Fileep:
I had a telephone interview yesterday with Virginia, I have to sort 2 days DCPC out and I’ve got a job waiting(not sure I want it though), he states that you are supposed to have 1 day DCPC per year upto 2014, theres me thinking it didn’t matter as long as you had it before the cut off date in 2014!! However, during the interview he was saying I have to have an irish bank account and & address(which they will supply)! are there any pitfalls to this? will I lose out transferring to sterling? Any help appreciated.
Personally I would forget this company they are looking for drivers because about five left in one hit! It’s a fact when you start at this company you have to sign a handbook that basically gets them out of paying for anything they feel they should’nt, it’s like some sort of disclaimer that is weighted very much in their favour & is about 10 pages long!
Remember one thing, They pay less than the minimum wage, about €80 per day, plus expenses which of course isn’t taxable so you shouldn’t count it as part of a ‘wage’.
Plus whether you have an Irish Bank Account or not if the likes of a Mortgage is paid from an English account & you have to transfer your Irish funds across to cover this for instance, there is no way around taking about a -20% hit on your money.
The exchange at this time is about €1 = £0.80 + any charges your Bank may put on … So your €80 per day now becomes in real terms £64 per day!
These lads that run Vaginia Transport have nothing to learn believe me!
Why would money in your pocket not be counted as wages? All I care about is how much I get st the end of the week and how much I’ve done four it. Who cares if the wages are £1 per hour if the allowances are £80/day?
Hmm, Maybe you had better leave the thinking to those more qualified than yourself!
Allowances, or out of pocket expenses as they are better known are exactly what they say, which is money you have already laid out for meals, showers, maybe an odd drink, putting up with sleeping in a tin box instead of your own bed, etc, etc.
So it’s not about what you take home, it’s about ‘WHAT IT’S COST YOU’ to earn your take home pay …
So in real terms if you take home £400 & you have spent £75 on different things through the week, you have only made £325 … Doh!
Like I said in my previous post, “These lads that run Virginia have nothing to learn!”
Plus they CANNOT get Irish lads to drive for them.
So your saying you spend all of your night out money each night?
mrx:
Maybe but I don’t spent all my night out mOney anyway. Tell me how it matters how the take home is made up?
Exactly even the mighty stobart uses these little tax dodges like meal allowance etc to make the wages up. As long as you are happy with what is in the bank on a Friday for what you done that’s all that matters.
My basic daily rate isn’t very high but the wage structure adds up to a decent wage except when you have a week off as holiday pay is in the basic.
berewic:
Big mistake working for an Irish firm.
You may well get a big motor with a big noisy engine but your speed limiter won’t work, you’ll be overweight much of the time, have your route changed to pick up the odd pallet here and there and you’ll be expected to run bent as a matter of course.
It amazes me Irish firms are allowed to get off the boat.
Drivers Hours Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 S.I 62/08 (Reg 41) Tachograph Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 S.I 62/08 (Reg 41) Virginia DC 15/0 VirginiaTransportLtd 3/2011 Plea of guilty Fined €1500 Maghera, Virginia, Co. Cavan Costs and expenses €643.
The chap who conducted in interview told me he had been working there 9 months and that some drivers had left(reading between the lines it was for running bent I think)! He did say he was ex-Tesco management and expected things to be done by the book! He was probably brought in for that very reason,
limeyphil:
the irish government made a promise prior to moving from the punt to the euro, that if the euro fails and they are forced to go back to using the punt, they will get the punt back at the same rate as it was origionally exchanged.
so if you go over there, and the euro fails, your money will be safe.
I never understood why the Irish (pop.3,000,000) ever needed to dump the £ for the Punt as apart for a small surge in the exchange rate at the start it’s value fell permanently against the £,then to join the Euro was madness as far as I can see.The Irish economy is tied to the UK wether the Paddy’s like it or not and they’ve had nothing but grief since they dumped the £.Stop all the ferry’s running for a month and they would see which side their bread was buttered on alright !! IMO the quicker the Euro collapses the quicker Europe will return to some sort of sanity.Cheers bewick.
take your head out of your arse, the uk is in a such a great state of affairs isnt it,and are you forgetting all the irish companys that kept/keep alot of us londoners/english in work for years paying good wages,.stop the ferry’s for a month lol you really should think before typing because that is a f**king stupid statement to make,youd soon be moaning if every irish company in the uk shut its doors for a month to its english drivers wouldnt you.as for irish firms dont use limiters stop talking [zb],you wont last working in ireland nowdays if you run bent you’ll get the boot asap,fact, things have changed here an awful lot,you’ll still get drivers doing it, just the same as you get drivers/firms running bent in the u.k. but we all forget mention that eh,oh i forgot nobody run’s bent over there do they,ive worked in the game 26yrs and worked in the u.k. and ireland, ive never been asked to run bent over here, but done plenty for u.k. firms tho
Have you got nothing to say about the Punt/Euro debacle ? Why are the Irish (Southern)ever so determined to do the totally opposite to what they should really do i.e.use the £ and support their nearest,and dearest,neighbour the UK.The two countries are so well entwined that surely the sum of the two are worth more than the two parts ! You’ll end up with the Duechmark and being ruled from Berlin if you don’t watch out Cheers Bewick.
