Rob K:
I wouldn’t get out of bed for those rates on either day.
Maybe there is a clue there as to why UK firms are keen to employ drivers from abroad, and I don’t believe it is because they are cheaper as most of the firms I have heard of that are employing drivers from other EU member states are paying them the same rate as their UK drivers. I have heard the story about the drivers being charged ‘rent’ to live in there cabs from various different sources yet the number of drivers, the country of origin, the amount of wages and the amount of rent vary with each telling, a sure sign it is usually a load of rubbish
Just maybe the reason for UK companies seeking to employ drivers from outside these shores is because they are fed up of UK drivers who are inflexible and ‘won’t do this’ or ‘won’t do that.’ This was one of the reasons many continental transport and construction firms were keen to employ people from the UK a few years a back, they were ‘better’ workers than the native population and what goes around comes around.
I never understood this fascination with Saturdays and Sundays. In my entire 28 year working live, in various industries, I have always had two kinds of days - working and non working and I couldn’t care less what day of the week the working days fall on. The world is a different place to what it was and we now live in a 24 hour 7 day a week society which requires servicing 24/7 and this means the old style weekends are outdated. Most of my ‘weekends’ are Friday and Saturday and I really don’t see the difference between that and Saturday/Sunday. The day of rest argument doesn’t hold much water these days as a very small percentage of the population attend church on a Sunday and in a multi cultural, multi faith society the ‘day of rest’ is different for different people. Many firms are now adopting a 4 on 4 off working week which means sometimes you work a weekend and sometimes you don’t and the money is the same regardless of the days you work in a given week, I know many people working this way and they love it as it means you actually only work half the year.
