Ive heard of drivers driving class 1 s for minimum wage, so £7.00 p/h is a luxury, (not), I wonder sometimes if there were no minimum wage what rates would people stoop to to drive class 1 trucks, there is a balance between work/home life but also I think you have to work for a decent amount otherwise the rates go into free fall and all professionalism goes out of the window. The bosses expecting someone to take a truck down the road for very low rates must be laughing all the way to the bank whilst knocking back their g & t. 
dle1uk:
chicane:
I’ve kept off commenting this thread until now butGiving a driver an extra £2.00 per hour on the load of baked beans beans, say a 10hr run = £20.00 now divide that by the number of tins in a load, even a tin of Heinz finest isn’t gonna reach 70p let alone a quid. It really would make an infinitessimally small difference to the price of the end product.
Not going to criticise anyone for how they choose to support their family but there is no way in hell you’d get me driving an HGV for £7/hr.
baked beans was an example, didnt realise i would have to list every item, basically what i,m meaning is that everything carried by trucks would end up getting more expensive to recuperate the cost.
So truck drivers should settle for ■■■■■ money so Tom, ■■■■ & Henrietta public can save a penny or so on the items in their shopping basket? Like chicane is saying, we’d be talking almost negligible increases in prices. We get fleeced left, right and centre for virtually everything these days, just got my car tax reminder through for 180 bleeding quid for a 1.4 hatchback - i’d settle for paying an extra quid or so on my shopping if it meant drivers were all getting paid whey they are worth. It probably wouldn’t even be a pound.
You haven’t got a particularly strong argument here. Drivers who work for £7ph are aiding in the race to the bottom, this is a fact. I sympathise with your position of wanting a good family life etc. and fully understand that you probably don’t care and are just trying to look after yourself, but thats the reality & that’s why people on the outside looking in get frustrated with it.
Can’t do with these drivers that are happy and accepting that £7-7.50 is a good hourly wage, we all know the firms that pay this disgraceful hourly wage but to be honest when you talk or see the state of the drivers you then realise why there on that, good lads wouldn’t work there, it’s the divvys that work at these holes. It’s the same group of idiots that forfeit there night out money for a new truck, same clowns that spend thousands of there £7ph wage on blinging the motor up. The prob is this industry attracts a cross section of people, with a high majority of odd balls. Bottom line is good lads work at good firms, numptys work at crap firms.
Class 1 driver required £7.00 per hour…numpties only need apply!
My take on this problem is …The ‘educated idiots’ who run transport,have sh*t on each other and knifed each other in the back ,over cheap job rates .Its about time a proper price was charged for delivery…BUT as we all know ,it wont happen
zeddman:
My take on this problem is …The ‘educated idiots’ who run transport,have sh*t on each other and knifed each other in the back ,over cheap job rates .Its about time a proper price was charged for delivery…BUT as we all know ,it wont happen
agree that’s where we are at present but they’ve run the job so far into the ground that sooner or later they’ll hit the buffers, might not be anytime soon but it will happen and the DCPC has brought that time forward.
Minimum wage goes up to £6.50 hour at end of Sept. A driver earning £7 hour will therefore be on £20 week more than the lowest paid employees in the land, or about £13 week more after stoppages have been taken out.
Who in their right mind would spend out thousands of their own money to get a HGV license to then let someone take the pee with such ridiculously low wages?
Some people are so narrow-minded.
What about the newly qualified drivers that find it hard to get a start in the job?
Is it ok for them to apply for such low-paid jobs?
What about the more experienced drivers who have taken the last 2 or 3 years off to do something else but when going for interviews they are told that as you haven’t driven for at least 6 months in the last 2 years the company’s insurance won’t insure you.
Is it ok for these people to accept a low paying job in order to get a step on the ladder to better things?
What about people who live in low-paying areas, like South Wales, for instance - where they’d jump at the chance to earn £7-00 an hour.
Is it ok for them?
What gives you the right to judge others?
You don’t know their circumstances and you haven’t walked in their shoes.
Quit judging people, I say.
Try advising, not ridiculing and abusing.
I am guessing some of the people that are defending appallingly low wages, are either employers or agencies who are the ones actually doing the shafting?
People who are left to struggle on such low wages usually end up having to get housing benefits and/or child benefits to survive. Sorry but why should other taxpayers have to support some of these Mickey Mouse operators? 
