Muckaway:
flat to the mat:
Never wanting to gloat,but,had a successful meeting with senior management today and walked away with a new leather coat,brand new Peterbuilt and substantial pay increase,oh and lunch at Moxys.Gotta love this country.
Moxys? Hope their foodās better than their dumptrucksā¦
Muckaway:
flat to the mat:
Never wanting to gloat,but,had a successful meeting with senior management today and walked away with a new leather coat,brand new Peterbuilt and substantial pay increase,oh and lunch at Moxys.Gotta love this country.Moxys? Hope their foodās better than their dumptrucksā¦
Foods fine,eye candy even better,and when itās on expenses who cares 
Big Truck:
flat to the mat:
Never wanting to gloat,but,had a successful meeting with senior management today and walked away with a new leather coat,brand new Peterbuilt and substantial pay increase,oh and lunch at Moxys.Gotta love this country.Is it -30degrees there yet
From 1/1/10 to 31/12/10 how many nights did you sleep in your own bed, rather than a 6āx6ā tin box for 10/14 days at a time
Minus 2 today.but last week minus 45 for a while. 
I sleep in my own bed with my gorgeous wife in our gorgeous home every night of the week.Can be late getting there sometimes but thatās no great hardship.Working 7 days a week for a while,only 3/4 hours on weekends,but if the job needs doing etc etc.
Work hard here and youāll reap the benefits,I certainly do.My company fully understand the work/life balance and reward me for my effort accordingly,itās my call.
P.S. Forgot,spent 3 nights in hotels last year
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 disgracefullI 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.
YAWN, YAWN, ā ā ā ā ā ā YAWN.
forever_cruising:
Why does everyone on this site bang on about āthere paying rubbish moneyā or āIāve heard/am on loadsā no one caresThereās 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
Agree
Apparently theres no jobs but when ever someone posts a job opportunity up, it usually gets laughed at for being too low paid, too many hours etc. FFS anythings better than the dole! There are jobs out there, theres just not jobs that pay what folk think they should be paid!
hi all. I read this thread with interest but surely the most important point is WHAT GOES IN THE BANK each month,and what you do for it.
Many people post what they earn per hour,month or year.It is irrelevant if you earn Ā£20000,Ā£40000 or $100000 per year if it is brutto.depending on what you do for it,or where you live,this amount can be devalued,or reduced by taxes and other social costs by 20 to 50%.
Lets get realistic and post what we take home and what we do for it.
Shall i start.Ilive and work in lappland.Idrive a 50ton tipper for a mining company 1km underground transporting ore from the drill site to the crusher. I work 1 week [7 days]from 0500 until 1500.Then i have 1 week free.
For this my take home pay is app Ā£2200 [IN THE BANK].This includes all little extras such as underground supplement etc.What my brutto is i neither know nor care as my purchasing power only relates to my netto income
I also have a special deal for fuel for travelling to and from work. this is about average for the kind of work i do and drivers with other companies may have negotiated better deals but iām happy.
Who else dares to be honest,[uk and abroad]cāmon guys.
take care mike
Forgive me.i should have said that my take home pay is PER MONTH,before anyone accuses me of being fanciful.
OK, so why shoot at Pat over this? He has said what you have all been banging on about for 10 years and you go at him in this manner. And you do so because he chose to make a new life in the USAā¦ Let me tell you something, he did that for similar reasons to me, and he was not allowed to work for a long time, so save your vitriol. You know nothing of his situation and should maybe point some of your insults elsewhere. Also, Pat has worked for some of the crooks in the US, and he lives in the USA where they are being screwed in every way possible. His is no bed of roses, but he does not complain about his situation, he is astounded by yours.
As for honestyā¦ OK, here goes. My new base rate is $17 per hour for 45 hours and $25.50 after that. So roughly 11 quid basic and 17.50 overtime. I will be home every night, and as a widower I get another tax break which means that I can earn $22600 before paying a penny in income tax, and then it is 18%. I also get the add pays on top. It works out well enough I hope. Maybe it is not as good as many, but it is better than I could have hoped for, and I will be here with my son.
It is not a question of bragging. I have had to come off the long haul because my wife died last week. But I have 23 years full time as a driver. I have earned my kudos same as Pat has, and the same as many others.
If you are getting like this with Pat, then why not start getting that way with your MPsā¦
If you are getting like this with Pat, then why not start getting that way with your MPsā¦
I know me and BTD have disagreed over unions etc but you cannot fault the above part of his post.
Drivers at big companies could contact the local mp where the company is absed āen masseā
Drivers who are in unions could go to meetings and pressurise sponsored MPās
Drivers who are neither can simply write or e-mail their local MP.
If you really want to improve drivers facilities and all the other things you moan about, DO something.
Its not going to improve overnight at the sending of one letter or e-mail, you have to keep badgering them constantly, but itās free or costs a stamp.
Sooner or later they will get fed up of you nagging and decide its easier to do something than to continue to reply to you in the negative.
ability.org.uk/british_mp_mep.html
Sorry to hear about your wife Bob .My sympathy to you and your family
Itās not just drivers and the haulage industry that are having a hard time,everyone is struggling financially.I havenāt seen things as tight as this in my lifetime.In the area where I live,on the Welsh Border there are no jobs around,everyone who has a job needs to keep their head down and stick it out.Any work is better than no work.
Any work is better than no work
Music to the goverments ears!
At last the peasants have learned their place
Much as it gripes me I have to agree with you re pay , but that doesnāt mean you cannot pursue improvements to other things, .i.e parking, overnight stops, some kind of protection from RDCās treating you like pieces of office furniture.
For example, a single piece of legislation that makes it illegal to tell a driver to move his vehicle when out of time would help gee up RDCās, or legislation that said a company who causes a driver to be parked on a loading bay excessively and then running out of time have to supply him with rest, washing and eating facilities.
Neither would cost the country a penny but would make life a bit easier for drivers.
Del, we are extreme danger of agreeing and crossing the union divide hereā¦
No, it is not a question of āany work is betterā anymore. As the skill sets required for a job diminish, so does the pay for it. If you are not earning more than minimum wage plus a mild incentive then you need to think again.
Blaming it all on recession is, in a way, wrong. The USA have it worse at the poorer end of the scale, I would judge, because you still have a health service over there, and you can still take your kids to the doctor without needing your credit cards.
The governments are hiding the truth from you about the recession as well. It is deeper than they admit. A friend of mine has been trying to sell his house so he can come out here for over 2 years now. He has dropped the price by more that 25% and still nothing. Even people with good jobs cannot get mortgages so the house market is stagnant and will remain so until it melts down completely. The same is true in the USA. And when that happens you will see just how bad things are.
In all honesty, I have no clue what the answer is, but you know, I think that a transport stoppage would actually push the government into acting, and while it will be catastrophic for a time, it will be like lancing a boilā¦ Messy as hell, but what a relief.