Hiya…akacheesy…as i retired a few years back. will you do me a favor!! make a note of next weeks work.IE where you start
to where you run to and roughly and what your carring. just as i,am intrested what happens.are you tramping with a fridge or
a curtain sider.You see years ago we saw what was been carried as we had flat trailers and you could tell buy the shape of the
sheets what was on the move.I saw a curtain sider with the curtains open as i walked the dog the other day and was surprised
to see two huge pieces of stone sitting there.i would have expeceted bulk bags or pallets.someone on TN posted a photo last
week and he had two trucks in a curtain sider.I had a car in my trailer one day (sneaky) i bought it in london and took it back
to Chester.Us older drivers have not had much to do with curtains and don,t realise what will go into trailers,as i always carried
our own product. so will you print a list of next week work
cheersJohn
akacheesy:
Yeah but then you probably do half the hours I do and are home every night. But yes, I’m making around £700 a week at the moment, give or take. It does vary depending on how many hours you work but you are guaranteed 50hrs. If, of course, you can call it work.A great deal of time is POA (Period of availibilty) i.e. waiting around. You get paid but it doesn’t count towards your working hours, to keep within the Working Time Directive.Stobarts wages seem to be quite a discussion point on these boards. The hourly rate isn’t brilliant but there are other perks that increase your wages, such as tax free meal allowance and overnight payments. There is also a daily driving bonus. Agency will probably pay you a higher hourly rate but you have no guarantee of hours and personally I prefer to be a full time employee.
According to Truck & Driver magazine, there is a national shortage of drivers again. As the economy starts to recover, people start buying things therefore goods need to be moved.
Personally I decided to take up driving for a living because I enjoy it, not to chase the money. Of course we all like money but it shouldn’t ever be your main motivation (not trying to give you a lecture). I’ve been really quite lucky getting a job with ES as I only passed my class 1 in Sept and got a start with them in November with no class 1 experience. I think that is quite rare. It has taken me 2 years to get to where I am now so if you are considering a career in driving then you could expect to be earning not much more than minimum wage for a while until you gain experience. I was working for a builders merchants driving a class 2 with HIAB on £7.30 an hour and around £320 a week, not even close to enough money to live on.
Good luck though, if you are considering it you’re on the right website for advice.
hiya,
Getting a bit off track are’nt we but until we hit the road again (£320a week) wait until
you get to pension age and living off that, you should find that fun “but not a lot”.
thanks harry long retired.
don’t mention pensions harry , the pension advisor told me i must have worked hard as my state pension was very good . the following year i got an income tax bill for £350 ie £7 a week , cheers dave