Can’t really say I’ve heard a lot of negative comments from the Virginia drivers I’ve spoke to when parked up or on the crossings,just the usual trucker grumbles really.Based on what I’ve heard from Virginia drivers,it’s a company I’d try a stint with.As has been previously said,in general the Irish (along with most nationalities) run legit nowadays,too costly not to.On the whole wages debate,if people don’t want to discuss their earnings that’s their choice,I don’t understand why others would want to pick fault with someone because they don’t want to discuss their wages.Me myself,I’m happy to talk numbers.I’m paid weekly,my basic is crap (£60 a day),then I get a % of the trucks earnings on top (20% of the first £2500,25% of anything above that),night out money (£20) and whatever we spend on meals or work-related stuff whilst away (snapped brushes/shovels for example) is reimbursed the following week.I tramp out Mon - Fri (Saturdays are rare for me,tomorrow will be my 5th Saturday at work in 12 months) doing approximately 2/3 European and 1/3 UK work,and my take-home ranges from between £500 - £675.Some days I max the card out,others I don’t even use half a card,so personally I’m happy enough with that.The two main faults I find with my wage system are a week on holiday = crap wages the following week,and nobbers at collection/delivery points keeping you waiting around can put a dent in next weeks wages.Best dig some old wage slips out when I get home ready for when the know-it-alls start telling me I’m making it up
Fileep:
I had a telephone interview yesterday with Virginia, I have to sort 2 days DCPC out and I’ve got a job waiting(not sure I want it though), he states that you are supposed to have 1 day DCPC per year upto 2014, theres me thinking it didn’t matter as long as you had it before the cut off date in 2014!! However, during the interview he was saying I have to have an irish bank account and & address(which they will supply)! are there any pitfalls to this? will I lose out transferring to sterling? Any help appreciated.
Unless you are giving up a good job to start at Virginia then you should go for it imho Do 6 months then you can work out for yourself what`s good or bad, wages, hours etc P.S good luck mate
berewic:
Big mistake working for an Irish firm.
You may well get a big motor with a big noisy engine but your speed limiter won’t work, you’ll be overweight much of the time, have your route changed to pick up the odd pallet here and there and you’ll be expected to run bent as a matter of course.
It amazes me Irish firms are allowed to get off the boat.
berewic:
Big mistake working for an Irish firm.
You may well get a big motor with a big noisy engine but your speed limiter won’t work, you’ll be overweight much of the time, have your route changed to pick up the odd pallet here and there and you’ll be expected to run bent as a matter of course.
It amazes me Irish firms are allowed to get off the boat.
Those days are well gone
Maybe in the near future Britlad! Nolans tried to get an O License recently in Wales!
Now that shows the neck of those hedge monkeys!!
limeyphil:
the irish government made a promise prior to moving from the punt to the euro, that if the euro fails and they are forced to go back to using the punt, they will get the punt back at the same rate as it was origionally exchanged.
so if you go over there, and the euro fails, your money will be safe.
I never understood why the Irish (pop.3,000,000) ever needed to dump the £ for the Punt as apart for a small surge in the exchange rate at the start it’s value fell permanently against the £,then to join the Euro was madness as far as I can see.The Irish economy is tied to the UK wether the Paddy’s like it or not and they’ve had nothing but grief since they dumped the £.Stop all the ferry’s running for a month and they would see which side their bread was buttered on alright !! IMO the quicker the Euro collapses the quicker Europe will return to some sort of sanity.Cheers bewick.
Bring back the B specials they will sort those thick paddy’s out EH!
Why would money in your pocket not be counted as wages? All I care about is how much I get st the end of the week and how much I’ve done four it. Who cares if the wages are £1 per hour if the allowances are £80/day?
If the wages are £1/hr then thats all you will get when you are on holiday ie £40 for the week cos thay aint gonna pay your expenses when you are on holiday.
When are people going to realise that expenses are just that and not part of your wages!!!
how thick do people have to be?
it’s a loophole to put more money in your pocket, and not the governments pocket.
i would prefer £110 per day in my pocket made up in any [zb]ing way they like, as long as it’s in y pocket.
you can’t make a difference between wages, hourly pay, expenses, and allowances. the amount in your arse pocket is what matters.
let’s say we break it down in two ways. both employees are paid a gross payment of £750 for a job.
sensible driver gets.
7 nights x £35 subsistence
7 days x £5 unsociable hours meal allowance
7 days x £5 daily meal allowance
divvy driver says “oh no, that’s not right, i want taxing up to [zb], and shafting hard and fast”.
4 nights x £20 subsistence
5 days at £2 meal allowance.
…
guess who gets the most out of the £750?
mr divvy, or mr sensible.
