adam277:
The RHA is a lobby group for the haulage industry.
It is in their members interests to ensure labour is cheap and drivers can work long hours.
False economy to pay drivers when the wheels aren’t turning and they can only turn for 45 hours per fortnight per driver.
Unless you intend to employ the driver in a different role during the downtime or make the hourly rate low enough to actually not be paying the driver at all during the downtime.
This country’s economy has been based on the false premise that low incomes mean more econimic growth for decades.
One thing - that guy only noticed things changing in2017? HGV pay rates on agency in 2007 were minimum wage. Was it migrants who caused that?
Yes. They started to come here from 2004 and in that first year over 100,000 arrived. Flat rate with no overtime Monday to Friday was already becoming the norm.
Not 100,000 truck drivers tho. So wages collapsed from good to minimum wage within 3 years?
No not 100,000 truckers but a lot. How many exactly? No one knows.
For example I worked at a company called Tuffnells in 2017. All the night drivers apart from 2 were Romanian. (There was 20 night drivers). The funny thing is most of them did not even speak English. So the manager needed to use another driver to translate for him.
With the day drivers (there was like 8 of us) I’d say about 5 were Romanian or Polish.
I think the issue was. A lot of drivers were self employed or worked via a haulage firm for a client. So when you can actually drop the rate and get new drivers in then it became a issue. I highly doubt all of the work was minimum wage though lol. Just some of it.
According to this in a 2 year time frame between 6000-7000 hgv drivers joined the labour force from Poland. Kinda funny reading it as they only predicted 15,000 workers total.
I dont get where you are getting that people were paid minimum wage though. I mean, I am sure some were on min wage but not most.
SalTheWop:
Well Ive been driving buses for the last 2 1/2 months. Although I am not enjoying working saturdays and sundays I find the work itself not too bad . Maybe as time goes on and I get some grief that will change .Only problem I have with kids is them keep ringing the bloody bell!!! . One drunk last night who puked up on the bus .Didnt bother me…in fact it was a result as the bus had to be taken off the road and I got an early finish.
Yeah, midweek I have to work 11 1/2 hr shifts(occasionally) ,albeit with a 3 hour meal break, but I bring home £400 for that which isnt too bad. Yes, I do get people who dont want to pay their fare . I call them back, if they ignore me, they get a free ride .Its the revenue protection inspectors job to sort them out ,not mine.
Now granted this guy is a bus driver. But I am too lazy to sift through a silly amount of posts just to find the perfect example.
He is taking home £400 a week.
The issue to me seems there are a lot of people right now taking home £400 a week. The problem was not so much people working on min wage but wage stagnation.
Also the min wage in 2007 was like £5.52. Now if someone was actually working for that amount on a 50 hour week they would only be taking home £14,352 a year. I highly doubt that was the case.
adam277:
The RHA is a lobby group for the haulage industry.
It is in their members interests to ensure labour is cheap and drivers can work long hours.
According to this in a 2 year time frame between 6000-7000 hgv drivers joined the labour force from Poland. Kinda funny reading it as they only predicted 15,000 workers total.
I dont get where you are getting that people were paid minimum wage though. I mean, I am sure some were on min wage but not most.
SalTheWop:
Well Ive been driving buses for the last 2 1/2 months. Although I am not enjoying working saturdays and sundays I find the work itself not too bad . Maybe as time goes on and I get some grief that will change .Only problem I have with kids is them keep ringing the bloody bell!!! . One drunk last night who puked up on the bus .Didnt bother me…in fact it was a result as the bus had to be taken off the road and I got an early finish.
Yeah, midweek I have to work 11 1/2 hr shifts(occasionally) ,albeit with a 3 hour meal break, but I bring home £400 for that which isnt too bad. Yes, I do get people who dont want to pay their fare . I call them back, if they ignore me, they get a free ride .Its the revenue protection inspectors job to sort them out ,not mine.
Now granted this guy is a bus driver. But I am too lazy to sift through a silly amount of posts just to find the perfect example.
He is taking home £400 a week.
The issue to me seems there are a lot of people right now taking home £400 a week. The problem was not so much people working on min wage but wage stagnation.
