It's official - Forklift drivers earn more than most pilots

[123567]

I wonder how much it costs to train to become a forklift driver????



From the New Zealand Herald Website:

Other jobs' average salaries:

* Court of Appeal judge: $292,000.

* Call centre manager: $70,500.

* Advertising manager: $70,748.

* Forklift Driver: $35,020.

* Librarian: $34,910.

* Specialist at Auckland Hospital: $108,000 to $150,000, base rate.

* Navy marine engineer, five years' experience: $46,645.

* Accountant in the banking industry: $140,000.

* Auckland University professor: $98,982 minimum.

* General practitioner: $79,453 average (2001 Census).

* Chief accountant: $100,500.

* Fire Service station officer: $48,000.

* Lawyers: $42,000 for new graduate up to $2 million-plus for top commercial barrister.

* Chief scientist: $90,000.

* Secondary school teacher: $36,256 (if it is accepted by the union, the current pay offer will raise this to $42,325 by July 2006) to $56,393.

[Metro man]

Not just in NZ either. Jobs for forklift drivers being advertised in Oz in the $20-25 /hour range. Plenty of vacancies either permanent with sick pay,holiday pay etc. ,or casual at higher hourly rate.

Cost +/- $300 for training in around 3 days ,add another $100 for steel capped boots and a safety vest and you are away.

Good operator wanting $$$ ,with overtime and penalties for night/weekend work should be on around $1000/week.

Compares very well with piston twin and alot of turbines :(

[Orville]

Apparently it's a fact that a forklift driver makes more decisions in 1 hour on the job than a commercial pilot does flying from Mel to Syd.
It used to be a motorist makes more decisions driving to work in peak hour traffic than a pilot between Mel and Syd. but toll ways have reduced this statistic down to them being on a par now.

[Kaptin M]

I try to avoid making ANY decisions at work, Orville - it makes me tooooo tired for social activities afterwards (the forklifting type)!

And just think what you could buy with that $60k + you'll save by NOT learning to fly...a nice boat, a couple of cars.
Time with the family EVERY day...no more 6 or 12 monthly medicals......no more sim checks.....no 8 hour bottle to throttle..........public holidays off.......time off to have decent meals served on a table, instead of a cardboard box on your lap............sleeping in your own bed, on your own pillow that countless other people haven't dribbled on......
http://www.yale.com/images/default_r2_c9.jpg

[tinpis]

But then forklift drivers dont have much to post about on proon.

[hoss]

Well you obviously dont logon at www.FLDRuNe.org do you:) . Heaps of goss and talk about that year, you know, remember 98;) .

[3 Holer]

I worked as a forklift driver for a year and I know what I would prefer to be doing !!! ;)

[sport]

I think some-one is attempting to take a fork en lift out of you.

[Hugh Jarse]

Back in 1987 I was earning $54k as a forkie.

I left that job to earn $22k as a junior Grade 3.

17 years later, my 2 brothers-in-law still work for the same company as forkies earning $85k including allowances, with no checks to study for, and little accountability. They get treated extremely well by their employer and would never leave.

20/20 hindsight is a good thing. :{

P.S. I never paid for my forkie's ticket either. Besides, you can't log ICUS on a piston engined fork :D

[Woomera]

Buckshot

please aim before firing.

This thread is off to Questions

[Oz Ocker]

Me mate's a handyman. 'e charges out at 38 buckeroos an hour plus the cost of any materials used is extra.
Picks 'is own hours, but e's usually on the job by 6:30 am or 7 and knocks orf about 5 or 6.
'e likes to work most Saterdays and 'e'll even do a bit on Sunday if e feels like it.
Ain't no shortage a work for 'im and e reckons e pulls in between 10 and 12 grand a month.
Put both is kids through private schools an' just came back from 2 weeks in NZ with is young girlfriend.
e's 54 and a fitter barsterd ya wouldn't find.
Works when HE wants to, takes the time orf HE wants at the times HE wants it.
Ain't no money in flyin like there used ta be nowadays.
Might be a "nice" job but youse are gunna be workin' to the day yer die to get half the stuff anyone with a lot less qualifications has got.
An they aven't 'ad ta fork out like youse ave to get 'em.
It's a mugs game bein' a pilot these days.

[Hugh Jarse]

No windup, Buckshot.

Perhaps I should be more explicit about the roster. We were working 12 hour shifts, but only a total of 7 shifts per fortnight, with a long weekend every 2nd weekend, and never working more than 3 days in a row without 2 days off.

So that worked out at a 42 hour week. I've done much more than that as a pilot on some occasions. I'm barely matching my brothers-in-law salaries, but I reckon if their union has the smarts to get the $$ then good on 'em.

