FactCheck: Do tanker drivers earn £45k?
The claim
“Tanker drivers are paid on average £45,000 a year – double that of a regular haulage driver.”
Government department DECC press release, 26 March 2012
The background
Wednesday’s talks to avoid a fuel tanker strike will bring to a head a dispute that’s been running for more than a year.
The union Unite, which represents 2,000 fuel-tanker drivers, insists it’s not about pay – but that it is pushing for better terms and conditions for workers in an industry that “used to be run by the oil companies alone”.
“Over the years it’s been contracted out to other companies and the conditions and the terms were kept pretty solidly at the beginning. But over the years they have become eroded,” Diana Holland, the assistant general secretary of Unite, said yesterday.
But that hasn’t stopped rumours that the union’s demands include a 27 per cent pay hike for drivers, and it hasn’t stopped Conservative party officials distributing leaflets claiming that tanker drivers earn up to £47,500 – or pointing out that’s more than a staff sergeant bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan (who earns around £35,000).
The implication is that tanker drivers are well-rewarded for the risks involved in lugging explosive cargo across the country.
According to the DVLA there are a total 55,592 LGV drivers of hazardous goods in the UK – with 84 per cent licensed to haul “explosives”.
But are the drivers as well off as the government claims?
The analysis
The average gross earnings of a full-time large goods vehicle (LGV) driver is £497.50 a week or £25,360 a year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
An LGV is defined as any vehicle with a mass of over 3,500 kilogrammes – and covers vehicles previously known as HGVs (heavy goods vehicles).
The ONS doesn’t break down the pay of regular haulage drivers from tanker drivers; but we can assume that the latter command bigger pay packets – and the ONS figures show that the top 10 per cent of LGV drivers earn an average of £33,439.
That’s some 25 per cent less than the government’s figure of £45,000.
What’s more, it runs much closer to the average figure quoted to FactCheck by the union Unite, which represents 2,000 drivers who account for 90 per cent of those supplying petrol to UK forecourts.
A spokesman for Unite told us that the average salary of a tanker driver was around £35,000.
Yet the government, alongside some of the companies balloted for industrial action – such as Wincanton and Hoyer – quoted average salaries of £45,000.
Despite this, one Hoyer employee tweeted a picture of his payslip to us (below) adding: “I have (had) enough of the BS about what we earn WE DO NOT EARN 45K”.
“We’re guaranteed basic hours BUT we don’t do basic hours we are routed to max every shift. Due to redundancies less driver > work,” he added.
Of course this is just one worker at Hoyer, and a spokeswoman for the company continued to insist that the average salary was £45,000 for a 4×12-hour shift week.
However, she did concede that this figure includes “an element of overtime”. The overtime kicks in if drivers are stuck in traffic or if they work an extra day, she told us.
A spokesman for Wincanton also confirmed to FactCheck that the average £45,000 salary included “an element of overtime”.
The verdict
Yes tanker drivers earn more than your average LGV driver (the average gross annual salary across the board is £25,360), but according to official figures the average gross annual salary of a tanker driver is likely to be around £33,500.
That’s 25 per cent less than the £45,000 quoted by the government and by some haulage companies.
For a tanker driver to earn £45,000 in a year is however quite possible – but only if they put in extra hours in overtime.
By Emma Thelwell
Follow @FactCheck on Twitter
There are 45 comments on this post
Lets not forget the 37k figure in that screenshot is Gross Pay once the massive tax and NI is taken off they will be left with little more than 26k which not a lot for the dangerous job they do.
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The Governemnt – or at least the Conservaive element – seem determined to make this their “miners’ strike”, getting involved in an industrial dispute to which no-one has invited them. Indeed, their involvement so far seems to have caused unnecessary chaos – I suspect in order to bring the dispute more into the headlines. I accept that a strike would have highly unwelcome consequences, but it is surely better to allow the parties directly involved to negotiate rather than make it a political issue. This is, of course, where the misleading information about tanker drivers’ pay comes in. It seems to be OK to reduce tax for people earning more than £150k, but dastardly to earn £35k or perhaps as much as £45k with overtime, doing a job that is clearly vital for the country (as opposed to many of those in financial services earning ten times as much basically for gambling & moving other people’s money around.
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Same as a teacher on the Upper Pay Spine then and they don’t get overtime!
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True, but tanker drivers don’t get 13 days holiday. Swings and roundabouts I guess….
