Been Class 2 for 15 years now and been on a few agencies to fill the gaps but I can’t help noticing that pay rates havent changed on these agencies for years!!!
Its probably a long standing argument but aren’t we supposed to be ‘professional’ drivers in a ‘profession’? and surely doesn’t that warrant better pay?
I’ve just recently been into an agency that I visited over 2 years ago and ironically I’m looking at the same job but their pay rates have not budged a penny!
Its no wonder there is a shortage of drivers and I can’t help thinking these agencies are screwing the industry for their own pockets but shooting themselves in the foot through scarcity of drivers.
There is no recession, wages are reportedly on the increase but these agencies still have their heads in the sand!
It goes without saying that most employers are just as evasive with pay increases too
Ahem, my lot have just had 3%,.which followed on from last year’s 3%, think it was 2.6% the year before.
I’ve said this before, there are costs you can cut and costs you can’t. If you buy 500 Scanias then each one will be 10-15k less than I can buy my one at, but over 4 + years, it doesn’t matter. You can fuel your wagons for less than I can, but as a big firm you will never be as nimble in your operation as someone with a few. Trucks cost what they cost but they aren’t a major cost in the way that fuel and diesel are. Esso etc are not going to give you that much of a discount on fuel, you have no leverage. Wages though, you do, its the o.my cost where you are in the superior position.
Rates haven’t gone up sufficiently to pay more. Most small hauliers don’t make masses of money, certainly not for the amount of hassle we get. I had to give myself a bonus to move myself from sixth to fourth best paid. I should go and drive for myself.
Agencies are the last resort to stop you losing the roof over your head, one step up from benefits, in turn one step up from cardboard city, as such they pay just enough to keep people coming back as and when they need to, they’re just another part of the treadmill us plebs are on from birth to death to keep the system ticking over via our indoctrination then labour and constant taxation, whilst keeping the important rich and powerful.
Haven’t you noticed that despite the apparent shortage of drivers, that every year you drive the roads are stuffed with ever more lorries, the system makes sure there’s enough bodies, in your depot are there rows of lorries standing idle every morning because they can’t find anyone to drive them? answers on a postcard.
It’s never changed, it was no different on the bloody Somme or anywhere else in any other walk of life or death, those in charge have always managed to find enough (always the unimportant) people to fill the many bodies required roles they created at any moment in history, even if it was simply as cannon fodder to die for them.
There’s far too many people in the country now, not only does that mean there are too many people chasing jobs (hence supply and demand is imbalanced affecting wages) but because everything is so crowded where people are stuck in everlasting virtual corridors, either commuting from their barracks like homes to work of some sort, or if their work involves travelling like ours does then overall efficiency is reduced year on year so more of us are needed due to that overcrowding, itself an accelerating problem.
I think i know where this is heading, the virtual pyres of destruction are being built/heaped as we speak, its those who are building the pyres one should be thinking about and looking at instead of the listening to propaganda from the idiot box in the corner.
hint , exactly why would a so called right wing Conservative govt at cabinet level be so dead set against and doing their level best to sabotage Brexit with smoke and mirrors? who gains? what do they gain? who would they like to hand over to to reverse Brexit and why? when you’ve worked that lot out you’ll know who and how many your enemy is
I havent had pay rise in 4 years.yet office staff warehouse lads have due to minimum wage.get one every year.
Getting to a point now where I know drivers who are starting to think about going into office yard work. As know what time start finish. Home very night.less stress etc. And pay gap isn’t as big as it was. Which is why most of us drive was for the higher pay than other jobs.
On the plus side in about 5 years we will be on minimum wage and entitled to a yearly pay rise then
edd1974:
I havent had pay rise in 4 years.yet office staff warehouse lads have due to minimum wage.get one every year.
Getting to a point now where I know drivers who are starting to think about going into office yard work. As know what time start finish. Home very night.less stress etc. And pay gap isn’t as big as it was. Which is why most of us drive was for the higher pay than other jobs.
