Personally any more than 35 would be too much.
as many as you can stay awake for,assuming its worth your while… 
Too many hours are needed in far too many jobs now to make a decent wage.
Unfortunately, too many drivers see 60+ as ‘proper trucker’ territory, whereas I’d see that as ‘proper idiot’ territory. However, each to their own!
Run my hrs each day no more than 70 hrs working / driving over 7 days. Livin the dream $$$$
This seems to be a long running argument. The fact remains that in the real world of the average working class man, 40 hours a week doesn’t usually bring with it a living wage. I know some on here are on good numbers and don’t have to work the silly hours, but those jobs are few and far between. And good luck to them, as for the rest of us…
For example I work as a shunter driver and get paid monthly, my months pay for working my bullocks off for four 12 hour shifts and four days off shift pattern was 1360, flat rate of £9.22 an hour days, £10 ph nights no overtime as there wasn’t any.
Out of that I have to drive there and back every day so that’s £50 a week fuel every week, then dinner, then you suddenly realise that your broke, I’m home every night and get four days off every week but no money to do anything with the time.
The loaders and the tippers in the factory are paid a lot less than me, so they are regularly working most of their four days off banging in 72 hours and not even taking home £400.
I live in the north east of England and that’s just the way it is for the working man and woman.
yes agency sometimes pay better rates but most drivers don’t like the lottery of the work you get, or don’t get.
so what to do? Well I’m leaving my job and going back on the road tramping, and probably working 60 or 70 hours a week, that’s what I have to do, and most drivers do as well to give their families (not the driver in particular) a decent standard of living in this current climate.
For those that think the grass is greener doing anything but truck driving, for the vast majority its not, just look at the headlines lately, working class people on their 40 hour or zero hour contracts living below the bread line, using food banks.
do I think truckers should be getting better pay for the work we do…hell yeah, but the reality is most haulage firms would go bust if they had to pay us what we want (and deserve).
so at the moment the job is what it is…
Juddian:
48 hours should pay a wage that most people can live comfortably on, anything over should be by choice, 60 should put one well into the higher tax bracket and 70 should see one grossing £45/50k excluding subsistence/ex’s for those who want for a variety of reasons to earn high.No reason that people shouldn’t be allowed to work 70 hours if they want, but it should be for serious wedge, not a normal weeks pay.
I see where you are coming from, however with respect your figures are a little high.
60+ hrs a week and 4/5 nights out and £450 net is what some drivers would consider good money, it’s not, it’s what I would expect for 50hrs.
Some sectors require the driver to do longer hours than others, it’s whatever the individual feels comfortable with, I personally enjoy my work because I can spend as little time possible doing it.
A culture of long hours is corrosive, the work life balance goes out the window the weeks the months and the years fly by and you miss out on so much, you can earn all you like but you can’t buy time at any price.
Ideally myself I would like to see an end to p.o.a and a maximum of 50 hrs a week, my contracted hours are 42.5 if I don’t want anymore I dont have to do it, I can take the 5th day off if I choose, but then again I’m not a real lorry driver, thankfully.
Juddian:
48 hours should pay a wage that most people can live comfortably on, anything over should be by choice, 60 should put one well into the higher tax bracket and 70 should see one grossing £45/50k excluding subsistence/ex’s for those who want for a variety of reasons to earn high.No reason that people shouldn’t be allowed to work 70 hours if they want, but it should be for serious wedge, not a normal weeks pay.
40% tax band starts at £31,866 these days.
I lad I know Max’s out his hours each week with 4 or 5 nights out,I average 55 hour and occasional night out for the same take home as him.
He tries to justify it by saying I’m not doing long distance and he is a proper trucker because he is away all week.
His logic baffles me.
Shabba ranks
Fatboy slimslow:
4 on 4 off,twelve hour shifts,
£48,000 a year!
NO OVERTIME
as it gives it in the first line!
4 on 4 OFF
Whats that doing ? Any nights out etc ?
31800 or whatever it is plus whatever your tax code says you can make tax free is the starting point for 40% tax, so about 41k before you start paying 40% for most people
Also, it’s only any amount over that 40 odd k that gets taxed at 40%
How many hours you do depends on your circumstances . When I first started I did 70 - 80 hrs and 3 or 4 nights out !! ( I can hardly believe it now ) , then as I things got easier by making that sort of money and the mortgage gets lower the kids grow up I have reduced over the years to 45 hrs max now . I think the thing to remember is don’t live up to that money for ever , im sick of seeing guys at our place earning 45k every year for ten years then say they cant afford to drop their wages or hours !!!
Basically do what you NEED to do for as LONG as you need to do it.