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Cathy/Emma,
Oo look! Tories telling someone on a measly £45K per annum to back off asking for an increase….while giving their rich chums a tax break worth on average just under a quarter of said £45K.
I don’t know who writes the Tory scripts but he/she makes Goebbels look like Judge Cato.
You couldn’t make them up. Then again, you don’t have to. The Tory spivs, Del Boys to a man/woman, keep doing it themselves.
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Do people actually believe Ca’morons’ lies? #telldaveeverything
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So while the article strives to give the impression that the earnings figure of c.£45k isn’t true, close reading confirms that it is. It’s massively higher than the industry average and while overtime may be involved overall hours are highly regulated / restricted by EU driving rules and working time directive to ensure adequate breaks and rest.
In the driving community tanker drivers are known to have some of the best terms going. Don’t forget they earn this higher rate without having to spend night out sleeping in vehicles or engage in the physical work that many others do in loading and unloading. It’s just greed and there many other drivers who’d happily swap for their terms
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I am a petrol tanker driver on contract to a large Supermarket contract.
Firstly the earlier comments in relation to tanker drivers not doing as much physical work as general haulage drivers is so far of the truth. General haulage has many different forms and ways of getting the goods off there lorry/ trailer.
Petrol tanker drivers have to load the vehicle with heavy loading arms at refineries, mostly six arms and a vapour arm, for one load, and most Petrol tankers are fitted with two offload hoses which are normally 10 foot long.
The said hoses when getting drained, can contain up to 25 gallons of fuel to empty. As for drivers nighting out in Petrol tankers, this does happen. The proffessional ability of those drivers, along with Health and Safety, allows then to park in poor/expensive service stations at £25 per night due to the potential hazards of the product they carry. I have been employed as a tanker driver in all products which have been dangerous or not, and in 20 years I have never worked under 50 hours a week, day or night. I earned £35000 last year, with overtime, and it costs me £60 per week to fuel my car, as most of the local work where I live has dried up.
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More fudging of facts! I have to effectively work a 14.5 month year to make that £45k being bandied about. that’s a lot of overtime Bob!
I can assure you, Southampton to Carlisle and back require nights out!
So draining hoses, lifting manhole covers,climbing tanks etc does not constitute as physical work? OK, I’ll tell my chiropractor!
“Best terms going”. 3 weeks paid leave is hardly best terms!
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So what is Holding You Back in becomming a Tankerdriver yourself?
UN1203 = Gasoline and can cause CANCER cause there is still Benzeen in there.
We get extra training and so on. Have to stick to procedures and so on.
The 45K is only reable if you do a LOT OF OVERTIME.
On average a shift is between 10 and 12 hours. We run Day and Night shifts. Saterday & also Sunday works is pretty common. That’s why the salary at the end of the year might be higher. We worked many hours for it.
My pay 2203,- bruto and the rest I make is based on overtime. I make around 50 to 55 hours a week. Brussel law states you only work up to 48 hours a week on avarage do!
But this is NOT about wages. It’s about Safety!
You cannot hurry in this line of work or big accidents can happen.
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Of course, it could just be that an army bomb disposal expert is paid far too little for putting his life on the line in Afghanistan. And it could just be that a tanker driver, overtime or none, is justifiably paid a fair wage for doing a difficult, demanding job with a much larger than normal degree of hazard, ensuring that we can fuel our vehicles, keeping the economy as ‘going’ as it can under current circumstances? Will Conservative Party officials be touting leaflets pointing out that Dave Cameron gets more than an staff sergeant bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan, a tanker driver, a teacher on the Upper Pay Spine (no overtime) and a host of other professions, and that he, rather than they, deserves it and a cut in his 50% income tax rate too? Or maybe they’ll be printing propaganda telling us that apples are the same as oranges…
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A bomb disposal sergent will get a uplift on there wages of 35k when they are abroad
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I don’t think workers from different sectors should get into disputes about who should earn more. I’m a teacher and think workers, especially those who went to state schools, should be united against a government that are full of public school millionaires who spin statistics and look down on the whole lot of us . . . Public sector workers, truck drivers . . . The lot. We shouldn’t be split up by jealousy over who gets the best pensions and who gets paid overtime, it’s what they want.
