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O R E HO U LE S S P A A comprehensive report on drivers' pay

6th December 2001
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Page 38, 6th December 2001 — O R E HO U LE S S P A A comprehensive report on drivers' pay
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

shows that drivers are right to feel hard done by—they do get paid less than comparable workers in industry. Steve McQueen crunches the numbers.

Anew report suggests that drivers work longer hours for less pay than workers in other manual occupations with drivers clocking up an extra five hours a week for an average £13 a week less. The report, which draws on a variety of sources, details average hourly rates being paid to drivers as well as rates paid by specific national operators. It also provides a revealing insight into the additional payments being paid by some companies throughout the transport sector.

Pay in road trans port and distrib ution, published by the highly respected Income Data Services group, shows that the median basic weekly pay for holders of a C+E driving licence is /240. The median basic hourly rate is £5.87. Category C licence holders are being paid an average off5.8o an hour and van drivers £5.15.

On a region-by-region basis, basic hourly rate for artic drivers is highest in the SouthFast at £6.79 an hour, compared with drivers

of equivalent skills in the North-West and East Midlands, who earn an average of f6.32 and £6.25 per hour respectively. Drivers in Scotland (f5.84) and Yorkshire & Humberside (f5.67) were at the bottom, although IDS found that the data provided by the 175 companies involved showed only a 5-6% variation on either side.

Down among the parking bays at the Junction 23 Truc.kstop, news of the report was producing a mixed response.

The driver of an Allinsons vehicle from Doncaster thought the £6.02 average rate identified for the North-East was desirable but somewhat out of reach as far as his employer was concerned.

"We get paid £5.20 per hour, which is more of a realistic rate for the general haulage corn panies in the area. That's for a basic 40 hours but we normally work getting on for Go hours a week," he said.

A driver from Fiege Merlin in tht Southampton area also thought the £5.8( quoted for his region, the South-West, was rather on the high side.

"We get paid i5.50 an hour and that's higt for where we are. We are unionised and than even higher than the union level arounc Southampton, but at least we get a wage rise every year. There are a lot of companies new us who haven't had an increase for abou three years," he said.

At Junction 23. the interest among some o the drivers was focused on the additional pay ments element. One cement distributor in the Midlands is apparently paying drivers delivery-related bonuses of up to £3,500 a year. A distribution specialist in the NorthWest is paying between g00-3,200 per year in attendance bonuses alone. A parcels operator is paying an extra 1-4% of salary per quarter depending on company performance, as well as providing shift premium payments for nights and weekends.

Demonstrating the validity of many of the conclusions in the report, the driver of the Osborne Logistics truck from Yorkshire said the report was bang on the nail.

He was celebrating a recent rise to just over £6 an hour.

"We work an average of 70-80 hours a week, but we are paid up to 55. After that we are on overtime." He said the average takehome pay varies, but is between £1,400[700 a month.

The Curries European driver was not so well off. He reported that the drivers are salaried and can expect to work between 4050 hours a week. He estimated that the average annual wage was between LI4,000£16,000 a year. If this brings the national average down, the presence of a Richard Lawson driver could only serve to bring it back up again. Operating from Purfleet, he suggested that the complex bonuses in the industry brought the average wage at his depot up to about iz8,000 a year. He couldn't be sure about the average hourly rate.

A comparison with the hourly rates from other occupations makes interesting reading.

According to the New Earnings Survey published by the Office of National Statistics (April 2000), the average rate for all manual occupations was 17.19. The average for all occupations was /10.28. The kind of jobs that on average pay more than the top average for driving a truck include bookmakers (16.80), postal workers and mail sorters (17.36), building contractors (17.40), railway station staff (1844 and—wait for it—transport managers and rail engine drivers (112.54 These figures are not a completely accurate comparison, because they include bonus pay ments (the same survey put the hourly rate for goods vehicle drivers at £6.40). The IDS average in this report is based on the basic wage.

However, the underlying message is clear and is probably one of the reasons why IDS says the report indicates widespread difficulties in recruiting drivers.

The IDS report explains that within the UK market there are extremes that will influence the overall picture. This includes the number of hours worked.

"A quarter of the companies had a basic working week of more than 48 hours. Only II companies, around 7% of the respondents, had a basic working week of less than 40 hours and most of these were distribution divisions or subsidiaries of manufacturers or retailers," says the report. For example, one supermarket in the East Midlands is paying over 1300 for a basic 36.5-hour week.

Other differentials occur in areas where distribution companies are present in large numbers: "For example, pay pressures are likely to be felt more intensely in companies located in areas with many distribution operations, such as along the M4 corridor in the South-West, rather than in Devon or Cornwall in the far South-West."

Unionisation will also affect wage rates. "You usually do get a good 10-15% differential on pay where unionisation occurs and there are a number of academic studies that have been carried out in conjunction with the TUC," says Graham Stevenson, national organiser for the Transport ti General Workers Union. He points out that the transport sector is dominated by a large number of small companies and many of these are nonunionised: "My gut feeling is that many smaller non-unionised companies are also following some of the more generous pay settlements that we are getting at the T&G," However, IDS points out that the presence of a union isn't always the factor that raises the wage above the average. It found at least one high-profile distribution company where drivers are being paid below the average rate despite union recognition. At the other end ol the scale, a non-unionised parcels operator is paying its drivers above the average.

Talk of wages pressure, unionisation and bonus payments was no more than a diversion during the morning break to the drivers inter. viewed at Junction 23 on this particular Tuesday morning in November. Most were being paid less than the median average identified in the IDS report and only the car delivery driver could claim that bonuses formed a big part of his income. However, it's important to know where you stand in comparison with others in your sector and to be able to point tc benchmarks when it comes to wage negotia. tion time. Drivers are in short supply and information is power. Employers, please note


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