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

• 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.

-Tom (@thelorryist) August 29, 2021

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.