that’s killed the thread 
OK ,so 1990.
Reckon i’d been on the car transporters 12 to 18 months after getting made redundant from night trunking, was on target for £30k in my last year on the night job incl lots of OT @ £12 an hour so money hasn’t gone up much, i know some companies still arn’t paying now what we were on then.
In some ways the job hasn’t changed all that much for many of us, we still work the way we did once we’re out the gate, there’s miserable buggers everywhere but there always was, its just that lots of people now behind the wheel of lorries are miserable buggers who take themselves oh so seriously where that didn’t used to be the case, you ignore them if you have any sense.
Speeds are lower due to limiters and sheer traffic, its all safety bollox and hivis carp, the ladies don’t dress anywhere near as nice as they used to, the roads are stuffed with foreigners but then so is the country, the lorries now give no driving pleasure or sense of accomplishment at all and worse of all i’m 25 years older, but i’ve got the easiest job with the shortest hours of my whole driving life to compensate so it aint all bad.
Regarding pay I know of three guys who were on 20k, 22k and 25k in 1986. The last one on 25k was a tanker driver who was made redundant and wanted a change so he came on the coaches. He showed us his payslip and we though the was crazy for not going for another tanker job! Generally HGV and PSV drivers were on more or less what they get now so the pay has not moved on average. However the cost of living was very different:
1986 Prices:
Large loaf of bread 33p
1 Dozen eggs 72p
1kg Sugar 47p
3lb Chicken £1.86
1 Pint of milk 23p
100g of Coffee £1.20
80 Tea bags £1.25
20" Colour television £225
Washing machine £230
Pair of shoes (lady) £18
Pair of shoes (mens) £19
Newspaper_Daily Mirror 18p
Bus fare into Swindon (adult)22p
(child)11p
First class postage 17p
second class postage 13p
Gallon petrol £2.04
Pint of beer 75p
20 Cigarettes £1.35
Terraced house in Gorse Hill £20,000
alder:
Regarding pay I know of three guys who were on 20k, 22k and 25k in 1986. The last one on 25k was a tanker driver who was made redundant and wanted a change so he came on the coaches. He showed us his payslip and we though the was crazy for not going for another tanker job! Generally HGV and PSV drivers were on more or less what they get now so the pay has not moved on average. However the cost of living was very different:1986 Prices:
Large loaf of bread 33p
1 Dozen eggs 72p
1kg Sugar 47p
3lb Chicken £1.86
1 Pint of milk 23p
100g of Coffee £1.20
80 Tea bags £1.25
20" Colour television £225
Washing machine £230
Pair of shoes (lady) £18
Pair of shoes (mens) £19
Newspaper_Daily Mirror 18p
Bus fare into Swindon (adult)22p
(child)11p
First class postage 17p
second class postage 13p
Gallon petrol £2.04
Pint of beer 75p
20 Cigarettes £1.35
Terraced house in Gorse Hill £20,000
Interesting how some things have gone up yet others stayed the same.
From that list washing machines can be bought at that price or even cheaper, though they’ll be throwaway tat made in Turkey or China, can’t really be fixed if its more than a loose connection or a blown fuse.
TV’s are around the same price for the same size, and now more reliable than ever if you get a known make, again all foreign made.
Milk is cheaper, in Morrisons 4 pints for 88p.
Shoes are cheaper for rubbish, British made quality shoes never have been cheap.
Houses, that seems very cheap would be around the time of the housing crash of its time if i remember correctly, cheap to buy but you needed a good job when mortgage interest peaked at 16% IIRC.
The thing I miss like toothache about driving 25 and plus yrs ago, is having to do your own wheel changes, worse if on hard shoulder, and even worse still if an inside trailer wheel (pre super single days) that was jammed on, the only way to get it off (without a sledgehammer) was lie on your back and kick it off with both feet together. Would hate to have to go back to that ■■■■.
Biggest difference for me is how a driver is more likely to pull a fast one against another if they can. Poor wages. Office management who have no idea how the road system works.
pros
Vastly improved vehicles.
Improved safety
Air conditioning
alder:
Generally HGV and PSV drivers were on more or less what they get now so the pay has not moved on average. However the cost of living was very different…
PSV drivers certainly were on nowhere near the same 25 years ago as they are now. The local bus firm around here pays £10-something an hour whereas in 1989 they used to advertise for minibus drivers for about £2.50ph. Even those on the double-deckers and who had put a lifetime’s service in were still only on around £4.
I don’t know about coach drivers but bus work with any of the bigger firms is good for a tenner an hour at least nowadays.
i know for one in the 70’s in the north east my old man got nowhere near £9 an hour maybe a week but not an hour.
my first job I was offered after closing our firm down was at ramage transport and it was £3.62 an hour. asda paid £5.50 in 1998.
Conor:
Bad Jim:
PaulNowak:
English used to be an used and understood languagelolwut?
“An used” is the correct use of “a” and “an”. “An” precedes a word starting with a vowel, “a” precedes a word starting with a consonant unless silent h. Just because most would say “a used” doesn’t mean it is correct.
English used to be a language that was used and understood.
You can’t pud a bedder bid of budder on your knife