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[Andy B]

I seem to remember that there are some recovery drivers on the forum.

SWMBO's Smart decided to play funny buggers today (best guess says it's crank shaft sensor  ) so I called Green Flag to bring me back home.
Talking, as you do to the driver, he works four days on & four days off and he tries to get as much overtime as he can get. As I found out he needed it .......... hourly rate of £7.50 but overtime after 6pm gained him a huge 50 pence/hour! The poor lad had even forked £3000 out of his own pocket to take his HGV II & HGV I, he was just coming to the end of a loan to pay for it. Tachographs are apparently not needed if you're within 60 miles of home depot but were worked around by saying they were working from one the bases closest to where they were. I did ask him if he was looking for another job, but it seemed as though he was just glad of the job he had.
The recovery firm works in the north west (of England) and their name sounds like they laid a kind of bitumen road surface. 

[Lazydocker]

Talk about carp wages I feel for the lad... But surely there must be other options

I'm offering better wages than that for someone to work for me

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

Recovery is one of those trades where there's always someone willing to undercut you on price. And Mr and Mrs Average just want someone to turn up with a spec lift to get them home, without being charged the earth... it's not a job where excellent service is noted as being so unless you're in some way interested. IMHO of course.

[Vamps]

That is not my experience of recovery drivers? OK, going back to the early to mid 90's I went for a weekend Job in Hertfordshire as a recovery driver....Job was mine if I wanted but I could not take it because of when the hours ended, and i also had a full time Job. I had to think very very hard as the money offered, for potentially none stop work, Friday PM to Monday AM was, from memory about double i got paid for a week..... Similar hours if I think about it...
A couple of years ago i was contacted by a member of the family, long story, who was living in a very expensive house, so a lot of money made...
A local garage to me, i have known the owner since i was about 13 has developed his recovery service from an ex army Austin K9 to a huge fleet, and makes mega bucks.............If I was 25 years younger and  did not have the health problems i have, I would happily move from my role as a Professional to a recovery operator, he would give me a job anyway....lots of personal history,they earn about double I do, there is big money in recovery...

[feeutfo]

Green flag cover came with my Diret Line insurance. The staff where always helpfully, just totally hamstrung by the company they worked for. As where the customers. All owned by RBS iirc.

...and yes, complaints still on going re DL. Found in my favour by the ombudsman, DL failed to settle as specified. Complaint raised, found in my favour, DL fai... And on it goes.

Anyway, yes, doesn't suprise me in the least. They're all paying fat cat bonuses and pensions for Fred Goodwin, one way or another. 

[Lazydocker]

When I was doing it (12 years ago!) I was on a £300/week basic. That covered 08:30-17:30 Monday to Friday (workshop and MOT's with brakedaowns and recovery when busy/needed) and then I got a third of what the company got out of hours. My average weekly wage was about £900-1200 But that was being on call 24/7 Admittedly we were Tachometer exempt at the time, which made it easier, but extremely dangerous when you go 4 days without actually going to bed

I left it after about 3 years because I burnt out! Went and worked for a skip hire company for less than half that but for a third of the hours The money was good, but the hours were killer! Probably a big contributing factor in my divorce

Yes I'm back doing a job with 24/7 cover, but I don't intend to be working solo for much longer Plus, my relationship is stronger now. But I wouldn't want to go back to it now

[Andy B]

....
But that was being on call 24/7   extremely dangerous when you go 4 days without actually going to bed
 .....

I asked him about that, and he said that it would be up to him whether he turned out again after a couple of hours in bed.

[Andy B]

Green flag cover came with my Diret Line insurance. The staff where always helpfully, just totally hamstrung by the company they worked for. As where the customers. All owned by RBS iirc.

....

no complaints at all by the recovery, ie time waiting at the road side, although he was only young he was professional & courteous. Just astounded by his low pay for responsible job.
Apparently Green Flag pay out £57 per recovery irrespective of where the broken down car is going, so presumably reflected in the driver's hourly rate.




NB The Renualt 02 plate recovery truck had 850 000kms on the clock ................. & he reckoned it'd been round the clock! 

[sassanach]

going by the thread title and also slightly off topic, i would just like to add that there are proportionally as many p"""s taking employees as employers

[TheBoy]

going by the thread title and also slightly off topic, i would just like to add that there are proportionally as many p"""s taking employees as employers

Indeed, and I have one on my team 

[TheBoy]

I left it after about 3 years because I burnt out! Went and worked for a skip hire company for less than half that but for a third of the hours The money was good, but the hours were killer! Probably a big contributing factor in my divorce

Yes I'm back doing a job with 24/7 cover, but I don't intend to be working solo for much longer Plus, my relationship is stronger now. But I wouldn't want to go back to it now

Agree, I gave up on-call when I used to do internet hosting, could guarantee 3 or 4 callouts a night. Good money, but after a couple of years, I was just shagged out.

In 1998, all that Y2K debacle, me and the guy I worked with were responsible for all the servers in our area. We did 7am until 10pm all day, every day for about 8 months, often going into work 7am Friday morning, not going home until 10pm Monday night. We had a great laugh doing it, worked really hard, and got it done on target (which was the start of 1999, a target set by the CIO) by completing it around 6pm Christmas Eve. Went to Mums late Christmas Eve, but don't remember the next 2 weeks - apparently it all caught up with me.


In summary, I think you can only push yourself that hard for a limited time, and if you can see the end of it.

[albitz]

When you cant see an end to it,thats one of the worst possible positions to be in ime.I had several years of extremely long hours,enormous pressure every day,tough physical graft coupled with supervisory responsibility under utterly inept senior management.No light at the end of the tunnel through most of that time and it was a horrible feeling that I wouldnt wish on anyone.
At times I contemplated self inflicted injury,such as a broken arm/leg etc. just to get some time away from it

[Andy B]

... i would just like to add that there are proportionally as many p"""s taking employees as employers

Indeed, there are various at HJ einz that do as little as possible, often under the banner of 'elf 'n' safety ......... can't do that without scaffolding ........ can't do that - I'm not good with confined spaces ......... or I ain't doing that! 

[Lazydocker]

Green Flag have just changed the way they work. They used to use a network of local garages to cover the country and were paying us £36 for turning out and mileage after 10 miles (hence the reason some of their policies were 10 mile recovery only )

Recently they accepted the tender of 4/5 larger recovery companies (probably because of the new rate) to cover the whole country. FWIW, that £57 per job will include everything from flat batteries and wheel changes (which i would frequently do 15+ per day) up to the National recovery. £57 for a jump start is good money

But they were certainly taking advantage of the young lad

As for the mileage... I can well believe it... One of our trucks had been roung twice when I left And it drove better faster than any of the others

[Varche]

I just had to have my new "bus" trailered to the garage here in Spain. ALL policies must have full recovery here. I think that is good as it minimises roadside deaths and holdups.

The fellow arrived quickly and took us 15 miles to garage of our choice. He was totally disaffected with his job (but lucky to have one when unemployment here is 30%). His main gripe was the hours and being permanently tired from never getting enough sleep. I think only a younger person could do that.