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So teachers can manage that rate without overtime or the risk of toxic chemicals/ hauling a dangerous load? And with half the year on holiday? My heart bleeds…
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Everybody on here is talking about pay as if that is what the tanker drivers are asking for!!! They are asking for a minimum pay set across the board on all contracts so that when the contract merry go round starts spinning again a low cost operator cannot come in and erode their terms and conditions / pensions / health and safety standards even further!!! Many of these drivers are not set to gain anything from this dispute apart from job security and minimum industry standards! And as for the pay £45k?? £35k is more like it, the £45k per year is for those few drivers that regularly do overtime taking their average 40 hour week up to a 60 hour week. Your all repeating what you are reading in the papers or seeing on the news…… Where has that info come from??? The companies involved and government, they are telling you what they want you to know to try and turn the country on the tanker drivers, make them look greedy and irresponsible!!! If they lose this dispute you will start seeing inexperienced people behind the wheel who have not got a clue how to handle a tanker let alone an accident involving one just so these big oil companies / hauliers can save a few quid per hour.
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ive been diving tankers for 9 years i dont earn 45K a year nor do i work a 37 hour week,
the government have over inflated these figures!!
i do on average between 45-60 hours a week,my earnings could go upto 45k if i average a 65-70 hour week!!
but i have a life!
this strike has nothing to do with pay like it is constantly being reported,its to do with health and safety and t&cs and companys cost cutting and potentially putting lives at risk
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I am glad that class warrior C Stewart doesn’t teach and indoctrinate my children with leninspart rubbish
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an Employer will pay you what you are worth too them They aren’t stupid NO boss will pay more for no reason.
We can all point at each others pay, but in life we all have a choice a follow a chosen career path.
I wish i could have been a top footballer on 200k a week ‘ARE THEY WORTH IT ‘ well to their Employer they are.
And just to point out OTE is not BASIC pay you can not budget for overtime it might not be there next year. So the basic pay is 34k, which involves 12 hour rolling day / night shifts on a 24/7 365 day a year operation.
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“or pointing out that’s more than a staff sergeant bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan (who earns around £35,000).”
Which is a damning indictment of this government and its attitude to its citizens willing to put their lives on the line that they are only deemed worthy of such a pittance and half that of an MP, most of whom do nothing useful for this country.
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No one here has posting anything worthy to make me change my mind, the FACT remains that the job tanker drivers do is very risky and where health and safety standards must never be cut if any thing the industry should be looking at strengthening those standards because I would like to be on a forecourt filling my car up when an error is made due to drivers working to many hours and becoming tired. The drivers are right to be thinking of health and safety not only for themselves but everyone.
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Channel 4 Do tanker drivers earn 45k? is the wrong Question because even if they was they would be worth every penny.
The Question should be “Are tanker Drivers right to strike over Health and Safety?”
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I am sorry but at least 12 months, Unite has being trying to get the large oil suppliers and contractors to sit in a joint counsel to discuss this high profit industry and avoid the potential cost down agenda that has crept in to save money on workers conditions and safety and pensions if they reach a pensionable age. The large Oil Companies have up to now, this quarter, have announced millions of pounds profit, along with this governments tax and vat on fuel. Refineries and staff, in this country have been sold on like cattle to foreign buyers. Has this government fixed our roads, dropped the car excise duty, vat on car parts, answer is no! We are supposed to live in a free country, but the government now are acting like a dictatorship and making Striking illegal, and if contracts are bought and sold, TUPE a thing of the past. We all have a right to vote and disagree as union members as we see this industry being squeezed in dangerous modes. 12 months of trying to negotiate with greedy foreign contractors and oil companies has been pointless, and if a major fuel related accident occurs, who will carry the can? Yes! the driver, or the forecourt owner, or refineries workforce!
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“…but only if they put in extra hours in overtime.”
Anyone checked their tachographs?
*tumbleweed*
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lets face it,Cameron is itching for a scrap to have his “Maggie moment” as with the public sector strike he is trying to turn one section of the public against the other,from the start his rhetoric has been confrontational “tanker drivers holding country to ransom” Maggie pre miner strike “miners want to hold country to ransom” when bankers hinted they might go elsewhere he caved in. he’s had his war now he wants his strike
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£45k is only possible if you were to include your holiday entitlement to make up your hours. This is the way I make up my pay . Getting a 2 week holiday is mostly impossible due to the way the company run the resource . You are on a very unsocial shift pattern that leaves your concentration in tatters . So if you work the extra hours, you are putting yourself and the public at risk. The company are hard liners who will not accept responsibility for anything. It is there training and so called double standards that are putting all our safety at risk.
