Roymondo:
Does it matter? If you’re happy with the amount you get paid for the job you do then that’s fine. If not, do something about it!
+1
+2
Rather than worry about what everyone else earns, you need to ask yourself “is my take home enough for me?”. If the answer is yes then your wages are fine. In my opinion it is fine to do a job for £10 an hour compared to a job for £18 when you factor in lots of other things such as distance to work,type of work, length of shifts etc. When I was working containers I worked for a company paying the pricey sum of £7.15 an hour. It was my foot in the door so I had to accept it. But since they were only a ten minute drive from my house and it was ■■■■ easy container work I stayed. My cousin got his qualification to haul oversized loads and was earning £20 an hour but he had a 3 hour round trip to and from work and it could be a 6 hr shift or a 15 and a sleep out meaning he never knew from one day to the next if he would be home or not. To me, the increase in wages was not worth the extra hassle. Its swings and roundabouts.
Dont care what anyone else gets in the bank.Wages have been crap for years and have never really rised so blame the british drivers not the ee drivers they were crap before they came over in mass.
The-Snowman:
Im not forcing anyone to do 60 hours a week.
You and people like you are though by keeping the hourly rate low so they’re forced to do 60hrs to pay their bills.
And another thing you forget is that if every driver does take a stand and the wage rises to a basic £10-£15 per hour then you can forget flexibility and free thinking from companies. You’ll do it their regimented way with no flexibility or leeway from them. After all, they are paying you a small fortune
£10/hr is not a small fortune. £12.50/hr is the national average wage. My 20 year old son works in a factory in Bridlington running a machine making herbal tablets where the only qualification needed is to have a pulse and he gets £8.50/hr to stand there and watch it and periodically throw powder into it.
The-Snowman:
Im not forcing anyone to do 60 hours a week.
You and people like you are though by keeping the hourly rate low so they’re forced to do 60hrs to pay their bills.
See the bit about new license holders. And the bit about probably leaving for a better paid job once experience set in.
Conor:
The-Snowman:
And another thing you forget is that if every driver does take a stand and the wage rises to a basic £10-£15 per hour then you can forget flexibility and free thinking from companies. You’ll do it their regimented way with no flexibility or leeway from them. After all, they are paying you a small fortune
£10/hr is not a small fortune. £12.50/hr is the national average wage. My 20 year old son works in a factory in Bridlington running a machine making herbal tablets where the only qualification needed is to have a pulse and he gets £8.50/hr to stand there and watch it and periodically throw powder into it.
Good for him. That sounds like a great job.
But you completely missed the point.
Point is,if every driver folds their arms and says “its £12 p/h or the truck aint moving” gets it and then says two weeks later “im stuck here not loaded and i wont make it back tonight if I dont leave now so can I leave to come back to yard?” what do you think the answer will be?
Radar19:
Our place is like that. One of our lot worked out how much our hourly is and its drum roll £5.60(ish) an hour.
Could this not be reported for breach of the minimum wage law?
Surely if a few drivers went to the appropriate body with proof of hours worked on a regular basis (timesheets, tacho records) and wage slips, they could get some action taken.
They get around this by using those wonderful bonus’s. Its alright if you are actually working but take some holiday or sick leave and your wage falls through the floor, in my case my normal take home is about £450-470 a week if you include all the bonus’s but basic is pay is crap, well beyond crap. The guy who worked it out at £77 a day working a 15 hour shift. When he told me this I nearly fell of me cab!
I take home the same now in my new job, as I did in my old one. No weekends, no nights out, no bank holidays, own bed every night. I just miss the Euro trips!
i used to work euro trips and it was basic plus mileage bonus and you could never quite get that golden pay packet when that company when into liquidation (management incompitance i was lead to belive) i bumped into one of the office staff one day and got chatting and it came out that if you were getting near to haveing a “good week” you would get given a long day sitting for loads rather than distance work
that was back in the nineties
wasent there some legislation about bonuses being outlawed to stop drivers going balls to the wall and being tempted to work illegally…?
The-Snowman:
+2
Rather than worry about what everyone else earns, you need to ask yourself “is my take home enough for me?”. If the answer is yes then your wages are fine. In my opinion it is fine to do a job for £10 an hour compared to a job for £18 when you factor in lots of other things such as distance to work,type of work, length of shifts etc.
I’d like to thank you for your contribution to keeping hourly rates crap and forcing drivers to do 60hrs a week to earn the national average wage. I’m quite sure your bosses love you too… “Just give Snowman plenty of hours and he’ll think he is taking home a decent wage even though we’re taking him for a mug.”
If drivers universally said they’d not set foot inside a truck for less than £10/hr then £10/hr becomes the rate or the truck sits there. Whilst you get muppets who are quite happy to work for barely more than the minimum living wage “because its just 10 minutes down the road” then everyone else will continue to suffer.
Being part of the endemic agency system you’re in a very dubious position to lecture people on their personal choices degrading pay and conditions within a company.
Roymondo:
Does it matter? If you’re happy with the amount you get paid for the job you do then that’s fine. If not, do something about it!
I think the point here is that “You don’t know you’re unhappy until someone else says you are”.
