I was waiting to pay at a filling station the other day and the guy in front, who was clearly paying with a fuel card, gave his mileage. He said something like 384782. As he walk onto the forecourt I noticed the vehicle was a Vauxhall van, the size of a small Transit and it was branded as of a courier company. It was 61 plate, so not more than six years old, and therefore had averaged over 64k miles per year over six years.
I am sure that this is more typical rather than really excessive though still quite significant, the van had averaged around 175 miles a day, every day of it's life.
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Probably typical of a courier company, not something I'd relish doing.
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Is that so high? I wonder what Humph does yearly? My father in the 3yrs before he retired covered over 150k, mostly business, in just under 3yrs with his Audi 100.
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To me it's very high, I do about 1/10 of that sort of mileage.
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Agree re me personally... the most I think I've covered in my life is a few years around 25k and I seemed to spend far too much time in the car. Now in (sort of) retirement I'm very happy to be well under 12k most years.
I was thinking in terms of business drivers in my comment above.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 6 Oct 17 at 09:39
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The chap who used run me back and forth to Heathrow used Mercedes saloons, buying new and then selling at three years of age. He would typically do 100k a year and then the car would be sold on as soon as the warranty ran out. He worshipped his cars and they were alway immaculately clean and serviced like clockwork at the main dealer every six weeks. There was always a queue of people to buy them. It was not unusual for him to do three Heathrow runs in a day, typically 400 miles in total. He was totally reliable and whatever time of the day or night you could guarantee he would be there to get you to where you needed to be on time. i remember I had a 5am pick up one time to catch a flight, through the kitchen window I saw his car ghost to a halt outside the house at 4.59. Excellent service and always that bit more expensive than competitors. Good luck to him.
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Sounds a bit like my time OCD. If I was early I'd park around the corner to ensure an on time arrival..!
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I put 100k on a Focus estate in 3 years in a previous job. I do less than half that mileage now, and it's more than enough.
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Colleagues in the midlands to 50k a year in less time than it takes me to do 25k in the South East.
We need more motorways!
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My current car is 16 months old and has 54,000 on it so far. Another 100 miles still to go tonight too. :-(
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The most I ever did was 71k in around 21 months.
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My mate is a courier. Has a Sprinter.
Every day his route takes him from Glasgow up the A9 and depending on what he is carrying, maybe as far a Dingwall and then back. Would guess he is doing around a minimum of 300 miles a day for 5 /6 days a week. Works abput about 60-70k miles a year.
On one hand I like the idea of a driving job, just you , the van your music and no one to talk to all day. And he doesnt seem particularly stretched with delivery target times etc, I guess because everyone who knows the A9 knows that no times can really be relied on.
But that road would also be the downside of the job especially in dark nights and winters.
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Sitting in a car, van or truck all day,barely getting any exercise and living on rubbish food must be about as unhealthy a job as you can get. I enjoy driving but doing it day in day out would, I think drive me mad.
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I had a post retirement job that involved a hundred mile, fifty stop, for a couple of days a week.
Brilliant! I could listen to all the stuff I'd recorded on cassette (van had a cassette player) and get paid for it.
Now I fall asleep a few minutes into the R4 afternoon play.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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On one hand I like the idea of a driving job
Oddly - just secured one ! NHS. Not public facing, even better. Zero hours contract for now.
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Our works vehicle was brand new mid Feb 2016, a 65 plate Mercedes Sprinter 3 litre diesel auto. It's used 24/7 and is currently on around 110,000 miles. It replaced an 08 plate Mercedes Sprinter 2.1 litre diesel auto that had done over 500,000 miles, albeit with a number of replacement engines.
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Everyone is different of course, but I couldn't ever go back to a single location job now. I did it for about 6 years a long time ago, but the thought of driving down the same road to the same desk in the same building at the same time every day, sitting next to the same people, taking my lunch at the same time, starting work at the same time, performing the same tasks day in day out, year in year out. No way, simply couldn't do it.
Field based jobs have their downsides too of course, lots of nights away from home, early starts, late finishes, out on the road in all weathers etc, but I wouldn't swop it for the world. Master of my own timetable, answerable only to myself, measured only by my results and not what time I start or finish or how I do my job, or how long I do or don't take for a break.
