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Driver Earning Potential

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TB93

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Wouldn't call it superstar money but on the basic contract at GBRF, if you were to do 700 hours overtime (easily possible depending on attitude and location) then you will get to the £70k mark. Tax man will love you though.

Just what I was thinking there must be a few on 40% tax if these wages are true.
 
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JAMBO

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Yeah and the divorce lawyers must be rubbing there hands together! Lol
 

ultra4

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Wouldn't call it superstar money but on the basic contract at GBRF, if you were to do 700 hours overtime (easily possible depending on attitude and location) then you will get to the £70k mark. Tax man will love you though.

There is a bus driver at our depot who cleared £40k last tax year !!!
Bear in mind he is on just over £11/hr
OT rate = basic rate
The only extras they get is paid break between duty and OT (if under 1 hr) etc.
If he was a train driver... would not dare to even imagine that.

What about train driver's OT rate. Is it higher than the basic?
 

GB

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Overtime at GBRF is also flat rate.

To clear 40K at £11 per hour your bus driver m8 must of lived at work!
 
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Latecomer

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Is someone going to give the names of these TOCS/FOCS where superstar money is made??

I don't know if this entire list with salaries is up to date but I know for sure that some are:

http://www.traindriver.org/train-operators-depots--jobs.html

Those are the basics and then just add Sundays where applicable.


Just what I was thinking there must be a few on 40% tax if these wages are true.

Most drivers will have at least part of their wage in the 40% bracket.

What about train driver's OT rate. Is it higher than the basic?

Rest days are paid at the basic rate but some TOC's pay Sundays at time and a half.

As other drivers have said - work too may rest days at your peril!
 

JAMBO

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Not sure what other tocs/focs are like but i have seen quite a lot of backstabbing involved when it comes to the rest day situation. Some would be fiddling with the roster clerk and climbing all over you, and would even sell there own mothers to claim a few extra quid. To work a few is one thing but to live at work is another. I have seen drivers looking ill simply from the hours and fatigue, and it cant be any good for your health in the long term been at work 60 hrs a week 7 days?! If you can't live off 45k and need to hammer rest days year in year out then you must have some serious lifestyle issues, may be need to sell the Porsche and the 5 bed mansion , and holiday in butlins instead of the maldives! Lol
 

A-driver

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Rest days are paid at the basic rate but some TOC's pay Sundays at time and a half.


Depends on the company. At FCC we get time+15% for rest days plus a £50 booking on premium. Sundays are time+35%.

The amount they offer comes out of pay deals but is often dependant on how desperate the company are for drivers to work O/T!
 

bystander

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FGW Thames Valley is time x 1.25 for RDs and Sundays, so it does add up very quickly if you want (as some do) to put yourself at risk and make yourself miserable to stack up the earnings
 

A-driver

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FGW Thames Valley is time x 1.25 for RDs and Sundays, so it does add up very quickly if you want (as some do) to put yourself at risk and make yourself miserable to stack up the earnings


That's perhaps a little harsh! Nothing wrong with working rest days, as I said above it can be very useful for paying for things like holidays, a new computer/ iPad, re-decorating the house, paving the front drive etc, it only becomes a problem when you start to factor rest day money in as part of your salary.
 

455driver

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I work overtime and the (very) odd restday when they are desperate, other than that I leave it up to those living above their means.

Quality time with the family is more important than having a bigger house (would be nice though), the newest car and the most expensive holidays.

They might have the best stuff but I am home more so enjoy what I have much more than they do.
 

Beveridges

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Regarding these who hammer rest days at the expense of their health. If they are at work that much then they must have so little time off to spend their money or enjoy what they have spent money on. Plus, what little time off work they have they are probably going to be tired or ill. I can't understand why they do it. Worked with plenty of the type myself. I also notice these people are usually the type who are the most "bored" with the job. No wonder they're bored with it when they're living there and not getting much break from it.
 
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I'll throw my hat in the ring and admit my earnings this financial year.

I drive for VT and if the rest of this financial year continues like the last nine months then my gross earnings this year will be around 87 to 88K off a basic of £53724.

I don't live at work to earn that money and could earn more if I wanted.

I know it's a lot of money and we're very lucky to have the opportunity to earn that money but I look at it this way. I've been a driver for 25 years next month and you couldn't give this job away when it was worth £150 a week so it's about time it came good in the end financially.
 
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JAMBO

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I think the days of the large happy cheques at freightliner have been and gone, bar the odd few of course!
 

ultra4

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I think the days of the large happy cheques at freightliner have been and gone, bar the odd few of course!

