paul.fitz.589:
Find a job for Asda or someone like that . Average 10 hour day , bout 28 grand a year I think
If you’re a manager.
10 hours * 5 days * 50 weeks (half pay per day of holiday, depends on your contract I guess (4 weeks holiday)) * £6.50
= £16’250
More likely scenario
7.5 hours * 5 days * 50 weeks * £6.50
= £12’187.50
Source? I’m a Team Member for SSP, working in an M&S Simply Food. It is not what it is cracked up to be. You are much better staying driving, unless you really hate it. In which case do anything else. Try and get into a trade, go back to school. Whatever works.
paul.fitz.589:
Find a job for Asda or someone like that . Average 10 hour day , bout 28 grand a year I think
If you’re a manager.
10 hours * 5 days * 50 weeks (half pay per day of holiday, depends on your contract I guess (4 weeks holiday)) * £6.50
= £16’250
More likely scenario
7.5 hours * 5 days * 50 weeks * £6.50
= £12’187.50
Source? I’m a Team Member for SSP, working in an M&S Simply Food. It is not what it is cracked up to be. You are much better staying driving, unless you really hate it. In which case do anything else. Try and get into a trade, go back to school. Whatever works.
Just don’t do retail. It’s [zb].
I was on about driving pal . Working out of rdc isn’t for me . I was just giving an area of earnings for a new driver thinking of doin the work
mac12:
tmcassett the only reason I say what I do is because I think a lot of future new drivers really don’t know what the job entails and think they are going to do office hours tanning there right arm while eating a Yorkie bar with there left while earning £30000. I was a driver for 15 years and one day will be again and have earned some good money but the job is so different now to then, things such as money when I quit in august I was getting paid the same as 10 years ago but 10 years ago I picked up my paperwork and was free now you are watched all the time and everyone seems out to get you.
Going back to hours when people go to work at say 8am and see a truck how many will know he’s been at work maybe 4 or more hours and when they come home at night he could still be working until 7pm before having to sleep in a layby with no toilets because his firm will not pay for services because he’s only a driver.
I may seem to not want anyone to become a driver but that’s not true I just want them to be 100% sure before spending £3000 getting a licence to find it’s not for them, some drivers would work for nothing just to be behind the wheel with frilly curtains but not me and I feel sorry for drivers who come on here who cannot get a job or find out its not for them when it’s to late and we do seem to get a few of them on these pages.
This is a long post for me but while others keep coming on here saying how good it is I will keep putting it from the other side.
Again though you are generalising that every lorry driver is away from home all week, starts at 4am, does 12-15 hour days which while some do all or a combination of those things, its not a necessity for having a career as a lorry driver. Your right to point out that its possible to do 84 hours a week “IF” and that’s the key word “if” you want to. There are so many variations on what time you can start and how many hours you may work its not possible to sum it up in one sentence. I never have nor will I ever do any of those things I’ve just mentioned and I manage to make a good living both financially and the work/life balance with my class 1 licence. I especially won’t do any nights out, in 3 years I’ve never done one and the day I am forced to do 1 a year let alone several a week I will work somewhere else. Working what would be considered more of a normal working week when put alongside other jobs is entirely possible and also I will say that there is this misconception on here that we are the only industry where we don’t necessarily know from day to day exactly what time we will finish work for the day, there are many others and a good number of those probably earn less than your average driver.
With you comments about everything being watched and monitored you have a slight point but that’s the society we now live in and like it or not you have to accept that’s the way it is, you know big brother is watching you and all that, please don’t be naïve enough to think that millions of other people aren’t watched in some way or another in whatever job or career they are in. You also go on about how the job has changed in the last 15 years while you’ve been driving and I’m not in a position to comment on that because I only have 3 years under my belt but I only know the job as it is today so I have nothing to compare it too and can only take it as I see things today from my experience and any other new driver coming into the industry will be the same so the point is slightly redundant on that front.
