My dad who has been driving for over 30 years said himself its the drivers who are at fault.He said that all the running bent for poor money and crap conditions in the earlier years is the reason wages are crap.Also he blames himself and older drivers also for what it is today and i have only been driving for 9 years and see what he means.Wages wont go up if you get say 9ph then ats great as they say.
Just enquired about another full time permanent job. Class two on construction work. The rate of pay is just £7 hour. Considering the minimum wage goes up to £6.70 in a few weeks time that would mean having a HGV license is worth a meagre £12 week more than minimum wage, or around £8 after tax. Another company last year wanted to pay just £7.20 for steel deliveries.
Most agency jobs around here pay £9 to £10 hour for rigids and £10 to £13 for artics. 
LIBERTY_GUY:
Most agency jobs around here pay £9 to £10 hour for rigids and £10 to £13 for artics.
But your branded a fool for working for decent money 
as long as most carry on accepting crap wages it leaves the decent pay for the ones with sense.
war1974:
poddy any chance you can name the companies that pay this? or the rdc canteen / waiting room you first heard/told it?
Im am not going name agency because its a friend of mine , but what i will say is he goes over to Romainia and other places etc for weeks at a time ,so far he has recrutted 16 drivers all of which now live here , He offers them £7.50 per hour and assistance in finding a property .this is fact not fiction or drivers room chit chat , this is they way thing are heading like it or not .
poddy123:
war1974:
poddy any chance you can name the companies that pay this? or the rdc canteen / waiting room you first heard/told it?Im am not going name agency because its a friend of mine , but what i will say is he goes over to Romainia and other places etc for weeks at a time ,so far he has recrutted 16 drivers all of which now live here , He offers them £7.50 per hour and assistance in finding a property .this is fact not fiction or drivers room chit chat , this is they way thing are heading like it or not .
Time to get out of the EU
m_attt:
LIBERTY_GUY:
Most agency jobs around here pay £9 to £10 hour for rigids and £10 to £13 for artics.But your branded a fool for working for decent money
Have no idea why some folks boast about being permanent, as some of the low rates of pay I have been quoted when asking after permanent jobs, make me wonder how some of them actually survive. £280 week basic for driving a HGV is truly beyond a joke, when others are paying £400 week basic for doing exactly the same type of work (both agency and permanent)?
rob22888:
desypete:
i was talking to a girl who works 37 hours a week, just doing basic office types of things like inputting date on a computer or printing off bills etc, its not rocket science any idiot can do it even a driver could do that jobit pays her 28k a year plus bonuses and 6 weeks holidays
A bog standard office admin job paying £28k basic? Do tell me where, my missus would be most interested!!! Try 13-16K as the going rate outside the London bubble. Her gaffers only on £26k.
I don’t know where you keep finding these people getting paid top dollar for menial jobs.
This whole idea that so many drivers seem to have, that everybody else in society is earning as much as or more than drivers, whilst only working a basic 40, book off, forget about work and go home everynight & sit with the family around the dinner table is utter deluded fantasy.
if you think that one is hard to believe
i know a fork lift driver who earns £36 an hour on Sundays only does 37 hours a week over 4 days on 4 days off, he is going to retire soon on a very nice pension he has spent over 30 years in the job he has and there all very well looked after who work in that firm
it turns out there on old contracts that the company can not change, the same guy had an agency guy working along side him and the agency guy was on £16 an hour which when the old guys retire will be the norm as the old contracts will be replaced with new ones which mean the jobs get done for a lot less
its the same in the driving game some guys out there are still on old contracts and being paid a lot more than the bog standard rates there contracts protect them so the company’s will either have to buy them out of the old contracts with early retirement etc which seems to the case these days so they can bring in cheaper labour and then get there money back via the savings in lower wages
I think I’m paid pretty well on about £10 an hour working as an “unskilled” supervisor doing shifts. I’m considering driving as something to do on my days off with the possibility of making it my full time job. I hadn’t even considered getting paid MORE as a driver than I do at the moment. I would snap the hand off anyone that approached me right now offering the chance to be out on the road instead of stuck behind this desk for the same money. There must be many others thinking the same. I completely agree that being a good driver takes time and practice but being a driver “that will do” appears to be pretty quick and easy.
