Driver's salary?

Good day everyone,

I plan to start my own trucking business in the UK and I need your help.
Since I was working in a non UK based trucking company, I have some doubts.

Firstly, how do you define driver’s salary? Usually we did % of a job (usually up to 10%), or per mile basis.
But I see that people here do it usually per driving hour.
Any tips and tricks? How do you do it?

Also do you pay drivers per job/week/month?

It largely depends on the type of company you are starting up and the work you are doing. Hourly pay followed by day rate are probably the two most common payment methods in the UK, paying a fixed day rate cuts down on the amount of administration needed, and that’s the way I’d probably go if I employed someone.

You can pay a percentage rate although you’d need to be paying a lot more than 10%, and you also have to be careful that this does not incite the driver to break the law.

Some drivers are paid weekly, some monthly, paying monthly cuts down on the amount of admin required but can be unpopular with drivers. So again, this depends on the type of operation you are talking about and whether there will be dedicated office staff etc.

Some.companys do it on the earnings of the truck some are paid salery no mTer how many hrs they do

Most are paid hourly ie from start of there shift to end not just paid while driving also paid while sat waiting to unload etc .

Not sure what others are on but persnoaly i want to see between 700-800 in the bank each week so budget £1000 a week

some drivers will work for silly money but soon as a better offer comes along they will be on there toes

Thank you very much for the replies!
I didn’t mention, I plan to start a general haulage company, and I would be in the backoffice, and employ drivers.

For me it’s kinda strange to have per hours basis, how do you stop drivers from being slow during the drive? (example: “hey boss, there was a big traffic jam in X, so it took me longer”, so he/she is driving 6 hours instead of 4). That is why we had percentage of job done or per mile.

So if I understood, by hour or day is the most common one, but all other combinations could apply, nice

Percentage trip money paid by the mile were made illegal
A few years back to discourage drivers from running bent

The ee seam to pay this way but dont know why
As eu ruling

gettin-on:
Percentage trip money paid by the mile were made illegal
A few years back to discourage drivers from running bent

Ok, thanks for the reply.

Do you use tachographs and then multiply by his wage per hour, or have some software dedicated for driver’s salary?
Or mobile app even?

Whatever about the wages, what work do you intend on doing like?

Not being a hunt but this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen unless you are a millionaire who is bored with the high life. Think long & hard dude…

Thank you for the concern, but I’m not even close to become a millionaire

I’m a manager in small general haulage company that drives around Europe (continental part, delivering random goods, usually I find jobs via timocom), and thinking about moving to UK. So I want to understand all the differences between UK and other parts of Europe (converting everything to imperial units does not help me to compare prices and other numbers I know so far)

Silver_Surfer:
Whatever about the wages, what work do you intend on doing like?

Not being a hunt but this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen unless you are a millionaire who is bored with the high life. Think long & hard dude…

Does to me to

The start of the decline to our uk work
Like our international work a few years ago

gettin-on:
Does to me to

The start of the decline to our uk work
Like our international work a few years ago

Agree, continental work has gone forever, domestic work will be given over to the eastern Europeans within the next two or three years, I’m just glad that I’m nearer the end than the beginning.

longview:
Thank you for the concern, but I’m not even close to become a millionaire

I’m a manager in small general haulage company that drives around Europe (continental part, delivering random goods, usually I find jobs via timocom), and thinking about moving to UK. So I want to understand all the differences between UK and other parts of Europe (converting everything to imperial units does not help me to compare prices and other numbers I know so far)[/quote

I got the impression you were American for some reason & was just pointing out that’s its a totally different ball game to the states where sub contracting to small owner operators is a way of life with many loads available. Over here it’s much harder to be a successful independent. But as you’ve ran in Europe then you may know the score. Basically you need your own direct primary rate work with a stable firm or two that make stuff that is actually worth moving. Trying to run a firm with multiple drivers on ad hoc work you intend to magic out of the mist or through a return load web site is doomed to failure. If you run full time for a large transport co then they take what little profit there is in the job bar a few pork scratchings.

I’m not American, and I get your comment as a compliment for my English
I know the European market pretty well (mostly Italy, France and Germany). For the US I have no clue how it works.
Here we have 4-5 clients we work for on regular basis. So I know the drill

Ok fine then, as you were.

psv8:
Not sure what others are on but persnoaly i want to see between 700-800 in the bank each week so budget £1000 a week

Although I’d love to see it, £52k per year does sound to be quite a wage for a driver on general haulage.

Reubs766:

psv8:
Not sure what others are on but persnoaly i want to see between 700-800 in the bank each week so budget £1000 a week

Although I’d love to see it, £52k per year does sound to be quite a wage for a driver on general haulage.

Decent money to be had out there still just some choose to work for penuats . Didnt specify was general though more on abnormal for genreal still wants to be 35k plus

Whatever method you choose it still has to equal or exceed the national minimum wage of £6.31 per hour for every hour that the employee has worked ( less meal breaks). That means report for work time until finished for the day time. The employee waits for instructions, the next load, the vehicle to be unloaded, the lorry to be repaired etc in YOUR time - not HIS.

You can pay 10% of what the vehicle earns or 99%, but it must equate to the minimum wage per hour.

Whether you can find anyone willing to work for that rate is another matter.

He will and less if brings his other drivers from the east with him

As a rough guide ,agencies pay between £8-00 to £12 an hour. Pay peanuts get Monkeys. (with respect to our fellow mammals.)

When you say how do you make sure the driver is not spinning 4 hours into 6 by driving slowly are you kidding?? Do you mean he/she is actually doing the speed limit on the road as opposed to 56? Most blokes I’ve come across are far from spinning it out. They’re having to go the other way and “tweak” the rules because some poor planning has left them carrying the can for the company if they want to get home without spending a night out without kit. The speed limit for wagons in the uk on single and dual is slow enough. I’ve never witnessed a truck doing 30 on a single or 45 on a dual, presumably to spin it out. To add to the point, most fly by doing 56 suggesting the old habit is still going that the transport office gives out work based on you flying about at 56.