A British person on discord said he saw a sign in the UK saying "truckers needed started salary: $80,000 USD starting pay" so they are raising the wages to entice them. According to him thats a good wage there.
I find that figure highly implausible. I just did a search for average HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) driver pay, and what appears to be a credible site said the average is £32,500. That's roughly US $44,000.
I'm pretty sure the median wage in the UK is about that much, so it's not particularly well-paid work.
And, yeah, I'm sure there could be a few British HGV drivers who are getting the equivalent of $80,000 per annum, but I find it highly unlikely they are recently licenced drivers operating ordinary articulated lorries.
Pay for HGV drivers has been stagnant for years now. I read one guy who said that his father-in-law was an HGV driver in the nineties, and his take-home pay then was almost exactly what he's receiving now for his 56 hour working week.
But the problem isn't just unimpressive pay for work that can be challenging and stressful. Because of the shortage of drivers, there's been a lot of coverage in the media about what life is actually like for HGV drivers. By all accounts, it's pretty seriously crap, and that's a large part of the reason why few people want to do the job.
For one thing, there are parts of Britain where the roads are often very congested, and the proportion of utterly stupid dickheads in cars is very high. Also, truckers who travel across the English Channel into continental Europe often mention how, when they're in places like France and Germany, they feel like they're doing a valued job, since truckers have special rest areas, restaurants, and toilet and shower facilities. But in the UK, they often have no option but to live on shitty fast food eaten in the cab, park up by the side of the road overnight (where they just might be robbed or their vehicle damaged), piss in a bottle, crap in a bag, clean up with baby wipes.
Basically, truckers in Britain just get no respect, either from the vast majority of employers, the government or the general public.
Goods transport has long been a cutthroat industry with incredible pressure from huge companies on smaller transport companies to reduce contract costs to the absolute minimum. That worked in the short term, but those chickens are finally coming home to roost.
The lorry driver jobs mentioned in the article in The Sun (which, BTW, is a paper with a reputation for accurate reporting that's just a little above that of the National Enquirer in the States) is talking about jobs with Waitrose, a national, up-market supermarket chain. It's good that they're offering decent pay and conditions, but from everything I've read, it doesn't really compare to most haulage firms.
I dunno. I guess it's possible that Brits are basically such lazy bastards that they can't cope with the demands of driving a big rig, but I think it says something that the average age of a British HGV driver is currently around 50. The current shortage hasn't come out of the blue. The industry has failed to attract new drivers for decades, and thousands of people who once worked as HGV drivers have got so fed up with the shitty life and low rewards that they moved on to do other things.
In the USA I think another big reason for our shortage is also because young people are growing up with automatic transmissions and the thought of learning to drive a truck stickshift (which has a double clutch much harder to shift or downshift than a car with a manual transmission) to them it seems like an impossible feat. This is what I have heard from a lot of young people at work when I tell them they should start driving almost always the first thing they say is "I dont know how to drive a stickshift".
I guess I'm lucky that my first vehicle I had was a stickshift just like most boomers. I can imagine if you dont know anyone with a stickshift vehicle it would be hard to find someone that let you practice on their vehicle. I still think I would find a way but a lot of people are not too ambitious.
UPS is a good company to be a driver. If you start as a cover driver its starting at 33 an hour. After 4 years you go to 40 an hour (wages adjusted every year too for inflation)
But you can make double that doing sleeper team runs or mileage. If you do sleeper team runs you can literally make as much as some doctors. Im talking around 250k a year and they still cant find enough people to do it!
I'm going with a mega carrier. Their HQ is practically in my backyard. Good rates, reasonable salaries, the full enchilada. Then maybe I'll work for walmart as a driver I hear they make bank, plus home time is nice.
Walmart is another good one because but they have to pay for their health insurance too which can be expensive. Have you gotten your CDL permit yet? If not truckercountry the website has all the answers to the permit test on their website. I got my CDL in 5 days just by taking their practice tests over and over and I'm redneck and slow. Never picked up a book
Trucker poops
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A British person on discord said he saw a sign in the UK saying "truckers needed started salary: $80,000 USD starting pay" so they are raising the wages to entice them. According to him thats a good wage there.
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Boojum
1 year ago
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LloydAsher
1 year ago
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I find that figure highly implausible. I just did a search for average HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) driver pay, and what appears to be a credible site said the average is £32,500. That's roughly US $44,000.
I'm pretty sure the median wage in the UK is about that much, so it's not particularly well-paid work.
