all right guys n gals
Am just wondering about your views on jobs that pay you on commision? and what have your experiences of this been?
I am just thinking about taking a job doing haib work, mainly cabins and containers but the wage seems a little low, its based in Leicestershire, decent kit, the boss seems right enough, but its just this commision stuff that worrys me.
any thoughts on this would be great.
taa
Is it a basic wage and then a certain amount per box or per mile?
Can you live even at a push on the basic rate?
Sorry should of put that really… its a basic off 300 and then %17 of what the truck earns? bear in mind this is hiab work, or does that make no difference?
I thought that was illegal now. and why would you do it your not looking for the work, boss man is if he doesn’t find it you have more to loose he just parks his lorry up.
Illegal? mmm interesting that… i could live on the basic… just… its more an experience thing but im thinking now maybe not worth it… just had a butchers on jc and basic wages are a bit more than that for this area so ill carry on looking for now i think lol.
I just thought they could not pay you a low basic and then a percentage because it could encourage you to just squeeze one more load in or put a magnet on, I just remember reading something years ago, I am sure if I am wrong I am about to find out.
I think the whole subject is a bit of a minefield. I know the law says along the lines of…employers should not offer bonusses or comissions that encourage law breaking or summat similar but that as far as it goes, it does not say you cannot offer bonus etc for legally do able work…
There is/are plenty of companies that do offer such conditions. As long as you can realistically meet your targets legally then thats all their requirement is.
been there done that the percentage thing its ok if you trust your gaffer but you dont know what the rates are ,so you have no idea what the trucks earning, personally id stay well clear
Don’t think it will be illegal as Frontier Agriculture pay their bulker drivers a salary of about £17000 and then they get 7% of every load they do. They are renowned for running everything 100% legal so I’m sure it must be ok but it’s not something I would fancy.
excellent way to do the job. if it’s quiet you get a basic, and your boss isn’t too worried, but when it’s busy you get cracking and coin it in.
in the winter you’ll just plod along, but in the summer you may be pulling £1000+ clear.
the only way this could be illegal would be if you were on such a low percentage, that you’d have to work all hours to get a basic wage, then you’d have to run bent to get a decent living wage. this dosn’t appear to be the case.
it’s been mentioned about the bosses honesty, and you wouldn’t know the rates. so just ask him “17% of what? as 17% of [zb] all dosn’t feed the goat”.
he won’t mind. and if he does, then he’s got something to hide.
limeyphil:
excellent way to do the job. if it’s quiet you get a basic, and your boss isn’t too worried, but when it’s busy you get cracking and coin it in.
in the winter you’ll just plod along, but in the summer you may be pulling £1000+ clear.
the only way this could be illegal would be if you were on such a low percentage, that you’d have to work all hours to get a basic wage, then you’d have to run bent to get a decent living wage. this dosn’t appear to be the case.
it’s been mentioned about the bosses honesty, and you wouldn’t know the rates. so just ask him “17% of what? as 17% of [zb] all dosn’t feed the goat”.
he won’t mind. and if he does, then he’s got something to hide.
Im not against these schemes, however solely by the fact the OP is asking such a question makes me think the alarm bells are already ringing in his head. IF hes not comfortable with earnings being base on this setup … walk away
XFmatt is almost right - its 17.5k plus 7.5% and most of their drivers earn over 30k without too much effort
Mike-C:
I think the whole subject is a bit of a minefield. I know the law says along the lines of…employers should not offer bonusses or comissions that encourage law breaking or summat similar but that as far as it goes, it does not say you cannot offer bonus etc for legally do able work…
There is/are plenty of companies that do offer such conditions. As long as you can realistically meet your targets legally then thats all their requirement is.
What about where I work? Load bonus gets taken away for speeding. Apparently makes it legal.
I’d steer clear of any commission based jobs unless I was a sales rep’.
when i use to work on percentage we use to get a print out of what each job was worth before vat and that’s what our percentages were worked out from,
at the time it was a basic of £280 a week plus 25% of trucks earnings. but that was over 15 yrs ago now. earned bloody good money as a new driver back then.
they then stopped giving us a print out because one fell into the hands of a rival, but we were able to go into our office and ask to see the jobs off the computers in the office if we were not happy about any rates so was never a problem 
I’ve been on a few percentage jobs, the last percentage job was the best. £420 basic, then 10% of earnings between £1000-£2000 gross, and 20% off earnings above £2000 gross. that was a tidy earner.
But keep a diary and write down every job and its value, then cross check when you do a job more than once, and be prepared to refuse jobs that were not worth while last time, it ruffle feathers a few times til the penny drops.
One place I worked many years ago on 21%, the boss would try and fiddle your rates if the mpg wasnt very good. with a diary I would ring and say X job normally pays £250 and this week its £225, and Y job is short aswell. and then it would either get altered back or the following weeks rates might have a mysterious extra payment.
On the whole though I found them to be ok. as long as your cash goes in the bank does it matter how you accrue it 
I think on work like that it’s quite a good idea, where there’s likely to be quite a lot of direct interaction with the customer, or their representative, on site. A driver with a can do attitude is likely to retain or win more work for the company.
I can see how a firm that aren’t straight as an arrow could exploit it to their advantage though so need caution.