We don’t know about the “good times” all those years ago and why the job is crap now compared to then. I mean how many comments do you read on here from old timers moaning about how todays trucks aren’t proper trucks because they have all the mod cons and technologies and you don’t actually have to drive them like you used to have too. Well sorry I’d rather drive something that was made a lot easier for me and if I get labelled a steering wheel attendant then so be it (I know I’m not which is all that matters)
I do totally agree with you about that the fact that some people are more bothered about what they are driving and if its all blinged up and a top of the range model rather than the money or hours of the job and I agree that’s a sad state of affairs when it comes to that but from what I can read there’s no sign of the OP being concerned by that. In fact there was a thread in the main forum the other day where a driver was asking about going tramping for Stobarts, he had got a 1 year old with his missus and his main concern was that he’d get a shiny new Volvo FH rather than being there for his other half and the baby.
I think you are right to point out that the job is not perfect and without flaws and to think carefully before shelling out around £3000
but I also think that the good things about the job often get forgotten. No 2 people are the same in what they want from a job and career, what I like about the industry and the sort of work I like doing others might not and vice versa.
If a new driver comes on here should we tell him the trucking world smells of roses or should we tell him how it could be. It is a job where you can work 84 hours or be away 144 hours from start to end of week and if someone such as me fails to tell them how will they no it’s to late when you have spent £3000 and turn up at work to then find out how many hours you will have to do, there have been posts on these pages where new drivers thought they could only work 45 hours per week total.
When I got my licence I managed to get a job on a chemical tanker covering the whole country and Ireland on very good money compared to what I had been earning but I was lucky most won’t be unlike yourself.
If you are lucky and get a good job with a good firm this job can be one of the best it’s just that there are so many bad firms out there who think there drivers are an evil they have to put up with.
Regarding the job situation, I can only relate what I know. I have never got a job through an advert but through the good old word of mouth. I had to medically retire back in May YET I have had no end of phone calls offering me work … even ‘Can you do a quick run down to Italy for me to help out then?’. A good few people have assumed I have just retired and am available for the right price. Even my old boss has said ‘Get your licences back and there is a seat for you here’.
So if you keep your ears open and ask a few questions in the right places, there is obviously plenty of work out there. Don’t give up hope, you newbies as I have already pointed two in the right direction in the last month and they are now happily employed. Don’t be picky, don’t expect to drive an all singing all dancing 730 Scania straight off and you’ll find work.
mac12:
If a new driver comes on here should we tell him the trucking world smells of roses or should we tell him how it could be. It is a job where you can work 84 hours or be away 144 hours from start to end of week and if someone such as me fails to tell them how will they no it’s to late when you have spent £3000 and turn up at work to then find out how many hours you will have to do, there have been posts on these pages where new drivers thought they could only work 45 hours per week total.
When I got my licence I managed to get a job on a chemical tanker covering the whole country and Ireland on very good money compared to what I had been earning but I was lucky most won’t be unlike yourself.
If you are lucky and get a good job with a good firm this job can be one of the best it’s just that there are so many bad firms out there who think there drivers are an evil they have to put up with.
No we shouldn’t say it is all roses but neither should we say it’s all long hours, poor pay and away from home. That’s the problem I was raising with your posts in that they always imply that’s the way it will be rather than could be and there’s a big difference between will be and could be. If any new driver wants that then great for them and yes there are plenty of companies who will have you working to the max but I like to highlight the other side of the job and show if you don’t want that then there are also plenty of opportunities to work half the amount of time and then from there let people make up their minds if they want to go ahead.
I wouldn’t say you have to be lucky to find a good firm, again it comes down to what the individual wants. I don’t want or do long hours, stupid o’clock in the morning starts, nights out and since I’ve been driving class I have done stints in lots of different places on agency as well as permanent with companies and I have always managed what I have just mentioned with around 45 hours most weeks. That’s not lucky that’s just knowing what I want and making it happen.