We have drivers who have been sacked for failing to do a task correctly, that is now perfectly fine and goes against all of the original safe practices that were written. I could go on, but it could turn into a bloody book.
So stop ranting on about the so called high wages Mr Cameron.
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How about we all go on strike. Then maybe the people of this country not just this government will realise the transport industry is the backbone of the country. We do on average 55-60 hours a week nearly double an office worker and paid roughly the same. In ’86 I was earning £350 for 50 hrs take home now I take home £340 for 50 hrs! Go figure
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£36,800 basic,inc small amount of overtime brings me to £39k last year, £1900 of which is H&S bonus which split into 12 payments, each of which will be withdrawn if sick for 2 shifts or H&S falls below standard, 21 days holiday, work most bank holidays, paid time and a half but no choice if they fall on shift, work weekends(18 last year) and nights, fair wage but well earned. hourly rate works out the same working days or nights, sats or suns, pension scheme which is poor and thats it. Im not complaining im trying to protect my future and keep T&Cs from being eroded even more if another contractor takes over my contract, 15 years ago I earned more money and was on better T&Cs
£45 k thats a laugh ..And I work for what is thought to be one of the better companies..
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your lucky to get paid time and a half we get basic for bank holidays weather on shift or not.
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as a tanker driver i give most weekends up work both night and day shifts most weekends i worked all the bank holidays last year.
we are only entitled to 5 working days of per year the rest of our holiday entitlement are to be used up on rest days. you will be very lucky to get a two week break without a fight with your manager
over the past years the company has slowly cut back on training and safety.we used to have regular drugs and alcohol test at least twice a year but the company has cut back and your lucky to one a year.
we used to have a full days driving assment every year but now your lucky to half day.
the company is also cutting back on the CPC they are linking this in with an annual refresher which should last 10 per-day which will include 7 hours towards your CPC.If your lucky the driver trainer will be out with you for 5 hours.
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I work at one of the main contractors head office’s, the average wage of one of our Tanker drivers is 36k.
Recently we where told to quote the highest paid drivers wage of 45k if asked, which includes a hell of a lot of overtime.
Our drivers are probably the hardest worked in the industry and the management know this, but would never let them know.
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Useful info, which I worked in this article http://harrypaterson.co.uk/blog/soldiers-are-not-heroes/(which has provoked *massive* amounts of traffic from soldiers and tanker drivers alike.
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Once again Ch4′s Fact Check misquotes and data shifts to make a point against the government.
Iv’;e read some very poor analysis on Ch4′s Fact Check, but this is a particularly poor job.
If a driver can earn £45k doing overtime, then what the government said about drivers earning UP TO £45k is actually correct.
You would have to be deliberately misleading or stupid not to realise this obviousness.
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A lot of people could earn £45k including my Mrs, if they worked a tanker drivers 60 hrs a week, instead she does the average local authority 35 hrs @ £15.80.
The Gov tried to make out the drivers worked 37hrs p/w?
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you would have to be very stupid not to realise that the Government *knows* drivers earning this figure comprise such a tiny percentage of the workforce as to be almost irrelevant.
You would have to be very stupid not to realise the government *knows* damn well that people would focus only on the figure of £45K and start ranting about that.
You would have to be very stupid not to realise that this is but the latest propaganda offensive from a government who needs desperately to divert attention from itself and to find other scapegoats.
Yes, very stupid indeed not to realise these things.
That or a Tory troll.
Or both…
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Astroreaper,
However Government should NEVER quote figures that include an element of overtime because thet overtime may not always be there and is NOT guaranteed it also leads to confusion as we seem to have here.
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In this very report. “For a tanker driver to earn £45,000 in a year is however quite possible”.
Therefore, the government statement is factually correct, and all the politicing of the idiot classes doesn’t change that very fact.
The government statement of
“Tanker drivers CAN earn UP TO £45k per annum”
That stands whatever some might like to think or believe.
Please let me know what was factually incorrect about the statement? I’m rather bored with the left in this country pretending that we are all more stupid than they are and can’t work out the nuances of life……
As for the Tory Troll jib Harry Paterson, low, very low, and typically left wing in nature as it’s completely unwarranted in this case….
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A small percentage of drivers earn £45000 per annum, because they have been on the same fuel contract for 20 years or so for up to 4 different haulage contractors.
Most of the £45000 per annum drivers achieve this including safety bonus, overtime every week, Bank Holiday working, service days.
