So where is the money?

following from my previous post, I have talked to many people that I know via this forum and friends from over the years. and some are on very good money and some have just seen a small uplift but nothing spectacular.

so I asked what factors increased the take home for drivers- almost all said the driver shortage drove up their take home pay, however the massive difference was in own account vs haulage , where the profit driver for the company was haulage the payrise was significant- where haulage was secondary to the companies main business but essential for the company, IE own account the increases were far higher- now that’s not brain surgery logic- most of us could have worked that out.

However this forum still gets asked where the big money is - so here is MY answer- is not in a V8 blinged up Scania chasing general haulage loads maxing hours, its in own account or specialist transport where transport is not the money earner- and for those drivers who will drive something that’s fleet spec

Its simple fact- big truck with all the bells and whistles on general haulage is a nice working enviroment- but wont put the money in your pocket, you want to tramp on around Europe and if that gives you job satisfaction that’s fine, (I know I did for a few years and loved the lifestyle) but you wont get the big bucks because the rates just are not there to pay you what you expect- own account transport has no glamour but they pay far more than a haulier can- that’s where the money is

I’d also add, and I know it’s a dirty word on here, that unionised firms tended to do better in terms of wage rises too.

Own-account work doesn’t always pay top dollar.

Harry Monk:
Own-account work doesn’t always pay top dollar.

true, its not a 100% , there’s your nirvana, but on the whole its does pay far better wages wise than general, because transport isn’t the profit driver- its an expense true, but if for your boss the profit is in what you carry rather than simply carrying it, transport isn’t the profit driver- and getting it to the customer is many times more important and a far more insignificant cost but a far higher priority- that’s where the drivers can make a buck or two

I will give an example, last week I worked on site for 7hours a day I didn’t probably do 30kms all week , I sat for 45hours at Lymm all on pay, to get a full break in- my take home was over £1000- because the money wasn’t in transport, it was in the crane and its the same this week- sat twiddling my thumbs on full pay (we on a day rate)until the crane finishes- the crane (own account) earns the money we are no more than an incidental cost but without us the money maker cant get to the next job, when transport isn’t the income for the company, but without it the company cant use its money maker that’s where you can earn the £s

After chasing the money over the last 3 years I want a job where I am left alone no hassle from the office. My current job I only tell them I have delivered or collected the goods. I park where I want where the company has an account. I am not stressed anymore.

Own account has been my best move, no we didn’t get a massive rise last year like some others did, that was because we’ve had decent pay rises every year.

The problem with own account and the best termed and conditions contract operations is that they tend to be salaried and with jobs planned to be done at a gentler pace and in reasonable working days, the problem comes when a certain type of driver alights on these good jobs and then once installed can’t help themselves but take the ■■■■, sickies and not just the odd days but weeks and months at a time on full pay, won’t do this or that, take ridiculous amount of time to do the run so they don’t have to cover the second one they were planned for and numerous other dodges, wreck and don’t look after equipment, and last but not least don’t take enough care of the customer, all this adds up and once a wide boy gets aways with it others follow like sheep.
Eventually the job becomes unworkable and the job goes out to contract to the cheapest haulier or like one supermarket they actively recruited from abroad.

I agree completely with the OP, if you are fortunate enough to land one of these good jobs for crying out loud look after it, consider yourself what you are, not a transport driver but a part of customer service.

Own account operators have always paid better money, for obvious reasons…ie, haulage ain’t their reason to be, but is just part of their primary operation,.by shipping their products out.
That with the added benefit of a strong Union presence makes for the ultimate job in driving.
Basically what I’m saying is I agree with you, given the choice of that on a basic motor,.and driving some blinged up monstrosity insult to good taste on a run of the mill job?..no competition for me.

consider yourself what you are, not a transport driver but a part of customer service.

Agree totally, some of our cranes are thousands a day to hire, the big ones you can add a zero or two to that- getting them there on time ready to work is the priority, I am having a 24 off midweek (on full pay) tomorrow, then loading Thursday am and have to be from the South coast to well far North of Dundee on Monday am even at 40mph max we are hardly going to be pushed - the 4 day run will bring me about a grand on top, and that’s small money for the company if the crane isn’t there ready to work on time - as I said own account and specialist is the way the money is out there

After the big pay rises of last year we are now starting to see reductions in pay. It is very quiet out there as most agency drivers will witness and firms are taking adantage of the opportunity to force agencies to lower rates in order to carry on supplying drivers.

I can still remember when I first just passed my test,
Remember the good feeling and puffing out my chest.
My family listened fifty times that I was going far,
In something ten times bigger than their little car.
Bought myself an atlas, A to Zs and all,
Dreamed about 88s like the posters on my wall.

Oh lorry-driving, I gave you all the best years of my life,
All the leaving on a Sunday, all the driving all ■■■■ night.
I was so busy having nights-out and clocking up the miles
While you were changing your direction and I never knew
That I was always one step behind you.

