I earn £52k doing a job that NO ONE wants… I didn’t need any experience and get my meals for free

A PRO driver has revealed how he earns £52,000 and gets free meals while doing a job nobody wants to do.

The number of people in the once-popular profession has been falling sharply for years despite the benefits.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashley Hale ran viewers through his payslip as an HGV driver.

Official statistics show that show that an estimated 268,000 people worked as lorry drivers as of 2021.

That was down about 16% on the 321,000 in the job in 2017.

Experts estimate that the UK faces a shortage of HGV drivers to the tune of around 100,000 people, which may explain some of the perks on Ashley's payslip.

The form revealed that he had a base pay of £625 per week for a standard 40-hour stint.

On its own that works out to a salary of just £32,500, which is around the UK average.

However, Ashley also received a number of other benefits that bumped his pay up significantly.

First off, overtime was paid at double the standard rate and worked out to £261 per week.

On top of that there was a £3 weekly bonus for working unsociable hours like overnight driving.

And then he received a hefty performance-related bonus, resulting in a further uplift of £40.

Best of all, though, he was paid over £100 a week on what was dubbed a "nights out" allowance.

Sadly this wasn't to pay him to paint the town read but it was still a sweet deal.

The "nights out" payment was granted to reimburse Ashley for accommodation and all his meals when working in the evenings.

Overall, his total pay worked out at around 1,000 for the week, equivalent to an annual salary of just under £53,000.

Most HGV jobs don't require extensive experience either as long as you have an HGV licence.

For that, you have to be over 18, have a full car licence and complete the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence, which includes at least 35 hours of training and a series of tests.

It comes after a car expert shared how you can spot a slow puncture and use a £2 Amazon gadget to fix it in seconds.