What has happened to drivers pay over there ? When I worked there I earned more than you bloke do now.
I was looking through a copy of Truck and Driver and some companiies have rubbish wages 
A company where the drivers are self employed got about 350 quid for 50 hours and 8.50 an hour after that. that is disgracefull I earned better than that as a company driver 12 years ago and in 1994 when a lot of us were made redundant from Fed Ex we all made more than that a week.
My last job over there I made good money but it was seasonal work and I got 12 weeks a year over winter doing just weekend shows. to keepe me occupied during the week i would do self employed driving via an agency. I did about 2-3 days a week and charged every company 12.00 quid an hour for the first 8 and 18 after that, all the companies were happy to pay it so why would any self respecting self employed driver work for such low pay ?
Have you all gone soft in the head ? ā¦ stick together and down tools !
We did it in 77 and bought the country to a standstill for 2 weeks but we got everything we asked for.
Pat Hasler:
What has happened to drivers pay over there ? When I worked there I earned more than you bloke do now.
I was looking through a copy of Truck and Driver and some companiies have rubbish wages
A company where the drivers are self employed got about 350 quid for 50 hours and 8.50 an hour after that. that is disgracefull
My last job over there I made good money but it was seasonal work and I got 12 weeks a year over winter doing just weekend shows. to keepe me occupied during the week i would do self employed driving via an agency. I did about 2-3 days a week and charged every company 12.00 quid an hour for the first 8 and 18 after that, all the companies were happy to pay it so why would any self respecting self employed driver work for such low pay ?
Have you all gone soft in the head ? ā¦ stick together and down tools !
We did it in 77 and bought the country to a standstill for 2 weeks but we got everything we asked for.
Are you serious? What did you do in 77 exactly?
talked ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā and still doing it . 
Donāt know when you last visited the UK Pat,but itās called the recession,therefore too many people for too few jobs.Hence employers are able to offer diddly shoot because they know ā ā ā ā well the position will be filled,either by a UK national or āOTHERā.You can forget the standing together as one,with the influx of foreigners there are different agendas from all sides with no common goal,hence,and I hate to say this,but the place is rapidly going down the toilet,donāt take my word for it just read the online newspapers.
Regards pay,left there in 05 on 28000,now on 80000 plus bonuses.Did I do the right thing?
probably the facts that uk has no money and sold out to europe, and got involved in a number of wars all of which raped millions and still are, and not to mention the destroyed lives, as for sitting on a perch spouting holy crap about how good you got it is probably not the best of times since most families are struggling am sure your comments would anger more than start a revolution, downing tools in this country only means that when pay day comes you have an empty pay packet and an agency is rubbing its hands together as they just got one of there drivers your job, am sure in 1977 things were alot different even though i carnt remember anythink happening in that year, pay is poor price of living is higher and most of us struggle this is england an over populated pc loving goverment and media wereas change is only allowed if it fits.
1977 national transport strike ā¦ two weeks of almost total stoppage and flying pickets. The biggest hauler in the east midlands was Swifts and I worked for them, they caved in after two weeks and gave us 10% increase on our basic pay and doubled the holidays.
I forgot there are some kids on here now 
pay should rise with inflation, not drop. Companyās still need goods and drivers are needed just as much, it was tried so many times in the past but didnt work, if they are in such trouble let them fold ! ā¦ they wonāt becsue they are kidding you, they will carry on and can pay more, they just con you in to thinking you will all loose your jobs if you donāt accept lower pay.
How the hell do you all pay your nills etc on such dismal pay ? My Son works in a shop in daventry and earns more than a LGV driver over there FFS
ā¦ get ready for the certain few to come and tell us how much they earn,how little they work and then bang on about how we too could earn that,if in the right place at the right time and we put the leg work in to get out there to the companies and force a job out of em reality is hgv work is long hours,crap pay,no longer in most companys is it time n half after 8 an double time after 10.
Why does everyone on this site bang on about āthere paying rubbish moneyā or āIāve heard/am on loadsā no one cares Thereās a recession on you should be lucky to have a job in 1st place!.
Weāre all grown adults, and told the working conditions, Hours and pay before we take the job! If it suits us or we enjoy it, do it! If it donāt then we donāt!.
Who cares if the bloke to my left is on rubbish money and the bloke on my right is on loads. 
But seeing as you asked nicely, Am only on a Ā£1000 for a 3 hour week driving a top of the range motor
money money moneyā¦what is the plan with all this moneyā¦that driver there was earning more in the seventies than we do nowā¦and then he went to america and left his family back in ukā¦with all that money i would have all my family togetherā¦any way i get about Ā£12,000 a year and spend every penny.