Theshrew:
LIBERTY_GUY:
Seventy hours week is max I would want to do, but 60 hours gives the quality of life I would want. Screw the numpties in Brussels and their stupid working week limits.I like the way you mention 60 - 70hrs per week and quality of life in the same sentance
Work - sleep - work - sleep - work - sleep. Sounds like your living the dream.
Each to there own and all that if thats what you enjoy good luck to you.
It is the difference between living in a nice country village or some inner city scuthole and it suits me just fine to live a rural life…
cab rat:
How many hours you do depends on your circumstances . When I first started I did 70 - 80 hrs and 3 or 4 nights out !! ( I can hardly believe it now ) , then as I things got easier by making that sort of money and the mortgage gets lower the kids grow up I have reduced over the years to 45 hrs max now . I think the thing to remember is don’t live up to that money for ever , im sick of seeing guys at our place earning 45k every year for ten years then say they cant afford to drop their wages or hours !!!
Basically do what you NEED to do for as LONG as you need to do it.
+1.
Seen it where i worked before.
We’re bloody lorry drivers not footballers or celebs, yes we need to earn when we have youngsters and big mortgages to pay, but the sensible manage their money and pay houses off early so they can steady up in later life.
alix776:
Juddian:
48 hours should pay a wage that most people can live comfortably on, anything over should be by choice, 60 should put one well into the higher tax bracket and 70 should see one grossing £45/50k excluding subsistence/ex’s for those who want for a variety of reasons to earn high.No reason that people shouldn’t be allowed to work 70 hours if they want, but it should be for serious wedge, not a normal weeks pay.
Dam that’s the funniest thing I’ve read all year. Keep dreaming. For those wages think about how far inflation would go up
Some seem to think that because they spent 2k passing a test that took probably a week or two of their life that they should earn the same as someone who spent probably 7 years longer in education/uni and ran up 20k costs. The day lorry drivers are paid 50k a year is the day that most of those driving now will be unemployed as the employers will have better choice
Santa:
Juddian:
48 hours should pay a wage that most people can live comfortably on, anything over should be by choice, 60 should put one well into the higher tax bracket and 70 should see one grossing £45/50k excluding subsistence/ex’s for those who want for a variety of reasons to earn high.No reason that people shouldn’t be allowed to work 70 hours if they want, but it should be for serious wedge, not a normal weeks pay.
40% tax band starts at £31,866 these days.
Exactly so - with a Personal Allowance of £10k, a gross salary of £45k is only just nibbling into the higher tax band anyway. So if 70 hrs/week puts you on £45-50k, 60 hrs/week isn’t going to put you into the higher tax band at all…
Payslip here…
did 62 hrs,3 nights out, Net pay is £656.80. Very steady weekend,I do weds-sun. No rush,no stress from office.Suits me.
Santa:
Juddian:
48 hours should pay a wage that most people can live comfortably on, anything over should be by choice, 60 should put one well into the higher tax bracket and 70 should see one grossing £45/50k excluding subsistence/ex’s for those who want for a variety of reasons to earn high.No reason that people shouldn’t be allowed to work 70 hours if they want, but it should be for serious wedge, not a normal weeks pay.
40% tax band starts at £31,866 these days.
Plus your 10k allowance, so 41,866 before you pay 40%
yorkshire terrier:
I lad I know Max’s out his hours each week with 4 or 5 nights out,I average 55 hour and occasional night out for the same take home as him.
He tries to justify it by saying I’m not doing long distance and he is a proper trucker because he is away all week.
His logic baffles me.
Unfortunately YT, it is mentalities such as your mate’s which keep thing the way they are. Sad really that him being a ‘proper trucker’ is more important than earning a decent wage for the time he puts in.
puntabrava:
alix776:
Juddian:
48 hours should pay a wage that most people can live comfortably on, anything over should be by choice, 60 should put one well into the higher tax bracket and 70 should see one grossing £45/50k excluding subsistence/ex’s for those who want for a variety of reasons to earn high.No reason that people shouldn’t be allowed to work 70 hours if they want, but it should be for serious wedge, not a normal weeks pay.
Dam that’s the funniest thing I’ve read all year. Keep dreaming. For those wages think about how far inflation would go up
Some seem to think that because they spent 2k passing a test that took probably a week or two of their life that they should earn the same as someone who spent probably 7 years longer in education/uni and ran up 20k costs. The day lorry drivers are paid 50k a year is the day that most of those driving now will be unemployed as the employers will have better choice
God help us all with people like you dragging us down. Anyone who spent 7 years and 20k are most probably earning a dam sight more than 50k a year. If not, then they’re stupid. If I were daft enough to work 70 hours + I’d be earning in excess of 60k. Hey, but I’m just a dumb ■■■ lorry driver who knows ■■■■ all.