I manage a team of sales people, all working on their own, some of them are really good at it, managing their time and activities efficiently, just getting on with what is required of them with minimal needs for supervision, while others just can't take to it and seem to need routine, structure and regular hours.
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>> Everyone is different of course, but I couldn't ever go back to a single location
>> job now. I did it for about 6 years a long time ago, but the
>> thought of driving down the same road to the same desk in the same building
>> at the same time every day, sitting next to the same people, taking my lunch
>> at the same time, starting work at the same time, performing the same tasks day
>> in day out, year in year out. No way, simply couldn't do it.
>>
>> Field based jobs have their downsides too of course, lots of nights away from home,
>> early starts, late finishes, out on the road in all weathers etc, but I wouldn't
>> swop it for the world. Master of my own timetable, answerable only to myself, measured
>> only by my results and not what time I start or finish or how I
>> do my job, or how long I do or don't take for a break.
>>
>> I manage a team of sales people, all working on their own, some of them
>> are really good at it, managing their time and activities efficiently, just getting on with
>> what is required of them with minimal needs for supervision, while others just can't take
>> to it and seem to need routine, structure and regular hours.
Agree on the regular office / commute thing. I did it for far too many years, and wasted collective months of my life sitting on jammed motorways on crammed like a sardine into creaking, overcrowded trains every single day of the week. Given any sort of choice, I would never go back to it.
I'm lucky in that I have the best of both worlds right now. I'm field based, and manage four other field based people, but don't do ridiculous mileage. London is the most convenient office for two of my team, so I typically spend a day or two a week there and that's just 7 miles in the car and a train. I will typically go to Bristol or Birmingham once a week, perhaps venturing up to Warrington once or twice a month, plus other ad-hoc stuff as it comes up. The company are also happy to put me up overnight as well, so I will generally plan overnight stays and get a few things done in one trip.
I'm budgeting on 15k a year, and it's going to be about right, I think, and I still get to work with people all over the country who I'd never meet if I were stuck in one place permanently. I am lucky in that all four of my team are great self-motivators who don't take advantage.
I love the freedom of my job. I am not told to be anywhere at any time unless there's a specific meeting or event that I need to go to, and as long as the team is happy and doing their numbers, and as long as I am contactable, I am left alone.
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RdH, how often do you have/need to go into your office/base? Once a week?
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In truth, I don't "have" to go in at all really, but I show face about once a month.
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I must admit that I like having a specific office base. Of course, I tend to spend a lot of my time out and about, and rarely do a job for more than a year or so, but still. I'd guess I spend 2 days a week in my office, and that obviously entails a regular commute.
I rather like it. I find the stimulation from others important, be that inspiration, sounding board, stress relief, relaxation, change of topic, shared thinking etc. etc.
Of course, in my case, I am utterly rubbish at working from home. I need a dedicated place without temptations or distractions. I always work better in an office, though it is easier at home now the children are older.
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>> I must admit that I like having a specific office base.
Me too. While my paid role is in the office my volunteering since early summer has been at a single manned outreach site covering for a retiree. In one way it's challenging because I have to chart my own course without being able to easily check with a supervisor. I recognise that I have status of a 'trusty' in being asked to do this.
I miss the camaraderie of the office and opportunity to chat with colleagues about issues raised in cases and about life in general. It's also very easy to miss out on changes in process, staffing etc.
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My experience of offices is that are mainly breeding grounds for petty disputes about the temperature, whether windows are opened or not, who has taken lunch when, and for how long. Who hasn't made the tea or eaten all the biscuits, or who is wearing something deemed inappropriate. Seems to me that more time is taken up with discussing the rules of the game than actually playing it.
No, not for me, to hell with "camaraderie". I do what I do when and how I please, and am happy to be measured and paid by my results and those of the team I manage. Not even slightly interested in knowing anything personal about others I work with, and deeply protective of the privacy of my own private life when in the company of work colleagues.
