Over the many years since TN has been established , there is one subject that gets everyone’s ■■■■■■■ in a twist , and that is drivers wages .
I don’t see other industries websites bragging how much they earn , you don’t see train drivers or airline pilots going online moaning on about wages and salaries , and quoting " I won’t be flying that Boeing Dreamliner to Miami for that wage , I won’t get out of bed for that rate . "
You get drivers at RDC waiting rooms harping on about their pay , nobody is interested .Trucker Joe says he takes home £1000 a week but can’t afford a shower and is dressed like Worzel Gummidge .
In my experience the driver who tells you his wage within minutes of opening his mouth is on a crap wage and hoping you don’t know any better, a case a couple of weeks the hand brake was barely on before the guy was telling me that he gets up to a £500 bonus each week on top of his £600 a week wage while pulling a third party trailer for Amazon, one of those times when you wished your electric windows were turbocharged.
Driving is a low skilled job, anyone can do it within a couple of weeks of driver training. Haulage firms are taking anyone with a licence who is willing to work max hours for low pay. The drivers then big the job up and are in denial of the low wage so make it up as everyone is on different rates. They don’t want to let anyone know they are on low rates. Doesn’t happen anywhere else in the skilled arena. Don’t mouth off about being on a high rate driving, you’re not. Never met a rich driver yet and probably never will. Skilled workers do not speak of our rates and money, that is because we don’t have to big ourselves up to each other.
Someone (a well known steak dinner Friday man) was on here the other day, bragging about taking home £1000 for a weeks work but the taxman only took £12.50 from him.
I’m not sure which RDC he heard this from, but it sounds like he took on the story as his own.
How I see it, every company in the transport sector, weather its shifting actual ■■■■, feathers, bricks or fuel, brings in their wage structure.
If your happy taking home £400 a week or £401 a week. Whats it got to do with anyone else.
You earn what you earn. Simples
Truth telling about wages can be useful, if only to give those who want to better themselves an idea which sector or area or operator to aim for.
You can be working in a sector that was good, but there you are grafting away and not realising other sectors or operators have advanced whilst you’ve trod water.
If some companies and sectors, usually unionised, didn’t make the running paying the headline rates we could all in theory be on minimum wage and be none the wiser, yes there will always be bullshiners but you can usually suss them out within moments, first giveaway is how they walk through a door, have a job to get their head through.
Why be stuck earning ■■■■ poor money when you offer quality work, let the poor payers and the muppets have each other.
toby1234abc:
Over the many years since TN has been established , there is one subject that gets everyone’s ■■■■■■■ in a twist , and that is drivers wages .
I don’t see other industries websites bragging how much they earn , you don’t see train drivers or airline pilots going online moaning on about wages and salaries , and quoting " I won’t be flying that Boeing Dreamliner to Miami for that wage , I won’t get out of bed for that rate . "
You get drivers at RDC waiting rooms harping on about their pay , nobody is interested .Trucker Joe says he takes home £1000 a week but can’t afford a shower and is dressed like Worzel Gummidge .
You can’t compare pilots and train drivers to lorry drivers though really.
They are on another level professionally compared to the average scruffy lorry driver.
I would give a flying … after seeing their bank statements or pay slips. Until then I don’t really want to know. Its very unlikely that one operator will pay vastly more than another in the same vicinity.
Mazzer2:
In my experience the driver who tells you his wage within minutes of opening his mouth is on a crap wage and hoping you don’t know any better, a case a couple of weeks the hand brake was barely on before the guy was telling me that he gets up to a £500 bonus each week on top of his £600 a week wage while pulling a third party trailer for Amazon, one of those times when you wished your electric windows were turbocharged.
toby1234abc:
I don’t see other industries websites bragging how much they earn , you don’t see train drivers or airline pilots going online moaning on about wages and salaries , and quoting " I won’t be flying that Boeing Dreamliner to Miami for that wage , I won’t get out of bed for that rate . "
Head over to pprune, there’s plenty of threads and comments about wages, costs and t + cs,
Including 1 thread where pilots facing redundancy are discussing becoming truck or train drivers.
toby1234abc:
Over the many years since TN has been established , there is one subject that gets everyone’s ■■■■■■■ in a twist , and that is drivers wages .
I don’t see other industries websites bragging how much they earn , you don’t see train drivers or airline pilots going online moaning on about wages and salaries , and quoting " I won’t be flying that Boeing Dreamliner to Miami for that wage , I won’t get out of bed for that rate . "
You get drivers at RDC waiting rooms harping on about their pay , nobody is interested .Trucker Joe says he takes home £1000 a week but can’t afford a shower and is dressed like Worzel Gummidge .
You can’t compare pilots and train drivers to lorry drivers though really.
They are on another level professionally compared to the average scruffy lorry driver.
