back on rest and then repeat once arrived at destination remembering to park up and finish your 11 hours. 👍

It keeps amazing me when people take the TM exam without having the foresite to wonder what they will do with it later. How can they cope with being a TM when they can’t manage and plan their own life🙈

3 hours continuous rest within the day then it’s 15.

The OP asks about a split daily rest. If 12hrs of the 24hr period is rest, how can the answer be 15hrs of “all activities” for the rest of the shift?

It looks daunting but on entrance you MUST enter straight on, use the small road opposite to shunt (no shame, it's normal) line up and in you go, no problem. On exit watch tail end swing, clear your arse end even before even thinking about locking over. 👌

Don't take trailer without MOT longer mean better, if no MOT and you ask salesman to do MOT and he refuse like sorry we can't do it that's simply mean look futher. Preparation for MOT could cost almost same money as goddamed cheap trailer.

If you are driving a Class 1 unit with an underclass Class 2 licence then VOSA state, section 69.69 - Fifth wheel has to be taken off and put in the side locker, and a sticker that looks like a padlock has to be stuck over the gap between the locker door and cab by the the transport manager or the bloke that sweeps the yard if the TM is unavailable.

If they compete to win a prize then it’s for hire or reward?

Not according to the regs it's not. The official line is that any income must not exceed the cost of competing. A trophy or rosette has no financial value.

Mine was like yours and my work colleague told me to reset it when empty then it was there then. But before that when it was not there I went on bottom and back which was 14.0 front bottom and 24.0 on back which got me around 43600 ish. Hope it helps.

I drive 7.5t on grandfather rights, been stopped by DVSA in coaches and 7.5t & they have never asked me what modules I've done, as long as it says PCV and LGV / HGV on your cpc card, what can they say? I would look elsewhere, the coach industry is screaming for drivers.

Good advice, it can be really good take home pay as well, I never used to touch my wage that went in the bank, until covid the company went bust but tour work is the way to go.

Never ever risk it . The implications of hitting a bridge for you, all your colleagues, your transport manager and ultimately the operators licence does not bear thinking about. At the very least you would likely find yourself out of work. Then, if the traffic commissioner is feeling that way your now ex-companies operators licence could go straight to red. Or worse they invite them in for a public hearing. They suspend the operators licence. So now all the drivers are out of a job. Don't believe me? Have a quick google for it. All those saying creep up to it or give it a go are giving an appealing opinion. If in doubt go around.

My new TomTom hgv professional doesn't have half the bloody new roads on and tried taking a 15:8 under a 15 bridge not impressed to say the least, it's just a good job I've been at it a while now but definitely on the sh** list.

I prefer my garmin sat nav. Yeah it does take you the long way round but I've never been anywhere near a bridge that is too small. Roadlords/Eurowag is great free app.

First time it's done it doesn't seem to have any of the new road network around Cambridge Huntington ether ended up scouting Google maps FFS, not on when it cost as much as it did never had a problem with my 50 pound trucknav, have roadlords to on phone, will be writing a sh**ty email to TomTom when I get home.

Yeah i'll do that. Definitely get a Garmin tho good piece of kit tbh.