Surprised a wannabe trucker

[robroy]

Strapping my load up last night, on my own in an empty factory (only idiot working on a Saturday night ) and the security guy approached me with a …
‘‘Can I ask you a couple of questions please mate’’

He then asked me if the test for a truck was difficult,.as he was about to save up for a course and wanted to know a bit about the job.
I told him I couldn’t answer his first question as it was 40 years ago I took my test…as I was older than I look.
Anyhow he mis heard me and thought I said 14, so I just let it go anyway )

Anyhow, I said to him if you really want it go for it, but if you want to make a lot of money, for normal snd proper working hours, then just walk away,.and forget it…end of.

When I told him the average wage, he genuinely thought I was winding him up, he really could not believe it, and then told me he was only on 50p an hour less than me for as he put it, ‘‘Sitting cosy watching Netflix’’…and when I told him of the ridiculous maximum hours, I think that was enough for him.

My point of this post is not to go down the route of running the job down/‘‘we should be on more money’’/better t.s &c.s etc,.etc, as all that has been done to death on here already,…

But why do so many people think we are on mega money??
Are they believing all the ''Be a driver and earn x no (inflated figure) of k a year in driver adverts in the paper or,.all this 'driver shortage dog ■■■■ , or what?

Ok, some of you are on brilliant money as I once was, but you are a very small minority to the rest of us, but in conversations in the pub, or on holiday etc if I tell non transport people what I do,.I always get a similar reaction. (After the why the elephant racing question of course )
Why is that?

[the_maoster]

Show an industry outsider your P60 and they’ll be impressed. Then explain that although it may very well be twice theirs you also did twice the hours to get it! With a few notable exceptions such as junior doctors a week consisting of more than 40 hours would be viewed with horror.

[wrighty1]

It’s surprising how often you actually get asked about the job by forklift drivers etc wanting to do their test, I’m quite honest about what I earn and then tell them the hours.
The look of joy and instant despair can be amusing, on the other hand it’s not a particularly hard job in terms of physicality compared to others I’ve done. I find it far more mentally tiring though due to the long hours and concentration needed.
I’m relatively new to the job as well having only been doing it for 5 years and class 1 for just 1 year, still enjoying it but I’ve had some really rubbish jobs over the years [emoji16]

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[punchy_dan]

I’ve had no wages since 2004 .I’am allowed some pocket money now and again straight up I kid you not .
I don’t ask about money and I don’t speak to the accountant or look at paperwork I’ve no interest ,I know how many litres I use and what the rate is on the day life is simple that way .

[cookiemonster]

I think the problem is that training providers, and especially the brokers, who say you can earn £30k a year, (which is entirely possible). This leads people from outside of the industry to think this wage is for a ‘normal’ 40 hour week, and then hear drivers talking about doing 60+hours plus nights out and think they must be on megabucks.

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[adam277]

I think the issue is the rise of the min wage.
It will be £8.91 in April.
So lets say you are a fork lift driver or a security guard. Or something similar. Your on like say £10 an hour.

So £10 an hour x 40 is a take home of £342 a week after tax. (Roughly).
Or about 20k a year.

Now, if your a HGV Driver you might well be on the same rate but instead of doing 40 hours your doing lets say 50 hours. £10 an hour x 50 is £410 a week. Or like 26k a year.

When I was a forklift driving about 5 years ago I think. I was earning £7 an hour. Which worked out like £260 a week for 40 hours a week. Whereas the rate for driving a truck was still about £10 an hour. Which is like I said £410 for 50 hours a week.
So where the difference was pretty big before and it was worth being a truck driver, now it is not so much. Mainly due to the rise of the min wage with no real rise in HGV wages.

That is my uninformed take on it anyway.

[wheelsofcardiff]

I laugh when i hear some drivers say i would rather stack shelves and earn more .Then when i check what shops offer .Drivers lie a lot about their wages a lot .I wont get out of bed for 15 an hour i heard a driver say.Then i looked at his companies website i nearly fell laughing

[harry_monk]

I’m salaried and on £30,000 a year. I don’t consider myself to be well paid by local (Rugby) standards, but then they don’t expect too much from me, normally a 10-11 hour day, 6-7 hours of which is spent watching Japanese ■■■■■■■ ■■■■ on the laptop.

Certainly I don’t often encounter other people in my working day and think “Ooh, I wish I had his job”

[switchlogic]

He sounds like he’s in for a dull life. I hope he wakes up before it’s too late. How much money you’ve earned is the last thing on your mind as you lay dying No ones dying thought has ever been ‘I wish I earned more’…trust me that’s one place I’ve been

[truckerian99]

I average less than 10 hours a shift, work five days from seven (this includes weekends, but NO nights out), but NEVER work overtime and earn £37,500 per year. Not great, but you can live on it.

[robroy]

switchlogic:
He sounds like he’s in for a dull life. I hope he wakes up before it’s too late. How much money you’ve earned is the last thing on your mind as you lay dying No ones dying thought has ever been ‘I wish I earned more’…trust me that’s one place I’ve been

Tbf I did actually say to him ‘‘If you really want it go for it’’.and the money side only came out when he asked me.
I agree there is a hell of a lot to be said for doing a job of work that you enjoy, if you can get it, but by his tone, I assumed he needed a better wage to what he was on,.so I gave him a true account of the job, and I did say it could be enjoyable in the right work…he may have been single,.or have a wife and 6 kids, the conversation never got that far.

