Pay disparity

In the last 30 years inflation has gone up by 125%. Whilst drivers pay has gone up by 75%. Are we happy about this? If not what can and should we do about it?

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Not lot can do apart from looking for another job that pays better

No unions or decency from employers. It’s a grimdark financial landscape.

We are truckers, Without us civilization collapses. We get paid less because we are not organized. I just get fed up with every year no increases or below inflation increases. We have no one to back us or organize us. Unions don’t seem to care. Even fellow truckers seem Blaise about it. Doctors go on strike and get 25% pay increase, and now they are trying for more. Every year fuel goes up and bosses pay it, but never any money for drivers. I cannot be the only one who feels like this. Can we get a petition going. Demanding fair wage increases? something is better than nothing. :slight_smile:

I don’t know the answer but i know the question needs saying.

I’d get used to less pay , maybe minimum wage , every man & his dog on radio etc is suggesting all these asylum seekers c could be put to work as lorry drivers ( strange they never suggest there own job ) ,
I said a bit ago we’d end back at square one wages wise , pre - brexit , glad I’m about done

Not sure about those figures.I’d prefer the wages now, to the around £200 pw gross I got in 1990 and the still less than £1,500 per month gross I got in 1999, for class 1 night work 45-50 hours per week.
The longer hours and not even the previous decent job and finish terms and expected to do warehouse work by late 90’s for the money.

Robroy seems to be tn’s resident agitant, but can he be relied upon not to cross a picket line? :wink:

The only time I crossed a picket line was at Tilbury docks in the 80’s and that was only because the pickets pissed me right off! They were Scouse flying pickets and they were demanding my sympathies and that I not cross their line.

These were the same lazy Wayne Kerrs who earned double my wages for half my hours and still had the barefaced cheek to require a bribe to load you! They wanted a tenner to load you. Well screw that, I’m paid by the hour and I’d quite happily sit for three days waiting to load.

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I might be being a bit unfair to poor old Robroy, after all, it was me to taunted him across the line. :grin:

personaly with this government i think it wont be long before we see another p&o job. some driving school that came into fruition because of the boot camps thinking that was a good earner. Thats finished in september i believe so they will be scratching around looking for work. Train up a coach load of illeglas tell the company or agency you only have to pay em 11,20 just sack the regulars.

or even better set a company up in india and pretend to sell the british one to it then you can sack all the staff and dont have to pay stamp or tax

Have you still got the same standard of living you had in those days?
I know mine has gone drastically. Wondered if others share your view? Hopefully people will say :slight_smile:

The job is rotten to the core, it has been for many years. The reasons don’t need to be explained.
The simplicity of it is the only cost any “haulier” can truly control is the wage bill. I’d go as far to say that unless you bagged a decent salary paid job in the bubble just after the peak of covid, you’ll be struggling to find respectably paying jobs. A bubble is just that, a bubble. It’s burst. Until the industry brews up another snotty greeny, of its own making, they’ll be no improvement.
And finally, sadly, they’ll always be a person out there that will accept a class 1 job paying whatever minimum is now, but “don’t worry, you’ll earn well, 75 hours a week you’ll get here, the blue eyed boys get 90!”

just looked on gov .org was a petition for improving drivers pay rates. less than 500 drivers signed it. we are our own worst enemy. :frowning:

There’s no way that the employers can pay train driver type wages and perks for hauling 44t gross max and road fuel costs.
New Zealand type rigs maybe.

My guess is that class 1 nights now would be well over double the around ÂŁ7.50 ph I was getting 25 years ago and maybe also even no warehouse labouring expected.
Would need to go back to 1970’s pre Callaghan and Thatcher for a decent wages v prices deal.
But I could probably have afforded to work a 4 day week at current class 1 rates based on 40-48 hours at ÂŁ15 + per hour.
I’m getting way more per hour now for just driving cars than I ever earn’t driving class 1.Almost double.