interested too know who gets what compared too class 1 or 2 ,im currently on 20k for city of london dray work class 2 5am till fin usually home indoors by 2pm each day so my hourly rate is not bad for class essex based ,i know some class 1 dont even earn this near me for 50 hours .over too you with your inputs and thoughts please state hours worked etc and region
I’m on £10.50ish, with 4am start and usually home by 12:00. We do get London Allowance and Bank Hols payments as its a 7 day a week job with rotating shift patterns. The hourly rate isn’t bad but the employer demands more and more each day. If you happen to be out and about after 12:30 you’re on your own time as there is no overtime. Our pay rate is worked out on a straight 43 hour week.
Paul-H:
there is no overtime. Our pay rate is worked out on a straight 43 hour week.
I was going to ask if this meant that you ‘pushed’ the speed limits etc but as you are in the London area where the average speed is just above zero then it’s probably a daft question 
When i do class 2 at our place it’s 9,25hr… get paid for what you do. quite good really.
Rog, our delivery area is around Surrey, Berks, Hants etc. Don’t go anywhere near London since they took away the route that I originaly did. The answer to your question is they want the deliveries done on time, and some drivers do ‘push’ the speed and tacho break times to achieve this. I for one don’t, if I can’t deliver within the 7.5 hours then it goes back. I used(when I was on probation) to do ‘silly’ things to get the deliveries done but not anymore. Lets just say that I learned by my mistakes. Its my license and I have no plans to loose it. If you want the low down PM me.
Paul-H:
The answer to your question is they want the deliveries done on time, and some drivers do ‘push’ the speed and tacho break times to achieve this. I for one don’t, if I can’t deliver within the 7.5 hours then it goes back. I used(when I was on probation) to do ‘silly’ things to get the deliveries done but not anymore. Lets just say that I learned by my mistakes. Its my license and I have no plans to loose it.
A person I know did exactly that same as you describe he is called ROG 
The main thing is to make sure that we learn from our mistakes and NOT to repeat them. I for one refuse to work for nothing and if it can’t be done in the allocated time then it can’t be done. The contract says that we ‘sometimes’ have to do a bit above and beyond but the way I see it is that the routes should be scoped out to allow for breaks, trafic & contingency time should be factored into them just to be on the safe side. Instead someone promisses a delivery by cretain time without actually realising that the driver will have to break the rules do achieve this and then they expect you to do this all the time.
im on £22,000 with £2 a day taxfree meal allowance so its almost £25,500 im salaryed and take home the same amount every week,for that i do class 2 adr nights startin at 5.30 pm til i finish,average workin week is beetween 33 and 38 hours,some nights im in the house by ten other nights im in at 2-3 a.m. since i started the most hours ive done is 44 1/2.ot on sat night £14 ot sun night £13.all in all ive got a good job,but can be very physical.
I’m currently driving a 12 tonner, working Monday to Friday 0800-1730; the standard pay was £8.42 per hour but we’ve all taken a 10% pay-cut (temporary for three months) to save the firm making any job cuts, so I’m now on £7.58 per hour, I think it is, although I can’t quite remember, it’s late and I don’t have a payslip to hand.
i’m on 7.19 /hr with a £30 weekly attendance bonus so its about 8.00 all said and done. not bad but then again not good. but if i want experience then hey ho its what yuo do. and lets face it it is better than the dole. 
get 9 squid per hour. pants really 
This is what I call laughable, we drive lorries from 18 to 44T at all times of the day & night which involves a lot of responsibility and get paid peanuts for doing so. Yet someone stacking shelves during the evening/night at a major supermarket can get almost double that without any responsibility. Surely there’s something wrong with that somewhere. Or am I missing something here. I used to get £7.36 driving a Sprinter for Sainsburys.
Paul-H:
Or am I missing something here.