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at least theres always a job waiting for scruffy lorry drivers if they lower their standards enough??
The thing is that normally the ones bragging about earning mega money you can normally tag next to one or several of the following:
Working every hour under the sun (not for me)
Endurance test tramping (not for me)
Coining in every unsociable shift premium they can find (not for me)
Self employed / agency chasing whatever works paying the most (fair play, but not for me)
My ears only really prick up when you get somebody talking about a proper paying secure job where the drivers are treated with respect and like actual professionals, so:
Sensible expectation of hours.
Solid hourly rate with proper premiums for overtime & unsociable hours
More than the bare minimum 4 weeks holiday
Sick pay
Private pension scheme
Dead mans shoes to get in etc.
I’d then tell the person bragging about having such a job to be quiet and keep it to themselves.
if they don’t care about what other people earn why do loads on here like to chuck the working for buttons / peanuts at the lesser paid drivers !!! The reason they don’t want to hear people’s wages is because it ■■■■■■ them off that there not as well paid as what they’d like others to believe they are !!!
They’ve dished the peanuts / buttons out for years , so ZB m Now knowing it ■■■■■■ them off I’ll have to mention wages in every sentence !!!
toby1234abc:
I don’t see other industries websites bragging how much they earn , you don’t see train drivers or airline pilots going online moaning on about wages and salaries , and quoting " I won’t be flying that Boeing Dreamliner to Miami for that wage , I won’t get out of bed for that rate . "
Head over to pprune, there’s plenty of threads and comments about wages, costs and t + cs,
Including 1 thread where pilots facing redundancy are discussing becoming truck or train drivers.
I tend to be someone who doesn’t mention what I earn, there’s only a recent furlough post where I’ve mentioned that they overpaid me, but repayment was imminent.
I know I won’t be in the top 10% of earners because as a limper I don’t work 48-52 weeks each year, but that’s my choice & it does allows me to enjoy a leisurely lifestyle, and I’m in the Harry Monk mindset where once I’ve earned enough to fund my life each year I can choose to stop working and head off into the sunset and return when the pot is dry
UKtramp:
Driving is a low skilled job, anyone can do it within a couple of weeks of driver training. Haulage firms are taking anyone with a licence who is willing to work max hours for low pay. The drivers then big the job up and are in denial of the low wage so make it up as everyone is on different rates. They don’t want to let anyone know they are on low rates. Doesn’t happen anywhere else in the skilled arena. Don’t mouth off about being on a high rate driving, you’re not. Never met a rich driver yet and probably never will. Skilled workers do not speak of our rates and money, that is because we don’t have to big ourselves up to each other.
Driving may be quite low paid, especially in terms of hourly rate, but it is a responsible job that does at least attract rates normally at least a pound or two more than minimum wage and some positions can facilitate a reasonable lifestyle.
I don’t quite agree with you that anyone can do it after a couple of weeks training. Of those that do try, most are successful if they are committed, but some do fail or take numerous attempts. It is dangerous to generalise because some people have had careers before ever getting into driving and may even be in receipt of a pension while driving. Given your apparent other life, I would have thought you would know that there are all sorts of different drivers with different backgrounds, skill sets, attitudes etc etc.
Noremac:
Driving may be quite low paid, especially in terms of hourly rate, but it is a responsible job that does at least attract rates normally at least a pound or two more than minimum wage and some positions can facilitate a reasonable lifestyle.
I don’t quite agree with you that anyone can do it after a couple of weeks training. Of those that do try, most are successful if they are committed, but some do fail or take numerous attempts. It is dangerous to generalise because some people have had careers before ever getting into driving and may even be in receipt of a pension while driving. Given your apparent other life, I would have thought you would know that there are all sorts of different drivers with different backgrounds, skill sets, attitudes etc etc.
I very much agree with you, there are a range of skilled people driving, but that isn’t down to the fact that the job attracts skilled people. When I say that anyone can do it, to be fair the majority of people that do it already hold a car licence and have driven for years, it is just the jump from one size of vehicle to another. A living wage can be had but that is all it is, a livable wage, it is more of a lifestyle job that either suits or it doesn’t. Some drivers are indeed very professional and have a great deal of knowledge, the majority don’t and this is why rates etc will never be any good because there is no shortage of supply of drivers who will work for low rates. Skilled workers cannot be replenished in the matter of weeks that it takes to get a driver.
A skilled worker becomes even more valuable the older he gets, a driver is not valued in the same respect. In my trade it is very difficult to recruit the skill range needed and so companies pay top dollar to attract them, you can tempt another driver with a few pounds more in their wage packet if things become desperate. To be a skilled worker it generally takes years of training, knowledge and experience. This is what employers pay for, you don’t see many jobs advertising for drivers at 45k per year for 38 hrs with overtime available and a company car supplied along with private health care . Not knocking driving for a living but these are the facts. It is unskilled work.