Also the min wage in 2007 was like £5.52. Now if someone was actually working for that amount on a 50 hour week they would only be taking home £14,352 a year. I highly doubt that was the case.
Driver hire were paying £6 an hour in 2007 - I know cos I was that soldier. I think class 1 might have been £6.50. It maybe went up 50 pence by 2008.
Shortage of Drivers by the likes of supermarkets is something of their own doing. They are the ones who started 24/7 opening and the need to have goods delivered too suit,meaning they need Drivers to work 5/7 days / nights /afternoons and any other stupid oclock start times. Relying on Agency at "peak times" but dropping them like a hot brick at a whim. Its the way they work,I went to Tesco Hinckley a few years back for an interview,the interview stopped as soon as they said it was 01.00 am start, even if I was desperate I still would not take the job, the reason they where interviewing was because they could not get their own Drivers to do it. Is it ever wonder theirs a shortage of Drivers,young dont want the unsociable shifts and start times and many of the older ones in the 50/65 age group no longer have the need to work stupid hours or shifts.
lolipop:
Shortage of Drivers by the likes of supermarkets is something of their own doing. They are the ones who started 24/7 opening and the need to have goods delivered too suit,meaning they need Drivers to work 5/7 days / nights /afternoons and any other stupid oclock start times. Relying on Agency at "peak times" but dropping them like a hot brick at a whim. Its the way they work,I went to Tesco Hinckley a few years back for an interview,the interview stopped as soon as they said it was 01.00 am start, even if I was desperate I still would not take the job, the reason they where interviewing was because they could not get their own Drivers to do it. Is it ever wonder theirs a shortage of Drivers,young dont want the unsociable shifts and start times and many of the older ones in the 50/65 age group no longer have the need to work stupid hours or shifts.
I agree to a point but therws different strokes for different folks. For instance I now work for tesco and my start time is 1am. It makes people cringe when I say that but I honestly love it. It’s 1am every day not a two hour window either side so i have the rigidness of being able to know what time to go to bed etc and that doesn’t need to change. It’s also an easy ride and means I can sort the kids of an evening therefore getting rid of the cost of additional childcare.
I’m 39 now, will I start at 1am forever? Probably not but for now it suits me just fine. I got home at 11am today.
JeffA:
Driver hire were paying £6 an hour in 2007 - I know cos I was that soldier. I think class 1 might have been £6.50. It maybe went up 50 pence by 2008.
dozy:
From what I can see allot of drivers want to do 15 hrs ( pay ) , but not 15 hrs worth of work
This is the biggest troll on TNUK .
As someone who is up for the odd 15 hour shift (when it suits me, like Sundays & Bank Holidays on agency)
…The real truth is that NO one gets paid 15 hours @ top dollar to work a 15 hour shift. The top payers - all deduct for meal breaks, whilst the lower payers might give you that hour back and pay you “flat rate” right through.
I dunno anyone who does a 15 hour shift, and gets paid 8 hours flat rate, and even 6 hours of at least 1.5x overtime rate… Prove me wrong someone!
JeffA:
Driver hire were paying £6 an hour in 2007 - I know cos I was that soldier. I think class 1 might have been £6.50. It maybe went up 50 pence by 2008.
Seconded. I remember it all too well myself.
Yea, if I was working in 2007 I would not of taken £6.50 for class one work
I’m 99% certain that I was paid £6.80/hr by DriverHire for nights when I started at TNT in 2014 as a new pass.
I had asked the rate before agreeing to job but was told “we’ll get back to you”. Of course they didn’t.
It turned out well though, within six weeks I was a TNT employee and stayed three years, left about a year after FedEx took them over. They were good to me as I had more than a couple of scrapes, including one on my first shift. It was very dark at Teesside airport!
The DH rate was diabolical but it got me started, though I do remember thinking at the time that I’d just wasted £3k.
No regrets now though (but only seven years in).
JeffA:
Driver hire were paying £6 an hour in 2007 - I know cos I was that soldier. I think class 1 might have been £6.50. It maybe went up 50 pence by 2008.
Seconded. I remember it all too well myself.
Yea, if I was working in 2007 I would not of taken £6.50 for class one work
Who “wouldn’t have got out of bed for less than a fiver”?