People bang on about expensives for living in a lorry, well its not exactly free to live at home, still have to wash your bedding, still have to buy food. Only interested in how much i have to spend at the end of the week.
kr79:
Exactly even the mighty stobart uses these little tax dodges like meal allowance etc to make the wages up.
FFS, it’s not a tax dodge. Think how many employees Stobart and other large companies have, now imagine checking receipts for every driver, how much time and money would that cost? Hence they and others have an agreement with HMRC to pay an agreed rate per day, common practice.
the bigger the company the worst they are BREENS would not touch them with barge pole he tried telling my boss he was paying
drivers to much I was talking to a driver he told me he was getting 850 a week still laughing at him maybe a month NOLANS are looking for irish and welsh drivers because the foreign drivers has the whole thing ruined no work
kr79:
Exactly even the mighty stobart uses these little tax dodges like meal allowance etc to make the wages up.
FFS, it’s not a tax dodge. Think how many employees Stobart and other large companies have, now imagine checking receipts for every driver, how much time and money would that cost? Hence they and others have an agreement with HMRC to pay an agreed rate per day, common practice.
of course it is. a firm doesn’t have to pay a meal allowance, but they can. lets say the going rate is £100 a day, 1 firm pays a £100 a day, the driver pays tax and ni on a £100 as are the firms contributions. firm 2 pays £90 with a meal allowance of a tenner, driver and firm 2 pay tax, ni and contributions on £90 and the driver keeps all of the tenner.
but you need to work it out over a year as you will not be getting expenses when on your 5.6 weeks holiday etc
as limey said it doesn’t matter how it’s made up or what is says on the pay slip, all that matters is the money you take home over the year
kr79:
Exactly even the mighty stobart uses these little tax dodges like meal allowance etc to make the wages up.
FFS, it’s not a tax dodge. Think how many employees Stobart and other large companies have, now imagine checking receipts for every driver, how much time and money would that cost? Hence they and others have an agreement with HMRC to pay an agreed rate per day, common practice.
of course it is. a firm doesn’t have to pay a meal allowance, but they can. lets say the going rate is £100 a day, 1 firm pays a £100 a day, the driver pays tax and ni on a £100 as are the firms contributions. firm 2 pays £90 with a meal allowance of a tenner, driver and firm 2 pay tax, ni and contributions on £90 and the driver keeps all of the tenner.
but you need to work it out over a year as you will not be getting expenses when on your 5.6 weeks holiday etc
as limey said it doesn’t matter how it’s made up or what is says on the pay slip, all that matters is the money you take home over the year
Do you run your own company? I’m guessing not.
It has nothing to do with dodging tax it is an agreed rate set by HMRC to allow for cleaner accounting practices.
The driver doesn’t have to spend the money to get the allowance, so potentially could be up at the end of the week, seriously I would think Stobbart et others have bigger things to think about than the NI contribution on a £5.00/day.
limeyphil:
the irish government made a promise prior to moving from the punt to the euro, that if the euro fails and they are forced to go back to using the punt, they will get the punt back at the same rate as it was origionally exchanged.
so if you go over there, and the euro fails, your money will be safe.
I never understood why the Irish (pop.3,000,000) ever needed to dump the £ for the Punt as apart for a small surge in the exchange rate at the start it’s value fell permanently against the £,then to join the Euro was madness as far as I can see.The Irish economy is tied to the UK wether the Paddy’s like it or not and they’ve had nothing but grief since they dumped the £.Stop all the ferry’s running for a month and they would see which side their bread was buttered on alright !! IMO the quicker the Euro collapses the quicker Europe will return to some sort of sanity.Cheers bewick.
Bring back the B specials they will sort those thick paddy’s out EH!
WTF has the B Specials got to do with Bewicks debate on here, you need to take a long hard look at yourself. Slab Murphy, ha ha, muppet!
kr79:
Exactly even the mighty stobart uses these little tax dodges like meal allowance etc to make the wages up.
FFS, it’s not a tax dodge. Think how many employees Stobart and other large companies have, now imagine checking receipts for every driver, how much time and money would that cost? Hence they and others have an agreement with HMRC to pay an agreed rate per day, common practice.
of course it is. a firm doesn’t have to pay a meal allowance, but they can. lets say the going rate is £100 a day, 1 firm pays a £100 a day, the driver pays tax and ni on a £100 as are the firms contributions. firm 2 pays £90 with a meal allowance of a tenner, driver and firm 2 pay tax, ni and contributions on £90 and the driver keeps all of the tenner.
but you need to work it out over a year as you will not be getting expenses when on your 5.6 weeks holiday etc
as limey said it doesn’t matter how it’s made up or what is says on the pay slip, all that matters is the money you take home over the year
Do you run your own company? I’m guessing not.
It has nothing to do with dodging tax it is an agreed rate set by HMRC to allow for cleaner accounting practices.
The driver doesn’t have to spend the money to get the allowance, so potentially could be up at the end of the week, seriously I would think Stobbart et others have bigger things to think about than the NI contribution on a £5.00/day.
does every transport company have to pay a meal allowance?