I know the head of a Yorkshire based quite large and well known company that pay reasonable wages who told me over the phone yesterday that he can’t get drivers and he hates using thieving agencies.
So why can’t he get people to even apply ?
Pat Hasler:
I know the head of a Yorkshire based quite large and well known company that pay reasonable wages who told me over the phone yesterday that he can’t get drivers and he hates using thieving agencies.
So why can’t he get people to even apply ?
probably doesn’t run scania’s with big light bars 
Personally speaking theres no way would I belittle myself and work for £7.00 per hour doing what is a skilled job and only pennies above the minimum wage, id rather take the pay cut to minimum wage and flip burgers of serve milkshakes.
Well said pal
dle1uk:
Contraflow:
Torkey:
Anyone that defends working for £7 per hour as a Class 1 driver is a disgrace to the industry.…and a disgrace to themselves.
please explain why?
apart from fitting in with your ideals,
I,m raising a family, which i spend quality time with, I have apart from a mortgage and a credit card no debt. we have 1 main car as said a nice decent discovery, paid for, we have 2 -3 family holidays a year.
Apart from a mortgage I have no debt. I have a nice decent car paid for, the wife has a sports car, we own TWO houses, bought a 25ft twin axle caravan in cash just before Xmas, just paid for double glazing in cash, wife spends most weekends away during summer and we go abroad every year. Don’t even want to think what I spend on amateur radio.
And all of that is done without even having to do 40hrs a week. How? Because neither of us will work for £7/hr.
I’ll tell you the last time I was on £7/hr in East Yorkshire…2001, 13 years ago. And East Yorkshire isn’t exactly renown for being well paying.
Pat Hasler:
I know the head of a Yorkshire based quite large and well known company that pay reasonable wages who told me over the phone yesterday that he can’t get drivers and he hates using thieving agencies.
So why can’t he get people to even apply ?
Because if it is Reed Boardall or TEF they have a completely different definition of a reasonable wage to everyone else.
A lot of the ‘big boys’ in bradford and leeds are shocking payers, can’t get my head round anyone even applying to work for them, drivers have the power to increase wages but they won’t cos some are happy enough working for peanuts as long as they get a new unit. Sad sad people!!!
Conor:
Apart from a mortgage I have no debt. I have a nice decent car paid for, the wife has a sports car, we own TWO houses, bought a 25ft twin axle caravan in cash just before Xmas, just paid for double glazing in cash, wife spends most weekends away during summer and we go abroad every year. Don’t even want to think what I spend on amateur radio.
I live in a nice country village in a home that was paid for many years ago, also have a decent car and own a caravan and managed to invest in equipment to start my own business. Whilst it still not a full time venture, it will get there within the next 12 months. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything like that if I had worked for crud wages.
I have encountered lots of employers offering poor wages, with nearly always a selection of expensive cars parked outside the office window. Common sense kicks in and I carry on walking. I can buy my own fairy lights, fluorescent jacket and still have change left from my first day of proper wages elsewhere. 
Oh dear, at one time British people would be embarassed to boast of their material worth, they played their wins, achievements and material gains down.
Wish i hadn’t clicked on to to read the above few posts, the latest updates of a Germy Kylesque reality ■■■■■■■ contest.
Good to see a few positive posts about not working for fresh air.
dle1uk:
wired4smoke:
The reason it’s so low because there’s donkeys working for it. And I am being judgemental as it’s mental asking a man to work for that. Minimum wage minimum effort.grow up man name calling went out at primary school.
how many on here are moaning at the wage? well vote with your feet and find something different, your not handcuffed to it you know!
i do what i do cos it works for me and end of the day that is all i care about. ive given the reasons why and i,m sure there are alot of drivers on here that would apply for it if a vacancy arose,. i know several drivers who are in fact in a que for if a vacancy does arise. the wage isnt everything… its down to every ones individual circumstances…
it gives me a good home life and that to me is very important, to spend quality time with my kids whilst they are still young, speak to alot of old timers the main things they regret is not being home…i,m not going to be the same! is it really worth that little bit extra?
Who’s name calling? Your talking of home plenty, that’s ok should you be looking for a job at home.
There’s men working away all week for wages like that, and in my eyes there being treated no better than donkeys. So in turn if they continue working and complaining about there wages and do nothing well would it be wrong to call them donkeys.
Don’t be so sensitive.