It must be great if somebody can do a job as a kind of hobby,.and not care too much about the money, I would love that myself, I have a list of dream ‘hobby jobs’ , but I sure as hell could not afford to live and provide on the wage that a couple of those jobs would pay.

In my opinion and in my own personal experience, people only work because they HAVE to, and the reason they have to is to basically live, achievable by making money, …but I ain’t saying anything that you don’t already know.

That is the reason the upper classes don’t work…because they don’t have to.

[ets]

If i had a tenner every time a gatehouse guard or a loader or picker approached me with the ‘hey i been thinking about getting a license and getting into truck driving’ line, I’d have enough to retire by now They all think its easy work for a lot of money but the fact they havent even looked at jobs advertised to see for themselves the sort of money they can expect…

[adam277]

Is it really worth getting a HGV licence now when the industry is pushing so hard on automation?
It’s a signifcant amount of money training to be a HGV driver. I am not so sure.

I wouldnt be surpised if there is at best 2 decades left in the industry.
There will always be jobs that automation cant do but when roles like trunking get automated it could lead to having more drivers than the industry needs.

[wrighty1]

adam277:
Is it really worth getting a HGV licence now when the industry is pushing so hard on automation?
It’s a signifcant amount of money training to be a HGV driver. I am not so sure.

I wouldnt be surpised if there is at best 2 decades left in the industry.
There will always be jobs that automation cant do but when roles like trunking get automated it could lead to having more drivers than the industry needs.

I’m on general which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I quite enjoy doing different jobs every day, no automation will ever do what we do [emoji848]

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[njl]

I would wager he would have been more surprised if he had tried to get some advice from Harry Monk at an inconvenient moment.

Not all drivers come over the same way.

[switchlogic]

adam277:
Is it really worth getting a HGV licence now when the industry is pushing so hard on automation?
It’s a signifcant amount of money training to be a HGV driver. I am not so sure.

I wouldnt be surpised if there is at best 2 decades left in the industry.
There will always be jobs that automation cant do but when roles like trunking get automated it could lead to having more drivers than the industry needs.

Yes. Yes automation will happen but it’s wildly optimistic to imagine full no driver present automation within 20 years. Public opinion moves way slower than tech

[whitetruckman]

Just as most of us go about our jobs in a no fuss/no bother manner, the public only seem to notice the steering wheel attendants and drama queens and proceed to tar us all with the same brush, so it is with money and rates. There will always be the occasional Billy Big ■■■■■■■■ who loves to flash his wad and/or mouth off about how good he’s doing and naturally someone else who is dissatisfied with their current position is going to lap it up.

Mind you, if they do take the plunge a willingness to accept BS is an essential part of a drivers skillset these days!

[switchlogic]

robroy:
It must be great if somebody can do a job as a kind of hobby,.and not care too much about the money, I would love that myself, I have a list of dream ‘hobby jobs’ , but I sure as hell could not afford to live and provide on the wage that a couple of those jobs would pay.

That is the reason the upper classes don’t work…because they don’t have to.

I’m at an extreme, I’ve never been bothered about money and frankly never been much good with it, which is why I’m on my arse now financially which will have to change. I am aware being in my 40’s and single is sort of a luxury in that regard, tho many would see that as very lonely it suits me. My Dad was a mechanic to around my age then a driver and much more switched on about money but we could see in his times when he’d changed jobs for money not desire, he became sadder really quickly. He was away a lot of our childhood but as I always say to people- a happy Dad around little is worth ten Dads around every day sad because they do a job they hate. He’s best friends with us kids now, always has been. Not many Dads seem to be able to say that. At the age many retire, 65 he’s just gone from 4 on 4 off to 6 on 2 off!

Don’t confuse the upper classes with those who made their own wealth. The richest people on earth these days made it themselves and very few of these billionaires ever stop working. Many work harder than ever.

[dozy]

Saturday ■■■■■■■ night , no doubt running in Sunday , get a ■■■■■■■ life .

[robthedog]

robroy:

switchlogic:
He sounds like he’s in for a dull life. I hope he wakes up before it’s too late. How much money you’ve earned is the last thing on your mind as you lay dying No ones dying thought has ever been ‘I wish I earned more’…trust me that’s one place I’ve been

Tbf I did actually say to him ‘‘If you really want it go for it’’.and the money side only came out when he asked me.
I agree there is a hell of a lot to be said for doing a job of work that you enjoy, if you can get it, but by his tone, I assumed he needed a better wage to what he was on,.so I gave him a true account of the job, and I did say it could be enjoyable in the right work…he may have been single,.or have a wife and 6 kids, the conversation never got that far.

It must be great if somebody can do a job as a kind of hobby,.and not care too much about the money, I would love that myself, I have a list of dream ‘hobby jobs’ , but I sure as hell could not afford to live and provide on the wage that a couple of those jobs would pay.

In my opinion and in my own personal experience, people only work because they HAVE to, and the reason they have to is to basically live, achievable by making money, …but I ain’t saying anything that you don’t already know.j(

That is the reason the upper classes don’t work…because they don’t have to.

You need to get on with Dozys
lot as he only does the job as a hobby and he’s minted that’s where your going wrong rob