Its not long ago that drivers were not far off minimum wage- I see adverts now giving 45K-50K on top less tax thats still not huge but a great improvement- just wondering those that are comfortable sharing has the money improved that much?
where i am placed by the agency and if i do fri,sat, sun, mon nights i can make that sort of money by doing 4 12 hour nights
I’d say 37k to 38k is about the norm for a 50 hour week now. 40 plus is achievable with a lot of overtime. But that would be max hours for 45k upwards in my book. Excluding the few exceptions of course and regional variations.
Sent from my CPH2173 using Tapatalk
I’ve only been at my place for 18 months, I’m contracted for 46.25hrs a week and if I did just that the basic is £48,500 including relevant premiums for the hours I attend (night money for a few hours each day, weekend premium for the Sunday etc).
But being transport I normally end up with a bit of overtime, normally about 5hrs to 8hrs a week on average, so not much, which pushes it up to between £55,000 and £58,000 for an “average” normal working week over five days.
The driver shortage enabled me to get that job so perhaps its worth looking at my old job which was general haulage, 60hr week average for £13ph flat grossing £40,560pa. Since I’ve left they’ve had a pay rise to £15.10ph so assuming the same average 60hr week the gross works out at £47,100pa
Just to add… I pay a lot into my pension and try to limit my overtime to try and stay below 50k net adjusted income to avoid the 40% tax rate and losing some child benefit for being a “high earner”, but with tax bands frozen it’s harder to do with each annual pay rise.
Deleted comment
50k gross, including nights out and meal allowance (not taxed obviously)
Happy enough with that…not maxed out hours wise, generally 12 hour shifts, 12 hour rest periods
Could be a lot worse 
My current job sees me take home just over 700 per week. 5 days 8am to 4pm.
Which means my unused HGV entitlements remain unused.
Thing with some job adverts they say potential earnings etc.
To earn that amount it would include all your night out money plus any microlse bonuses etc .
You do 4 nights a week that’s £100 over a year is £5200 so you can knock that off the advertised pay rate for starters.
End day guess I’m lucky don’t overly need the money these days happy doing what I do now.
Yes could maybe earn more else ware but each to there own.
edd1974:
Thing with some job adverts they say potential earnings etc.
Those are the jobs to avoid
Rikki-UK:
Its not long ago that drivers were not far off minimum wage- I see adverts now giving 45K-50K on top less tax thats still not huge but a great improvement- just wondering those that are comfortable sharing has the money improved that much?
Looking at my wage slips I went from £11.55/hr on days and £12.55/hr on nights at the end of March 2020, from 6th April 2020 that rose to £15.78 on days/£17 on nights 2022 when not only did it rise to £16.66 on days and £18/hr on nights, the pay rise was brought forward from April to January. And whilst in 2020 what we were on was still quite a special rate in the area, by mid 2021 it had become about the average. The agency I’m at in Hull upped their rates they were advertising from a minimum £10/hr to £16/hr between 2020 and the start of 2022. My son who is working for a small family haulage company on general haulage got a £3/hr rise over the same period, in 2021 he got three wage rises in a year. Any company trying to get drivers for £12/hr in East Yorkshire is finding it almost impossible to get drivers, in 2020 anyone advertising over £10/hr would have people lining up.
What is interesting though is the number of drivers who haven’t seen it as an opportunity to put more money in their pocket but to reduce their hours. We’ve seen it reflected not only in agency but permanent roles as well. Companies wanting trampers are finding it nigh on impossible to get drivers no matter what rate they’re offering. Hell a company in Driffield who I once laughed at down the phone when they said what they paid now not only pay a decent rate but their job adverts were offering 3,4 or 5 day weeks, whatever you wanted. I was actually surprised that quite a few companies a year or so ago cottoned on to the fact that maybe drivers don’t want to do 50/60+hrs a week any more and started to see more job adverts offering days to suit.
For lorry driving the ending of freedom of movement has been a very good thing indeed.
My basic salary is £33,500 for 5x 10 hour Monday-Friday shifts with overtime paid at £17 odd after 10 hours but the reality is that I normally do about eight hours a day. I know I could earn more but I start at 08:00, finish normally about 16:15 and am not required to do very much in the way of work.
50-55k a year doing around 55-60hrs a week-agency for high street chain. East midlands. Easy work but brain dead. Forgot to say weekend work a must.
Tbh wages seem to have remained pretty stagnant when you add inflation.
40k p/a feels more like 30k p/a
adam277:
Tbh wages seem to have remained pretty stagnant when you add inflation.
40k p/a feels more like 30k p/a
That is the same everywhere though wage stagnation has been rubbish for the last ten years.
Such a shame that almost no one is willing to say which company or industry sector they’re working in.
stu675:
Such a shame that almost no one is willing to say which company or industry sector they’re working in.
ilearnt not to do that the hard way. trouble is people have long memories and if you say you work for a company and then have issues with a different company everyone assumes it was the origional one if that makes any sence.
I try not to name and shame on forums at least in public as my experience might not the the same as someone elses or it could be a different branch
If you take my hourly rate and multiply it by a normal working week, which I consider to be 37.5 hours (Monday to Friday days - no enhancements), you come out under £30k. This isn’t what I actually earn, but that is how I compare it to other jobs in terms of the worth of my work. Effectively I don’t consider myself in a well paid profession.
I got 3 pay rises through 2021 (but none through 2022). It went up by about 10% in all.
With shift premiums, meal allowance, and another bonus or two, I’m on about £40k for 4 on 4 off nights, and average about 42 hours each calender week. I think I worked it out to be almost double minimum wage.
I could earn £1,000 pw ( I posted up the pay slips) working for stobarts years ago , but not doing like most normal people do , 40 hours pw , so I’ll never subscribe to lorry drivers earnt rubbish wages up until now , we’ve always been able to earn good money
Now we move onto the present wages , I’m not sure how agency drivers can come on this thread ( other than me ) saying they earn this / that , yes you may of had substantial pay rises but if your sat at home on your setee ( read agency famine thread ) then your £18 ph equates to £0 at the end of the week , how long will that carry on for weeks / months ?
As for me last week I did 80 1/2 hrs , mon- sat , tramping , £1,300 take home , sounds marvellous , £70/ £80 k pa , but no , as agency I’ve this week off , last week jan / 1 st week feb & at moment 3/4 days as hospital appointments , no pay
So in summing up my opinion is you could / can earn good money lorry driving , but until it’s 40 hrs pw ( and not including sat/ sun as part of week , starting work at 1 am , it’s just another load of crap ) then were still short of the builder next door who does mon - fri , 7.30 - 14.30/ 15.00 & ■■■■■■ 1 k pw
Lots of my mates work in all sorts of work & you mention 80 hrs , sleeping in a lorry , 1 am starts , weekend working & they think you’re round the twist , they’d not entertain the job , says it all . 50k or not