The reason these guys are so well paid is that some labour groups have the capability of negotiating conditions better than a lousy 3% per year. And they don't run around cutting each-other's throats to be cheaper than the rest :yuk:

I guess we get what we deserve when we use pilots to negotiate our salaries for us. The forkies used professional negotiators to do the hard work, and reaped the results. Almost 20 years on and our unions are still in the dark ages in this regard.

Maybe there's a lesson in it for us????

[Kaptin M]

It's a pity that one of the Woomeri decided to move this thread from the "main" D & G forum.
Regardles of whether it's 4klift drivers' or a handyman's income, the subject of income relativity to a pilot's is, imho, VERY topical these days, with pilots' salaries and conditions as miserable as they are, to the extent that pilots are often re-evaluating their employment position.

I feel that this thread is deserving of more exposure and input than it's going to get on this forum.http://pprune.org/forums/images/infopop/icons/icon9.gif

[tinpis]

First year out of flying (89) in my own business income in excess of $350k. Downside? grasping ATO so have pared it back to mum and me operation that minimises that problem.Dont see as much of the world but lookin at the papers and proon it appears to be buggered anyhow.
Havent felt the urge to commit aviation in the last 15 years funny that.

[Rich-Fine-Green]

It's all supply and demand:

I can not imagine too many forklift drivers around sending emails to warehouses: "I will drive your Yanmar 20-D for free".

I can not imagine Forklift Schools overflowing with students all recruited by a salesman promising "You will be operating a container lifter on a whalf in 18 months on 120K year".

I can not imagine forklift drivers hang around a warehouse, sweeping, cleaning and making cold-calls in the hope they are allowed to move a few pallets after hours in a dodgy Toyota with a leaky propane tank.

Nor is there one forklift regulator for every two forklifts or lift fees for every pallet moved.

-----------------------------

Recently, the wife of a Pilot I know had a little boy. An office Lady innocently said "Is this big boy going to be a Pilot like his Daddy?".

The look of contempt from the mother was answer enough........

[commander adama]

Well

123567

What crap are you posting? Maybe the part time Grade III instructor earns less. Many don't and my salary certainly goes no where near that.

Why don't you p#$% off and become a fork lift driver instead of making an ass of the industy and yourself.

[123567]

Commanda adama

I don't understand what you are on about?

Are you trying to say that in your fantasy land that you live in that most pilots actually earn more $35,000 ?

I'm quite certain that the majority [including the New Zealand census takers, Flying Instructors I know, Turboprop FO's etc.] -will disagree.

I don't see how making a comment regarding pay parity between occupations is, as you say - making an ass of myself.

Oh well, if the shoe fits eh? :ok:

P.S. Whats a grade III instsructor ?

[cubnut]

"commander adama" - sounds like a spaceship captain.

live long and prosper.

Cub.

[Reverseflowkeroburna]

Hey Jarse.......long time no ear!

Have ya got all them nasty boxes unpacked? I haven't forgotten 'bout that bottle from the Margaret River part of the world either. ;)

You never mentioned you had such a variety of endo's! My personal fave was always the big 2.5 tonne Hyster with reverse on one side of the gas pedal and forward on the other side!!! Any colour you like as long as it's yellow!!! :ok:

And here's one for all you friendly boys across the pond...........

Did ya hear about the pilot who went and asked for that much-deserved payrise he'd been longing for????....................He was told to go and get forked!!!!!!!! :} :} :} :} :}

[ginjockey]

Kaptin M and RFG

I think you guys have summed it up beautifully. A couple mates of mine work as forklift drivers and crane operators. Both cashed up to the hilt, nice places in good suburbs, easy going, turn up to work in a singlet or t shirt and boots, good bosses, holidays, know and trust their workmates, have a laugh during the day........... I could go on.

I think the golden time to be a pilot must have been back in the seventies. Pilots that flew machines without all the gadgets and computers and still got there on time safely, held down there jobs and enjoyed going to work.

Technology and bad industrial relations has changed that industry forever. Yet, still the students are forking out for it. Go figure.

[tinpis]

I think the golden time to be a pilot must have been back in the seventies. Pilots that flew machines without all the gadgets and computers and still got there on time safely, held down there jobs and enjoyed going to work.

.....and 60's

Amen.

[Hugh Jarse]

Gidday RFKB. You'll have to help me drink it ;)

Personally, I hated the Hysters. They all had crashboxes and the hydraulics were sus.

I reckon the Toyotas and Nissans were the go...Wicked burnout material:} Plus the roll clamps were great for restraining unruly process workers through their lunch breaks ;)

Ah, the halcyon days of no 5 checks a year, no study, and go home and forget the place.............And a management that respected you as an individual and wasn't trying to screw you at every turn.:yuk: :yuk:

[splatgothebugs]

Bloody depressing threed this one:{

It is worth a laugh though.

