Futuramic Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Bumping this thread up a bit, just bactually look at the age of some of the vans from UPS. Recently I saw an N reg'd Merc based fugly van still being used by them. Clearly there isn't much profit in it, and they are one of the biggest parcel firms in the world. Interesting point Felly; but I have heard a probably apocryphal story about those. They were coach built for UPS on Mercedes 308 running gear; however rather than scrapping they recycle bits from old ones at a depot somewhere thus a fleet of variously rebuilt vans are kept running for much longer than normal. Almost like the old Checker cabs in New York - they lasted for years by being almost fully re-built every decade or so. Shows the benefits of separate chassis and simple mechanicals I suppose. Plus I think the UPS vans have alloy bodies so there really isn't any reason why they should be scrapped young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felly Magic Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 The vans are actually based on Merc 709D chassis cowls. I don't blame them not using the standard van body because they come with factory fitted rust. I have noticed that lately though, UPS started replacing these old vans with bog standard 709 Vario chassis cabs with box bodywork, and standard Sprinter panel vans. Perhaps the cost of new coachbuilt vans has become stupidly expensive, even like you say, they would outlast any replacement. The days of the older vans will be numbered anyway especially down south with the new LEZ restrictions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warren t claim Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10440&p=251373&hilit=guess+the#p251373 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxpower Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 passed a big ups merc today on a 51 plate.... so when the lez restrictions come in on 3rd jan.... will they (A) pay the £2000 for each van to have the cat fitted to pass the emissions test....( pay £100 per day to drive through the centre of london?? i personally think they will ship all the 52 plates and older vans to work in their depots elsewhere in the country and just use newer vans in london. this lez thing has sent a few small businesses to the wall as they can't afford to convert or renew the vans they have, but then what the fuck does boris care.. he has his fat arse driven around london to collect free olympic tickets for him and his big-wig mates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warren t claim Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 passed a big ups merc today on a 51 plate.... so when the lez restrictions come in on 3rd jan.... will they (A) pay the £2000 for each van to have the cat fitted to pass the emissions test....( pay £100 per day to drive through the centre of london?? i personally think they will ship all the 52 plates and older vans to work in their depots elsewhere in the country and just use newer vans in london. this lez thing has sent a few small businesses to the wall as they can't afford to convert or renew the vans they have, but then what the fuck does boris care.. he has his fat arse driven around london to collect free olympic tickets for him and his big-wig mates Boris is a twat. I'm still waiting to see if I'm going to get a ticket for exceeding the 18t weight limit on Tower Bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobblers Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I was speaking to my ol' man over chrimbo, he was telling me about how the Yodel drivers operate.My dad gets his van loaded about 3/4 full with parcels at about 7am, he drops these off at 7 or 8 drivers houses. Each driver ends up with 40-70 parcels to deliver around their "local" (about a 10 mile radius) area. All these drivers use their personal car to do this, most of the time there are too many parcels to fit in the car in one go, so they have to return home a few times to stock up. For this they get between 60p and 70p per parcel. On a good day they will be done by about 2 or 3pm. Obviously, earning between £24 and £49 quid a day before Petrol, Vehicle maintenance etc doesn't leave a lot of money let over to cover insurance that covers commercial use, so none of them have it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cavcraft Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 passed a big ups merc today on a 51 plate.... so when the lez restrictions come in on 3rd jan.... will they (A) pay the £2000 for each van to have the cat fitted to pass the emissions test....( pay £100 per day to drive through the centre of london?? i personally think they will ship all the 52 plates and older vans to work in their depots elsewhere in the country and just use newer vans in london. this lez thing has sent a few small businesses to the wall as they can't afford to convert or renew the vans they have, but then what the fuck does boris care.. he has his fat arse driven around london to collect free olympic tickets for him and his big-wig mates It'd be more than a cat I'd imagine as 51 plate ones will be fitted with them from new. Isn't it something to do with lower emission engines or having AdBlue capaable ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldofceri Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 ... 40-70 parcels ... between 60p and 70p per parcel ... earning between £24 and £49 quid a day ... That can't be right surely? At the minimum wage you will net £48.64 for an eight hour shift. Either they do a lot more parcels or there must be other bonuses and allowances to make it at least slightly tempting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimothyClaypole Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Nice top up if you are not working though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobblers Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Apparently it used to pay a bit more, but even at these shite wages there is a waiting list of people wanting to do it. All I can think is people are desperate, but surely once you take into account pez, maintenance and even basic enough insurance to stop you getting a tug, it can't really net you much more than getting on the rock and roll. And that's ignoring all the other dole benefits such as having all day to watch Jez Kyle and play world of warcraft or whatever. Unless like TC says they are claiming on the dole as well, but I'm not sure if they could get away with it. I'd guess that they are "self employed", but Yodel are hardly going to pay them every afternoon in scruffy tenners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cavcraft Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Probably easy enough if you claim you're self employed. Different bank account ond off you go.Mind you not too long back when the rozzers had a purge they'd have all sorts of people with them including the DSS: I got stopped in Telford in a 7.5 tonner and have every man and his dog firing questions at me. After the coppers went first they'd given my name to the dole brigade and it came back clean so they were not arsed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxpower Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Apparently it used to pay a bit more, but even at these shite wages there is a waiting list of people wanting to do it. All I can think is people are desperate, but surely once you take into account pez, maintenance and even basic enough insurance to stop you getting a tug, it can't really net you much more than getting on the rock and roll. And that's ignoring all the other dole benefits such as having all day to watch Jez Kyle and play world of warcraft or whatever. Unless like TC says they are claiming on the dole as well, but I'm not sure if they could get away with it. I'd guess that they are "self employed", but Yodel are hardly going to pay them every afternoon in scruffy tenners. i read in the paper just before xmas that there was a major fuck up by yodel in delivering parcels for amazon, apparently people had bought stuff from amazon as far back as the 9th dec and come xmas eve there was still no sign of their goods the ceo used the excuse that they had gotten more orders from the south east than they had bargained for?? wtf kind of excuse is that... think the unhappy customers even started a faceache page urging people not to use yodel again.... so with that bit of bright news i went out today and bought this............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warren t claim Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 ^^^Why? What have you got planned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxpower Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 ^^^Why? What have you got planned? a mate has gave me a 6mth contract dropping parcels for him and a couple of other things in the pipeline enough to keep me busy for the front end of 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldofceri Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Good luck with that. Let us know how you get on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddyramrod Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 And at the end of that 6 months, bring it up to Barrow and I'll fit it out from a scrap caravan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now