21-year-old HGV driver shares payslip to show how much they really make
An HGV driver has shared his payslips to show people how much money he's making from his job, but he's also issued a warning to people looking to follow in his footsteps.
Everyone wants a job that pays more money and will actually let them achieve something approaching financial security, but then again I'd also like the ability to teleport and shoot lasers from my eyes which seems about as likely.
There are some jobs which do pay a decent amount, and if you're thinking of getting into being a HGV driver to earn a bigger payday then you could do worse than listen to one of the UK's youngest drivers.
He took to YouTube to explain how much money he's making from the job, though he did point out he had to spend £2,985 on getting his proper training and qualifications before he was allowed to be in charge of a lorry.
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As he explained, when he first passed and got his first HGV job he was making £20 an hour on agency work.
"I know some people might think it's peanuts, some people that's really good money as well," he said as he explained the sort of money he was making and whether it was enough for him to stay in the job.
"It depends on your situation obviously, but to me that was really good money and I did not expect to be earn that sort of money straight away as soon as I passed.
"I thought I'd have to take the less paying jobs and climb my way up into the rankings. But that wasn't the case for me."
It turns out his pre-tax revenue per week was 'between £1,000 and £1,200 to £1,300 a week'. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average weekly pay in the UK is £742 before tax, which puts that into perspective.
Annually, based on his weekly pay, his salary is likely to be between £52,000 and £67,600 per year.
After tax, his take home pay was 'between £700 to £900' depending on how many hours he worked in a week.
So... is there a downside?
For the 21-year-old, that's 'really good money', though he did have some words of warning for all those now furiously Googling how to become a HGV driver.
"What I will say is they don't pay that money for no reason, I had my work cut out for me and at some points I was thinking 'is the money even worth it'," he revealed.
Most of the jobs he works are 'in-store deliveries' because for him those are the jobs paying the higher rates.
He said: "People were telling me, 'leave the job, it looks too stressful, it looks too difficult'. But I was too money-hungry to leave.
"I wanted to stay. Every time I was getting my weekly pay and I was seeing that sort of money, it just was a bit of motivation to power through and carry on."
What sort of stress can you expect as an HGV driver?
In a separate video, the driver said his first job was store deliveries, which meant he had to deal with customers, illegally parked cars, and incredibly narrow parking bays.
He said at one point he took out a traffic light, took 'two hours' to reverse at each store and was fired after five days.
While this thankfully wasn't the end of his HGV career, he said afterwards: "I did jobs that affected my health so badly I genuinely felt zombified."
He said at one point his eye swelled up with stress - which is an actual thing, as increased adrenaline and cortisol can cause increased fluid pressure in your eyeballs.
He also warned that anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps should be aware that the rates he's on aren't the same across the entire UK, advising people who are interested in becoming a HGV driver to search what rates their local area offers before they start looking into training.
"Go on Google, go on Indeed and look at the rates near you and see what what what your area is paying," he advised.
Joe Harker