What was Archaeology like in the Past

[Misty]

I imagine the cost is what stops most young people from getting their driving licences. Apparently it now costs about ?1000 to get proper lessons and pay for the tests. Re-tests will obviously cost more. Then there is the amazing cost of insurance for anyone under the age of 25 - often well over ?1000 a year. The cost of running a car is also prohibitive for many - especially if they are trying to save/pay for university fees. When I was working in archaeology there was a demand that anyone who wanted promotion/permanent contract should get their licence. This led to many diggers paying a lot of money for lessons - often hard to organise when they were mostly working away from their home base on excavations. Of course, passing the test did not always lead to promotion/permanent contracts and they were left angry.

[Dinosaur]

Whatever happened to doting parents paying for it (the test), sending their child off into the big bad world of Uni with at least their own means of transport? Anyway, holding a driving licence doesn't mean having a car - I noticed most of the questions when buying insurance online last week consisted of 'have you had an insurance claim/endorsement' etc in the last 5 years, no mention of 'have I actually owned a car/been driving' (only thing that came close was 'how many years no claims bonus'), so it''s worth having the licence without the car just to have a long clean record for when you do become old enough to be able to afford the insurance - and of course that applies to getting on company insurance to drive unit vehicles (just don't tell them you haven't touched a steering wheel in the 10 years since your test day!), no actual proof of real driving experience required, just how long you've held a licence....

[Dinosaur]

...oh, and most people who actually have one regard a car as a way to make money....all those 40p's add up, plus all the extra hours overtime machine-watching etc etc (plus of course better jobs usually have pay better pay rates), and it's a bl**dy-sight cheaper than public transport....:face-stir:

[Misty]

Unfortunately the majority of people I was working with didn't have rich parents, and were trying to get by on what they earned on the lowest rung of archaeology. The point I'm making is that they spent a lot of money to get their licences but then didn't get the jobs. Even if they were made up to Supervisor, most were expected to drive their own cars to the unit's HQ (at their own cost and time) and then drive to the Watching Brief in a hired vehicle (driving time not counted as working time).

[monty]

A grand to take lessons and test thats totally outrageous, say 25 quid a lesson and 70 for a test x 10 lessons thats just over 300 quid, and come on driving ain't that difficult. Agreed its a burden running a motor but i would not be working in archaeology without one and if you are lucky them 40 ps a mile soon covers running costs, servicing and insurance. get the money by hook or crook and get on with it !!!

[Dinosaur]

Just not being unemployed several months a year pays for a cheap second hand motor and the insurance? :face-stir:

We did a bit of a study around here a few years back of what people had been spending on cars and came to the conclusion that buying new or low-mileage nearly-new small cars, even on finance, actually worked out cheaper in the long run than buying a succession of cheap scrappers, unless you're a real mechanical wizz (and if you are, what you doing earning sweet FA as an archaeologist?), one person had got through 6 motors in 12 months at a cost of around ?8k which would have more than paid for a shiny new one which would have run for 4 or 5 years with no bother - remember to cost in all those lost work/leave-days taking your heap of junk to the garage yet again. Every time I have to rectify the results of yet another drunk student kicking my wing-mirror off the cost's doubled due to lost earnings....I worked out that my current car's saving me ?500 over its lifetime compared to the previous one just because it's from a handier garage 5 minutes walk from the house so no time wasted on it. Cars require a long-term perspective....maybe we should have a Car-Buyers Guide for Hard-Up Diggers?...cost, reliability, how good they are off-road in a muddy field (the old-style Fiat Punto was brilliant! - and they're cheap and mechanically bulletproof), how much gear they can be crammed with, how many years they take to de-ice at 6am on a frosty January morning when you should still be in bed (the Nissan Navarra I'm using currently is unbelievably c**p, for some reason the hot air vents don't extend under the bit of the windscreen you actually use! - but then the 4WD and chunky tyres are brilliant on snow), whether you can drive them in boots, will they take a 1m x1m planning frame, do ranging-rods fit etc etc

.......But this is all getting a little away from :face-topic:

[chiz]

This is all veering massively off topic and might be better in a separate thread, but....

Driving may not be that difficult, but passing a test is more difficult these days, and costs a lot more money. The national average is 40 lessons, so that's scraping together about ?800, and that's after you've found the time to practice in one town to learn the test routes. Not that easy when working 5 long days a week (fancy a 2 hour lesson straight after an 8 hour day?) and often moving around the country. Oh, and nowadays you have the additional cost of the theory test, plus they've just changed the test so you have to be able to do independant driving with no directions given. A very good idea, but the test is a lot harder now. My advice to anyone would be to get your licence as soon as you can.

As for the mileage payments making you money in the end, well that's fine if you are doing business miles and getting paid mileage, but I would hazard that most of us don't get paid anything to get to the office in the morning. For most of my colleagues that would probably be between ?15 and ?30 a week in fuel just to get to work depending on how far from the office they live. We do get paid driving time and some passenger time to get to site so we claw a variable amount of this cost back via this, and can make a profit on running a vehicle, but how many units actually pay this? No-one knows. And remember that you need additional insurance if driving your own vehicle to different sites.

The Diggers' Forum is planning some detailed research on this whole subject very shortly so we can get some real figures on travel and away work and how it affects us all. Watch this space.

Now, back to the old days....

[Redben]

And as soon as insurance people find out you are using the car for work, the insurance rockets again. Verdamnt 6 month old license. Apparently driving in the Middle East doesn't count either. I reckon it should count double.

[monty]

Normal insurance covers you for travelling to 'a place of work', if using for business add about 5% so thats not too bad. Most weeks I spend at least 40 quid just to get to site/office, same for most people...just have to grin and bear it...........or not do archaeology

[BAJR]

The Diggers' Forum is planning some detailed research on this whole subject very shortly so we can get some real figures on travel and away work and how it affects us all. Watch this space.

This should go well with the Diggers Charter and Unionisation. :face-approve: