Minimum wage for drivers

Some of talk about wages at the RDCs
some guy i met, told me a well known company offered him £9.70ph
My lowest offer was £10.70
Seems to me companys will/do take the pee.
So thinking about Minimum wage for drivers what should it be, and should it be a sliding scale based on experience

crush99:
Some of talk about wages at the RDCs
some guy i met, told me a well known company offered him £9.70ph
My lowest offer was £10.70
Seems to me companys will/do take the pee.
So thinking about Minimum wage for drivers what should it be, and should it be a sliding scale based on experience

Who should set the minimum for any job?
Government?
Closed shop union?
Employers association?
.
Should there be minimum haulage rates?

As someone who will be hopefully going back to driving next month after a few years out I’m on a few HGV fakebook pages and have been following what sort of wages are being offered.
My conclusions are that I’ll be looking at around 12 -13 quid an hour as that seems to be reasonable for my area ( East Midlands ). The second thing I noticed is that there’s a lot of foreign drivers complaining that whatever rates are offered they complain it’s too low ?

mmm interesting proposal. how do you see it working ? £x ph for 7.5t £y ph for class 2 and £z ph for class 1 ?
i agree that drivers are on the whole undervalued, the wages do not reflect that we are probably the most skilled employees on the books in some industries and i think we are almost certainly the most regulated. i work for a builders merchant and recently got a pay rise to the national living wage, (all qualifying staff got it) so, i now drive a hgv into places it shouldnt be going and operate a telemotive crane for the same money as a 19 yr old boy driving a sprinter van. :confused:

I’m not really a fan of setting minimum wages tbh, for the simple reason that it gives a benchmark for the bottom feeder companies to aim down to.

It’s probably an overly simplistic view but I reckon that you get the staff you deserve, so pay a few quid an hour less than nearby competitors and you get the unemployable wrecking your equipment, insurance costs force you into bankruptcy and hey presto another crappy employer taken out of the pool.

the maoster:
I’m not really a fan of setting minimum wages tbh, for the simple reason that it gives a benchmark for the bottom feeder companies to aim down to.

It’s probably an overly simplistic view but I reckon that you get the staff you deserve, so pay a few quid an hour less than nearby competitors and you get the unemployable wrecking your equipment, insurance costs force you into bankruptcy and hey presto another crappy employer taken out of the pool.

Good in principle.
But,
Hey Presto! Another crappy company set up by the same crappy employer who has gone bankrupt with unpaid debts.

Capitalism at work my friend. Yes, I grant that bankruptcy has knock on effects, but I argue that what emerges eventually is better and stronger.

applecomson:
As someone who will be hopefully going back to driving next month after a few years out I’m on a few HGV fakebook pages and have been following what sort of wages are being offered.
My conclusions are that I’ll be looking at around 12 -13 quid an hour as that seems to be reasonable for my area ( East Midlands ). The second thing I noticed is that there’s a lot of foreign drivers complaining that whatever rates are offered they complain it’s too low ?

Distance van work seems like a more attractive option now but ironically obviously even more over subscribed than truck driving.
Truck running costs including fuel have now gone past the tipping point of being profitable.Drivers wages are the only option left for operators to try to get some profitablity back from the job.
Also the situation of trying to minimise miles run making the job even less attractive.Those ‘foreign drivers’ are obviously seeing the writing on the wall of the perfect storm of working in a high living cost country and an increasingly and deliberately unprofitable and degenerating industry.The only question is what took them so long to see it.

the maoster:
I’m not really a fan of setting minimum wages tbh, for the simple reason that it gives a benchmark for the bottom feeder companies to aim down to.

It’s probably an overly simplistic view but I reckon that you get the staff you deserve, so pay a few quid an hour less than nearby competitors and you get the unemployable wrecking your equipment, insurance costs force you into bankruptcy and hey presto another crappy employer taken out of the pool.

It’s not about the money it’s what you have to do to earn it.10 quid per hour for distance work is better than £12 + per hour to drive a 7.5 or 18 tonner on local multi drop and the employers obviously know it.

