You are most unlikely to walk into the best paid work for decent hours immediately, but if prepared to work anti social shifts or long hours or both then decent money is perfectly possible depending on where you live.
Some fall on their feet and never look back, some never get a decent gig throughout their driving lives, this game is like many others you need to work at it and have a bit of luck to break into the better jobs.
I’m looking to do my Class 1 soon and will be hoping to get over £40k and keep the 4 on 4 off that I currently do driving Class 2.
Might seem optimistic but I won’t need to jump at the first opportunity as I make £38k on the rigids.
If I can offer you any advice at all, it’s find a job that pays enough without having to do overtime. Don’t be tempted by the numerous “up to £50k” type jobs which expect you to max your hours and drop in an extra day, which will also include every bank holiday for good measure.
In fact, it’s probably better to swerve most salaried jobs as £40k broken down into an hourly rate, is pitiful when you are putting 60-70 hours in. £10.98 - £12.92 to be exact.
carlston49:
David DeHavilland:
I understand but on £10/hour and say 48 hours a week…Long hours such as 48 hours/week makes the problem even worse as far as the take home hourly pay rate is concerned.
If a driver earns £12/hour, after about 20 hours the driver is paying almost 40% tax on the other 28 hours that he is working each week. So those last 28 hours are paid at a low £7.20/hour.
The almost 40% tax is made up of 20% income tax, 13.25% NI, and pension contributions.
In some European countries such as Sweden, they pay drivers enough before tax so that their take home hourly pay rate is still good after tax.
In the UK, they would rather just top up low income families with things like family tax credit. This means the people with families are willing to take low paid part time work such as 24 hours/week x £10/hour = £240…which then doubles to £480 after the family working tax credit is added. So a low paid worker is effectively taking home £20/hour after tax. No wonder the take home pay rate is so bad for drivers who don’t claim government handouts.
The 40% tax threshold starts at £45k. On £12/hour for 52 weeks a year gives 29k less tax and NI (£5,600) leaves £23,500 net. There is an online calculator.
David DeHavilland:
On £12/hour for 52 weeks a year gives 29k less tax and NI (£5,600) leaves £23,500 net. There is an online calculator.
£23,500 is only £450/week and house prices in the UK are now averaging over £250,000. That’s over 10 years take home pay. It would take them 40 years to pay off such a big mortgage if they could get such a big mortgage…which they couldn’t because £250,000 is over 8 times their salary (even working all those long hours).
Also, you haven’t deducted any pension contributions from their gross pay…so they wouldn’t even take home £450/week.
This may be one of the reasons tens of thousands of EE drivers have recently left the UK. They know with low wages, and sky high house prices, there’s no future for them in the UK.
Plus from April 2022, NI rates are increasing from 12% to 13.25% for employees…bringing their take home pay down by other £5/week, ie. £450/week now will become £445/week.
carlston49:
David DeHavilland:
On £12/hour for 52 weeks a year gives 29k less tax and NI (£5,600) leaves £23,500 net. There is an online calculator.£23,500 is only £450/week and house prices in the UK are now averaging over £250,000. That’s over 10 years take home pay. It would take them 40 years to pay off such a big mortgage if they could get such a big mortgage…which they couldn’t because £250,000 is over 8 times their salary (even working all those long hours).
Also, you haven’t deducted any pension contributions from their gross pay…so they wouldn’t even take home £450/week.
This may be one of the reasons tens of thousands of EE drivers have recently left the UK. They know with low wages, and sky high house prices, there’s no future for them in the UK.
Plus from April 2022, NI rates are increasing from 12% to 13.25% for employees…bringing their take home pay down by other £5/week, ie. £450/week now will become £445/week.
I agree that £12/hour is low pay, I am not sure where you are heading with this? Are you saying this is the best you can get? What jobs are you comparing it to? I think we all know a Banker or a Lawyer will earn alot more than an HGV driver, I’ve just had a quick look on job sites and they are offering £20+ per hour which is not bad for a relatively modest skill set.
David DeHavilland:
I’ve just had a quick look on job sites and they are offering £20+ per hour which is not bad for a relatively modest skill set.
£20/hour is a good rate and probably an agency rate, but most drivers don’t get that.
This month is January and for many agency drivers they don’t get much work at this time of year…so zero hours x £20/hour = zero wages this week. It’s not much good if they’ve got a mortgage and a wife and kids to feed.
carlston49:
shullbit:
No logic in that pal, you have to pay income tax and ni in this country, you can sack the pension off if you want to, but why would you, it’s free money, I look on it as Increasing my hourly rate because my employer HAS to contributeIt still reduces the £12/hour in the example above, to £7.20/hour that you have to live on.
Not including pension contributions only takes that £7.20/hour to £8.01/hour…but most people pay the pension contributions so only have £7.20/hour to live on.
