Hi all , i been with the agencies from last 7 years, and here in around leicester and northampton rates still struck around £11-12 quid for an hour for ltd driver. Pls advice if its time to go permanent or is there any hope for next year. As cpc gona active in 2014. Ta
Compared to a lot that’s good money
Welcome to the forum firstly.
If your getting that rate as a ltd, then your doing well by standards here in Yorkshire, as they are, on average, a pound or two less. In fact a friend of mine works for a glass company as an employee, and for driving a 26t rigid, he’s on £9.50 an hour for the first 40, with time and a half after that.
Talking to a friend of mine the other day, and his agency gaffer reckons that come the DCPC next year, rates will go up, but saying that, in certain cases agencies have decimated the rates to get business, any rate rise will only equate to what agency drivers used to get beforehand anyhow.
Ken.
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paddy virk:
Thanks ken. Yes u absolutly right , i have already done my dcpc, now its just the hope and wait that its gona shortage for hgv drivers next year and rates will go up.
its not going to happen my friend they will be a fresh crop of drivers arriving after the new year and you may find some rates going down due to supply and demand ? I take from your written English Britain is not your home country and I think the boom years in the british transport industry is well and truly over…
if your getting £12 an hour with your agency then stick with it, its about £2 an hour more than anyone I know is getting.
As Littlejohn would say " You couldn’t make it up!", a bloody foreigner complaining about the rates! 
DrivingMissDaisy:
As Littlejohn would say " You couldn’t make it up!", a bloody foreigner complaining about the rates!
where abouts does paddy state hes a foreigner?
4aaaa4dd:
paddy virk:
Thanks ken. Yes u absolutly right , i have already done my dcpc, now its just the hope and wait that its gona shortage for hgv drivers next year and rates will go up.its not going to happen my friend they will be a fresh crop of drivers arriving after the new year and you may find some rates going down due to supply and demand ?
This ^^^
I would love to be wrong but there’s not going to be a driver shortage in the UK in the foreseeable future 
miked:
DrivingMissDaisy:
As Littlejohn would say " You couldn’t make it up!", a bloody foreigner complaining about the rates!where abouts does paddy state hes a foreigner?
It’s just another assumption from one of the regular know-it-alls.
Olog Hai:
miked:
DrivingMissDaisy:
As Littlejohn would say " You couldn’t make it up!", a bloody foreigner complaining about the rates!where abouts does paddy state hes a foreigner?
It’s just another assumption from one of the regular know-it-alls.
absolute gob sihte if you ask me mate.
I am on £11 and that’s very reasonable up here. No weekend or overtime rates but i did top line a shade over £750 twice. Of course that is a 6 day week though and going home to sleep between shifts
advert today in trafford park 7.5t driver must available weekends £7.30- £9.50 per hour not bad money ?
i have been hearing about this driver shortage for the last 5 years,still a load of rubbish,there is no driver shortage
I am not very tall…does that count 
truckman20:
i have been hearing about this driver shortage for the last 5 years,still a load of rubbish,there is no driver shortage
the correct term may be peak demand rather than driver shortage. Or a shortage of drivers who only want to work 6 months spread over 12 months. Nobody can supply enough drivers just now because the amount of freight is increasing prior to Christmas. Come january, how many on the amazon contract will be at home all week?
How many “new arrivals” will have a 5 year DCPC in hand, even if their English is good enough?
How many are up for retirement, including early retirement rather than getting a DCPC just for their last 18 months or so of working life anyways?
How many on AGENCY bods have done DCPC in full? Full timers might have it laid on by their firms, but they are not moving around in the market - right?
This supply and demand curve is all about how many AGENCY drivers are available. Full timers don’t push up wages. What agency drivers will or won’t work for in the locale does every time. 
Agency firms would probably get away with filling shifts @ crap rates in January/Feburary sure, but for the rest of the year? I took some 7.5t work last january for example, but next year I’ll probably use the lull to do my own DCPC.
The biggest fools here are the ones working excessive hours at the lowest rates because “they keep getting asked for”. Yeh, sure if you are a good driver, daft enough to jump at the first job offered… Might as well get a full time job if you’re up for that old tosh.
“Overtime after so many hours” and “parity pay after so many weeks” just isn’t working out, because if you are paid overtime after 8 hours, then strangely all your shifts will be planned for that 8… People like me will be grabbing the 15 hour shifts on a right-through rate, so yes, I’ll make sure it’s a rate that suits me, which ain’t ever going to be anywhere near minimum wage to be sure! 
