So 26000 grand and less hours who or what makes up the rest ,are the trucks being rested or are the drivers being/going to pushed harder not to say anything about hols,never look a gift horse in the mounth. 
at the risk of being a target for various people⌠i left rh freight in nottingham to work for acc (co-op) in alfreton. i was earning up to £550 take home on rh, working like a dog for it though, stripping tilts/ 16 hr days and still not enough/ 5 nights out on uk/ 3 weeks on european. crap parking facilities. crap food. traffic from zb till zb⌠im now on a salary at acc of 25960 for 52hrs per week. yes its night trunking. yes i work some sat and sun nights (not all of them whatever you might think) i no longer have to worry about parking for the night, being an unpaid nightwatchman, the hardest part of my job now is opening the fridge doors. we get weekly printouts showing how many hours weve worked and i havent done more than 45 yet. dont knock the job if you havent done it 
and while i`m off on one! isnt this topic about cheap labour?
Also one thing to consider is that any of us might sell our overpriced house here, buy one for less than half the money in one of these cheap places, and work for a UK, or Dutch French German or whatever firm, in a paid for gaff in Poland or somewhere! In fact, if her indoors would wear ir, (which she wont, Id be seriously considering it even if only to rid meself of this over-regulated crap here. Transylvania looks spacious and pretty, whats the betting a small farm there would come for 90 grand! 
Mal.
JONBOY@RH:
at the risk of being a target for various people⌠i left rh freight in nottingham to work for acc (co-op) in alfreton. i was earning up to £550 take home on rh, working like a dog for it though, stripping tilts/ 16 hr days and still not enough/ 5 nights out on uk/ 3 weeks on european. crap parking facilities. crap food. traffic from zb till zb⌠im now on a salary at acc of 25960 for 52hrs per week. yes its night trunking. yes i work some sat and sun nights (not all of them whatever you might think) i no longer have to worry about parking for the night, being an unpaid nightwatchman, the hardest part of my job now is opening the fridge doors. we get weekly printouts showing how many hours weve worked and i havent done more than 45 yet. dont knock the job if you havent done it
hi m8 we are not knocking your job or anyoneâs, we would love to do 45hrs or less with a good wage. all we are saying is that there wonât be many companies that will give 18 or 27% payrises. i salute your companies for having the gutts to do this. how many weekends do you do per month 
muckles i would never say go back to the old days 6 in a room stinking me snoring once discribed X a pig and a2 stroke what i was trying to say was apart from the motors we havent come very far we are still saying thesame things we were saying 28 years ago about pay and conditions but having to work w ends and longer hrs just my opinion without modern trucks and tauts the jobs worse now
Mal;
âsell our overpriced house here, buy one for less than half the money in one of these cheap places, and work for a UK, or Dutch French German or whatever firmâ
Thatâs exactly what Iâve done. I got fed up with paying high taxes, being over-regulated, paying for dole cheats and all the rest of it. I donât care if itâs not politically correct to say so. I sold up, moved to Brasil. Our apartment on the seafront cost 16grand. Weâve bought a 3-hectare coconut plantation on the nearby lagoon for the same money. A huge dairy farm here would cost around 25 grand. There are plenty for sale. The temperature never drops below 25 degrees. An ice-cold beer is 40p. A blowout seafood meal a fiver. Paradise.
I drive a Jeep that cost me 1500quid. I work 16 weeks a year in England.
AND SHE WANTS TO MOVE TO LONDON BECAUSE THE SHOPPING IS BETTER!!! AAAAAARGH!!!
peter la my question would be if its paradise why come back or is it the tax rebates healthcare or 400 to 500 pounds a week wages here how much can you earn in brazil a week i pay tax and ni EVERY WEEK just sitting on my fat zb moaning
Bigron: Thereâs no such place as Paradise, I have to admit. Have a look at
www.visitealagoas.com.br for an idea.
I love it in the tropics, itâs a wonderful lifestyle, but I miss the rain, the snow, the traffic, the high taxes, the cones hotline, fivelive, paying 40 quid a ticket for the footie; you know how it is.
Naah seriously my wifeâs two kids are nearing 18, so if we donât move back to the UK soon they wonât be entitled to British residency or be able to go to University, and Ivâe managed to get them permanent settlement visas, and my folks are getting on, and anyway, you canât play golf in Brasil.
So weâre going to give the UK a go for three years. If it doesnât work, weâll move back.
In terms of earnings, I understand an employed Brazilian trucker earns around 250 quid a month. Self-employed guys quite a bit more, but they certainly work for it. A run from here where I live to Argentina, for example, is about 6000 kms each way. Bandits, potholes, bent coppers and insane drivers all the way there and back. I rather fancy the M25.
fair play peter i was trying to sarcastic guess im losing my touch good luck
Like youâve said, equal rights and all that to drivers. was chatting to someone about this the other week and was told that the government is actually looking at paying for asylum seekers to take there class 2 & 1 and provide the necessary language skills training too to try and bridge the shortfall of drivers in the UK.
Sorry, no disrespect to any person trying to flee a poverished or dangerous country or trying to provide a better life for their families and this is by no means a racial thing but how about we try recruiting people who are struggling to find work to make ends meet and who actually want to get into the transport industry who already reside in this country?
Also, the dangerously high figures of traffic accidents in the EU concerning lorries, how do they compare to over here? Anyone know?
could`,nt agree more,there are kids coming up to and some about 21 who know the inside and outside of trucking who would love to get there hgv paid for. 
Sounds about right for this countryâŚalthough firms have been doing it for a while now - and some of the big movers and shakers in the industry. One - who shall remain nameless in this forum (though youâll probably guess) - not only uses Estonian traction to pull itâs trailers throughout Europe and beyond but has recently started using them on UK internal work and also has them crewing their own UK registered motors when needed - and whilst theyâre supposedly on their weekly rest! Thin end of the wedge springs to mind!
ive already named and shamed rh chef....... read my previous posts mate and youll see how much of a fan i am. wish i`d left years ago instead of two months ago. you have PM. jon
I used to work in IT and have seen what bringing low cost labour in to the uk market can do.Wages drop by 50% and you are asked reaplly for your job.
The goverment thinks it is doing every one a favour but all it is doing is putting everyone on the dole. So all i will say is watch and shot coz it may get a lot worse if this lot stay in.I hope that this industry can sort it out as this is my dream to be a trucker
In terms of standards, I refer everyone to the article in this months T&D. Not exactly a bright vision of the future
Jules
Hi everybody,
I have been reading these forums now for months, but have only just joined the club! I donât think that Britain is short of qualified drivers, however ,I do think that due to the long hours, low pay and poor conditions, they are all out there somewhere, doing something else for better wages in a better working environment. If the government was at all concerned about the âdriver shortageâ, they would take the appropiate measures to attract those that have left the industry to return, and those that are already in, to stay.
That way, we wouldânt need to employ cheap labour and at the same time be able to maintain a high level of professionalism within the haulage industry 
TTFN, JOCTEN.
Welcome to TruckNetUK jocten⌠,
But why take so long to join in the mad house??.. LOL
Welcome to TruckNet, Jocten.
What you say is absolutely spot on.
If the social status and wage levels for commercial drivers were raised to the level that they should be, the so called âdriver shortageâ would be wiped out at a stroke.