deckboypeggy:
newmercman,god who were you on for doing fridges at that rate and what work was that … not one of the well known companies, or else we would have all been working there ,was it a owner drivers second motor,you lucky man… that with night allowance included…
That was Solstor, it was rumored to be the best paying job on the continent. We had quite a few ex ACH lads on there and their wages weren’t too bad, so that says a lot about how well we were paid.
We earned every penny though, trust me, there was no hanging around once we had a load on.
deckboypeggy:
newmercman,god who were you on for doing fridges at that rate and what work was that … not one of the well known companies, or else we would have all been working there ,was it a owner drivers second motor,you lucky man… that with night allowance included…
That was Solstor, it was rumored to be the best paying job on the continent. We had quite a few ex ACH lads on there and their wages weren’t too bad, so that says a lot about how well we were paid.
We earned every penny though, trust me, there was no hanging around once we had a load on.
When doing the fruit & veg in the 90’s used to chat to a few solstor boys when I was reloading back for Scotland,I can confirm they were on good money,used to meet them when loading back off wheatagrove,rodanto,the wheatagrove boys we’re on quite good money too…there was also a solstor wagon that used to reload fish out of bellshill for b/gate for awhile in the 90’s.good lad bluey was his name…what I class as the good old days
This got me thinking so I dug out my last wage slips from back in 1995 which is the year I took voluntary retirement and moved to Thailand.
I was driving for a firm called Ridgeway International which specialised in the carriage of explosives. I was salaried which was somewhat unusual in the transport game. My monthly salary in 95 was 1,729 quid a month plus night out money (overseas rate higher than UK rate) plus weekend money (again o/s rate higher than UK rate) plus early start money if you started from the yard before 7 a.m.
So averaged out that equates to 399 quid a week basic pay plus all the extras.
It was such a good job that it was the only reason I didn’t give it all up and move to Thailand earlier!!
The bigger money jobs were always either specialised or own account. That applied to Solstor in those days as its sole purpose was to get fruit and veg home for the parent company.
They picked up some export traffic to help lower transport costs and being that the parent company was itself a multi million pound concern, they didn’t go knocking on freight forwarders doors and we worked for some very high profile customers.
The job I had before was well paid and I had a new lorry, if graham1970 is who I think he is, he will know the lorry very well, anyway it was a good job, but a proper old fashioned transport firm.
In contrast Solstor was a different world, I had a card for everything, including a company Visa and money was no object, if we needed it for the job we got it and whatever we got was the best there was, except the lorries, flat top 113s and F12s, although there was one F12 Globetrotter. They did get a fleet of LHD 143s, but I had left by then to start on my own.
The strange thing about Solstor was that even though it was a London company, apart from the UK boys, there were only two Londoners on there, myself and BA (bad attitude) Dave, the rest of them were either ex ACH or old fridge men from all over the country.
Newmercan yes you are correct about the big money ,v mostly own account…i actually did start for SOLSTORE FROM .ACH 1998-ISH ,I DID NOT FIT IN, iwas used to my own unit i did a couple of carrot runs… however i met and run with a lot of the lad,s not one bad one, all good men…this still does not answer my question =in the 1979/80 drivers strike what was the ammount per hour we were striking for,£5 or£1 per hour…
deckboypeggy:
Newmercan yes you are correct about the big money ,v mostly own account…i actually did start for SOLSTORE FROM .ACH 1998-ISH ,I DID NOT FIT IN, iwas used to my own unit i did a couple of carrot runs… however i met and run with a lot of the lad,s not one bad one, all good men…this still does not answer my question =in the 1979/80 drivers strike what was the ammount per hour we were striking for,£5 or£1 per hour…
dby it would have been £1.00 as I was on Bewick’s from 1976 to 1986
DBP if it was £5per hour that would be £200-00 for 40 hours and most people worked around 60 hours with 20 at time and a half that equals 70 hours paid which is £350-00 pounds a week plus expenses which works out at around £17,500-00 a year and you could buy a house for a lot less than that around 79/80.
It was after the strike and pay rise that I first moved up into the next tax bracket and I was earning around the same as a M P around six and a half to seven thousand a year which was quite good money and I would say that it would be the very late 80s but most likely the 90s before £5 per hour was the norm as I was on own account work then so I am unable to remember the haulage rates.
cheers Johnnie
Mid to late 70’s (pre strike) I was driving an Atki borderer 180 gardiner for Bobby Durham of Tees-side Our basic wage was £1/hr but we had a bonus scheme where we were paid 1hr for every 25 mile and 2.5 hrs for every drop and pick up. This meant that if you travelled 200 mile and rattled off 6 drops you made 8 hrs for mileage, 9 hrs for drops, so you made 17 hrs for that day. Assuming a 12 hr day you got 8HRS @£1 4 HRS@1.50 and the 5 bonus hours @ £1. This gave you £19 for the day plus night out money. It does not seem like a lot these days ,but at the time it was a good wage. When the strike came in 1979 the basic went up from £40 to £46 but the bonus scheme was changed ,so we were not much better off.
