Jacob Rees-Mogg MP demands ejaculation of steam rather than particulates from diesel as a future fuel for British road transport.
Issuing a decree from Kenysham High Street, next to Greggs, the Viper of Victorian Vernacular claimed that steam and the production of steam-powered commercial vehicles will lead the British fight back post Brexit. “By the beginning of the 1930s, the landscape was becoming difficult for steam wagon production,” he explained at a hastily arranged press event at a chimney-sweep convention in Bristol. “Numerous creators of steam driven vehicles have gone out of business, with the housed-ignition engine favoured because of Rudolf Diesel’s European hegemony of technology, and that was a mistake that put paid to thousands of skilled British workers in the steam-driven industry.” He continued: “The only major manufacturer left by 1933 was Sentinel, who launched their ‘S’ type wagon. Fast, capable and dependable, it was a valiant attempt to maintain the steam wagon market. Despite this, in 1938, production ceased, except for 100 wagons produced in the early 1950s for the Argentine government. An opportunity to secure the industry and vital exports was lost, but they can be redeemed.”
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At a time when the industry is struggling to put bums on seats, bosses continue to offer laughable hourly rates. The haulage industry is faced with a genuine recruitment crisis. There are fewer youngsters entering the industry, more of the hardnosed middle-aged have had enough and are considering a career change, vital overseas recruitment has ground to a halt, and the veterans want to retire.
Many career truckers endure isolation, depression and low self-esteem, cope with intolerable working conditions, and deal with health concerns born from long hours and inactivity. Above all being a ‘trucker’ means most are paid employees, and that is why we get up at silly o’clock; the money. No one admits to working for peanuts, especially truck drivers; it’s a sign of weakness. More than once I have worked out my salary against the hours I’ve put in and silently wept. Sometimes others exasperate your situation. I remember being told, causal like, by a small Winnie the Pooh shaped driver of a car transporter that he pulled down £60,000 a year. I would have spluttered tea everywhere had I been drinking some. Nightshifts, hazardous goods or heavy haulage; there is money to be made but we cannot all have these jobs. Usually we settle for what is locally available and hope, expect is the right word but hope is closer to the truth, that our benevolent employer respects our efforts enough to give us above inflation annual pay rises to ensure we have life’s necessities to live and prosper in one of the world’s leading economies. Yet, bold as brass, online and in the magazines that bestow illumination upon our industry is an advert for a Class C driving job at £9.25 an hour. Where I live no one get behind the wheel for less than £10 an hour. That 75 pence cut doesn’t sound like much, but it represents the thin end of the wedge. Work the average 48-hour week dictated by the Working Time Directive and the annual wage of a driver on £9.25 is £23,088 before tax (The Salary Calculator). After tax its £19,080.72; that is £1,590.06 a month, and a weekly take home of £366.94. Slice it up any way you want it’s not enough. Throw in some monthly average prices for rent in the north-west at £703 (supplied by Statista), utility bills at £89 (Co-op Energy), council tax at £140 (government) and you are left with £658.06 to buy food, run a car and provide your own entertainment. That’s without taking into account credit cards and likes. Accept a 75 pence drop per hour over a tenner it will cost you £1,272.96 a year; that is money kept by your boss. This wage only becomes acceptable as soon as one person takes the job. Perhaps next time it’ll be £8.75 an hour. The need to find work, to be seen working and the esteem of having a job can override any fiscal common sense of whether it pays you a living wage or not. The rise of the working poor is no myth. People in employment whose incomes fall below a given poverty line is due to lack of work hours and/or low wages. Last year a study by Cardiff University reported that a record 60% of British people in poverty live in a household where someone is in work, according to researchers, with the risk of falling into financial hardship especially high for families in private rented housing. On the face of it £9.25 an hour isn’t bad. It’s above the national wage limit and the living wage but the gap is closing. By 2020, according to Government, the national living wage is expected to rise to £9 an hour. The problem with £9.25 an hour is that the people qualified to get the job will be coming from two directions. Many older drivers, the baby-boomers, have paid off their debts like mortgages that funded the buy-your-council-house boom in the 1980s then downsized in the 2000s cashing in big time, so don’t need the extra moola. And then there is the younger generation who accept the wage because they don’t know any better. Employers sell the hourly rate to prospective employees as governed by cut-throat rates, usually dictated by hauliers for their own work or low enough to ensure they pick up the work from a competitor. If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard a Range Rover driving boss proclaim ‘there’s no money in the job’ I’d have enough cash for 20 Superkings (and to hell with the fertility issues). Driving a lorry is a skilled job that requires the appropriate license, which automatically makes you one of few. I want my salary to reflect that I am one of a dwindling number. You should not have to accept lower hourly rates because demand outstrips supply. If you do it only sucks you into the whirlpool of poverty, then you have got real issues. |
AuthorAging proletariat with face, teeth and body to prove it. Archives
August 2021
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