74 seemed like the year I was really going somewhere,
Delivering stuff for BRS and the union always there.
With a bed across the seats in an draughty old Scammell
Praying for a sleeper cab and a chance of sleeping well.

And then onto 78 and off to Felixstowe
Thought I was making headway, containers, way to go,
Probably the easiest job that I ever had,
Reflected in reward being quite so very bad.

81 saw Europe and the steepest learning curve
Running money, permits and tank-scheins for the DERV.
Shipping-out and stripping-out while trying to pull the birds,
Danke bitte grazie prego and other foreign words.

In 84, the Middle-East seemed the way to go,
Shame by then the rates were shot but I didn’t know.
King of the Road in a Scania, model one-four-one,
Although snowed-in in Commie-blok wasn’t a lot of fun.

86 and the Euro Union welcomed in our Spain.
Twenty-six pallet fridges became the name of the game,
Chasing after ferries while having to pull the fuse,
All the northern markets with toms, caps and cues.

By 92 I thought I’d cracked it, finally delivering cars,
But all transporter glory days were long since passed.
Even being the steward for the good old T and G
Couldn’t make a decent pay check like it used to be.

98 on holiday is when I met Suzanne,
I told her all my troubles and she seemed to understand.
Moved into her place and a love affair began,
Trouble was, the poor girl wanted to dominate her man.
No more continental, why can’t you drive a van?

04 and finally, the courage to say “Goodbye.”
Flew away determined to give Canada a try.
Big double drive in the hooded style,
Straps, tarps and flatbeds, 40 cents per mile,
Log books with driving fourteen hours a day,
But still with scant rewards as regards to pay.

Sixty-five in 18 and so eager to retire,
I leave it as I found it, deep down in the mire.
So lorry-driving, you had all the best years of my life,
All the leaving on a Sunday, all driving all ■■■■ night,
I was having all the nights-out and clocking up the miles,
While you were changing your direction and I never knew,
That I was always, just one step behind you.

Acknowledgement to Kevin Johnson.

Harry Monk:
Own-account work doesn’t always pay top dollar.

Agreed.

I am starting back with an old boss next Monday, (He rang me!!!) and all he has is one customer which he has had for years. He has it because his wife is high up within the company. It is specialised products, and while I get back the truck I got brand new 3 years ago, I have had to take a £150pw pay cut from my previous job. Yes that is right. A £150 pw pay cut.

My previous boss “laid me off” because one of their ferry trailer customers, chopped the rate so he has had to go back on the road, thereby replacing me. Last in first out and all that crap.

Ken.

Just been thinking about this since I last posted.
I used to pull trailers with my own motor at a furniture manufacturing co.
When I was later looking for a job I briefly worked for them (before having to leave before I crippled the ■■■■ who was tm, but that’s another tale)

It was double time for running out Sunday, and time and a half after 40 hours, so by the time Wednesday came around you were on overtime rate until next weekend.

Years later my son in law started with them after me telling him what great t s & c.s they were on…Turns out the usual classic tactic of offering drivers a vast hourly increase, but same rate right through, with no pay raises for 5 years came about a couple of years after I left, which meant they were worse off ,.and you guessed it the stupid drivers agreed.

Also all Sunday running stopped in favour of ridiculous AM start times on a Monday.

But the piece de resistance Rodney was …wait for it…

They made the ex driver Shop steward the TM ,.a brilliant tactic eh that you have to admire them for tbf.

Turns out now although his t.s and c.s are generally better, he’s on more or less the same as me,… and my lot ain’t exactly famous for chucking their money around.
So again drivers swallowed the b/s hook line and sinker.
Classic driver behaviour eh?

I love all the frills and Bing and fairy lights on the V8 mega cab lorries. When I moved to the Midlands I started working for a small supermarket chain. Wow what a difference to general haulage, no pressure, good wages and well looked after.

This was 20 years ago, since then I mainly worked for blue chip companies either agency or on the books.

There are loads of plus and minus working for these companies, the disadvantages are poverty spec trucks, 5 out of 7 working week, H&S overload and not allowed to think for yourself, you have a 20 year old line manager for that . The advantages are no pressure, day work, very rare getting near maxing your hours out, very good wage package.

Every now and again I fancy going back to container/General haulage until I see the pay rates…I was looking at one big haulier based at felixstowe and rate offered £11.30hr plus bonus think I stick to what I doing.