My uncle has just come back from OZ where he was a forman up in NT. Anyway was taking home about $100K a year had a Boat 2 houses and a couple of cars not a bad lifestyle but was working his ass off in excess of 70 hours a week. He moved up north got a job doing much the same thing in WR, the max he could get was $22 an hour for a 40 hour week. ( yes I know this is dragging out but I'm getting to my point :p )

He got a call the other day from OZ, the chap was begging him to return...........and the salary offered for a 60 hour week $160K.

My point is....................its supply and demand, unfourtunatley with all the pilots that get spat out in NZ we have screwed ourselves out of decent conditions and with no protection for GA pilots it causes a flow on effect into the regionals who will pay lower wages because it is actually viewed as a huge increase from GA where you earned $15K a year.

It would be very interesting to see what would happen if NZ had a GA award like OZ introduced.

splat :ok:

[tinpis]

Gotta kiwi cuzzy is part time shearer nearly sixty always smilin looks fifteen drinks piss and fishes when he wants to can hardly write his name owns about twenty houses up the Bay of Islands way.
Dont chose the wrong career if you want to live well in kiwi.

:p

[Keg]

Following on from splats points about supply and demand, this was on news.com.au


ELECTRICIANS, welders, boilermakers, plumbers and other skilled tradespeople are snapping up $100,000-plus jobs as the nation's skills shortage boosts wages.

Tradespeople in certain areas are now earning more than some doctors, dentists, architects and teachers.

...and obviously a lot of pilots too! :{

This is the full article:


Skills shortage impacts salaries

ELECTRICIANS, welders, boilermakers, plumbers and other skilled tradespeople are snapping up $100,000-plus jobs as the nation's skills shortage boosts wages.

Tradespeople in certain areas are now earning more than some doctors, dentists, architects and teachers.
Business groups estimate Australia needs 21,000 extra tradespeople to solve the national crisis.

The shortage has hit household budgets with the cost of trade contractors up 12.5 per cent in 12 months, a Housing Industry Association report found.

It could affect interest rates.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Hendy said the lack of qualified workers was the biggest hurdle for business.

This was the case for the first time in 14 years, he said.

"There is some anecdotal evidence that there is pressure building on wages across the board," Mr Hendy said.

"It's not showing in the official numbers yet but the Reserve Bank and Treasury are all watching for the impact wages will have on interest rates." Metropolitan newspapers last weekend carried job vacancies advertising $100,000-a-year packages for airconditioning electricians and $70,000 salaries for kitchen cabinet installers.

A Housing Industry of Australia report found ceramic tilers' prices were more than 20 per cent higher in the year to June. There was an 18.3 per cent rise in builders' rates and 12.5 per cent rise in carpenters' costs. Plumbers' and brickies' rates were up 11 per cent.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said a shortage of skilled building workers made costs dearer.

Occupations and average annual salaries

TRADES

Aircraft maintenance engineer: $51,636

Mechanic: $32,864

Electrician: $43,420

Plumber: $45,240

Mechanical engineering tradesperson: $63,024

UNIVERSITY GRADUATES

Architecture: $28,000

Nursing: $35,000

Law: $39,480

Education: $39,700

Medicine: $45,000

Dentistry: $55,000

Source: What Jobs Pay 2004-2005/www.gradlink.edu.au. Look for the tile at the top of the home page that reads gradsonline –what are you worth?

Fleur Anderson, The Daily Telegraph, October 19, 2004

[Kaptin M]

.....and on from Keg's post.

My parents have friends whose son is a Doctor (of medicine). He has given up his practice, and is now an electrician, earning 2 - 3 times the salary he got as as G.P. with none of the associated headaches.

In my case, I'm currently doing a "distance education" course that I can complete on those wasted stay patterns (due to inefficient scheduling) in 2 - 4 weeks, and that will qualify me to pick up about $500 for an hour of easy work.
No medicals, no 6 monthly sims, no retirement age restrictions. I choose when I want to work.

Pilots are being driven AWAY from employers at a time when retirements are going to create a DRAMATIC pilot shortage.
Once established in my new business, I might make myself available on a part time basis to airlines eg. willing to work Saturdays & Sundays, and public hols, to let the REAL pilots have some quality time off...............but only if the rate that is acceptable to ME! :ok:

[Rich-Fine-Green]

Splat:

A GA award for NZ would at least give you an arguing point.

However, you will still get new Pilots willing to work for free or little to get a foot in the door. And operators willing to take them on.

Despite an award being in place and all that is written on prune, there is no shortage of Pilots who will do anything to get a start.

For an award to be effective, some form of solidarity is required, and that is something I have never seen in GA.

History has shown that even up the aviation ladder, there is little Solidarity but I don't want to spark off a tired subject there.