In my early days driving there was a clear pecking order in which job as a rule was the best payer, it was the fuel tankers and car transporters back then. But, recently I have seen adverts saying general trampers can do £35-40k per year. I know a stobart driver did £32k on nights,which included weekends but he was home every day. All supermarket drivers seem to be on good money, not sure how much though. A Samworth driver told me he did £37k last year, and a driver I know who works for a leading sports retailer claims some of his colleagues(work 4 on 2 off) who double man allot said if they work one of the days of as overtime they can be pushing £50k 
Is there still a pecking order? whats the highest paid out there? I know some drivers talk out there arse about what they earn but it can’t all be ■■■■■. Not looking to change jobs but just wondered which job gets the big money.
Yawn !!! here we go again 
CRISPY:
Yawn !!! here we go again
What?
These threads come up a lot on here and result in most saying whats good/bad for one isnt for another etc etc
I am on a crap wage and crap motor at the minute till something better turns up, wouldnt bother with the sports direct contract either I have met a few ads who did it and the money was great but they devoted their whole life to the job doing 4 20 hour days a week I would rather tramp on general thanks.
British people are traditionally quite uncomfortable talking about what they are paid. It’s not a view I share, or something I understand, but bearing this in mind, its a good idea to take what anyone tells you with a large pinch of salt. Unless you see the payslip first hand, which is a situation I would never expect to arise, unless someone really fancied a boast.
Most of the drivers i’ve talked to, surprise surprise, have been better paid than me. Whether they are being honest or not, is completely open to interpretation. It’s up to them.
I imagine most driver’s fear is if they make it too well known that they are paid well, something will come along to mess it up.
I’ve met so many drivers already, who have been ‘offered’ a job at a too good to be true rate, and they are a shoe-in because they know the boss. Sure enough few weeks later they are still in the same job they were in, and somehow the magical well paid job hasn’t come off. The people who are so quick to blab all about everything, all usually of a certain type, that i’m sure we have all met at one time or another.
Unfortunately, my last employer (my first C+E job) went to the wall 3 months after I started, but they paid all hours (breaks included) right through at £10/hr. I was working on a casual basis, so not every single day, but pretty much. No written contract. I worked 270 hours in a five week period, and had 5 nights out (@£20/night). I took home more money that month, than I ever had to date in any job. The work was enjoyable, general haulage. It was going very well, I was set to save a massive amount each month, and I was quite disappointed when it went belly up.
Luckily I was taken on after that, by a nearby employer, they pay £440/week based on 55 hours (so £8/hr). Any hours over that are paid at £8. They deduct an hour every day for a break, regardless of what you actually do (which I personally do not like or agree with) So you essentially get paid 50 hours at £8.80. Nights out are still at £20/night. I spent £56 last week, over 5 days tramping (including 1 night at Lymm, self funded, where options were limited, time was short and I needed a shower). So nights out aren’t really worth doing, but there is little option. If I was more organised with food, that would be significantly less.
I’m not enjoying the work as much, as I am getting messed about a bit more in terms of knowing what I am doing week to week. I get shifted around duties a fair bit, as other drivers stake their claim on particular work for any number of reasons that suit them. I was employed as a night driver for example, but I lost that because another driver wants to take his kids to school. Quite how that works is beyond my understanding, but I don’t tend to kick off about much, funnily enough this is one of the aforementioned drivers who always has something better paid lined up, but yet remains.
I was earning £8.80/hr on my unpleasant 7.5t job before these two, not earning as much because the hours were less. With the extra hassle of C+E I think the rate should be higher, but with about 10 minutes experience under my belt, I cannot say much. Arguably the 7.5t work was higher paid than it should have been.
I need about £1300 after tax to pay mortgage/bills and live my fairly humble lifestyle. Anything beyond this is a bonus really, but always welcome. I am beginning to accept that a lack of spare time just comes part and parcel with driving a lorry. You’re awake and working 4-5 hours before anyone else is considering it, and home an hour or three later.
Was worse for the steam engine drivers of old. 
If my honesty has offended anyone, I apologise.
I only get just over £8 per hour but I’m home every night, no weekends, firm won’t scrimp on maintenance, wages paid on time (if not early) and there’s no pressure (or at least when there is you just tell them you can’t do it). Can’t understand why anyone would do nights out for £20 and be expected to pay expenses aswell??
They will pay for secure parking, if you’ve got a high value load, to be fair to them. But only under those circumstances, you sort yourself out for the rest of the time. I’ve not known anything different, but since motorway services are fairly full most nights, some companies must be happy to pay regardless.
They also pay unavoidable tolls, after the fact. In the past, when i’ve had enough time, I have been diverted into Wales the cheap way to avoid the Severn crossing. Seemed a bit of a nonsense to me, but I just do as i’m told, it’s their diesel.
Having done a few months of tramping now, i’d probably knock it on the head if there was a choice, there isn’t really. I appreciate some guys like being away from home or the wife for whatever reason, but that isn’t me yet.
Ford Truck Fleet in Dagenham were paying seriously big wages back in the early to mid 90`s, a mate of mine got on for them and showed me his wage slips.
