robroy:
Another point is that there are too many knobs that prioritise on having crap like bloody spots and Kelsa bars over their wage, so bosses of these stars think that itās ok to pay [zb] money as they appear to be on too much already as they are prepared to add to the value of somebody elseās motor, rather than use their money on themselves, thus spoiling it for the rest of us,
Fair point. There is plenty of all flash no cash firms still about 
Do spotlights, 'roo bars, frilly curtains etc really add to the value of a truck?
robroy:
Another point is that there are too many knobs that prioritise on having crap like bloody spots and Kelsa bars over their wage
That sounds like a friend of mine.
He gets Ā£7 per hour FLAT for tipper work, he does 70+ hours a week and 4 or 5 nights out.
And why does he do it? Heās got a Scania Topline done up like a tarts boudoir. Make me laugh when he tells me his boss is looking at the wages. Yeah right! the boss is looking at the wages and ā ā ā ā ā ā ā himself laughing so much that heās got 15 monkeys that are quite willing to work for peanuts.
I get 9.50 an hour. Another 2 quid after 6pm and time and half after 9 hours.
Ā£30k is easily done if I do a bit of over time above the regular 48. For what i do Iām very happy with it. Certainly worked for a lot less.
I earn Ā£13 an hour for the first 48 hours then Ā£19.50 after.
The agency drivers earn Ā£9.50 am starts, Ā£10 pms.Ā£11 for Sat, Ā£14 for Sun and bank holidays.I,ve mentioned this because its the agency drivers that get recruited (Not outsiders, is this legal ?) Some drivers gain full time contracts, any 5 from 7 after 6 months if there lucky, some have waited 5 years ! Recently they have only had 2 days work a week, not nice but I,ve been there, its just the way it is around these parts.
I did work for a local firm, days only, no weekend work no nights, no nights out for Ā£6.50 an hour.Yes I,ve doubled my wage, but I,m in bed all day, like a zombie at weekends, nights are something I donāt get on with, but,it pays the bills.
Roymondo:
Do spotlights, 'roo bars, frilly curtains etc really add to the value of a truck?
OK maybe not the curtains but have you checked out the price of a Kelsa with 6 Hellas, as for the roo bars thatās different, who can say that they have never had a near disaster because of the kangaroo problem on the M25.
do you realise how much it costs to āwrapā a green tractor unit these days ā ā
Trukkertone:
do you realise how much it costs to āwrapā a green tractor unit these days ā ā
Thought it was a white tractor unit being wrapped green 
robroy:
Roymondo:
Do spotlights, 'roo bars, frilly curtains etc really add to the value of a truck?OK maybe not the curtains but have you checked out the price of a Kelsa with 6 Hellas, as for the roo bars thatās different, who can say that they have never had a near disaster because of the kangaroo problem on the M25.
It doesnāt matter how much they cost to buy - my question was āDo they add value to the truck?ā
If a company was looking to buy a secondhand truck, would they pay more for one with the extra bling? Would the accountants put a higher value on it as an asset?
Roymondo:
robroy:
Roymondo:
Do spotlights, 'roo bars, frilly curtains etc really add to the value of a truck?OK maybe not the curtains but have you checked out the price of a Kelsa with 6 Hellas, as for the roo bars thatās different, who can say that they have never had a near disaster because of the kangaroo problem on the M25.
It doesnāt matter how much they cost to buy - my question was āDo they add value to the truck?ā
If a company was looking to buy a secondhand truck, would they pay more for one with the extra bling? Would the accountants put a higher value on it as an asset?
I think they can. But not just the resale value of the truck, but the customer value.
If you have some top quality products to distribute, Would you want them delivered in a plain and shabby motor or a motor that turns heads?
busteredwards:
We used to get good money on the tankers years ago, but over the last 20 years thatās been whittled away at too. Shell UK started some drivers about 10 yrs ago on an Ā£18000 (basic) a year deal & they were swamped with applications.Iād like to see at least a tenner an hour these days.
Get away. It was only a few years ago you tanker drivers held the country to ransom for your 25 quid a hour
Reubs766:
Juddian:
There are good jobs out there averaging Ā£15+ an hourCan you tell me where such jobs exist? Iāve still to meet a trustworthy driver who earns more than Ā£9 p.h. basic. . . . . Most I know of are between Ā£6 and Ā£8 p.h.
Firms that paid well are/have all gone ā ā ā ā up over the years. Not because they paid so much in wages they ended up losing money, but because the public have been turned soundly against those businesses by the media.
Safeways, Royal Mail, Yodel spring to mind.
Safeways Aylesford was once a great place to work, especially on Agency. Now their old depot has long since been bought by waitrose who pretend theyāre upto the high standards of pay that their shop prices suggest. Theyāre not of course. Partner in John Lewis?? Pfffttt" Youāll not get fat and happy there! Making people wear smart trousers doesnāt suggest affluence and prosperity. Paying top dollar for a 36 hour 3-day-week does, but thatās not what we see of course.
Royal Mail - Itās now shed over 75% of itās workforce, robbed itās pension for 17 years, stagnated overtime rates, and quite likely going to spell the end of home delivered mail in this country. No other firm is interested in providing the Universal Letters service - at least not for pennies per letter! The public have been told (lied to) that itās all the workforceās fault. Might as well blame the mugging victim for bruising the muggerās knuckles with his face! 