You also have to pay to commute by car, and that’s not even tax deductible.
The fact is, there’s a massive shortage of drivers in this country…and I can see why.
Some agencies have increased rates in some areas, but they have said that’s only temporary…and as soon as they get enough drivers the rates are going back down again.
Using the above example of £12 an hour for 48 hours gives you 29952 gross less tax and insurance you take home 24029, that equates to £9.65 an hour take home pay in your pocket. I am not including pension contributions in this calculation because they are VOLUNTARY.
EDIT…i just worked out the pension contributions at 5% guess what, you take home £23081, that equates to £9.24 take home pay per hour, so on that salary taking into account personal allowance and tax relief on your pension contributions you are keeping around 78% of everything you earn, and that’s not even counting how much your employer has to put into your pension pot for you.
And just so you know the pension is not 5% of your gross earnings, it is a percentage of the qualifying amount which on a salary of 29k is around 23k
carlston49:
David DeHavilland:
I’ve just had a quick look on job sites and they are offering £20+ per hour which is not bad for a relatively modest skill set.£20/hour is a good rate and probably an agency rate, but most drivers don’t get that.
This month is January and for many agency drivers they don’t get much work at this time of year…so zero hours x £20/hour = zero wages this week. It’s not much good if they’ve got a mortgage and a wife and kids to feed.
Here is one in Normanton, one of the cheapest parts of the country to live in…
HGV Class 1 Driver
Posted 23 December 2021 by Talentspa
£45,000 per annum
Permanent, full-time
Wakefield
Class 1 Driver, Wakefield (Normanton) Overview 500 sign on fee after successful probation ( 3 months ) Any shift pattern on offer , to include part time Permanent role Pulling food products mainly to large rdcs , no handball or load yourself Modern…
David DeHavilland:
Here is one in Normanton, one of the cheapest parts of the country to live in…HGV Class 1 Driver
Posted 23 December 2021 by Talentspa
£45,000 per annum
Permanent, full-time
Wakefield
Class 1 Driver, Wakefield (Normanton) Overview 500 sign on fee after successful probation ( 3 months ) Any shift pattern on offer , to include part time Permanent role Pulling food products mainly to large rdcs , no handball or load yourself Modern…
That sounds like Asda.
To claim £45,000 is misleading, as that’s likely to be their best earning drivers, and not all will earn that. Some drivers work days, some work nights. Some drivers do long hours, some drivers do short hours, etc.
It doesn’t sound like the £45,000 figure is based on a 48 hour week, because that would mean the average hourly pay rate at that depot is £18/hour…which isn’t likely in Normanton. More likely, it’s based on a 60 hour week as that would translate to a little over £14/hour.
The job advertisement was posted before Christmas, so the job may not be available now as January is traditionally a very quiet month when many depots won’t take on any more staff.
carlston49:
David DeHavilland:
Here is one in Normanton, one of the cheapest parts of the country to live in…HGV Class 1 Driver
Posted 23 December 2021 by Talentspa
£45,000 per annum
Permanent, full-time
Wakefield
Class 1 Driver, Wakefield (Normanton) Overview 500 sign on fee after successful probation ( 3 months ) Any shift pattern on offer , to include part time Permanent role Pulling food products mainly to large rdcs , no handball or load yourself Modern…That sounds like Asda.
To claim £45,000 is misleading, as that’s likely to be their best earning drivers, and not all will earn that. Some drivers work days, some work nights. Some drivers do long hours, some drivers do short hours, etc.
It doesn’t sound like the £45,000 figure is based on a 48 hour week, because that would mean the average hourly pay rate at that depot is £18/hour…which isn’t likely in Normanton. More likely, it’s based on a 60 hour week as that would translate to a little over £14/hour.
The job advertisement was posted before Christmas, so the job may not be available now as January is traditionally a very quiet month when many depots won’t take on any more staff.
I think its time to give up, whatever anybody says you will dispute it, do you still drive on the low rates you quote (£11k) ? If so, you may well be better off on benefits !
David DeHavilland:
I think its time to give up, whatever anybody says you will dispute it, do you still drive on the low rates you quote (£11k)?
Anyone’s welcome to my job, but I don’t think they would like it. Breathing in traffic fumes all day will send you to an early grave.
However, I’m retiring soon so I would recommend the job as I don’t want empty shelves when I do my weekly food shop.
LGV C, (Class 2!) new, trained by company £32,000 pa. + bens, hols, pens, etc.
SE England, “easy” work, day shifts… long(ish) hours… (50-ish pw)…
If you are working for less, then you are being mugged.
wakou:
LGV C, (Class 2!) new, trained by company £32,000 pa. + bens, hols, pens, etc.