And, yeah, I'm sure there could be a few British HGV drivers who are getting the equivalent of $80,000 per annum, but I find it highly unlikely they are recently licenced drivers operating ordinary articulated lorries.
Pay for HGV drivers has been stagnant for years now. I read one guy who said that his father-in-law was an HGV driver in the nineties, and his take-home pay then was almost exactly what he's receiving now for his 56 hour working week.
But the problem isn't just unimpressive pay for work that can be challenging and stressful. Because of the shortage of drivers, there's been a lot of coverage in the media about what life is actually like for HGV drivers. By all accounts, it's pretty seriously crap, and that's a large part of the reason why few people want to do the job.
For one thing, there are parts of Britain where the roads are often very congested, and the proportion of utterly stupid dickheads in cars is very high. Also, truckers who travel across the English Channel into continental Europe often mention how, when they're in places like France and Germany, they feel like they're doing a valued job, since truckers have special rest areas, restaurants, and toilet and shower facilities. But in the UK, they often have no option but to live on shitty fast food eaten in the cab, park up by the side of the road overnight (where they just might be robbed or their vehicle damaged), piss in a bottle, crap in a bag, clean up with baby wipes.
Basically, truckers in Britain just get no respect, either from the vast majority of employers, the government or the general public.
Goods transport has long been a cutthroat industry with incredible pressure from huge companies on smaller transport companies to reduce contract costs to the absolute minimum. That worked in the short term, but those chickens are finally coming home to roost.
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1WeirdGuy
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I messaged him asked him again about it. And he sent me these links. He contracts with some company for work and saw these.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15996194/lorry-drivers-plumbers-earn-money-salary/
https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/hgv-driver-shortage-how-you-21157855
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Boojum
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Interesting.
The lorry driver jobs mentioned in the article in The Sun (which, BTW, is a paper with a reputation for accurate reporting that's just a little above that of the National Enquirer in the States) is talking about jobs with Waitrose, a national, up-market supermarket chain. It's good that they're offering decent pay and conditions, but from everything I've read, it doesn't really compare to most haulage firms.
I dunno. I guess it's possible that Brits are basically such lazy bastards that they can't cope with the demands of driving a big rig, but I think it says something that the average age of a British HGV driver is currently around 50. The current shortage hasn't come out of the blue. The industry has failed to attract new drivers for decades, and thousands of people who once worked as HGV drivers have got so fed up with the shitty life and low rewards that they moved on to do other things.
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1WeirdGuy
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In the USA I think another big reason for our shortage is also because young people are growing up with automatic transmissions and the thought of learning to drive a truck stickshift (which has a double clutch much harder to shift or downshift than a car with a manual transmission) to them it seems like an impossible feat. This is what I have heard from a lot of young people at work when I tell them they should start driving almost always the first thing they say is "I dont know how to drive a stickshift".
I guess I'm lucky that my first vehicle I had was a stickshift just like most boomers. I can imagine if you dont know anyone with a stickshift vehicle it would be hard to find someone that let you practice on their vehicle. I still think I would find a way but a lot of people are not too ambitious.
It's such a good wage I quit college to go to trucking school. 90,000$ a year, paid weekly. Seems like a square deal to me.
Plus I dont think an office job suits me. Listening to podcasts for 14 hours on the other hand? Sounds a hell of alot more enjoyable.
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1WeirdGuy
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UPS is a good company to be a driver. If you start as a cover driver its starting at 33 an hour. After 4 years you go to 40 an hour (wages adjusted every year too for inflation)
But you can make double that doing sleeper team runs or mileage. If you do sleeper team runs you can literally make as much as some doctors. Im talking around 250k a year and they still cant find enough people to do it!
FedEX is ok too but you have to pay insurance.
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LloydAsher
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I'm going with a mega carrier. Their HQ is practically in my backyard. Good rates, reasonable salaries, the full enchilada. Then maybe I'll work for walmart as a driver I hear they make bank, plus home time is nice.
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1WeirdGuy
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Walmart is another good one because but they have to pay for their health insurance too which can be expensive. Have you gotten your CDL permit yet? If not truckercountry the website has all the answers to the permit test on their website. I got my CDL in 5 days just by taking their practice tests over and over and I'm redneck and slow. Never picked up a book
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LloydAsher
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I'm waiting on passing all possible drug tests. Hair, urine etc. Didnt know delta 8 showed up on hair tests :/
So I'm just playing it safe so I can have a well paying career.
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1WeirdGuy
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Holy fuck bro I didnt know anyone did hair tests I didnt think it was that serious jeez