Noremac:
Driving may be quite low paid, especially in terms of hourly rate, but it is a responsible job that does at least attract rates normally at least a pound or two more than minimum wage and some positions can facilitate a reasonable lifestyle.
I don’t quite agree with you that anyone can do it after a couple of weeks training. Of those that do try, most are successful if they are committed, but some do fail or take numerous attempts. It is dangerous to generalise because some people have had careers before ever getting into driving and may even be in receipt of a pension while driving. Given your apparent other life, I would have thought you would know that there are all sorts of different drivers with different backgrounds, skill sets, attitudes etc etc.
I very much agree with you, there are a range of skilled people driving, but that isn’t down to the fact that the job attracts skilled people. When I say that anyone can do it, to be fair the majority of people that do it already hold a car licence and have driven for years, it is just the jump from one size of vehicle to another. A living wage can be had but that is all it is, a livable wage, it is more of a lifestyle job that either suits or it doesn’t. Some drivers are indeed very professional and have a great deal of knowledge, the majority don’t and this is why rates etc will never be any good because there is no shortage of supply of drivers who will work for low rates. Skilled workers cannot be replenished in the matter of weeks that it takes to get a driver.
A skilled worker becomes even more valuable the older he gets, a driver is not valued in the same respect. In my trade it is very difficult to recruit the skill range needed and so companies pay top dollar to attract them, you can tempt another driver with a few pounds more in their wage packet if things become desperate. To be a skilled worker it generally takes years of training, knowledge and experience. This is what employers pay for, you don’t see many jobs advertising for drivers at 45k per year for 38 hrs with overtime available and a company car supplied along with private health care . Not knocking driving for a living but these are the facts. It is unskilled work.
Hmm anybody can do it?..ok.
Ok it has got to the stage where almost anyone can pass a test to drive a modern truck, but as a percentage, judging by what you see on the road, what you hear, how many of them can actually drive an artic in a proficient skilled professional manner?
…60% ?
…higher?
lower? .
.(starting to sound like Brucie )
A licence doth not a driver make,.as Shakespeare once said.
(Not trying to build my part here as a driver either btw, I made the wrong move of giving up a potential good and lucrative carreer in mechanical engineering after passing my Apprenticeship with GEC, and City & Guilds, to quite a good standard, but I made the wrong carreer move of going into all this crap. …
What a ■■■■!!
Ok it has got to the stage where almost anyone can pass a test to drive a modern truck, but as a percentage, judging by what you see on the road, what you hear, how many of them can actually drive an artic in a proficient skilled professional manner?
…60% ?
…higher?
lower? .
.(starting to sound like Brucie )
A licence doth not a driver make,.as Shakespeare once said.
(Not trying to build my part here as a driver either btw, I made the wrong move of giving up a potential good and lucrative carreer in mechanical engineering after passing my Apprenticeship with GEC, and City & Guilds, to quite a good standard, but I made the wrong carreer move of going into all this crap. …
What a ■■■■!!
Well the point is Rob, I agree with what you are saying, however being proficient and actually been able to drive an artic properly unfortunately rarely produces a much higher wage than those that can’t. My whole point is that drivers have introduced and invented the professional and skilled part to the job themselves. Most employers do not respect it in this way, hence cameras in the cab, micro managed etc etc. I also do not dispute that there are some very clever people sat in the drivers seat who could earn a dam site more elsewhere.
A drivers wage and job is nothing what it was, nowadays with auto boxes, no roping and sheeting, sat navs etc etc, it has all gone and left the good guys in a job that pays very little and also gains zero respect from either the customers or the transport managers. Skilled workers are respected and have much better terms and conditions or they leave and go elsewhere. Employers of skilled workers cannot afford to lose good men as they struggle to try to replace them. If drivers were classed as professional and skilled you wouldn’t see the types that you do now. The wages would be better and everyone would be in demand.
toby1234abc:
Over the many years since TN has been established , there is one subject that gets everyone’s ■■■■■■■ in a twist , and that is drivers wages .
I don’t see other industries websites bragging how much they earn , you don’t see train drivers or airline pilots going online moaning on about wages and salaries , and quoting " I won’t be flying that Boeing Dreamliner to Miami for that wage , I won’t get out of bed for that rate . "
You get drivers at RDC waiting rooms harping on about their pay , nobody is interested .Trucker Joe says he takes home £1000 a week but can’t afford a shower and is dressed like Worzel Gummidge .
Train drivers and pilots instead of moaning do the proactive thing, organize themselves, negotiate a pay rise that is at least above the inflation rate on consumer goods, food and energy, and if not heard, they strike.
And from what I see, they choose exaclty the time when they are needed the most.
Some people are smart, others drive trucks and moan.
)
…