Yodel - Oh how the public hate (have been told to hate) this one for badly treating their parcelsā¦ Thing is, itās most likely someone who canāt read the English Characters on the boxes as to why they lob them over fences and leave a standardised āleft in dustbinā when itās dustcart rounds todayā¦ The GMB Union of Yodel are just as ineffective as the CWU of the post office.
At least in the 70ās if you got screwed over āby the Unionsā it meant that someone somewhere in your working class extended family, there was at least one person prospering!
Nowdays, unless youāre part of the Moscow/Emirates/Brussels/Far East social set, youāll not know ANYONE whoās both prospering AND not a crook within your own extended familyā¦ 
In other industries, weāve not built any much-needed nuclear power stations to become self-sufficient in energy and save our science R&D sidelines with it. ānot in my back yardā say the cocked-gun carrying Tories. So what happens? The French build what we didnāt, and line them all up along their northern coast where itās closest to us, and upwind, so weāve still got all the risk from any meltdown, but have to pay the French through the nose in the meantime every time six million kettles go on during prime time TV breaks!
Then thereās the āPharmacuticalsā. These could and should have been nationalised as part of the solution to the NHS problem. Most of the money wasted in the NHS is on overpriced drugs, drugs given to people that wonāt pay for them, and rubbish pumped by the loudest shouting reps that then privatise all the āprofitsā when there shouldnāt even BE any profits in an industry that by definition ācanāt be too expensiveā. Do that, and thereās no need for ābudget targetā management at all. Even more money saved. Bring back Matron! 
Then, thereās the Legal profession. Upwards of Ā£40 per hour, 10-4 days that have not shifted outwards in living memory, and STILL thereās no justice unless the piece of cheese being chased is āworth itā not for the āvictimā being represented, but the Legal team chasing the claim.
āCompensation Cultureā is a product of the legal profession - NOT āthe publicā, as the legal profession would have us believe.
See how much legal aid or big gun team you get offered should you decide to chase a bignob for a substantial claim with flimsy evidenceā¦
Part of the Austerity package should have included āmatchingā their hours to at least Regular office 9-5 hours with ONE hour for lunch rather than threeā¦ Courts sitting at weekends wouldnāt go amiss either. They passed the law changes allowing āsunday tradingā which pushed down wages across entire swathes of now-weekend working industries - except their own of course.
Finally, the politicians themselves. Scrap ALL expense accounts, and get them to work August (and nights!) like the rest of us. Thatāll keep enough of us happy as to NOT remove them from office at the next election after all.
The government have today reduced benefits to Ā£350 for a single person and Ā£500 for a couple, that is to sit at home and do nothing if you take home less than that after working 40 hours why are you working.
Winseer:
Reubs766:
Juddian:
There are good jobs out there averaging Ā£15+ an hourCan you tell me where such jobs exist? Iāve still to meet a trustworthy driver who earns more than Ā£9 p.h. basic. . . . . Most I know of are between Ā£6 and Ā£8 p.h.
Safeways, Royal Mail, Yodel spring to mind.
Safeways Aylesford was once a great place to work, especially on Agency. Now their old depot has long since been bought by waitrose who pretend theyāre upto the high standards of pay that their shop prices suggest. Theyāre not of course. Partner in John Lewis?? Pfffttt" Youāll not get fat and happy there! Making people wear smart trousers doesnāt suggest affluence and prosperity. Paying top dollar for a 36 hour 3-day-week does, but thatās not what we see of course.
I cut my teeth at Safeways Aylesford working for Protem at weekends as my building work wasnāt doing as well at the time , I couldnāt believe my wage packet, I was earning more sat/sun for the agency than I was earning all week !
Because I passed my test years previous a kind old fellow showed me you didnāt have raise the trailer (if need be) by hand anymore & the trailer brake was a pull/push switch not a ratchet !!!
Yes, I mourn the passing of Safeways. I even got married next door to one of their stores now owned by Morrisonsā¦
mac12:
The government have today reduced benefits to Ā£350 for a single person and Ā£500 for a couple, that is to sit at home and do nothing if you take home less than that after working 40 hours why are you working.
I thought all that money got taken away from Housing benefit?
If the money used to pay your rent, and you got JSA on top paid direct, then the only thing thatās changed now is oneās landlord saying āHey bud, are you going to make up the shortfall, or am I going to evict you?ā
Bring it on. A boot up the arse of the workshy AND imminent destruction to landlords everywhere!
Just what Iād like to see in my shadenfreude stocking! 
If you push the underpaid workforce out of town, then wages of those still living close enough to do the job will have to rise.
At the other end, landlords will have to drop rents to what people can pay with actual wages, or their lets will stand empty from now on.
win/win for the taxpayer this time methinks!
Let market forces take their course, and let Capitalism do what it was supposed to do from the very beginningā¦
A good ādriverā will get the bloody thing home and without damage will use a bit of common and do his job and bugger off home.No fuss and no dramas.
A ādriverā will ā ā ā ā it up and think he āis someone specialā
The former is worth a lot of money the latter is a liability.
What you worth?