Itās what you make of it; I balance pay with conditions. I could earn more elsewhere, but Iād have to drive to work, probably do nights out, work longer hours than 6.30 til 4.30 which means I wouldnt be home by 4.45ā¦Cut your spending then what money you do get will seem a lot more, do you really need every package for Sky TV when most of it is repeated old crap thatās been on twice today already?
Pat Hasler:
1977 national transport strike ā¦ two weeks of almost total stoppage and flying pickets. The biggest hauler in the east midlands was Swifts and I worked for them, they caved in after two weeks and gave us 10% increase on our basic pay and doubled the holidays.
I was driving in 1977 and donāt remember a āNational Transport Strikeā it must have missed London and the rest of southern England. Come to think of it I cannot recall a strike at any time, thatās why we are in the situation we are today. We never stick together.
Pat Hasler:
in 1994 when a lot of us were made redundant from Fed Ex we all made more than that a week.
Think about the above bit of your opening post and tell me why you think the daft money you were obviously on was sustainable in the long term, then? 
forever_cruising:
But seeing as you asked nicely, Am only on a Ā£1000 for a 3 hour week driving a top of the range motor
Wouldnāt get out of bed for less that that for an hours work, never mind 3.
Bloody slave labour is 3 hours. Whatever next?
Ken.
forever_cruising:
But seeing as you asked nicely, Am only on a Ā£1000 for a 3 hour week driving a top of the range motor
What is with drivers? Working for crap money just so they can drive a top of the range motor, [zb]ing zoomers the lot of 'em. 
Coffeeholic:
forever_cruising:
But seeing as you asked nicely, Am only on a Ā£1000 for a 3 hour week driving a top of the range motor
What is with drivers? Working for crap money just so they can drive a top of the range motor, [zb]ing zoomers the lot of 'em.
Itās an ego trip.
I was driving in 1977 and donāt remember a āNational Transport Strikeā it must have missed London and the rest of southern England. Come to think of it I cannot recall a strike at any time, thatās why we are in the situation we are today. We never stick together.
You must have been wearing blinkers then.
To be honest I thought it was '79 but probably wrong.
4 weeks on strike, got everything we asked for.
Supermarket shelves empty, special dispensations for animal feed etc.
I think he is referring to the winter of discontent in 1978/9,quite a lot of lorry drivers went on strike and picketed various works.But you couldnāt call it a national strike,as quite a few kept working.
Pat Hasler:
What has happened to drivers pay over there ? When I worked there I earned more than you bloke do now.
I was looking through a copy of Truck and Driver and some companiies have rubbish wages
A company where the drivers are self employed got about 350 quid for 50 hours and 8.50 an hour after that. that is disgracefull
My last job over there I made good money but it was seasonal work and I got 12 weeks a year over winter doing just weekend shows. to keepe me occupied during the week i would do self employed driving via an agency. I did about 2-3 days a week and charged every company 12.00 quid an hour for the first 8 and 18 after that, all the companies were happy to pay it so why would any self respecting self employed driver work for such low pay ?
Have you all gone soft in the head ? ā¦ stick together and down tools !
We did it in 77 and bought the country to a standstill for 2 weeks but we got everything we asked for.
Never heard so much drivel in my entire life.
I go to work to pay the bills and live a lifestyle, if I drop tools there will always be someone there to take my job because other people have bills to pay and mouths to feed.
Go back to your rocking chair Grandad and keep the preaching of the good ole days to your kids, just to rub in how bad theyve got it
del949:
I was driving in 1977 and donāt remember a āNational Transport Strikeā it must have missed London and the rest of southern England. Come to think of it I cannot recall a strike at any time, thatās why we are in the situation we are today. We never stick together.
You must have been wearing blinkers then.
To be honest I thought it was '79 but probably wrong.
4 weeks on strike, got everything we asked for.
Supermarket shelves empty, special dispensations for animal feed etc.
I may have blinkers on but I am not stupid enough to go on strike, for four weeks, over pay. How many years did it take to make up for all the money you lost whilst on strike?
not as long as you imagine,maybe 2-3 years, plus the fact that if we hadnāt let it all slip away over the succeeding years it would still be there, every week, every month, every year.
Donāt go down the usual road similar threads on here do. Blaming the unions and claiming that all strikes are useless.
Sometimes a strike is the ONLY answer when all other negotiations have come to nothing.
I was there, I did it, I have never regretted it and as far as am concerned it was a successful result.
That doesnāt mean that I think that it is the right thing to do nowadays. I doubt it would work now with the number of casual and agency drivers.
One other thing, I may have been āstupidā to go on strike and lose 4 weeks wages but I reckon I had the best of the transport industry during my time and never had to work for some of the derisory rates being quoted nowadays.