As for avoiding the unemployable I’d guess that anyone saying that they would prefer a manual box and no local/multi drop zb work are going to be a good bet. :bulb: :wink:

applecomson:
As someone who will be hopefully going back to driving next month after a few years out I’m on a few HGV fakebook pages and have been following what sort of wages are being offered.
My conclusions are that I’ll be looking at around 12 -13 quid an hour as that seems to be reasonable for my area ( East Midlands ). The second thing I noticed is that there’s a lot of foreign drivers complaining that whatever rates are offered they complain it’s too low ?

You should point out to these “foreign drivers” on facebook that if they brought the truck back with the same amount of panels it left the yard with then the money might be better :bulb: . Or maybe a link to the Wizz Air website with one way tickets to Gdansk might be a better hint for them?

the maoster:
I’m not really a fan of setting minimum wages tbh, for the simple reason that it gives a benchmark for the bottom feeder companies to aim down to.

It’s probably an overly simplistic view but I reckon that you get the staff you deserve, so pay a few quid an hour less than nearby competitors and you get the unemployable wrecking your equipment, insurance costs force you into bankruptcy and hey presto another crappy employer taken out of the pool.

This ^. Free market is the right way. Also lets you see at a glance who are the crappy companies when you look on the job sites as they are constantly advertising.

Many firms used to pay RHA rates. the better ones would advertise that they paid a bit above.

the maoster:
Capitalism at work my friend. Yes, I grant that bankruptcy has knock on effects, but I argue that what emerges eventually is better and stronger.

Which is why after over 50 yrs since de-nationisation of BRS we have such a thriving haulage industry with rising conditions for us all.
The benefits of capitalism are of course fairly shared out to those producing the profits of free enterprise.
.
Keep on imbibing the soma, mate.
.
Ed to add
:smiley:

Franglais:

the maoster:
Capitalism at work my friend. Yes, I grant that bankruptcy has knock on effects, but I argue that what emerges eventually is better and stronger.

Which is why after over 50 yrs since de-nationisation of BRS we have such a thriving haulage industry with rising conditions for us all.
The benefits of capitalism are of course fairly shared out to those producing the profits of free enterprise.
.
Keep on imbibing the soma, mate.
.
Ed to add
:smiley:

Truck and road transport hating Socialists running a haulage firm.Yeah right that’ll work.Remind me what happened to BRS.

Franglais:

the maoster:
Capitalism at work my friend. Yes, I grant that bankruptcy has knock on effects, but I argue that what emerges eventually is better and stronger.

Which is why after over 50 yrs since de-nationisation of BRS we have such a thriving haulage industry with rising conditions for us all.
The benefits of capitalism are of course fairly shared out to those producing the profits of free enterprise.
.
Keep on imbibing the soma, mate.
.
Ed to add
:smiley:

I suspect that you don’t actually disagree with what I’ve written and it’s merely your “Devils advocate” gene kicking in. :wink:

Which is why after over 50 yrs since de-nationisation of BRS we have such a thriving haulage industry with rising conditions for us all. quote franglais…

no , the reason we dont have a thriving industry etc is because we WERE in the eu allowing free movement of labour which drove conditions down… ffs move on… :unamused:

m.a.n rules:
Which is why after over 50 yrs since de-nationisation of BRS we have such a thriving haulage industry with rising conditions for us all. quote franglais…

no , the reason we dont have a thriving industry etc is because we WERE in the eu allowing free movement of labour which drove conditions down… ffs move on… :unamused:

I bet you’ll regret that post when you sober up!

cav551:
Many firms used to pay RHA rates. the better ones would advertise that they paid a bit above.

What have the RHA ever done for us ?

Suedehead:

cav551:
Many firms used to pay RHA rates. the better ones would advertise that they paid a bit above.

What have the RHA ever done for us ?

The simple answer is NOTHING its for OWNERS not Drivers, for as long as I can remember the Gaffers excuse was always I pay RHA rates. Members always agreed what the rate Drivers are to be paid its only when non Members or the big supermarkets started attracting Drivers with better conditions and money that money improved. Now its mostly the third party outfits or general operators that the pay is basic.

Carryfast:
Truck and road transport hating Socialists running a haulage firm.Yeah right that’ll work.Remind me what happened to BRS

BRS were running for about 50 years in various guises. Seemed popular with drivers on this thread.

trucknetuk.com/phpBB/viewto … start=3120

And here is Bewick on that thread:
“saying that “from a drivers point of view” BRS were quite rightly judged as,and were,first class employers”
full post from above link