Cost of a young lad/lass

[V8Druid]

I


Speaking as a SE plumbing and heating engineer you would be surprised it can actually be pretty cut throat. Theres plenty of cowboys who rip people off and disappear into thin air, and folk who will work for nothing. I’m very lucky to have a good customer base who value my quality work/experience. I don’t get involved with site work(fight to the bottom, thrown in rubbish) and would rather not do a job than bodge it cheaply. I’ve had people comment on my hourly rate (less than mentioned above!) who don’t see the costs upfront that need to be paid for insurances/gas safe reg/assessments/training/van/stock/tools etc. It’s very similar to running a machine I guess (albeit I haven’t got 50k plus to outlay) It’s the usual story that you will always find someone to do the job cheaper, but you have to try and aim above that and show the quality.

There'll always be folk who appreciate a quality job

Acute shortage of known good plumbers round these part ... but the ones who are, all drive Porsches/RRs and the like (as their private transport)

 

[fred]

I do mainly building so my kit mainly sits on small-scale building projects for months at a time. They are all old but paid for

this is the recipie. When the building goes pop again and no one has work at least you wont be on the drip for kit.

 

[Mintsauce]

I hope it doesn't go pop like it did end of 80's early 90's.

 

[V8Druid]

I hope it doesn't go pop like it did end of 80's early 90's.

aye, t'were 'kin grim ........ '07/'08 wasn't so hot either

 

[Danny]

I employ a mate of mine full time, yes there is agro involved.
But my account sorted the pension scheme out ( nest ) and everytime i pay him it costs me £1.50 for them to process his payslip and notify hmrc.

If you pay someone £8ph your charge out rate needs to be £13ph ( £5ph more ) to even break even thats what she said with the cost of holiday pay, pension etc.

 

[Rob 210]

If you pay someone £8ph your charge out rate needs to be £13ph ( £5ph more ) to even break even thats what she said with the cost of holiday pay, pension etc.[/QUOTE]
So if some of these drivers are paid £18+ an hour,how much is the machine and driver going out for?
Also you have to look at the fact a good worker is an asset,and can bring work in.
Maybe the schools should be saying to the kids,you can actuality get a decent living,by not going to university,knuckling down a bit and getting your hands dirty,and supporting the construction,engineering and agricultural companys/employers,with a few grants and subsidy's,to give any prospective apprentices a chance to get a trade and experience in the job.
There's a good chance that after march 2019 we may need them!!!

's

 

[Danny]

If you pay someone £8ph your charge out rate needs to be £13ph ( £5ph more ) to even break even thats what she said with the cost of holiday pay, pension etc.

So if some of these drivers are paid £18+ an hour,how much is the machine and driver going out for?
Also you have to look at the fact a good worker is an asset,and can bring work in.
Maybe the schools should be saying to the kids,you can actuality get a decent living,by not going to university,knuckling down a bit and getting your hands dirty,and supporting the construction,engineering and agricultural companys/employers,with a few grants and subsidy's,to give any prospective apprentices a chance to get a trade and experience in the job.
There's a good chance that after march 2019 we may need them!!!

's[/QUOTE]

If you work direct for a construction company which are working on price work they can pay you what they like i no guys on upwards of £18 / 20 ph employed all year round with decent machines vans etc

Plant hire is the difficult one where rates are set by the client, so depending on your finance you may be able to pay the guys more than others if your payments are low and as long as the machine is covering its finance bill / maintenance

My partner (23) is actually a secondary teacher and she cant believe the money you can earn in construction.

 

[Rob 210]

My partner (23) is actually a secondary teacher and she cant believe the money you can earn in construction.

Thats a fictitious lie Danny,There's no money to be had in this game at all.It's much like farming,no money.Have you never seen all the Farmers riding push bikes

 

[Mintsauce]

Anyone have a crafty suspicion that some lads are going in the shithouse especially to go on their phones? Difficult to prove it.

 

[V8Druid]

Anyone have a crafty suspicion that some lads are going in the shithouse especially to go on their phones? Difficult to prove it.

in the days before mobiles, we all went to work and were 'cut off' from the outside world .... we managed to survive the days ... what about a radical idea like... no mobiles allowed on site/in pockets/etc. - leave 'em in the car/van/grub bag in the grub shack ... accessible at brekky/lunch ... no other time ... might get summat done in them eight hours then

 

[fred]

Anyone have a crafty suspicion that some lads are going in the shithouse especially to go on their phones? Difficult to prove it.

