Pay disparity

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS
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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

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

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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:

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

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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

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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.

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

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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:

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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

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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:

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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!”

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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:

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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.

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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.

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Aldi have put there store staffs wages upto ÂŁ14 + within London , chap on radio said we have to reward our staff to progress the business ,
Decent bosses are the way To go

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[Hauliers refute lorry drivers’ claims their “greed” is causing driver shortage | Motor Transport]

Its behind a subscription wall, but the article is below for those who don’t want to sign up to the good people of MT.

I agree with what they say regarding low rates and increased costs. You’d have to be living under a rock to not know that.

BUT. Who do they think brought about these poor, dog eat dog rates? Gone are the days of paying for a good level of service, and in is the “I can do it cheaper than anyone!”

We don’t help ourselves sometimes as employees, but it does seem to be now, and forever to be us vs them.

Hauliers have reacted angrily to claims from truck drivers that their “greed” and refusal to pay higher wages has led to a shortage of suitable jobs.

The response came to a story in MT last week in which a number of HGV drivers claimed hauliers were paying them “peanuts” and accused them of being “greedy” and “selfish”, which in turn was helping to create a jobs shortage.

The drivers were responding to a study carried out by Nationwide Vehicle Contracts that predicted HGV jobs could become extinct by 2029.

The study follows a report from RHA in February this year warning that the UK’s logistics industry will require 40,000 new HGV drivers annually for the next five years – to meet growing demand and to avoid any potential shortages.

Michael Doherty, MD of Doherty Group, near Omagh, dismissed claims that hauliers could pay drivers more and accused them of not understanding the cost pressures firms face. He pointed to the significant increase in costs for his timber haulage business and the paucity of rates.

He told MT: “Rates are not high enough. How are hauliers expected to pay more when the price of a lorry is up between £45,000 and £60,000 compared to four years ago? And a timber crane trailer is up £40,000 more.”

He added: “That’s only one cost I’ve mentioned,” pointing to the rising price of diesel and the impact of the government’s decision to hike employers’ National Insurance conttributions.

Noting the increasing numbers of haulage firms either going bust, closing down or selling to larger companies, Doherty warned that an increasingly consolidated industry will only lead to higher costs for hauliers’ customers.

Justin Hyde, operations manager at Mastermac Haulage, which is based near Chippenham, also refuted HGV drivers’ claims that hauliers are being “greedy”.

He commented: “Have they seen what salaries are being paid and what margins we run on? We are lucky to get 3% with most [hauliers] running at a loss.”

He added: “The funds are simply not there to pay these high salaries.”

Speaking to MT he added: “When you look at our investment costs you have to purchase a lorry at £140,000, a trailer at £30,000, then you have drivers on salaries of around £50,000.

“You’ve got fuel, insurance, tax and all your compliance issues, as well as people wanting to do full loads for £400. It’s ridiculous. It’s not rocket science. It just doesn’t add up.”

He recalled: “We had a full load of whiskey, now that is a very, very high value load and we had the customer trying to batten the hauliers down to £450, and it was a 300-mile trip. It can’t go on like this. It’s as simple as that.”

Craig Foster, director at Rotherham-based CLF Commercials, believes HGV drivers are taking advantage of the ongoing lorry driver shortage to demand higher wages.

He commented: “Some people might not like what I’m going to say but it needs addressing. The price of a new truck is massive these days. The haulier needs to find the payment to put fuel in, insure it and pay its maintenance.”

He said these costs were continuing to rise for hauliers, adding: “It’s getting tighter and tighter, if anything, for a haulier at the minute. But drivers think these days: ‘Oh there is a shortage of us, so him down the road will pay me a pound an hour more. I’m off.’ The reality is the money is not there to be spared for big wages.”

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Ironically a full load of whisky isn’t a high value load for the producer or the hauler.It is for the tax man.Just like the road fuel taxes to move it.Also a ‘full load’ on a UK spec truck isn’t as ‘full’ as a Scandinavian one let alone New Zealand.Also road transport is in a fight for its life for those 300 mile + Scottish export freight journeys v rail having the luxury of red diesel use.The employer forgot to add the cost of depreciation to equipment purchase costs.The stated government political aim of decimating road transport is the problem.A weak industry, based on moving as little tonnage as possible, over an as short a distance as possible, can obviously only afford to pay weak wages and minimise its activities and job opportunities.

That’s not the employers’ fault it’s government policy.

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if you come across a paywall right click on it and select inspect. on the window that pops up click on settings and then disable java script it will get rid of the paywall so you can read the whole article.