Yes - supply and demand - when there are more LGV jobs than drivers things wil be different but until then…
Im on £10.60odd an hour including night rate and London waiting allowance, usually take home about £500ish a week - not bad I think
Oh this is for class 1…
Were on £9.56 an hour 7am to 5pm but job and finish, overtime over 48 hours but we work Tues to Saturday so not much of a weekend!
HI,
I think that i agree that at the moment the demand for drivers is not strong enough. I have a friend in Norway who drives for BP, tanking petrol. He told me that up until the beginning of last month he was on the equivalent of 12.00 an hour. Now due to there laws re foreign workers the demand for lorry drivers has rocketed and he has just been given a 50% wage increase.
Although the comparisons are slim i think we can see that the government is slowly realising it has seriously sold the Brit down the road. I believe the economy will and has started to pick up and due to the new CPC and less foreign drivers wages will increase.
Industry needs to accept that driving lorries of any size is a professional job and if they want on time deliveries / competent drivers and ambassadors for companies they need to pay a fair wage which relates to the cost of living and cost of supporting British families.
Lorry drivers should be seen once again as knights of the road, after all if it dont get delivered it dont get sold!
I am astounded at what some people will accept as a wage, I passed cat C & HIAB just over a year ago & C+E just over a month ago, i am 46 years young and self funded, since i have been driving i have not excepted anything less than £10 HR.
I have worked through the agencies where i found you got paid what you could negotiate and for the agencies that wouldn’t negotiate rate then i didn’t go to work for them.
I know agencies like driverhire pay some Class 1 drivers £9.00 hr and are charging up to £15 hr to there client !!! non negotiable, how is that right ■■? oh yes i forgot the agency person earns commission on how much they earn there company perhaps thats the incentive to pay the driver a crappy hourly rate.
I had a brilliant & honest relationship with the agencies i did work with and i understood, like they understood that everyone had to make a living, your only as good as the deal you do on the day.
I managed to get a temp to perm position through one of the agencies i worked with so i now have a perm job which pays me £12.70 Hr + £50 a week attendance allowance for a 40 hour week Mon to Fri, its Class 2 (cat C) & i start at 07.00 and am normally in doors by 13.30 - 14.00 the latest, i work in and around Thurrock, Basildon, Dartford & Bexley which is great cause i live in Romford.
I never ever believed the hype about " more jobs than drivers " but i was confident in myself that i would and could get a decent driving job, all the driving Schools will say there are bags of jobs out there, but of course they would, there lively hood and future depends on it.
As for the new rule change today where an 18 yr old can get behind the wheel of a 44 toner i am amazed the driving industry has stayed silent, shouldn’t we be jumping up and down about this ? not because there 18 and immature and have trouble handling a Clio but because they will be sold the same old story " more jobs than drivers ",National training schools saying " give us your thousand pounds and we will train you cause there are bags of jobs out there that cant be filled, there are more jobs than drivers ".
I feel sorry for them guys, probably going to borrow the money to do the training and then not being able to get a decent job with decent money, they will learn an early lesson in there short lives, how to get proper shafted, not only by the National training school, there prospective boss but by the government too, who have, by changing the laws, encouraged these people on the assumption that there are loads of jobs, and as we know there isn’t.
After reading this post i feel lucky that i have what i have job wise, i wish all a better future in there driving careers but until drivers learn to say no to crap jobs, running bent and crap wages then we will always have the majority never having said no.
Rocketman:
training schools saying " give us your thousand pounds and we will train you cause there are bags of jobs out there that cant be filled
I just wish you had said - NATIONAL training schools
ROG:
Rocketman:
training schools saying " give us your thousand pounds and we will train you cause there are bags of jobs out there that cant be filledI just wish you had said - NATIONAL training schools
Done Rog… 
you say that the 18 year olds will get mugged off by the driving schools. but i have been a plumber for the past 8 years got laid off in march been driving ever since all my plumbing mates are still out of work but because i have my class two im earning while they are still on the dole. its not all bad in this 
game that so many of you like to moan about. all im saying is that there are many people out there that are worse off than you. spare a thought