Phones to be left in van on my site.

 

[Smiffy]

in the days before mobiles, we all went to work and were 'cut off' from the outside world .... we managed to survive the days ... what about a radical idea like... no mobiles allowed on site/in pockets/etc. - leave 'em in the car/van/grub bag in the grub shack ... accessible at brekky/lunch ... no other time ... might get summat done in them eight hours then

Several sites ive been on state mobiles to be kept on the person atall times not left in cab of machine even in case of emergency

And i always here this thing about phones but im sure there where things the last generation did that the generation before them considered work dodging and so on and so on

 

[Grahams]

And i always here this thing about phones but im sure there where things the last generation did that the generation before them considered work dodging and so on and so on

Going to the pub for a couple of pints at lunch time was normal. Probably a good idea that ones been knocked on the head. Also fag breaks annoy me. Even if after it is lit they try and carry on they are not giving 100%, then their's the litter. A lot of smokers seem to think fag butts don't count. Smoking seems to be mainly older people. I guess it is difficult to text or do whatever people do on their phones and smoke at the same time.
Graham

 

[Shovelhands]

Not construction related, but there was a firm on the Industrial estate that we do a bit of work on, I think ‘must smoke’ was in their job description? It appeared that the whole workforce would turn out, what felt like every twenty minutes!, to have a fag break, I couldn’t understand how they got anything done!

Luckily nobody I’ve ever employed has smoked. Although probably worse than that is the phone thing now.
I’m fairly tolerant, but I’m starting to get a bit fecked off with it tbh. I’ve got no real problem with somebody having their phone with them, after all, I sometimes need to contact them myself. But when you always see it out every time it makes a beep, it starts to annoy me! What’s worse than that is, I’ve seen a few mistakes and things that shouldn’t have happened because the person was on the phone, I’d actually rather they stopped and said they must take the call, after all, if it’s a family emergency or similar, then it takes priority over work, and there have been a few times that I’m glad my chap has had his phone with him, for his sake not mine, but difficult to draw a line sometimes.
On the other side of the coin, a guy I use part time, won’t have his phone with him, and if he does then he won’t answer it if we are working, unless he’s genuinely not doing anything. I like the two working together, as the part timer keeps the other one on his toes

 

[Furniss]

I try to leave my phone in the truck unless im waiting for a call or going to be sat in the machine all day - had a boss once who every time you needed him you turned round to see he was wandering about on his phone usually when something that required some graft cropped up I make sure I dont do the same nowadays.

 

[Scoff]

Thats a fictitious lie Danny,There's no money to be had in this game at all.It's much like farming,no money.Have you never seen all the Farmers riding push bikes

Three things in life I've made a lot of money with.

Property
Farming
Digging

Farming is without a doubt the hardest earned money.

 

[Quattromike]

It's like everything else if you can find or even get your customers to believe that you have a little niche in the market then you can make a decent living with anything.

 

[fred]

I try to leave my phone in the truck unless im waiting for a call or going to be sat in the machine all day - had a boss once who every time you needed him you turned round to see he was wandering about on his phone usually when something that required some graft cropped up I make sure I dont do the same nowadays.

this is what i do. Im effectively main contractor so can imagine quiet day its 15+ calls. They get answered at break time 10, 1 and when I get back home. If I'm expecting a call I need to take then I'll take the phone with me but I dont like this as I've broke that many phones by dropping out of pocket from scaff, carrying something awkward and crushing it, simply leaving on wall plate overnight and after a good 30 mins of searching only remembering that fact at 2:37am in the morning.

If the trades are on a price they can use them as its their own time they are burning, same as sitting in the van for lunch/dinner. But if they on my time they working, i pay good rates and i pay them on time so expect some courtesy in return.

I also carry in the van a cheapo toughbook laptop (like the british gas engineers use) so if I need to see a plan/email on a proper screen I can. Don't use it often but when I do it saves a drive back to office.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PANASONI...=item43bbebc61d:g:iEQAAMXQfFJRSVvM:rk:17:pf:0

 

[Furniss]

Looks decent idea the toughbook - how long does battery last on standby and how do you get your emails on it ?

 

[Furniss]

It's like everything else if you can find or even get your customers to believe that you have a little niche in the market then you can make a decent living with anything.

Thats it ................can take a while for to you sort out where the niche is though if you just start general machine work.