SE England, “easy” work, day shifts… long(ish) hours… (50-ish pw)…
If you are working for less, then you are being mugged.
That’s £12.30ph. I think that’s getting mugged.
stu675:
wakou:
LGV C, (Class 2!) new, trained by company £32,000 pa. + bens, hols, pens, etc.
SE England, “easy” work, day shifts… long(ish) hours… (50-ish pw)…
If you are working for less, then you are being mugged.That’s £12.30ph. I think that’s getting mugged.
£12.30/hour has a marginal pay rate of only £7.38/hour after income tax, NI, and pension contributions.
50 hours/week will probably be based on a 5-day week, so after the first two days each week (after you’ve worked the first 20 hours and used up all your tax free allowances) the low £7.38/hour begins for the last three days of each week.
Blacov89:
I may have re-evaluate the whole plan of getting class1 license. If this means I will struggle to hit 40k. I can reach easily 40k in my current job. That also involves driving, but something a lot smaller than articulated lorry and that’s based on average 50h a week too.
As others have said, it’s a case of who you work for, what you do and where you are based. Waitrose made all the headlines a while ago, offering just short of £54K. It certainly had a knock on effect in the south where I am based. Despite being past retirement age I still work on, I’ve got forty two thousand reasons to keep going.
I feel I have been quite fortunate with jobs. I came from an IT job and I had been in that industry for over 38 years. I left nearly 3 years ago as an IT Director. It took me almost a year to get my class 2 license due to the pandemic so have only been working as a class 2 lorry driver for just under 2 years. In that time, I have had 3 jobs. The first 2 were long term jobs through an agency. The first I was earning £15.60 an hour based on a 10 hour day. That was fairly hard work delivering white goods in 7.5t and 12t lorries. I used to average 10-11 hour days. After 3 months of doing it, I did find the manual labour a bit hard going considering I am almost 60 years old with not the most healthy back and getting washing machines up stairs.
I then moved on to delivering tyres. I was on £16 an hour for that and also based on a 10 hour day where I would average between 10 and 12 hours per day. Obviously, they were both agency so no benefits on top.
After 7 months of that I was offered a full time job with a scientific company delivering and installing medical equipment. My salary here is £32k per annum based on an 8 hour day with breaks paid for. Anything after that is overtime at just over £22 per hour. I tend to average about 50 hours overtime per month which equates to around £13000 extra per annum so a gross of about £45k per year. My usual monthly take home pay is around £2500-£2700 per month depending on overtime. Sometimes a little less if overtime was low.
On top of that, I get 23 days paid holiday a year plus all bank holidays plus they shut down over xmas which is also given as paid. I also get a 6% pension. No sick pay unfortunately, but then I am never sick.
I never have to work weekends, but I have had a couple of times when they have put me in a hotel if the site is a long way away. There is a fair amount of manual labour to do but easily manageable even for me. I drive anything from 7.5t to 26t depending on the equipment that has to be delivered. There are always at least 2 people.
I don’t consider this too bad. A lot less than I was earning in IT, but it wasn’t about the money.
carlston49:
stu675:
wakou:
LGV C, (Class 2!) new, trained by company £32,000 pa. + bens, hols, pens, etc.
SE England, “easy” work, day shifts… long(ish) hours… (50-ish pw)…
If you are working for less, then you are being mugged.That’s £12.30ph. I think that’s getting mugged.
£12.30/hour has a marginal pay rate of only £7.38/hour after income tax, NI, and pension contributions.
50 hours/week will probably be based on a 5-day week, so after the first two days each week (after you’ve worked the first 20 hours and used up all your tax free allowances) the low £7.38/hour begins for the last three days of each week.
What’s the pension contributions figure you’re working with ?
maybe look at salary in an different way… 
OFFICE JOB ADVERT -----
9am - 10pm 2 days a week.
Will be required to sit at your desk for up to 4.5hrs at a time then take a 45min break which you won’t be paid for but must stay in the vicinity of your desk.
Customers are well within their rights to talk down to you, abuse you and generally be awkward. There is nothing you can do about this and should you attempt to defend yourself you will be reported.
Expect any mistakes to be videod and splashed all over social media.
Should you run out of time whilst carrying out your tasks you will be expected to sleep behind your desk.
We cannot guarantee desk security and you may be held responsible should anything go missing.
Toilet facilities are limited, no canteen, or shops nearby.
When busy you will be expected to work Saturday mornings after sleeping behind your desk all week. It doesn’t matter if you have a family. You must always put work first.
Also, any error in judgement may result in a large fine, jail sentence or even death of a member of public (which you will be accountable for) or yourself.
Salary £10-£15ph.
ALSO BE AWARE
makes for a thought or too about Driving compared to other jobs and how well its payed in comparison…