The biggest pull of the 15 hour shift to myself is that it only takes one round commute to earn nearly two days money… 
Adjusted for the downturn, the going rate would be about £12.60ph for midweek C+E work by now IF it hadn’t been pushed down by the glut of “any old drivers” out there. I’ve said it before, but should insurance costs skyrocket (about time insurance had it’s turn in rip-off Britain surely?) then suddenly drivers who smash the kit up all the time are not going to be kept on “because they’ll work for sub-£10ph wages”. It just won’t compute with the surviving hauliers, especially if and when fuel costs come back down again, which is another latter part of the business cycle. Personally, I reckon fuel will drop below £1 per litre by the time interest rates rise. At least that means those like me with a big mortgage and no full time job can’t get shafted at both ends at once. Jobs will be plentiful once the future I see for around 5 years time comes to pass…
For the OP them rates are pretty good.
As for the driver shortage. 20000+ members of the armed forces made redundant. They are not all engineers, doctors blah blah blah.
I wonder how many have retrained, practically for free as drivers (the full package is possible on the resettlement grants available)? 1%, 2%, 5% or more?
Then there are some, like me, who got their licence through the armed forces and are now driving. So many of us came to the end of our time and weren’t part of the redundancy numbers.
If there ever was a hint of a driver shortage, I doubt there is now.
On top of all that, there have been so many other people made redundant, let go, contracts not renewed and can’t get a job even with a degree in “History of French Renaissance Art from 1982 to 1983”, who have or will retrain to fill the much published driver shortage.
Driver shortage, dope definitely not 
Winseer:
How many “new arrivals” will have a 5 year DCPC in hand, even if their English is good enough?
How many are up for retirement, including early retirement rather than getting a DCPC just for their last 18 months or so of working life anyways?
How many on AGENCY bods have done DCPC in full? Full timers might have it laid on by their firms, but they are not moving around in the market - right?
This supply and demand curve is all about how many AGENCY drivers are available. Full timers don’t push up wages. What agency drivers will or won’t work for in the locale does every time.Agency firms would probably get away with filling shifts @ crap rates in January/Feburary sure, but for the rest of the year? I took some 7.5t work last january for example, but next year I’ll probably use the lull to do my own DCPC.
The biggest fools here are the ones working excessive hours at the lowest rates because “they keep getting asked for”. Yeh, sure if you are a good driver, daft enough to jump at the first job offered… Might as well get a full time job if you’re up for that old tosh.
“Overtime after so many hours” and “parity pay after so many weeks” just isn’t working out, because if you are paid overtime after 8 hours, then strangely all your shifts will be planned for that 8… People like me will be grabbing the 15 hour shifts on a right-through rate, so yes, I’ll make sure it’s a rate that suits me, which ain’t ever going to be anywhere near minimum wage to be sure!
Adjusted for the downturn, the going rate would be about £12.60ph for midweek C+E work by now IF it hadn’t been pushed down by the glut of “any old drivers” out there. I’ve said it before, but should insurance costs skyrocket (about time insurance had it’s turn in rip-off Britain surely?) then suddenly drivers who smash the kit up all the time are not going to be kept on “because they’ll work for sub-£10ph wages”. It just won’t compute with the surviving hauliers, especially if and when fuel costs come back down again, which is another latter part of the business cycle. Personally, I reckon fuel will drop below £1 per litre by the time interest rates rise. At least that means those like me with a big mortgage and no full time job can’t get shafted at both ends at once. Jobs will be plentiful once the future I see for around 5 years time comes to pass…
if drivers want taked this 7 or all 35 hours DCPC.don t needed good languasge.because any person must just pay money for course come to classroom in correct time and taked seats for 7 hours.can don t listen nothing ,don t understang nothing.and after 7 hours you can go home.
miked:
DrivingMissDaisy:
As Littlejohn would say " You couldn’t make it up!", a bloody foreigner complaining about the rates!where abouts does paddy state hes a foreigner?
Check his standard of English ■■■■■■■■.
Olog Hai:
miked:
DrivingMissDaisy:
As Littlejohn would say " You couldn’t make it up!", a bloody foreigner complaining about the rates!where abouts does paddy state hes a foreigner?
It’s just another assumption from one of the regular know-it-alls.
A conclusion arrived at by the standard of his written English not too difficult. You must be one of the know ■■■■ all then?