You dont work for still do you herald?
As an independant we do have the flexibility of knocking on the directors door and trying to coax a wage increase out of him but,there are engineers who will not knock on doors that are more experienced but on a lower hourly rate.So it does not help when they find out what you are on!!!
Going self employed is not that easy anymore i suppose you could start your own customer base whilst employed.Its easy fixing trucks and getting parts from our Belgium friends but what about truck hire?