I have never met Karen Roberts but her support for road haulage and lorry drivers is more than appreciated, it’s becoming a necessity. It says a lot about an industry that it takes a full-time working mum to two teenage boys to raise awareness and support to an industry on its knees.
Lorry drivers face unprecedented challenges. A failing road network, crime and facilities barely fit to be called ‘facilities’, to name three. She has already got some success by forcing several motorway service areas to do something about the state of the showers. I haven’t met her but that’s the handle on her twitter feed, and her messages do more than endorse its honesty. Karen Roberts (known as @karenro75147238 on twitter) regularly tweets and to improve the lot of the lorry driver. Follow her and retweet. This is important.
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Even though we know wages remain a topic littered with lies, ambiguity and doubt why are we tempted to jump ship? Word spread through the yard like wildfire. “Combined Parcels (not their real name) are paying £650 a week for drivers to trunk up and down the motorway for eight hours...”
The following week a colleague, we’ll call Dave, jumped ship. If I had a pound for every conversation about wages that I’ve had, listen to or tried to avoid I’d have enough to put down as a deposit on a 1986 4x2 composite bedsit made in Middlewich. Whenever lorry drivers meet up the conversation usually starts on parking, road users, deliveries or management perfecting the art of hesitation, deviation and repetition. Eventually the conversation will come around to money and wages and it’s where drivers move onto exaggeration. No one, and I mean no one, tells the complete truth about wages. For example, one night parked up at the Donington Park Motorway Service Area off the M1 I watched a car transporter gingerly manoeuvre its way into the last space on the right hand side as you go in. Eventually a rotund driver hopped out and thanked me for the hand signals to avoid the kerb, which he ignored, before cheerfully explaining that he was flat out delivering Peugeots, Renaults and Vauxhalls across the UK. For the 60 hours (or so) he spent in the cab week in-week out he earned more than £60,000 a year. His wife was a nurse. “Almost mortgage free...” he added before waddling off to pay for parking. This information was given up freely and within a matter of minutes. I didn’t give up details about my salary, domestic arrangements or mortgage arrears as I couldn’t get a word in edgeways, otherwise I would’ve done. He may have made me feel inadequate but I was hell bent on showing him that I didn’t care...too much. It reminded me of a conversation where I listened to a HIAB driver explain how he got £15 an hour for moving generators across the UK from one emergency to another and how often he got exemption for driving and hours worked to ensure a generator got to an emergency. While he drew breath to continue his banter another HIAB driver said he got £9.50 an hour for collecting hired construction equipment anywhere in the country and was thankful because he was still on license from prison. He didn’t explain the crime or the time as the £15-an-hour-man was onto the next story about rising floods and submerged generators that he’d rescued. He only stopped talking to light a rollie giving us enough time to wallow in the reflected glory of his sizable wage packet. We both thought the same thing; surely you can afford a cigarette with a built-in filter. Interestingly, HIAB is a synonymous title for using technology to handle materials; like a truck mounted loader crane. It comes from the Swedish company Hydraliska Industri AB, which was shortened to HIAB. Ah, I’ve deviated. I am currently salaried at £28,600 plus night out money. That is approximately £550 a week for approximately 55 combined hours of driving, other work, periods of availability and legally required rest periods. It works out roughly at...yes, you’ve guessed it... £10 an hour. Some weeks that hourly rate creeps up and sometimes it goes down. On top of that is a night-out rate of £25 for sustenance and parking, usually four nights a week, although sometimes it’s five. I usually stop once or twice a week is a truckstop while spending the other two nights roadside. Overall it tops up the take home wages from £440 to £520 once I’ve taken into account and spending. There, I’ve said it. I feel better now. Tap ‘lorry driver jobs’ into Google and there are thousands of jobs with an array of hourly rates and salaries. According to governments National Careers Service a newly qualified lorry driver can earn between up to £22,000 a year, and ‘experienced’ trucker up to £28,000, while a ‘highly experienced’ commercial chauffeur might bring home as much as £35,000. There is nothing about car transporter drivers or HIABers. Interestingly the government guide also stated that “you'll usually work up to 42 hours a week”. None of this made me want to search for openings with car transporter companies or retrain to use a truck-mounted crane but I’ve known enough drivers jump ship just to chase the cash. As the aforementioned former Dave pointed out after ‘popping in to say hello to our transport manageress’ the money wasn’t what he thought it would be and has now seen the light. He starts back at our place next Monday. |
AuthorAging proletariat with face, teeth and body to prove it. Archives
August 2021
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