How about Australian Freightliner?
Are their drivers on mega money, driving 2km long trains?
 

ST

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I'll throw my hat in the ring and admit my earnings this financial year.

I drive for VT and if the rest of this financial year continues like the last nine months then my gross earnings this year will be around 87 to 88K off a basic of £53724.

I don't live at work to earn that money and could earn more if I wanted.

I know it's a lot of money and we're very lucky to have the opportunity to earn that money but I look at it this way. I've been a driver for 25 years next month and you couldn't give this job away when it was worth £150 a week so it's about time it came good in the end financially.

Thank you for the insight! I understand it is difficult to get a job with Virgin as a driver, I can see why now! :D
 

Latecomer

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I drive for VT and if the rest of this financial year continues like the last nine months then my gross earnings this year will be around 87 to 88K off a basic of £53724.

I don't live at work to earn that money and could earn more if I wanted.
How does that happen without quite a lot of rest day working? My base wage is very similar but although I don't do any rest day working because I don't feel the need to, I would have to do a hell of a lot to reach the figures you're talking (even though our rest days and Sundays are all on flat rate). What's the average number of rest days you would work in a 4 week period?
 

JAMBO

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That's what I was thinking, for a virgin driver to earn over 30k in overtime and you say you don't live at work I find very hard to believe. There are quite a few companies kicking around the 50k bracket and for a driver to earn that kind of money you have to do a canny bit of rest day working. It also clearly shows that virgin and probably most operators are short of drivers, do all your mates earn this 30k overtime easily without living at work too? Could be drivers jobs created there.
 

GB

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I guess a lot if it depends on what extra (if anything) you get for working overtime, rest days and sundays...as well as the length of turn on a RD. Also depends on ones definition of "living at work".
 

A-driver

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I guess a lot if it depends on what extra (if anything) you get for working overtime, rest days and sundays...as well as the length of turn on a RD. Also depends on ones definition of "living at work".


It also depends how desperate the companies are to cover open jobs. If you are negotiating 12hours pay for every rest day which is common on some desperate TOCs then it's possible. When I was at southern they were so short of drivers at times that you could pick a short 7hour job and ask if they would pay 12hours for it. More often than not they would as it's still far, far cheaper than cancelling the trains on that diagram.
 

Beveridges

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The term "living at work" is hard to define. Some may work 35 hrs per week but spend another 10 hrs commuting to/from work. Someone else who may do 45 hrs may be seen as someone who "lives there" but if he has no commute - like a short walk to work like some people have - then he is really not "living at work" any more than the former example who does no overtime at all!!
 
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TDK

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Those figures are certainly before tax. I don't know any drivers who could get anywhere near 60k after tax...

If you do overtime and you get into the 40% tax bracket you will only get £48 of every £100 you earn, I overcome this by putting the maximum into Brass 2
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Just as well or Class 153 drivers would be permanently on strike!

Is it the case that 'intercity' drivers get paid more per hour etc. than 'local' drivers?

Every TOC has a different pay structure with I think XC paying the highest
 

W230

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Just as well or Class 153 drivers would be permanently on strike!

Is it the case that 'intercity' drivers get paid more per hour etc. than 'local' drivers?
As TDK says, each TOC has their own pay structure but in general the highest paying TOC's tend to be the more intercity style TOCs. The lower paying TOC's tend to be the more rural areas and as you get further away from London. And Merseyrail...enough said there! :lol: ;)

However, I would imagine the ~£40k with Scotrail would go further than the ~£45k at a London commuter TOC.
 
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"deals" have been plentiful through December to get Drivers to work their RDs.
An example, and it wasn't offered to me, one of the drivers at my depot was offered 32 hours money (around £900) to do half a shift. He declined !

The trouble now at certain depots is that the "deals" have created a situation where some drivers will do nothing extra unless the "deal" is very attractive.
Also the depot complement of drivers has been allowed to decline over time with just the odd one or two drivers recruited along the way.

If those new recruits are existing drivers it can be up to twelve months before they have completed their traction and route learning and become productive, if they are being trained from scratch it can be in excess of eighteen months.

Hence why the high earnings are possible without living at work.
 

JAMBO

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Simple answer to that then is to recruit more qualified drivers!
 

scotraildriver

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No overtime at Scotrail at all now, not sure if any other TOCs likely to follow. Company claim to have enough drivers and ASLEF agreed it to enhance recruitment (more members) so its basic plus a few Sundays these days. I know a lot of people wanted to keep the choice but hey ho!
 
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