On the plus side in about 5 years we will be on minimum wage and entitled to a yearly pay rise then
This is just another point im noticing as well mate. A well known agency( DH) has advertised down here in the southeast £8.83 ph for Class 2…ludicrous!!!. Won’t be long before a job in Mcd’s is the same per hour as having that Certificate of PROFESSIONAL Competence (albeit ranked in skilled manual the same as plumbers, electricians etc)
edd1974:
I havent had pay rise in 4 years.yet office staff warehouse lads have due to minimum wage.get one every year.
Getting to a point now where I know drivers who are starting to think about going into office yard work. As know what time start finish. Home very night.less stress etc. And pay gap isn’t as big as it was. Which is why most of us drive was for the higher pay than other jobs.
On the plus side in about 5 years we will be on minimum wage and entitled to a yearly pay rise then
This is just another point im noticing as well mate. A well known agency( DH) has advertised down here in the southeast £8.83 ph for Class 2…ludicrous!!!. Won’t be long before a job in Mcd’s is the same per hour as having that Certificate of PROFESSIONAL Competence (albeit ranked in skilled manual the same as plumbers, electricians etc)
But there are good jobs out there - not as many as there should be,and as Juddian says, agencies are there (or should be) for the people who maybe want to do a bit of extra filling in work a couple of days a week or as a stopgap between proper jobs.
I’m in the South East, Class 1 is over £12.00 an hour, paid through breaks, overtime after 8 hours, double time sundays, and my highest paid driver grossed over 48k last year. Yes he had some mega hours in some weeks (with a lot of sitting on ferries but anything paid 12 hours out of 24), but there were weeks when he turned in 40 - 45 hours. There are people on here who are on for a decent firm, you just have to a. find the firm and b. make sure you are the kind of person a good firm would employ.
There are people on here who are on for a decent firm, you just have to a. find the firm and b. make sure you are the kind of person a good firm would employ.
Agreed, and not forgetting c, if and when you find and land that job, look after it to make sure it lasts and especially look after The most important person in the company, the customer.
I’ve had good jobs, been very lucky, but it never ceases to amaze me how so many people can’t help themselves taking the ■■■■ out of the job
ie, sickies, not looking after the often expensive specialised equipment, being uncooperative at customer’s premises and not looking after their equipment if the job is specialised, some driving around in filthy vehicles when the company provide all the equipment one could wish for to keep things clean, pulling all the stunts in the book to avoid doing any work…all this and still expect jobs that sometimes pay more than twice the normal lorry driver’s for every working hour, to last, you couldn’t invent some of these characters if you were writing a novel.
This also applies to the various layers of suits within a company too, and there is nothing more demoralising than being a lowly driver watching a previously efficient well run company ruining itself from within by overstaffing with poor quality suits and watching the job go downhill as they gradually creep their own little ideas in, bringing in the deskilling and dumbing down to logistics giant (where they came from ) levels of competence requirements from staff that do the actual work, ie teaching grannies to ■■■■ eggs, further demoralising the most reliable of the staff at the coal face by lowering the skill requirement of the job to the level of the worse fool you could drag off the street (and they do this, because thats exactly what this new management style does, it can’t help itself because that’s what it was steeped in at the logistics giant it came from) and seeing the results with their own eyes that anyone with an ounce of sense could have foretold.
Seeing all this happening and being powerless to do anything about it, knowing deep in your heart its only a matter of time till the best staff (both suits and workers) can take it no more and leave, knowing the green death or some other logistics giant cancer will end up infecting and finally killing the operation, which was previously a gem for all.
Another good job bites the dust, i’ve seen this time and again, talk about deja bloody vu.
