HOME FROM HOME
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Ask 100 long-distance drivers if they would rather sleep in a bed, or sleep in their cabs and pocket their overnight allowances, and what do you think their answerwould be?
The fact is that few overnight subsistence payments are used to pay for room and board; your average driver would much prefer to spend £3.50 for overnight parking and pocket the difference. As for the haulier, he may not like paying it, but it does have the advantage of being tax-free — and not only for the driver.
So given that most drivers prefer to sleep in their vehicles, why bother with a two-tier system whereby the man with a sleeper cab only gets 75% of the maximum rate, while his day cab colleague gets the full El 8.15? Whatever the answer, most hauliers would probably not want a single payment if it meant rounding it up to the current £18.15 maximum payment.
If a driver does decide to sleep out of his cab it will pay him to shop around, but considering the cost of even basic accommodation in some parts of the country, it's hardly surprising that so many prefer their cabs.
One group with more of a grievance than most are the owner-drivers. Most try, with good reason, to save money wherever possible, so the argument for sleeping in the cab is a strong one. However you look at it, the whole business of overnight subsistence is a farce. The days when drivers had to sleep away from their trucks because they only had day cabs are long gone, yet the haggling over night-out money continues. So it's hardly surprising that many operators are simply saying "this is what we pay you to drive our truck, there's no extras, no bonuses, no hidden back-handers and that's it over there...we reckon it is a decent wage and you are free to take it or leave it."
Overnight money has always been a way for hauliers and drivers to beat the tax trap and it is probably not a good idea to make too much of a fuss about any unfairness in the system. Otherwise some bright spark is liable to ask if it isn't about time that such perks, like company cars before them, were made liable to tax.