I have been driving for 10 years in the u.k. and now i would like to have a go at europe, however i am currently doing agency work for sainsburys, haydock, and taking home £400-600 per week.
My question is,is how much can i make doing european work.
Thanks for any replies in advance.
Nowhere near that when you deduct night out money. Plus with no European experience you will find it hard these days to get a start even for us with euro exp it’s hard but good luck in trying.
There’ll be a big long queue I’m afraid, if your taking home an average £500 a week for doing a bit of supermarket work then you should be content with that, I know it’s not thrilling stuff but it’s a steady number.
As said most doing euro work now, do it because they like it. Money ain’t great I’m afraid.
In reality you’ll probably take home between £400-500pw with the upper end likely being for being away all week and weekended etc. Money is usually day rate + night out money and when worked out by the hour can often fall below the minimum wage, but where you may do 15 hours one day, you may only do 5 the next for the same day rate. No one does European work these days for the money unless its specialist work, people do it because they like it and make do with the money.
thanks again for all for your replies.
Fair enough for wanting to do it, and I would rather do a good mix of continental tramping than supermarket work, even for considerably less money. The trouble is that the job has all but disappeared for U.K. drivers now- if I owned a factory and wanted to send goods to Italy or Spain, I could more or less guarantee that a Pole or Lithuanian would turn up to collect them.
The situation may change as economic conditions improve in eastern Europe but for now we just can’t compete with them, even on lower wages than we could earn on domestic work.
Some firms may keep you out for months on end,tramping all over,load Milan to Paris to Frankfurt to Warsaw to Bucharest and so on,would you like your 24 and 45 weekly rests in a hot tin box,in a service area where the trucks next to you will be charging their batteries every ten minutes by starting their engines all night.
You will need some sort of exercise kit with you,a bike rack on the back of the cab or plonk it in the trailer with a good lock,
Some bar bell weights,to do some resistance and cardio vascular training to reduce the chance of a myocardial infarction.
If you buy an atlas that show the tourist and picturesque routes,you can bike to medieval castle,swim in a lake or river,dicover an old village or town,off the beaten track,the route is marked in green in some atlases.
You can leave a service area by the staff gate,which is not locked,a small lane will take you to the main road,why do some think you are locked in these places.?
And pack some flip flops and tracksuit bottoms to “fit” in.A lidl or Aldi bag is optional,along with a washing line and pegs to hang your laundry on the fence at Watford Gap MSA.
toby1234abc:
Some firms may keep you out for months on end,tramping all over,load Milan to Paris to Frankfurt to Warsaw to Bucharest and so on,would you like your 24 and 45 weekly rests in a hot tin box,in a service area where the trucks next to you will be charging their batteries every ten minutes by starting their engines all night.
You will need some sort of exercise kit with you,a bike rack on the back of the cab or plonk it in the trailer with a good lock,
Some bar bell weights,to do some resistance and cardio vascular training to reduce the chance of a myocardial infarction.
If you buy an atlas that show the tourist and picturesque routes,you can bike to medieval castle,swim in a lake or river,dicover an old village or town,off the beaten track,the route is marked in green in some atlases.
You can leave a service area by the staff gate,which is not locked,a small lane will take you to the main road,why do some think you are locked in these places.?
toby1234abc:
And pack some flip flops and tracksuit bottoms to “fit” in.A lidl or Aldi bag is optional,along with a washing line and pegs to hang your laundry on the fence at Watford Gap MSA.
You don’t half post some crap Toby, although there is occasionally some good info hidden amongst it.
agree with the general concensus, the money on the whole ain’t what it should be.
but if you don’t mind abit of a drop in wages, and you want to travel then go for it, it can be great.
there are still some above average wages out there on euro work, but everything comes at a price, so you’d have to expect to be away for long periods at a time.
It is a way of life,i like the good food and more respect over the water. 
toby1234abc:
It is a way of life,i like the good food and more respect over the water.
That’s what I like about it.
Another plus is not sitting in waiting rooms listening to other drivers spout rubbish. I’ve never had to sit in a waiting room for one thing, but even if I had, I wouldn’t understand enough of what was being said to bother paying any attention to it.
And many times the owner of a factory or the lads loading the trailer would take me in their car to a restaurant for a few hours,this would never happen in the UK.
And they would pay for the meal,and if i offered to pay,they would take offence.
toby1234abc:
And many times the owner of a factory or the lads loading the trailer would take me in their car to a restaurant for a few hours,this would never happen in the UK.
And they would pay for the meal,and if i offered to pay,they would take offence.
Yup have to agree that has happened to me too. Most recently in Portugal , they were so embarrassed that I had to wait a whole 2 hrs the bosses son took me for a 4 course meal with wine ! Tipped when I got back. Pulled round the corner and went to bed for 4 hrs !!
i say go for it if you can find the work. im just starting back on european myself
freshneasy:
i say go for it if you can find the work. im just starting back on european myself
You still with Culina if you dont mind me asking and if so how’s it going ?
bald bloke:
freshneasy:
i say go for it if you can find the work. im just starting back on european myselfYou still with Culina if you dont mind me asking and if so how’s it going ?
no mate no longer with Culina!
freshneasy:
bald bloke:
freshneasy:
i say go for it if you can find the work. im just starting back on european myselfYou still with Culina if you dont mind me asking and if so how’s it going ?
no mate no longer with Culina!
Couldn’t stand them any longer then 
Turnip,if you stopped to ask diretions in europe,it may end in the bar with some tapas,by the time you have found the factory that closed down 5 years ago,the new one is 10 kms down the road with different trading name,and his brother works there.