Contractors need experienced drivers, who can load all products out of all refineries(which are still open!). To train a un experienced driver this industry takes at least 6 weeks tuition and 12 months hands on experience.
This is the reason why new drivers are being introduced into the industry and thrown out into the wilderness on their own.
Look at the elite so called professional bankers salaries, and you don’t complain, maybe you will complain about the quality of safety and staff, when you put contaminated fuel in your vehicle because an unexperienced driver puts the wrong product down at a petrol station, or fails to act correctly when a fire occurs on a forecourt for any reason burning your loved ones to death. Look at the recent tanker incident in the US on Sky recently. Get your info correct, and stop acting like the sheep in the house of Commons, earning money whilst…
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I understand that tanker drivers are taking a risk when carrying fuel on a daily basis, but so are the numerous people in vehicles driving behind tankers and they don’t receive danger money!! No wonder fuel is so expensive, we’re subbing the ‘over the top’ salaries. It’s not as tho they need much of a brain to drive!!
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Fuel is so expensive because the government tax it so!
On my 11 hour & 15 minute shift I would deliver between 2 to 5 loads, depending on distance!
Lets take an average of 3 loads at around £55000 each. £165000.
My share of that £165000 amounts to 0.1%. So you see, if they paid us nothing, you’d still see little change in the price you pay at the pump!
Furthermore, I’m supposedly on the best contract but here’s the thing……..
Last year I worked 18 days overtime, work all bank holidays that fell on my shift at time & a half, Got a £1700 H&S bonus and got nowhere near this elusive £45k and I don’t know any driver that did!!!!!
BTW, cheers for the insult!
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tanker drivers get paid for what we know , not for what we do , ya retard
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Fuel is expensive because more than 60% is taken in tax and vat! No you don’t need a brain to drive but you do need skill, knowledge of the roads (height, weight, length, width) knowledge of your vehicle and how a live load (one that moves for the ones with no brain) will affect cornering and braking, couple that with the product knowledge and what to do in a an emergency then factor in the idiots who continue to smoke and use mobile phones on a forecourt even though there is signs everywhere telling you not to and the impatient usually male drivers who need to be in front of you regardless of what your carrying or what evasive action your gonna need to take. The general public don’t know the half of what tanker drivers have to know, do or avoid on a daily basis, you just take it for granted that when you pull that nozzle fuel is gonna come out of it. So robbing gits, when you next at the pump filling your car up just imagine that 60% of whatever you put in your car is going to the government maybe then you can turn your misguided criticism to the people who deserve it!!!
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I’m sorry are we suggesting that 35k a year is a fair and just wage for driving a truck!!! I have done 4 years at university I am a qualified civil engineer and I don’t earn that. Plus I’m expected to work the hours required to get the work done. Many weeks I can turn in a 50-60 hour week and I don’t get a penny more. My job can be dangerous when I’m on-site and I manage that risk on a day to day basis.
If tanker drivers demands are solely related to health and safety concerns I am totally behind them – however is not the HSE interested in such issues . I can’t fart on a construction site without doing a risk assessment and I’m sure if working practices related to the transport of explosive goods were an issue they would act in an instant.
The real issue here is that one element of the haulage industry has created itself an enviable position which enables operatives to demand higher wages. The current action by the tanker drivers appears to me to be aimed at defending that untenable position whilst camouflaging their greed as Mother Teresa like concern for public safety. It’s a nonsense they are being paid too much at 35k and anywhere near to 45k is simply immoral.
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So what you are saying Bob, is that because you accepted a low paying job with rubbish terms and conditions everyone one else should to ?
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This action is in part to prevent haulage and oil company cost down agenda’s, eroding drivers t’s and c’s, pay, pensions and training to increase their own profits.
Teachers strike when their pay and pensions are attacked, NHS staff strike when their pay and pensions are attacked, firefighters strike when their pay and pensions are attacked, BA staff went on strike when thier pay and pensions were attacked and I’m 100% sure if you found yourself in a similar position you would strike to protect your future and retirement. Many of theses drivers are not set to gain anything from this dispute apart from job security. “MINIMUM” standards are what they are after not maximum pay!!!
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I have been a fuel tanker driver for 13 years now. I work a 5-2, 5-3 schedule. I get 9 paid holidays a year along with 4 weeks paid vacation at a 40 hour a week pay rate. Last year I grossed a little over $74k. I live in CA in the central valley. IMO,this is one of the best truck driving jobs out there.
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