YESsammyopisite the more i think ,you are right it now seems so daft that we had all that time on strike for a pound.
i never earned big money, always just enough. i notice not a lot of the regular contributors have had a contribution …like me they probably want to forget…the wages some paid and received.
In 1989 I was newly married and still working on farms(which I had done since leaving school) and was on £92 a week,however, I had saved enough (£500) to sit my Class 1 and managed to get a job with a small haulier doing fridge work.It was meant to be Scotland to London markets then re-load Paddock Wood back up but 2 days before I started I was asked if I had a passport because there had been a change of plan and I would be double manning to Rungis then Lyon .Pay attention I was told because you won’t have a nurse maid with you for long ,anyway,got my first wage slip a week later–£375!!!,kerching ,the other thing is tho’,£500 to get my Class 1(proper licence,none of this c+e malarkey)how much does THAT cost nowadays
Dan Punchard:
I am 1 off 5 and my mum didn’t work ,I remember my dad saying it cost £600 per week to run this house ,21 rooms he used to go mad when he came home to all the lights on ! I think my mum was burning more coal than the CGB ,At this time he had a marathan ( late 80s ) earning £500 per day he deserved every penny .
Cannot say I ever remember rates at £500 per day back in the 80s…
I’ll have a look one day for old invoices but 2 loads of stone at £5.50 tonne and 2 loads of scrap back at £5 per tonne ,or 1 stone 1 scrap 1 sand but £2 for every tonne of scrap loaded by our machine .and port talbot was as much then as it is now !
basic wage 30 a day plus 2 pound aload after 5 loads foot to floor all day on muckaway .
sat morning was payed in the hand. old scam 8 wheelers most of time overloaded . was young carefree
happy to work hard
We used to get £2-50 an hour on muck jobs with D800s and then on demo ■■■■■■■■ half of what contractor got per load.This was early 70s - 80s.You could get a driver for £10 a day then.
Hi all I drove for td Williams in 91 I drove this iveco I was on £200 a week plus £10 night out a boy started with us he had a Scania he took home less money when he asked how I was on more I explained if you wanted a new truck you took home less money drive an old truck you got paid more that was Tommy for you
when i left school in 1990 i went straight to work with my old man for a few weeks(i was waiting for my apprenticeship to start)
i was getting £55 a day,working bloody hard though.when i started as an apprentice bricklayer later that year,(this is when brickies were on serious money back then) i was getting the grand total of £29.50 a week FFS!!! (“you must learn a trade”…)on a CITB/YTS scheme…(although to be fair to the builder i was placed with on the scheme he used to more than double my money when i was actually on site and not “learning” in college).
Destination Doha from 1977 and Sailor the documentry about the old Arc Royal also from about the same period.
Destination Doha mentions the drivers are doing it for £8,000 a year which got me wondering if they got night out on on top of that.
Reason I ask is in 1979 they did a follow up after two years a sort of where are they now of the Arc’s crew.
The Captian was just about to be promoted to Rear Admiral and his wages increased to £12,000 a year less £1000 a year rent fior his admirals house if he wanted it.
That got me thinking if the Astrans boys got night out and expences they wouldn’t be far off a Rear Admirakls wage.
Not bad going.
Soldier z:
Just been on Youtube watching a couple of videos
Destination Doha from 1977 and Sailor the documentry about the old Arc Royal also from about the same period.
Destination Doha mentions the drivers are doing it for £8,000 a year which got me wondering if they got night out on on top of that.
Reason I ask is in 1979 they did a follow up after two years a sort of where are they now of the Arc’s crew.
The Captian was just about to be promoted to Rear Admiral and his wages increased to £12,000 a year less £1000 a year rent fior his admirals house if he wanted it.
That got me thinking if the Astrans boys got night out and expences they wouldn’t be far off a Rear Admirakls wage.
Not bad going.
Don’t know for certain, but I reckon it was rolled into the £8000, and as I understand it, it was trip money, if you got a good turn around without a lot off border hold ups or breakdowns etc, or if you had the trip from hell ,where every thing went against you that, it was still the same money regardless. So one trip could be a fantastic earner, as a daily rate, whilst the next might have you wondering wether the hassle was worth it(maybe twice as long for the same money). But I didn’t do it so its only what I’ve heard off others
tippertom:
basic wage 30 a day plus 2 pound aload after 5 loads foot to floor all day on muckaway .
sat morning was payed in the hand. old scam 8 wheelers most of time overloaded . was young carefree
happy to work hard
someone as perfect as you driving an overloaded old tipper?
.Pay attention I was told because you won’t have a nurse maid with you for long 
,anyway,got my first wage slip a week later–£375!!!,kerching 