The big killer is no doubt the foreign influence though. Driving is one of the many jobs being hammered by immigrants perfectly happy with the UK minimum wage because they’re shipping the cash off home where it is worth far more.
poddy123:
war1974:
poddy any chance you can name the companies that pay this? or the rdc canteen / waiting room you first heard/told it?Im am not going name agency because its a friend of mine , but what i will say is he goes over to Romainia and other places etc for weeks at a time ,so far he has recrutted 16 drivers all of which now live here , He offers them £7.50 per hour and assistance in finding a property .this is fact not fiction or drivers room chit chat , this is they way thing are heading like it or not .
so your willing to slate the pay rates, willing to slate the EU workers for being given a bum deal but wont name as its your mate??
Most class 2 jobs are nearly 10 ph in Midlands 11 for class one doesn’t sound too good
rob22888:
desypete:
i was talking to a girl who works 37 hours a week, just doing basic office types of things like inputting date on a computer or printing off bills etc, its not rocket science any idiot can do it even a driver could do that jobit pays her 28k a year plus bonuses and 6 weeks holidays
A bog standard office admin job paying £28k basic? Do tell me where, my missus would be most interested!!! Try 13-16K as the going rate outside the London bubble. Her gaffers only on £26k.
I don’t know where you keep finding these people getting paid top dollar for menial jobs.
This whole idea that so many drivers seem to have, that everybody else in society is earning as much as or more than drivers, whilst only working a basic 40, book off, forget about work and go home everynight & sit with the family around the dinner table is utter deluded fantasy.
This is absolutely spot on in so many ways.
There are so many other jobs and careers out there where yes people may actually be at their place of work for say 40 hours for example but then these people will go home and spend more time working. Add this time spent working at home in the evenings or the weekends and then you may find the number closer to that of the average driver who will spend more time “at work” but then goes home and that’s it till their next shift so its swings and roundabouts. Also don’t automatically think these people will be on the same or more money either - some will, some won’t but drivers don’t quite have it as tough as some make out.
Another example that makes a regular appearance when money is mentioned is the one that shelf stackers or burger flippers get the same money as truck drivers - again for the most part not true!
Perhaps here’s one of the biggest problems,I have just finished a job where the main provider agency is charging £13p.h. ,they are paying their guys £10 p.h. ,that’s nights with a lot of hand bawling on and off including Decker’s.
So if the agency is selling its self way short then I’m thinking freelance?.
most bigger companies wont entertain a 1 man band I reckon, plus if you say go into the company and say you can have me for £15 an hour they are £2 worse off?
I think from the facts I am seeing,its the big companies themselves who set these ridicules rates and having great joy at the amount of drivers who will work for,“working poor wages”.
Also the agency must have their cut,now I recon even with lots of drivers through the one feeder agency,they must be loosing a fair bit on £13 p.h.
possibly but rates as with anything are driven by volumes - this plus the fact lots of little mickey mouse agencies will be calling up offering drivers for even less than what you have quoted ( see the thread about genuine job advert - local company advertising for a contract which isn’t their own).
best of luck if you go down the route you are on about and another chap on here has seemingly done quite well out of it but has targeted smaller companies.
Before this gets blowin out the water,I was talking to my buddy about the state of play on the money front and he came up with a workable idea,he said rather than drivers working for dross why don’t drivers start with the agencies get together as a collective group not a Union as that’s a bad word at the moment,(tories),and set the rates as a membership informing every agency U.K. wide that this is the standard rate and if you won’t pay the standard rate then we as a membership will withdraw our labour.
The standard rate could be drawn up by the membership and also overtime after 8 hours could be set ,this will enable drivers to see their families or have a better standard of living more time hobbies ect.
More ideas like this would be good but let me know if you would join a membership,this would certainly defeat things like depole and other draconian measures.
to be fair if you could get enough to stick together it isn’t that bad an idea, what you will probably find is a lot of companies who use agency go to the wall very quickly, or take on a huge amount of full time guys on the rates they can offer.
Yes War,sticking together is the first problem,the next problem is organisation.I wouldn’t just stop at agencies I would do the same with companies who did not pay the blokes and lady’s a fair wage.
If they want my skills they gotta pay the bills -that’s what I’d tell them 
I would guess - the age old issue of whats classed as ‘good’ to me and others will maybe be too low for some and way higher than others expect.