“Hey bud, I take home £500 a week”. “Hmpph! That’s nothing. I’m on £18per hour!” “Not much good if you only get one shift a week though eh?” “Not at all. I do Euro tramping and I’m paid for every hour from the time I turn up on Monday to the time I get home the friday of the following week”. <<<< You are never, ever going to here this said though - except as a line of bully.
The-Snowman:
+2
Rather than worry about what everyone else earns, you need to ask yourself “is my take home enough for me?”. If the answer is yes then your wages are fine. In my opinion it is fine to do a job for £10 an hour compared to a job for £18 when you factor in lots of other things such as distance to work,type of work, length of shifts etc.
I’d like to thank you for your contribution to keeping hourly rates crap and forcing drivers to do 60hrs a week to earn the national average wage. I’m quite sure your bosses love you too… “Just give Snowman plenty of hours and he’ll think he is taking home a decent wage even though we’re taking him for a mug.”
If drivers universally said they’d not set foot inside a truck for less than £10/hr then £10/hr becomes the rate or the truck sits there. Whilst you get muppets who are quite happy to work for barely more than the minimum living wage “because its just 10 minutes down the road” then everyone else will continue to suffer.
The-Snowman:
+2
Rather than worry about what everyone else earns, you need to ask yourself “is my take home enough for me?”. If the answer is yes then your wages are fine. In my opinion it is fine to do a job for £10 an hour compared to a job for £18 when you factor in lots of other things such as distance to work,type of work, length of shifts etc.
I’d like to thank you for your contribution to keeping hourly rates crap and forcing drivers to do 60hrs a week to earn the national average wage. I’m quite sure your bosses love you too… “Just give Snowman plenty of hours and he’ll think he is taking home a decent wage even though we’re taking him for a mug.”
If drivers universally said they’d not set foot inside a truck for less than £10/hr then £10/hr becomes the rate or the truck sits there. Whilst you get muppets who are quite happy to work for barely more than the minimum living wage “because its just 10 minutes down the road” then everyone else will continue to suffer.
The-Snowman:
+2
Rather than worry about what everyone else earns, you need to ask yourself “is my take home enough for me?”. If the answer is yes then your wages are fine. In my opinion it is fine to do a job for £10 an hour compared to a job for £18 when you factor in lots of other things such as distance to work,type of work, length of shifts etc.
I’d like to thank you for your contribution to keeping hourly rates crap and forcing drivers to do 60hrs a week to earn the national average wage. I’m quite sure your bosses love you too… “Just give Snowman plenty of hours and he’ll think he is taking home a decent wage even though we’re taking him for a mug.”
If drivers universally said they’d not set foot inside a truck for less than £10/hr then £10/hr becomes the rate or the truck sits there. Whilst you get muppets who are quite happy to work for barely more than the minimum living wage “because its just 10 minutes down the road” then everyone else will continue to suffer.
It makes jack all what you do. Case in point, one of our shunters went to our TM to ask about a pay rise only be told that “if you don’t want this job, I can get a Pole to it.” You’re dammed in you do, you’re dammed if you don’t. It would have to take all the drivers in every yard to make a stand for wages but you and I both know that will never happen. All it takes is for one driver to turn up for work and then the rest of you are out on your arses collectively.
I don’t give a monkey’s what they call the way they make up my wages, bonuses, night’s out, meal allowance or whatever, as long as I’m happy with the figure that goes in my bank, that’s all that matters, nobody in the pub, petrol station, supermarket or anywhere else I spend my money gives a toss whether it’s hourly pay, night out money or meal allowance, so why should I?
I earn £9.25 an hour. On average I book 52. I work about 20. But with nights out and the fact of I don’t do a lot, I’m happy taking home on average £580 a week. I start Sunday afternoon, and finish Thursday before dinner time. I drive approx 1000km a week if I’m lucky.
Now when I went for a job interview a couple of years ago when I was a little bit ■■■■■■ with my current firm, the company who i went to see, a specialist hiab company, one of the questions on the form asked me my current hourly wage… I was honest, but when the interviewer looked at what i had put, he laughed and said…“we don’t day our drivers that much… it’s made up of a basic and bonuses”. I promptly left… Thankfully I’ve stayed at my current firm which payed off too. Now, I’ve only ever been with my current employer since I passed my class 2 back in 2001, they paid for my class 1 a few years back but could never leave them after hearing the countless stories of bonuses, hours etc etc… It goes to show how different each and every firm pays it’s drivers a wage tho…
tachograph:
It’s never really bothered me what other people claim to take home, it’s not my business and frankly I don’t give a ■■■■.
Half the people you talk to will fill your ears with bull[zb] anyway, so why take any notice.
I agree with what’s been said about night out money though, it shouldn’t be considered part of your wages any more than meal allowance or tax credits should.
Take home pay what’s that ■■? I know what diesel I put in ,I know what the jobs pay ,but some how her in doors petit coat government keeps the lot ,sometimes I’ll ask for a tenner !
If I’m asked, I just say “I’m paid what I’m worth”.
I couldn’t give 2 hoots what you earn, because I’m not doing your job. I’m doing mine. Even the other drivers on my firm don’t do my job. They do their own. So I would imagine we are all on slightly different pay scales.
As long as you are happy with your wage, I’ll make sure happy with mine thanks
me to mate well said