A professional truck driver has revealed what his salary is, and it might make you rethink what you do for a living.
If you thrive on working with a strict routine, then this probably isn't the lifestyle for you.
As a trucker, you're going to be on the road for a long time, during the night when you're tired, and in the mornings during the rush-hour commute.
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You'll have to sacrifice sleeping in a nice bed, and swap it for the hard seats in your truck.
You will also see all kinds of weather conditions, and navigate your driving through those.
It's a lot to deal with...but if you're thinking of the pay? It might be worth it.
Truth behind working as a truck driver
Hale often shares the highs and lows of a life on the road for his YouTube channel, and viewers have been surprised by how much he earns and the problems he deals with.
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He admitted one of the most common questions he gets asked is about how 'stressful' the job is, revealing: "Stress is in every job. It would be like someone who works in retail can complain that it's stressful dealing with customers. It's the job.”
He also said a lot of people say they don’t want to sit in traffic all day, explaining: “Sitting in traffic, it's the job, that's what we do. So you can't say that that's not what you expected because if you honestly came into this job to be an HGV driver and were not expecting to sit in traffic and have to get to deliveries on time, then I don't know what you were expecting!"
There’s also not a lot of work-life balance, according to him.
How much can you earn from truck driving?
But when it comes to the UK, we have around 268,000 people working as lorry drivers, as of 2021, which 16 percent down from 2017, according to ONS stats.
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That being said, Ashley Hale loves his work and documents his time on the road on his YouTube channel.
Underneath one of his videos, he revealed that he would earn about £52,000 a year from truck driving.
In the clip, he was told by a viewer that what people ‘actually want to know’ is how much they could potentially make doing the job and that this could be an incentive to get people in the industry.
He explained in a video where he revealed his payslip that he would be sharing the wage he received from his previous job, and not from his current employer.
Ashley shared that he didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable at his company while talking about his wage, and instead would talk about a company that no longer exists and made him redundant.
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He shared that at his previous job, he worked all week in the vehicle and his pay reflects that specific role of a ‘tramper’.
Putting the payslip up on the screen for viewers to see, he explained that he made £625 per 45-hour week at work.
That would amount to around £32,500 per year, which is pretty average in the UK.
However, it was the perks that bumped it up to about £52,000.
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Speaking to his viewers, he said that overtime was paid at double the standard rate, which was an estimated additional £261 per week.
He also received £3 as a weekly bonus for working ‘unsociable hours’ such as evening driving shifts.
If his performance was on par with his targets, he’d also receive an extra £40 for his hard work.
Then, he’d get around £100 for a ‘nights out’ allowance to reimburse him for accommodation or meals when he was working nights.
So, all in all, that would work out to be about £1,000 per week and just under £53k a year.
What are the downsides?
Ashley said people ask how he manages to live his life when he works so much.
He explained: “If you're doing a type of job where you're away all week sleeping in the truck, then there are going to be family events that you do miss out on midweek.
"If you've got young kids there's going to be parents' evenings and school plays that you can't go to because you're halfway across the country sleeping in a layby."
The driver added: "It’s not the same in every job. In my current job, I'm doing days, I'm home every single night.”
Britt Jones