At work I am an actor on a stage performing a role, nothing more. My work pays for my private life, that is its only purpose for me. Fortunately, most of the time it is reasonably enjoyable, but if I didn't need the money, I wouldn't be doing it as a hobby.
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Tell me about it Humph. I work in an all female office (one other male has recently arrived and he hates soccer - which is good) mainly young females at that, is awful.
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> No, not for me, to hell with "camaraderie". I do what I do when and
>> how I please, and am happy to be measured and paid by my results and> those of the team I manage. Not even slightly interested in knowing anything personal about
>> others I work with, and deeply protective of the privacy of my own private life
>> when in the company of work colleagues.
That sounds a little 'anti-social' for want of a better word. That's not a dig just an observation. You don't talk about; the dogs ill, holidays, events, sports, children etc with the people you work with?
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>>My experience of offices is that are mainly breeding grounds for petty disputes ........
Not mine. Ir at least,not so that they involve me. Perhaps you have worked in offices that have neither been results oriented nor particularly well managed. Very often that can be because people don't understand where their role and their performance fits in.
I am also paid by my results. Typically that's all I am paid for. I find that I achieve more with various types of interaction.
I know nothing about the private lives of my work mates, nor do they mine. That's a different discussion. I don't feel any deep need to be highly or deeply protective, I don't work with the Gestapo. I simply don't talk about it and mostly nobody cares enough to ask.
But its not a religious argument, it really is whatever works for your role and you.
As for the last comment, I don't need the money, though one can always use more, and I am doing it as a hobby.
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>> In truth, I don't "have" to go in at all really, but I show face
>> about once a month.
>>
That's quite infrequent, if you like that it sounds ideal. I'm office based in a sense but the site I immediately work on is a sq mile or two and most of the time I'm outside tbh. The whole site is probably 10 Sq miles, so I never really get the feeling of being cooped up.
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I cam across a motorcycle courier once with a Yamaha Fazer 600 on over 220,000 miles, original engine and it still revved cleanly to over 12,000 rpm many times a day.
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CB500s were noted for clocking 250,000 miles among London couriers. My own, strictly a leisure machine was the best bike I ever owned across all engine sizes.
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I've always been a high mileage driver.
I've just changed jobs after 6 years, where I sometimes used a 53 plate lorry with 1.2 million kilometres (well over 700,000 miles) on the clock. Who knew that fuel station tills only accept 6-figure mileages? :) "My" lorry was a 57 plate with only 970,000km (600,000 miles) under its wheels. I was a little sad that I didn't get to take it round the clock...
I'm back at the long-distance courier work, as an owner driver these days. Bought a cheap 4-year-old Vauxhall Combo, so far I've done 7,000 miles in it in 5 weeks. If it proves profitable after a year I might buy a newer van and put a jockey in this one.
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My distant cousin works for Ordnance Survey. There are two of them in Scotland. They work totally by themselves all the time using various sources of data to find changes and go out in their cars and map them.
Everything then uploaded at end of day. Very little human interaction.
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Sounds like my perfect job. Did it for two months on the Census in 2011 - walk and work all day and write it up at night. Perfect.
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I'm left completely alone to do my job. In thirteen years I've met my boss perhaps half a dozen times and been to three works meetings. Those were only because they were essential, I'm excused from monthly team meetings because I live quite away from where they are held in Swansea. The boss is happy because my sales figures are high and I rarely bother her, I'm happy because I do the job exactly how I want.
Working with other people has it's advantages of course, but where ever I've been there is always one person who spoils the atmosphere in one way or another.
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Sun 8 Oct 17 at 20:46
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My local Indie runs a fleet of 10 minibuses - school runs for handicap kids, oldage pensioners to the shops. His oldest is on 400,000 miles - much less than some of the above posts but you have to remember that the minibuses are on stop start, town in the main.
DPF problems no! Special engine models with added oil being pushed around the engine - a special bus adaptation. Oil changes every 6 months or 6,000 miles...........oil & filter changes is his recipe for long life diesel engines.
He fixes other mini buses / vans but their owners skimp on oil/filter changes which, in his opinion, is costly in the long run if you hold on to the buses & vans for years.
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High mileage? - sooty123
