Why the reliance on owner drivers?

[White Van]

Surely it's better and cost affective to use PF regulars?

[1969tonka]

Its better for the bosses as no sick pay , holiday pay or pension etc. The average pfw driver costs the firm £50k a year but with owner drivers they just pay them per drop so if they dont deliver or cant make it in then they dont get paid. One day i can see all being owner drivers !

[Puppetmaster]

Owner drivers ,are all the rage at the moment from vans to lorries, to huge cement mixers .This is just a ploy by huge companies to get round employment law and get more profits.

Some owner drivers at some Companies have to pay a signing on fee, pay for their h&S and manual handling courses etc.
1 well company allows their drivers to have 2 weeks holiday off a year, but the rest of year ,no holidays and no cover by another driver! so when a guy's grandmother died and he took the day off to attend her funeral, he lost his pay for the day and was fined £150 for the day as well.

Another nationwide company, routinely fines its drivers if they do not attempt to deliver parcels or meet the time slots on timed delivery's, even if the driver is late leaving the depot due to the trunker being late.

Look at City link at Christmas see how they were treated, many drivers put extra vans on the road up to Christmas, only to find out Christmas day the company had gone under and they would not get any money at all.

Way cheaper and more efficient to have owner drivers and no employment laws to worry about!