Afternoon all
I am looking to use a few artic (not ADR) tankers on a contract in Bristol and wondered what rates should be acceptable for the drivers. Mon - Friday the occasional Saturday with 1 or 2 nights out a week. It would be a nice steady away job.
Obviously I wouldn’t be wanting the bottom of the barrel drivers so looking to pay a decent enough wage.
Cheers
I’ve seen on previous posts on here where drivers have said they wouldn’t work for as little as £10 per hour. If that’s a starting point for you!
Rowley010:
I’ve seen on previous posts on here where drivers have said they wouldn’t work for as little as £10 per hour. If that’s a starting point for you!
Thanks mate. I’ve factored £11-12 per hour in to my costings with £25 for nights out. Will probably stick to this as wouldn’t want to lose a good driver for the sake of a couple of quid.
I tihnk you’ll find in Bristol that hourly rate is what the agencies are paying for doing supermarket work at places like Asda.
Castillidie:
bottom of the barrel drivers
I like the pun - bottom of the barrel haha!
It all depends on your requirements and the product you’re carrying. Tanker drivers have to drive a bit more carefully and sedately than the norm (so you don’t want to hire ex-tipper guys or ex-van drivers), but the driving skills for tankers are not appreciably different to non-tanker work.
Tanker drivers command a premium generally because they have to be able to grasp the plumbing and systems involved in discharging the product (which can have subtle pitfalls), and to follow safety procedures even when unsupervised.
How much you have to pay above the basic driver rate for your area, will depend on how difficult and subtle the non-driving aspects of the work are to perform, and the risks of it going wrong. If tanker drivers have the loading and discharges done for them, I suspect they’d cost no more than the equivalent non-tanker driver.
If you are expecting the driver to load and discharge, I’d factor a few pounds an hour more than the basic driver rate for your area.
Would bottom of the barrel drivers be ok on non tanker work? 
£12 sounds reasonable as basic (days, mon-fri), but i’d be expecting proper overtime rate, pref time and a half, after 8.45 hours and that OT rate to apply sat morn.
I’d also offer enhanced ‘night money’ for before 6am and after 6pm.
Got to make it worth tempting better drivers off the alternatives.