HI, I have held my class 2 licence for about 4 years now; when I first had it I did all the crap jobs like food delivery and flat pack furniture delivery’s and was earning about £8.50 p/h (agency work) ,now 4 years down the line my current company is relocating so I will have to travel a 70 mile round trip to carry on working there, I was looking at taking my class 1,but looking on the directgov website for class 1 or 2 work the money to me seems s’’t, I have seen class 1 work for £7 / hour and a class 2 with hiab for £6.50/ hour is this the normal money nowadays for drivers■■? I was earning (£8.50) this 4 years ago doing 7.5 tonne work (Birmingham area)
Welcome to the forum.
And also welcome to the reality of being an LGV driver.
Crap Pay. Crap Hours. But for some reason we still want to do it. 
Yep that sounds about right for your area they would like you to have everything paid for by you & pay the lowest soz that is how it is
If you do decide to come back into driving you will have to do the periodic CPC by 2014 & guess who pays for that 
getting just over £10 / ph for very easy class 2 work,i did not realise that this was decent money for class 2 work,looks like a 70 mile round trip every day then!
Just buy a diesel mate 
im in birmingham my current class 2 job is 9.50 and hour 48 hour guarenteed shame im just been made redundant how ever this is more than my new class one job go figure but i just need the experiance
animal:
Yep that sounds about right for your area they would like you to have everything paid for by you & pay the lowest soz that is how it isIf you do decide to come back into driving you will have to do the periodic CPC by 2014 & guess who pays for that
As a former (recovering) accountant, why do you not claim your CPC off your tax? The P87 form allows you to offset any expenses which are necessary to perform your employment against your income and income taxes.
I used to claim back my ACA subscription fees and some accounting journal fees as well. Police can claim for safety boots as well.
justpin:
animal:
Yep that sounds about right for your area they would like you to have everything paid for by you & pay the lowest soz that is how it isIf you do decide to come back into driving you will have to do the periodic CPC by 2014 & guess who pays for that
As a former (recovering) accountant, why do you not claim your CPC off your tax? The P87 form allows you to offset any expenses which are necessary to perform your employment against your income and income taxes.
I used to claim back my ACA subscription fees and some accounting journal fees as well. Police can claim for safety boots as well.
Already done have it on my tax code as well as claiming for workwear clothes boots cloves maps sat nav etc ( my dad was an ex tax man ) 
Just in case anybody reading this thread thinks that the government will fully fund ALL of your expenses (Hi viz, boots, hard hat, licence acquisition fees, DCPC fees etc.) then here is a reality check.
You will only EVER get 20% back of what you pay out for the goods and services in the first place. Here is why.
Pretend I Earn 25000 pounds in a year. (I dont, I actually earn more like £14000 if i am lucky)!
The govt. will let me earn (about) 7500 tax free (tax code 750L), so I will pay 20% tax on 25000 minus (about) 7500 which is (about) 17500. Tax at 20% on 17500 is 3500. I should have paid them 3500 pounds before or just after the end of the tax year.
So If I spend 200 on boots, hat, clothes etc. and 500 on CPC, then that is 700 right?
The govt. will NOT reduce your tax by 700.
They will only reduce the money on which you pay tax by 700, so they will tax you on 17500 minus 700 which is 16800. Tax at 20% on 16800 is 3360.
So instead of taking 3500 tax off of you, they will take 3360 tax off of you; - a saving of only (3500 - 3360) which is 140 pounds.
So to recap, if you spend 700 pounds on LEGITIMATE expenses, you will ‘save’ 140 pounds.
You are still (700 - 140) = 560 pounds worse off.
But on the other hand you do have some nice new boots, hi-viz etc. and you do have some dcpc hours under your belt and you have paid 140 tax less than if you hadnt claimed.
But you DO NOT get the full 700 back from ANYBODY.
Guess what the dcpc providers will do with their fees soon?
They will probably increase them by 20%, knowing that you can claim that 20% back of the government. You are back to square one and they have made an extra 20%
Does anybody know of any DCPC training firms needing a new instructor?
All the best for the New Year everyone 
LandyLad
Good post LandyLad. How many times have I been told that the taxman pays for new trucks?? Well explained. Thanks. Pete
What the tax man never paid for your new trucks Peter 
What sort of wage would you expect someone to earn in the hants/surrey border, just passed aged 26, c+e, dont mind days/nights/weekends/tramping whatever it takes I’m free n single and wana earn while I can!
sprouty:
What sort of wage would you expect someone to earn in the hants/surrey border, just passed aged 26, c+e, dont mind days/nights/weekends/tramping whatever it takes I’m free n single and wana earn while I can!
£7.5 ph
What are you basing that on?
sprouty:
What are you basing that on?
REALITY
animal:
sprouty:
What sort of wage would you expect someone to earn in the hants/surrey border, just passed aged 26, c+e, dont mind days/nights/weekends/tramping whatever it takes I’m free n single and wana earn while I can!£7.5 ph
If you can get more than that it’s a bonus. But that is the reality of LGV driver’s wages these days (no matter where you are in the country)
Here in the North Manchester / Bolton / Wigan / Rochdale area, the Agencies have been paying me about £6.30 per hour for vans, £6.50 to £6.75 per hour for 7.5 ton and between £7 to £7.50 per hour for Class 2.
I dont know any C&E agency drivers, but my Brother In Law has been C&E permanent for 40 years and he gets about £18000 per year working nights trunking where he always does a trailer swap Stafford to Bolton and back.
Thats in the region of £8.60 per hour but of course there are paid holidays on top of the wage. Oh and of course there is sick pay as well.
Thats something to think about when working for agencies - or is it? I dont really know as I havent had it explained to me!
I done some research last night nd found the standard wages round the Surrey area range from £7.50 doing days Class2 upto £10, and then £10-£18 ph class1 early starts for c+e. CAnt wait to pass my ■■■■■■■ tests!
LandyLad:
Here in the North Manchester / Bolton / Wigan / Rochdale area, the Agencies have been paying me about £6.30 per hour for vans, £6.50 to £6.75 per hour for 7.5 ton and between £7 to £7.50 per hour for Class 2.
I dont know any C&E agency drivers, but my Brother In Law has been C&E permanent for 40 years and he gets about £18000 per year working nights trunking where he always does a trailer swap Stafford to Bolton and back.
Thats in the region of £8.60 per hour but of course there are paid holidays on top of the wage. Oh and of course there is sick pay as well.Thats something to think about when working for agencies - or is it? I dont really know as I havent had it explained to me!
The rules for agency changed last year there is thread on here abut it
But your Brother - in - Law could be on an old contract but seems about right although if you take off NI & tax then divide by the working week oh & then poss a little for working night
Ask your agency what they pay might give you an idea
Not sure where some people are getting the high wages from maybe in the 80’s but not any more
sprouty:
I done some research last night nd found the standard wages round the Surrey area range from £7.50 doing days Class2 upto £10, and then £10-£18 ph class1 early starts for c+e. CAnt wait to pass my [zb] tests!
really I wish you luck then as when it comes down to it it may not be quite like that but then you are in Surrey