Why couldn’t you work a 45 hour week if you wanted to? If you’re going down the agency route then why not? what’s the average working week on a contract anyway? I’m currently working 55-65 hours a week for a terrible base salary of 13k + a car allowance of £300 per month and commission, I’m lucky if I clear £1500 take home(usually less)and I pay for all my fuel, I’m sure I could better my income with a class 2 licence, cpc etc whilst working with a view to getting class 1
tomoxford:
Why couldn’t you work a 45 hour week if you wanted to? If you’re going down the agency route then why not? what’s the average working week on a contract anyway? I’m currently working 55-65 hours a week for a terrible base salary of 13k + a car allowance of £300 per month and commission, I’m lucky if I clear £1500 take home(usually less)and I pay for all my fuel, I’m sure I could better my income with a class 2 licence, cpc etc whilst working with a view to getting class 1
Absolutely you can, that’s the point I’m trying to make to all the merchants of doom who only see the negatives. Especially if your going to work on agency because that allows you the freedom to control where you work, how many days and roughly how many hours you want to do. You can choose to work 10 hours a week or you could choose to work 70 hours, depends entirely on what you want.
I can’t actually help with what your likely to earn class 2 as I’ve never done any work. I did class 1 & 2 back to back and started on class 1 straight away. I can safely say you should easily be able to earn more for less hours with class 1 work and worst case scenario you will at least earn the same for considerably less hours than the 55-60 you currently do.
As far as permanent contracts go then £25,000-£30,000 is achievable and realistic for a sensible amount of hours. You could earn more at some places, some will pay considerably less than this for more hours but there the ones to avoid. Obviously location comes into it too but Oxford isn’t going to be a poor paying area like some parts of the UK.
tomoxford:
Why couldn’t you work a 45 hour week if you wanted to? If you’re going down the agency route then why not? what’s the average working week on a contract anyway? I’m currently working 55-65 hours a week for a terrible base salary of 13k + a car allowance of £300 per month and commission, I’m lucky if I clear £1500 take home(usually less)and I pay for all my fuel, I’m sure I could better my income with a class 2 licence, cpc etc whilst working with a view to getting class 1
Hope your sitting down because I’m going to agree with tm cassett, you will earn more driving than that especially if you don’t mind multi drop and hard work. Agencies find it hard to get drivers for this sort of work because drivers such as me only want easy one hit jobs open curtain lift off close curtain and go.
Within 10 mile of where I live there are 2 firms one multi drop paying around £27000 class 2 for a 5 on 3 off shift and nobody wants it and another paying £23500 class 1 very easy one hit job 5 on 2 off, these are no good to you but show what’s out there as both take new drivers and home every night.
tomoxford:
Why couldn’t you work a 45 hour week if you wanted to? If you’re going down the agency route then why not? what’s the average working week on a contract anyway? I’m currently working 55-65 hours a week for a terrible base salary of 13k + a car allowance of £300 per month and commission, I’m lucky if I clear £1500 take home(usually less)and I pay for all my fuel, I’m sure I could better my income with a class 2 licence, cpc etc whilst working with a view to getting class 1
Hope your sitting down because I’m going to agree with tm cassett, you will earn more driving than that especially if you don’t mind multi drop and hard work. Agencies find it hard to get drivers for this sort of work because drivers such as me only want easy one hit jobs open curtain lift off close curtain and go.
Within 10 mile of where I live there are 2 firms one multi drop paying around £27000 class 2 for a 5 on 3 off shift and nobody wants it and another paying £23500 class 1 very easy one hit job 5 on 2 off, these are no good to you but show what’s out there as both take new drivers and home every night.
Glad I was sitting down for that, eventually we were bound to agree on something.
I have a friend who started driving 3.5T vans at Ocado and now drives Class 1 for them. It would be a good way to get some experience as you could join using your car licence and see how you get on initially
There is an Ocado spoke not far from Oxford, I used to drive for Ocado too and had to go there once. They pay above average for van driving and the HGV’s are around £10 pr hr, you work four days a week and can do a fifth day on time and a half if you like