Andrejs:
muckles:
Andrejs:
If they count average wages in industrial sector for not so much skilled job(drivers as well no so much skilled job) and not inclusive management salary in warehouse ,staff factory that Uk average wages will be just around 15-20 k per years.Then it’s not a national average, just an average for a certain demographic.
In 90 percent of all factory people work day shift and 40 hours per week for just 7.80.or it is about 15K per years.From all factory what i know just Landrover pay very good -about 30K per years.But most food production factory and not high value stuff production staff just about NMW.
And those wages are too low, but if you’re getting £7.80 in a factory (and you can usually get a little bit more if you’re doing anything of a responsible nature), and for that you usually work closer to home, with fixed normal start times (or at least a predictable shift pattern), usually standard 8 hours, and you’ve got the craic with the fellas you work with on a daily basis (even if it’s just having a laugh during breaks and lunches), and you’re home to see your wife and kids every night and go the pub, why would you drive for a couple of pounds an hour more?
Even if you’re getting £9 or £10 an hour driving (which is probably the general haulage rate), after tax that is only about £50 a week more, net after tax and for the equivalent hours. And for that you’ve got ridiculous flexible start times, long hours, never know when you’ll be finished, you’ve got the costs that go with licences and medicals, you’ve got the threats to your licence from clapped-out wagons or poorly secured loads, you’ve got some driving jobs that involve almost as much or more manual labour that some factory jobs, and so on.
Unless you’re wedded to driving or in one of the better jobs where you’re getting well into double-digit hourly rates, I can see there’s really not much in it. If you’re a family man who wants to have any real time at home, working in a warehouse or driving a Transit van has its advantages even if you’re on less money.
In my general impression, there’s a disproportionate number of fellas in HGV driving who don’t have family lives.
Just thinking about one small yard (this was a few years ago), one fella was an single alcoholic, one fella was getting divorced (apparently over the strains of the job on the relationship), another had an older wife who already had kids but didn’t want kids of his own, another considered himself as a breadwinner who barely saw his kids and was constantly moaning about his shifts (but wasn’t willing to take the hit in pay), the yard supervisor was an ex-forces career fella with no family, it’s an appalling vista really.