There will always be jobs in out of the way, lightly populated or depressed areas that don’t pay well, and jobs may be few and far between there, the only saving grace is that you may be able to buy a house for a third of what that same house would cost even in the golden triangle where you could start a new job every week for twenty years and still not run out of firms to work for.
That’s how life is, you as a driver have to decide if you want to stay there and put up with poor money or do you move to a better area, which will cost you more in housing but may well pay far better, each of us has to make our minds up about such things given our circs.
Its possible to have your cake and eat it, if you tramp, because you can work for a company outside a typical daily commute if you only make the journey one a week, ran into an old transporter colleague of mine who travels about 80 miles on a mon morn and back again on a fri afternoon, but he takes home around £700 for that plus another £100 n/o pay, where he lives he would be lucky to take home £500 unless he worked all hours possible.
He’s done the all week away stuff for years, it wouldn’t suit me but then i’m lucky enough to live in an area with plenty of lorry work so nights out not an issue now, not my first choice of where to live, i’d rather live in the depths of West Wales 5 miles from the nearest house, but that will have to wait till i retire cos the Welsh hauliers there will employ their own first and i have no issue with that at all, i would do the same.
Us working class bods have to play the set of cards we were dealt with, and do the best we can.
mshenderson:
What is going on with Hgv driving at the moment? Long hours poor pay poor T&cs. We all need to make a stand as one and not drive until everything improves has no one heard about April 3rd?
Trouble is not everybody is MUG enough to work for peanuts with poor terms and conditions. So why should I strike and lose my well paid number so the idiots who do work for peanuts get more??
I worked hard to get were I am now and as sure as [zb] stinks I aint throwing that away!
I’m alright Jack When you ’ worked hard ’ to get where you are now, did you ever do a crap job for crap pay? How about giving a crap about your fellow drivers? If we stuck together and got rid of the crap payers, then you could still have your super duper job.
And be pleased for our fellow truckers knowing that they don’t have to get shafted.
No I was never stupid enough to work for peanuts.
Back in the day I did it the hard way…started out driving a van for a local haulier. Then one day he asked me to jump in the Roadrunner to take a pallet of rice up to Carlisle that got missed off the artic.
Happy that I got there without damage to vehicle and load and without taking the ■■■■ he then threw more work at me at a good rate of pay until the day he said I was good enough to move up in the world.
Since then I grafted, did as I was told and was paid accordingly.
Im on the downward hill of life now that the mortgage is paid up and I work for a local haulier that pays £12.80 p/h with time and half after 40 hours. Home every night. I worked hard to get this cushy job and yes you are right…I AM OK JACK! And it will stay ok jack as long as I see the muppets that laughingly call themselves drivers (That have to come on TN to get directions to Portsmouth ) trying to get ME to lose my job so they can get more!!!
When you ’ worked hard ’ to get where you are now, did you ever do a crap job for crap pay? How about giving a crap about your fellow drivers? If we stuck together and got rid of the crap payers, then you could still have your super duper job.