Rikki-UK:

Harry Monk:
Own-account work doesn’t always pay top dollar.

true, its not a 100% , there’s your nirvana, but on the whole its does pay far better wages wise than general, because transport isn’t the profit driver- its an expense true, but if for your boss the profit is in what you carry rather than simply carrying it, transport isn’t the profit driver- and getting it to the customer is many times more important and a far more insignificant cost but a far higher priority- that’s where the drivers can make a buck or two

I will give an example, last week I worked on site for 7hours a day I didn’t probably do 30kms all week , I sat for 45hours at Lymm all on pay, to get a full break in- my take home was over £1000- because the money wasn’t in transport, it was in the crane and its the same this week- sat twiddling my thumbs on full pay (we on a day rate)until the crane finishes- the crane (own account) earns the money we are no more than an incidental cost but without us the money maker cant get to the next job, when transport isn’t the income for the company, but without it the company cant use its money maker that’s where you can earn the £s

You sat at lym services for your weekly rest ( 45 hrs ) , I’ve done some stupid things in my time lorry driving ,but that beats anything I’ve done , my weekly rest has always been at home

I think this is a great topic, and may serve as guidance for almost everybody who reads it.

I also agree with the general feeling that own-account and niche jobs are the best.

I’d like to add a little note of caution though!

Some own account operators are so focused on what they do that it’s sales people who run the company.
This kind of own account operator simply see anything to do with transport as a necessary evil and pay it little heed.

I know this because I have two of this kind of operator as a customers, one of them has been stopped by Essex Police TWICE for an insecure load, and on both occasions lots of other issues easily came to light and were added to the list. I’ll leave it there because I don’t want to divert this excellent topic.

The moral of my little story is that a prospective driver looking at taking a new job with an own-account operator should be cautious if the vehicles look scruffy and/or poorly maintained.

I must admit I still struggle to get my head around what qualifies as own account. So all supermarket work is own account? Fuel, an Esso or an Asda truck would be own account but Hoyer is transporting someone else’s fuel? Car transporter, BCA is own account but ECM is transporting someone else’s cars? Is that right?
But both Hoyer and ECM would be great for being specialised?

dozy:

Rikki-UK:

Harry Monk:

You sat at lym services for your weekly rest ( 45 hrs ) , I’ve done some stupid things in my time lorry driving ,but that beats anything I’ve done , my weekly rest has always been at home

his was45 hours paid yours is unpaid?

stu675:
I must admit I still struggle to get my head around what qualifies as own account. So all supermarket work is own account? Fuel, an Esso or an Asda truck would be own account but Hoyer is transporting someone else’s fuel? Car transporter, BCA is own account but ECM is transporting someone else’s cars? Is that right?
But both Hoyer and ECM would be great for being specialised?

Without diverting this topic…

In its strictest interpretation, Own Account is when a company uses its own vehicles to move its own goods, and which includes backhauling its own raw materials if necessary. The key thing here is that the company doing the transporting owns the goods being carried outward/inward.

Anything else isn’t Own Account.

Goldentanks:
After the big pay rises of last year we are now starting to see reductions in pay. It is very quiet out there as most agency drivers will witness and firms are taking adantage of the opportunity to force agencies to lower rates in order to carry on supplying drivers.

It’s only gone back to where it was before the pandemic. It’s not lower, it’s just back to situation normal. The problem is that we’ve had 2/3 years of ridiculously good Jan-March and a large chunk of agency haven’t been doing agency driving long enough to know what it was like before 2020. Talking to agency where I am all those who started over the last couple of years have been saying how bad it’s been since the end of the annual sale and re-stock in November, I’ve been replying that this is normal and how it always used to be. Those of us who’ve been doing it a fair while both expect it every year and plan for it so for us it was more of a shock to be working flat out after Xmas but very few of us expected it to last.

Agency rates won’t get knocked down but I suspect there’s likely not going to be any real rate rises. I’m lucky enough to be on parity pay at an own account company so we’re getting a decent rise this year but that’s only on this contract, I don’t know how others are faring at my agency.

stu675:
I must admit I still struggle to get my head around what qualifies as own account. So all supermarket work is own account? Fuel, an Esso or an Asda truck would be own account but Hoyer is transporting someone else’s fuel? Car transporter, BCA is own account but ECM is transporting someone else’s cars? Is that right?
But both Hoyer and ECM would be great for being specialised?

No. Own account is like Howdens Joinery where I am where the majority of fleet is owned, operated and run by Howdens and the drivers are Howdens employees/agency working for Howdens. Basically the goods being transported on the wagon are being transported by the same company that own/make/sell the goods. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as just looking at whose name is on the truck. There are some Howdens liveried wagons that are operated by subcontractors and that’s not own account…the drivers are not employed by Howdens, they get paid a different rate and have different terms of employment.

Supermarkets in the main will be using companies like DHL, Stobarts, Culina etc to do all their transport. That is not own account. Next run their own fleet and employ their own drivers, that is own account.

If a Shell tanker is being moved by a wagon run by Shell with the driver employed by Shell then that’s own account. If that tanker is being moved by a wagon run by Hoyer then that’s not own account.