I was flt for years for circusair servisair. Was a lad there .He got on flt he went as slow as possible. When loading a full trailer. Everything by the book. Ie seat belt on no dragging/pushing pallets across the bed .both sides open. .pallet up handbrake on look around handbrake off reverse. Once clear wagon handbreak on lower pallet to floor level. Look.aroind handbrake over reverse so slow …handbrake on pallet down then he would inspect every pallet for damage contents etc.used take him for ever to.load a trailer. He did it because he admitted he hated the job but pay was good . So he just took his time knowing can’t sack him for being safe.plus at times he used get took off loading trailers and sent to load a van bit gnereal warehouse work… Can’t fault him. But was a lazy so so wanted decent money yet to do as little as possible
Yes agencies can be a bind…but it also depends where the agency is based…i find that here in the south the majority of agencies pay more than they do in the north, yet we are all doing the same job…so just why are there discrepancies in pay rates. Personally, i have never used an agency, but am liable to in the near future as wants and needs ( when my bloody licence comes back ) and only looking for 3 days a week…to satisfy my expensive needs a holiday relief is not regular enough for me, or the odd trip here and there, but sure as hell, i will be dictating a minimum i am willing to get out of bed for, and it wont be £7.50 or £8.50 as many advertise…but then i am in a position to dictate.
truckyboy:
i find that here in the south the majority of agencies pay more than they do in the north, yet we are all doing the same job…so just why are there discrepancies in pay rates.
Cost of living. House prices are a lot of it. Move my house down to my other depot in Hertz and you’d pretty much double the value. And consumer goods, stuff in your supermarket costs more because it costs more for the shop to operate.
We have some agency drivers who have worked pretty much exclusively for us for over 10 years, but wont come onto the firm full time as they dont want to take a pay cut!
One large agancy got kicked out and another took over, all the agency drivers transferred and got a 1.50 hour pay rise, they were happy bunnies
albion:
I’m in the South East, Class 1 is over £12.00 an hour, paid through breaks, overtime after 8 hours, double time sundays, and my highest paid driver grossed over 48k last year. Yes he had some mega hours in some weeks (with a lot of sitting on ferries but anything paid 12 hours out of 24), but there were weeks when he turned in 40 - 45 hours. There are people on here who are on for a decent firm, you just have to a. find the firm and b. make sure you are the kind of person a good firm would employ.
A good business plan is very obviously on the table for those pay rates.
Our place have a similar pay rate and top spec trucks for employed drivers but for that theres experienced hard working flexible guys who go a little above and beyond just driving with little or no complaint and that includes the handball tips.
Own account work with the aggregate grading/repackaging side of it does admittedly help with rates though…
I worked for a manufacturing company on a set weekly wage. Delivering there goods. Warehouse hours was 8 to 4 30. I used start around 4 or 5 do delivers back yard job done. Usually about 2. Was all good. Then got called into office we’ve had complaints you finishing early. Said yes but start early. Was told you have to stay to 4 30 . Help in the warehouse etc if need be .can’t go home. So I said that’s means I’m doing 3 hours or so a day extra making 12 13 hours a day instead of 10. Was.told it’s ok we’re giving you a pay rise to make up for it. £5 a week I just walked out .and I not8ced lot of jobs I applied to after leaving were set day rates .forget that I waited managed find one paid hourly
, exactly why would a so called right wing Conservative govt at cabinet level be so dead set against and doing their level best to sabotage Brexit with smoke and mirrors? who gains? what do they gain? who would they like to hand over to to reverse Brexit and why? when you’ve worked that lot out you’ll know who and how many your enemy is 
) levels of competence requirements from staff that do the actual work, ie teaching grannies to ■■■■ eggs, further demoralising the most reliable of the staff at the coal face by lowering the skill requirement of the job to the level of the worse fool you could drag off the street (and they do this, because thats exactly what this new management style does, it can’t help itself because that’s what it was steeped in at the logistics giant it came from) and seeing the results with their own eyes that anyone with an ounce of sense could have foretold.
a holiday relief is not regular enough for me, or the odd trip here and there, but sure as hell, i will be dictating a minimum i am willing to get out of bed for, and it wont be £7.50 or £8.50 as many advertise…but then i am in a position to dictate.
