A fair salary.

[Hilly]

Most HGV drivers for bigger firms live out all week. Leave home in the wee small hours of Monday morning & sometimes not home again until mid Saturday. The grass ain't greener on the other side...

They are called trampers because they live like tramps, ive met more that hate it than like it, sleeping in a truck is one thing sleeping in a truck in a layby on the side of a busy road with pikeys staeling your fuel and ladies knocking on the door is another thing, like you it would not be for me.

 

[Salopian_Will]

I agree, but I know a few farmers sons who do agency driving or just the odd day here and there and they get home most nights. £100 per day minimum

£100/day. There are 252 working days excluding weekdays and bank holidays = £25,200 p.a. And at that you would probably be self employed and have those associated costs. £100/day doesn't look quite so good then.

 

[Ben M]

I agree, but I know a few farmers sons who do agency driving or just the odd day here and there and they get home most nights. £100 per day minimum

Can easily do 8hrs on a farm around here for £100 min and be home for 4pm. Id rather do that then trucking any day of the week.

 

[GTB]

£100/day. There are 252 working days excluding weekdays and bank holidays = £25,200 p.a. And at that you would probably be self employed and have those associated costs. £100/day doesn't look quite so good then.

Like I've said a few times on this thread it's a different world over here. Most hill farmers can only dream of earning that much. Sad but true.

 

[GTB]

Can easily do 8hrs on a farm around here for £100 min and be home for 4pm. Id rather do that then trucking any day of the week.

Not around here though.

 

[hindmaist]

Like I've said a few times on this thread it's a different world over here. Most hill farmers can only dream of earning that much. Sad but true.

That must surely be down to a lack of productivity in either physical or financial terms.Quite likely both in many cases.I don't mean this as a criticism.

 

[GTB]

That must surely be down to a lack of productivity in either physical or financial terms.Quite likely both in many cases.I don't mean this as a criticism.

On a true hill farm you're very limited as far as what you can do. It's either sheep or beef and sheep basically.

 

[hindmaist]

On a true hill farm you're very limited as far as what you can do. It's either sheep or beef and sheep basically.

I appreciate that,but scale is the problem for many such units.If you have plenty sheep on plenty acres at a sensible rent you can make £12/ hr out of sheep.I have my doubts about beef though.

 

[Thick Farmer]

I appreciate that,but scale is the problem for many such units.If you have plenty sheep on plenty acres at a sensible rent you can make £12/ hr out of sheep.I have my doubts about beef though.

£12 an hour to stink of sheep and have all the hassle of running a business.

No thanks, I'll buy myself a trowel for a tenner and lay blocks for £15 an hour.

 

[Clive]

Most HGV drivers for bigger firms live out all week. Leave home in the wee small hours of Monday morning & sometimes not home again until mid Saturday. The grass ain't greener on the other side...

A truck driver that's out all week will be earning a good 40k plus pa - I used to have to pay a few of them and most had a fraction of the work ethic and skill of my farm workers

 

[yorkie]

Lots of interesting answers.... Well our irrigation manager is in charge of 8-10 reels and booms, with 2 drivers during season. An this time of year he is servicing those machines. We are not like average farms, we are strictly tied to health an safety, risk assessments, swp's etc, an run a thorough winter service program to try to eliminate breakdowns in peak times. Yes it is hectic at times, an we do get it done. I was just interested what others thoughts were, I feel that now we are doing our own spraying I feel i'm worth a little more as more responsibilities bearing in mind more washouts required changing crops etc. Interesting your different views on pay ranging 15k difference.

going by what you are putting on here seams to be a lot of chiefs and a lot of semi chiefs,2 of us tractor drivers used to run 13 iritaters and 4 liniers not just on 1 spead out on hired land they all had to do 2 runs a day minimum I used to service all reals this time of year when couldn't do anything else,to many folks want to tell rather than do and think they work hard

 

[GTB]

I appreciate that,but scale is the problem for many such units.If you have plenty sheep on plenty acres at a sensible rent you can make £12/ hr out of sheep.I have my doubts about beef though.

Where did you get the £12 per hr from ?

 

[hindmaist]

£12 an hour to stink of sheep and have all the hassle of running a business.

No thanks, I'll buy myself a trowel for a tenner and lay blocks for £15 an hour.

Each to their own.

 

[hindmaist]

Where did you get the £12 per hr from ?

Hundred quid a day.

 

[GTB]

Hundred quid a day.

12 hrs x £12 = £144

 

[hindmaist]

12 hrs x £12 = £144

You shouldn't expect to be paid for your dinner break.

 

[GTB]

You shouldn't expect to be paid for your dinner break.

I'm not.

 

[Will 1594]

going by what you are putting on here seams to be a lot of chiefs and a lot of semi chiefs,2 of us tractor drivers used to run 13 iritaters and 4 liniers not just on 1 spead out on hired land they all had to do 2 runs a day minimum I used to service all reals this time of year when couldn't do anything else,to many folks want to tell rather than do and think they work hard

so you never had any blow outs or pump stops 13 ,? if you had all perfect pull outs thats 17 hours just pulling out and connecting up,if you could do one in 40 mins . with out moving fields moving pipes and checking round

 

[Woolgatherer]

OP : Firstly do you actually think you can do all this work in peak periods.... as I think not ( unless you prepared to do 18 hour day's 7 days a week for weeks on end in peak periods when spraying/harvesting etc )

Secondly you say that their is a pool car/truck that you can use if available to get parts etc... so what happen's when one of the half dozen managers has gone off for a jaunt for the day with that and you need to pick up parts asap... if you use your own car/truck do they pay you the mileage etc for using it???

Thirdly : assuming you can do all this work..... ( and stay awake in the meantime ) then you need to be on 35/40k a year, anything less and your better off getting a HGV licence and doing that so you can have some sort of life as you wont see your family much for much of the year from the sounds of what they are asking/expecting you to do..

My OH is a lorry driver, goes away Sunday or Monday and comes home Friday or Saturday. About £8 or £9 an hour, if he didn't get the overtime / night out money the wages would be rubbish. Not an easy job either, lots of regulations any one broken and he could be put off the road.

 

[yorkie]

so you never had any blow outs or pump stops 13 ,? if you had all perfect pull outs thats 17 hours just pulling out and connecting up,if you could do one in 40 mins . with out moving fields moving pipes and checking round

they are called iritaters you name it went wrong,start at 6 pull longest ones out first then shortest last other chap did liniers and a couple of reals 20mins to do a real and boom one man,move pipes and sort any probs after they are pulled out,then start again,start6 on a morning home between 8 and 10 don't do it any more have got a life in middle age