trade plater drivers reqd(not gardeners) ?

[slave-plater]

curious, thier is a large company recruiting in watford london colney area, for trade palter drivers(hitching/independant travel needed) , if you gardeners dont have much to do now in autumn.winter months, consider becoming a tradeplater/ drivers...... you will see a fair bit of the outdoors/countryside....what is this posting about....pls feel free to reply, u will recieve polite response...any replies ???

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

I'm not sure whether your question is asking about what trade platers do or whether you're simply enquiring about the relevance (or lack of it) to gardening. However, I'll have a go at answering it.

'Trade plates' are those special number plates (white with red lettering) which are used by the motor trade when driving un-taxed vehicles on the public highway. (The front plate carries a tax 'disk' - which is actually triangular - so that the vehicle being moved temporarily 'borrows' the registration number and tax which is associated with the plate).

When company cars, which have been leased, come the end of their contract period, they're sent to auction. (Similarly, cars which are repossessed because of HP defaults, are also sent to auction). That means that the auction companies require drivers to travel, from their auctions sites, to collect the vehicles and drive them back to the sales site (or a storage depot). These drivers are known as 'trade platers', because they always carry their distinctive plates with them.

A few firms pay their trade platers travelling expenses to get to the pick-up points but many others expect the drivers to make their own way there. That's why you'll frequently see trade platers standing at major road junctions, trying to hitch lifts.

[Buenchico]

The biggest car auction auction company in the UK is the US-based firm, Manheim, who've got a storage site on the outskirts of London Colney. They will frequently be looking for new trade-platers, especially during the winter months when hitching is much less pleasant and far harder. (Drivers tend not to see hitch-hikers in the pouring rain, at 6.00am, when it's still dark).

I assume that someone at Manheim's London Colney depot has tried to work out which type of people like being outdoors but who won't be able to find much work during the winter months, which would explain the reference to gardening.

I worked as a trade plater, for an independent company, delivering mainly to auction sites (including Manheim at London Colney), from February 1999 to September 2001. I was required to sign a contract stating that I was self-employed (which meant that, as far as the company were concerned, I was only 'working' when driving the vehicles and not while travelling to collect them). In my final tax year (2000 - 2001), I worked 50 weeks for never less than 60 hours per week. (Typically, around 65-70 hours). My total pay was �8600 but, because you can't hitch everywhere, I'd paid out �1500 in fares. So my pre-tax pay was actually �7100. That works out at not much more than �2 per hour (which, at that time, was roughly half the national minimum wage). However, I knew many of the Manheim trade platers. They did earn substantially more than me but they still worked very long hours.

Fun job - lousy pay!

Chris