Morning all,
I am wondering if there is any sort of support for the idea of a dedicated Commercal Driver’s Union/Truckers Union, dedicated purely to drivers of Trucks and other vehicles which have a statutory requirement for a specific licence and/or ongoing training such as the driver’s CPC arrangements? Alternatively, is there anyone out there trying to get such a Union off the ground?
I have now been driving 7.5t for 20+ years, class C for 2 years, and am about to take the C+E test. I have worked for both direct employers and for Agencies, am based in the Southeast and currently driving nights on Class C. It is a struggle to find a job paying more than £22k before tax, not because of a lack of jobs, but because the rates have been pretty static for years and in real terms have been eroded for years. It is not unusual to see HGV driving jobs advertised for little more than minimum wage rates.
The average annual salary for all workers in the UK in 2011 was approx £16.95 P/HR. The average for class C Drivers is currently between about £6.80/£10 P/HR and C+E between about £7/£15 P/HR. Although Both classes pay some premium for carrying hazardous materials, and so they should, both are generally below or only just achieving average earnings levels despite the fact that HGV driving is an essential skilled job with unsociable hours, little or no scope for overtime because of driving hours and WTD regulation, and a statutory requirement for ongoing CPC training which, whilst a good idea from a safety and skills standpoint, must often be completed at the expense of the driver. The tanker drivers currently in dispute were described last week as the highest paid drivers in the country with the best benefits available in the industry, and are allegedly earning “up to” £45k a year. This figure is bandied around as if it is a huge amount of money, which it isn’t when you consider the fact that they are in fact transporting a large bomb.
It seems to me about time some sort of minimum hourly rate was established for Truckers, adjustable according to experience and qualification, and at a level set to reflect all the issues above. At the end of the day, if no trucks ran the country would grind to a halt in hours, so it would be a very powerful lobby indeed. I may be missing something, and I am far from a militant by any standard, but it seems most drivers I talk to are fed up with feeling unappreciated and dramatically under rewarded and might support some move down the Union route if it were specifically for them and not part of, say, TGWU or UNITE or similar.
Any thoughts?
Cheers Chaps.
