Neverstress:
Shortage of drivers that want to do nights at weekends ? Not if the money is right.
Shortage of drivers that want to do nights at weekdays for £12 an hour ? Off course.On weekends ? Go figure.
I can see why drivers pay are still so bad when there’s people willing to work for this “pay”.£12 an hour should be the minimum on day shift,on weekdays.
But it’s supply and demand,if they need more drivers they will have to pay accordingly,if they have enough the pay stays where it is.
As a driver who went out of their way to work nights and weekends whilst on agency - I’m inclined to agree with you completely.
I would jump at the chance to do 4x10 hour shifts @ £18ph for a nice £600pw takehome.
Trouble is, it’s not all year around - and I need it to be. That’s why I lumped for a local, average paid job instead.
It’s enough that I’d consider supermarkets - but that too, isn’t all year around. All this stuff about “Agency drivers getting long holidays paid for by their meaty paypackets the rest of the time” don’t cut it. The cost of living is such these days that taking home £500-£600pw is just about enough to get by in a single income household like mine.
Just a thought. If these firms are having trouble finding enough class 1 drivers for these particular night runs then why not split the loads onto class 2 vehicles and open up a few more jobs for class 2 drivers willing to work nights ?. Gets the loads delivered .
Razzman1:
Just a thought. If these firms are having trouble finding enough class 1 drivers for these particular night runs then why not split the loads onto class 2 vehicles and open up a few more jobs for class 2 drivers willing to work nights ?. Gets the loads delivered .
There are dozens of vacancies for class 2 drivers at the depot where i work. NO current vacancies for C1 work, although the odd one or two do come along from time to time.
The C2 work is 04:00 starts too… Good for some around here I would have thought?
Razzman1:
Just a thought. If these firms are having trouble finding enough class 1 drivers for these particular night runs then why not split the loads onto class 2 vehicles and open up a few more jobs for class 2 drivers willing to work nights ?. Gets the loads delivered .
There are dozens of vacancies for class 2 drivers at the depot where i work. NO current vacancies for C1 work, although the odd one or two do come along from time to time.
The C2 work is 04:00 starts too… Good for some around here I would have thought?
(I’ll stick to perm nights on artics though, ta)
So is there more of a shortage of class 2 drivers than class 1 do you think ?. Or is it an industry wide driver shortage in general ?
Lancsdriver70:
Does look like we are beginning to see the start of a real driver shortage.
Lancsdriver70:
every night due to lack of drivers
Seems as though many do not like driving nights
Perhaps the solution is to have more day jobs
My thoughts exactly.
The idea that a wagon should be moving 24 hours a day is no more reasonable than that your home, or your bed, should be occupied 24 hours a day.
Even the best case of ASLEF hasn’t called for the stopping of night time transport operations.In all cases the transport infrastructure could never handle everything having to run during the day time hours nor could it provide a viable service to customers.Ironically for the topic it’s all about a job market which provides sufficient alternatives for drivers not to have to spend loads of their career doing uk night work among all the other dross which disproportionally affects the uk scene,as opposed to the mainland European one.Obviously no sign of any driver ‘shortage’ and employment opportunity surplus in that regard.
More like closer to 10 even 12 than 8 since hub systems and/or speed limiters.Which is a liability on nights with the commuting time added to it.You really do end up with very little daytime life when allowing for proper sleep and the fact that turning your body clock around at the weekends is lethal.If it was me I’d definitely prefer working on day time out of town bulk waste runs now than night trunking.
a mate of mine has been offered a van job driving a brand new VW caddy for £180 a day,ok he has to work 13 /14 hr days but still good for van driving and not multi drop,runs to Scotland and other places,only going by what he said though before anyone snipes at me,lol
Saturday night and Sunday night are the two prime shifts of the week . For obvoius reasons normal people want to kick back have a beer and catch up with friends on these nights .
There is no driver shortage - there is a shortage of drivers who won’t work for poor pay. Theres a difference.
Personally -
Saturday night £200 (thats £200 in my bank after tax and insurance )
Sunday night £300 (Sunday night is the money maker )
Monday and Tuesday £150 each night
£800 a week after tax and insurance is a reasonable figure for working nights , giving up / having very little family life and all the other things you can’t do because your on the Vampire shift. If everyone stood back and said thats what they wanted there would be chaos full time drivers wouldn’t get it and it would be farmed out to the agencies to get it covered CHEAPER . If the agencies refused you can bet the rates would be met . Those loads have to go , especially if its foodstuffs or time sensitive .
Only firms that pay terrible rates struggle for drivers… you rarely see the premium jobs advertised because nobody leaves!
As for Agencies - they need to grow a pair and tell their clients “Sorry, our rate is fixed at £■■ - take it or leave it” instead of asking a client how much they will pay…
It’s always been a crying shame that so many job adverts of ANY kind - don’t seem to bother stating the pay. They’ll spend lines and lines of text describing the “job” with all that bollox speak they have - but not the one thing that tends to be the main motivation for chucking in one job to take up another one… Does one actually GAIN out of switching jobs?
How TF can you tell as an applicant already employed elsewhere - if the job ad doesn’t even hint at what the pay is?
Razzman1:
Just a thought. If these firms are having trouble finding enough class 1 drivers for these particular night runs then why not split the loads onto class 2 vehicles and open up a few more jobs for class 2 drivers willing to work nights ?. Gets the loads delivered .
Ignoring the extra fuel insurance and vehicle costs it’d take almost twice as many rigids as artics to do a run. So twice as many drivers. So sn employer could afford to pay an artic driver twice as much as a rigid driver. At twice the pay who wouldn’t pay to get the training for a bendy ticket? But this doesn’t happen because the pay differential isn’t sufficient.
Torkey:
Only firms that pay terrible rates struggle for drivers… you rarely see the premium jobs advertised because nobody leaves!
As for Agencies - they need to grow a pair and tell their clients “Sorry, our rate is fixed at £■■ - take it or leave it” instead of asking a client how much they will pay…
beefy4605:
Saturday night £200 (thats £200 in my bank after tax and insurance )
Sunday night £300 (Sunday night is the money maker )
Monday and Tuesday £150 each night
£800 a week after tax and insurance is a reasonable figure for working nights , giving up / having very little family life and all the other things you can’t do because your on the Vampire shift. If everyone stood back and said thats what they wanted there would be chaos full time drivers wouldn’t get it and it would be farmed out to the agencies to get it covered CHEAPER . If the agencies refused you can bet the rates would be met . Those loads have to go , especially if its foodstuffs or time sensitive .
Those are reasonable rates considering Uber drivers make the same on Friday and Saturday and they can barely drive car.
If you don’t stand up for yourself your boss will not do it for you.
And 30k gross for nights is rubbish (and I’m Easter European by the way). You would be better off working for NVD and taking home ,800 euros a week.
Winseer:
^^^^ Who pays that kind of wage in Easter Europe for domestic driving then? (Serious Question!)
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NVD are a car transporter firm from Ireland taking home roughly a 1000 euros a week and fairly straight forward work
Fairly straight forward work !!!
you’ve obviously never driven or operated a proper car transporter
Hah, i well remember a new big cheese finance type guru being taken on when i worked for a rapidly expanding car transportation operation.
At the meeting when he was introduced, in his inaugural speech he dispelled the myth that car transporter operating was anything special and informed us that there was no difference between a car and a tin of beans as regards transporting.
It might have been the same meeting when the gaffer (still in the game) also informed us that he could get drivers ten a penny.
Both have come to rue those words over the years.
NVD, yep those lads life the life of Reilly, 35 hour week , never have to rush , simple job anyone can do it
