The Best and Worst Transport Contracts

There are good transport contracts, and bad transport contracts - learn more about the main differences between them!

The Best and Worst Transport Contracts

If you are working in the haulage industry, whether you are an owner operator or a salaried employee, you'll know enough about transport contracts to know that no two jobs are the same. You'll have had jobs where everything went right, and loads that you simply couldn't wait to be rid of.

Sometimes it is hard to foresee which one will turn out to be unpleasant until you've signed on the dotted line - other times, the signs are there from the outset that there is going to be trouble! Of course, there are also the dream jobs where a company treats you right, pays you well, and you have a straightforward, stress free drive to your destination and back.

But while it may not always be possible to know whether a job will be heaven or hell before you take it, there are a few common characteristics of good and bad transport jobs...

A Good Job Means...

You'll be working with a decent company that takes care of its drivers, issues professional transport contracts, pays a decent wage and legally complies with all the necessary industry regulations. If they are providing the vehicle, it will be well maintained. They will give you clear instructions, communicate with you in a coherent fashion, and the loading and unloading process will be nice and smooth. There's nothing worse than wasting time sitting around waiting to load or unload!

On a good job, you'll have a secure load that isn't fragile, and that is evenly weighted so that it doesn't cause problems with your vehicle's handling. An ideal job will give you plenty of opportunities to pick up backloads for your return journey, and might even have one of these built into the contract. Another final little perk is to be given a scenic route to drive through - spending your whole day on the road is made more enjoyable if you've got some decent scenery to look at along the way!

A Bad Job Means...

Above all else, if you've got an unpleasant job it is usually because your employer isn't up to scratch. Their transport contracts will be filled with small print that is seemingly designed to make your life a nightmare. If they provide a vehicle, it'll be poorly maintained and potentially dangerous to drive. They will be difficult to deal with, and there will be endless delays and huge amounts of paperwork every step of the way.

You'll be dispatched to the middle of nowhere with unclear instructions and no chance of picking up a backload on your way back, and the load you've got will be poorly secured and liable to shift around and break along the way. If you are sent abroad on a nightmare job, you'll be sent somewhere with overzealous police and complicated regulations to comply with. The entire job will be time consuming hassle from start to finish, and to cap it all off, they will be late paying you once you do finally finish your work!

Every haulage worker will have to deal with good jobs and bad jobs - but if you learn to recognise the signs of good transport contracts, you'll have a much better chance of picking up the right kind of jobs!