Friday, September 03, 2021

A trucker's hourly pay rose by $10 overnight because of a driver shortage - but he said he still wanted to quit driving anyway

kduffy@insider.com (Kate Duffy) 
A truck driver in the UK told the BBC he had his pay increased by $10 overnight. 
David Zalubowski/AP

A truck driver had a $10 pay rise overnight, but he still wants to leave his role, he told the BBC.

He told the Wake Up to Money program the job meant sacrificing family time because of the hours.

His pay rise comes as the UK and the US experience a shortfall of truckers.


A trucker has received a pay rise from $24 an hour to $34 an hour, but he still wants to quit his job, the BBC first reported on Wednesday.


The pay rise comes amid a shortage of truck drivers which has thrown US and UK supply chains into disarray.

Tom Reddy, from Stratford upon Avon in the UK, tweeted on Sunday about the sudden increase.

He told the BBC in an interview on Wednesday that the pay rise meant his salary jumped 40% from £17.50 ($24) an hour to £24.50 ($34).

This equates to his annual pay rising from £36,400 ($50,200) to £50,960 ($70,300), according to calculations on the job website talent.com.

Reddy told the BBC that he's worked as a trucker for 15 years.

"Maybe I'd expect an extra 20p ($0.28) an hour in a normal year, but to have it jump so significantly. It does kind of indicate that something major is going on," he said in a separate interview with the BBC on Wednesday.

Read more: 4 ways small business owners can benefit from supply chain delays happening right now

Being a truck driver means sacrificing time with family because of the unsociable working hours, Reddy told the BBC's Wake Up to Money radio program.

"It's a very hard sell, to tell people come and be [truck] drivers," Reddy told the program.

There is currently a shortage of 100,000 truck drivers in the UK, according to the UK's Road Haulage Association.

This is taking a toll on supply chains and causing long delays for retailers, such as McDonald's and Nando's, Insider's Mary Hanbury reported on Saturday.

A similar issue is happening on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Federal Reserve warned in June that the US is suffering from a labor shortage, including a shortfall of truck drivers, which has triggered supply chain disruption and price hikes for shipping.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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