If the pay has gone up accordingly then by now they must be on at least 50k per annum!!
Heavily unionised but easy work, decent kit, pension, holiday pay, sick pay, car purchase scheme etc etc, all the usual benfits
It was dead mans shoes then though and I imagine it still is now.
I’m C+E but in a C job driving a 32 ton hookloader. Hours are 0700 till 1530, overtime is paid after this at time plus half. £7.20 an hour basic. 4 weeks holiday plus bank holidays plus a bit extra at xmas.
I’ve been doing continental for the last 10 years and do miss it but IMO the money paid for tramping out is not good enough for me. I will do a night out job only if I need to now.
It does help of course that the goverment give me £170 a week in tax credits!! (married with 2 kids)
Never take home less than £1500 pm.
Max 40 hrs a week on a class 3(old money)
Would go back on “the bigguns” and do a bit of Euro given the chance but whats the point ?
bullitt:
Ford Truck Fleet in Dagenham were paying seriously big wages back in the early to mid 90`s, a mate of mine got on for them and showed me his wage slips.
If the pay has gone up accordingly then by now they must be on at least 50k per annum!!Heavily unionised but easy work, decent kit, pension, holiday pay, sick pay, car purchase scheme etc etc, all the usual benfits
It was dead mans shoes then though and I imagine it still is now.
Your not wrong , my grandad worked for them until he retired late 80s- on the union ‘thing’ remember him saying they were getting new Transcons but shopsteward wanted more money… so they got cargo’s instead
Is there such thing as a well paid job anymore? (unless your an MP 
)
I think finding a well paid driving job is like finding a virgin…everybody knows they exist,some people have been lucky enough to have one but if you’ve got one you really dont want to share it with anybody else 
washy jnr:
I think finding a well paid driving job is like finding a virgin…everybody knows they exist,some people have been lucky enough to have one but if you’ve got one you really dont want to share it with anybody else
Ann Widdecombe? 
I think that most people are on similar money today, maybe a few own account fleets will have drivers on really high wages, but in general haulage everybody is running around doing the same stuff, the rates are the same, the lorries cost the same, insurance is the same, so the margins are the same, it stands to reason the wages will be the same, or thereabouts, for most firms I doubt there’s a 100 quid a week difference between the best and the worst paid, regionally this could be a little different, there are areas in the country that always lag behind the rest and some areas that always pay more, but then living costs are lower or higher, so the standard of living remains the same.
Sorry if my post wasn’t clear, I’m not interested in what individuals earn just wandered what line of driving paid the best, like my original post stated it used to be the Tanker drivers and the car transporters, has it all levelled off like someone said earlier or are the specialised parts that get the premium wage? Its quite a sad state of affairs if a supermarket driver gets paid mare than a car transporter driver, in my opinion anyone with a class1 can do the supermarkets(which I’ve done) its so easy with very little knowledge needed, I know i couldn’t/wouldn’t want to do the car transporting, living away all week in a tiny truck is just not for me.
newmercman:
I think that most people are on similar money today, maybe a few own account fleets will have drivers on really high wages, but in general haulage everybody is running around doing the same stuff, the rates are the same, the lorries cost the same, insurance is the same, so the margins are the same, it stands to reason the wages will be the same, or thereabouts, for most firms I doubt there’s a 100 quid a week difference between the best and the worst paid, regionally this could be a little different, there are areas in the country that always lag behind the rest and some areas that always pay more, but then living costs are lower or higher, so the standard of living remains the same.
bang on there mark in fact all that changes is the colour of your lorry.
Fileep:
In my early days driving there was a clear pecking order in which job as a rule was the best payer, it was the fuel tankers and car transporters back then. But, recently I have seen adverts saying general trampers can do £35-40k per year. I know a stobart driver did £32k on nights,which included weekends but he was home every day. All supermarket drivers seem to be on good money, not sure how much though. A Samworth driver told me he did £37k last year, and a driver I know who works for a leading sports retailer claims some of his colleagues(work 4 on 2 off) who double man allot said if they work one of the days of as overtime they can be pushing £50k
… i work for aldi earned bout 32k but work non stop on nights if you want to work till you drop thats a great place to be otherwise keep well clear
Having worked on transporters for the last 8yrs or so, i would be 99.9% certain that i would never earn what i do now on any other job.Fair enough we do work 56hrs p/w on average but then we get 5-6wks stand-down + 5 wks hols each year and always finished Fri middayish.I know a lot of drivers wouldnt entertain the job because of spending most of the wk in a ‘basic’ cab but my personnel view is i go to work to earn good money… (had a smile to myself when reading a thread yesterday about drivers on a certain company up in arms because they are ‘only getting highline scanny’s’ as opposed to toplines )
You are paid what your worth. Simple. Doesn’t matter what you do or who you do it for. It’s all the same. Generally the best staff get looked after better than those that won’t do what is needed. And the best companies always end up with the best staff. So if you don’t like it and you think you’re worth more go somewhere else, it’s not brain surgery.