I got my photocard licence back today after sending it off (only that, you don’t even get the paper copy anymore) to have the HGV part of it cancelled as it runs out the end of this month. I was a little bit sad it had ended but I wasn’t going to need it to carry on so what’s done is done, I recall getting my Class One, as it was then and my Father being pleased for me as I pretty much learnt from him like many others had. I noticed though the actual entitlement ends when they process it at DVLA and not from the run out date which is another couple of weeks, seems they can’t wait to rid you of it! I know some on here have also handed in their keys so to speak and wondered how they felt or even those that have it yet to come. Cheers Franky.
HI Frankie it will never get out of your system,it took me about 10 years to not look round when i heard a motor,i still look at the fridges when they deliver to the local shop but would i want it now ,no thanks.i just come back from our local D.I.Y.WICKES and all the cement bags stacked neat on pallets about a ton a pallet.i just thought blimey we [all drivers used to hand ball 15 ton a day, then unload it].you will get to enjoy it retirement the best job ever.dbp.
Hello Franky, I dont miss it, every week another piece of paper to sign, dreamt up by the management to cover their backsides. I retired in 2013, learnt a lot from my Dad, my renewal was due at the end of the year, HGV & PSV but my Doctor charged then £175 per medical but as I have Angina I needed to go to him as he has all my records & history. Also, as well as my yearly medical, Swansea wanted me to have tests done at Hospital every year, [ they paid for that ], but I asked myself, Is it worth it ? obvious answer No! The thing about Swansea is, for all Id never
had a heart attack, never used my spray & since my initial diagnosis in 2006 had basically been
fine they still wanted all this, so I resigned myself to being a miserable old git & dream of days
gone by, flat trailers, frozen sheets, wet ropes & how ever did we manage with 3 Pedals & a
Big Stick. Well I`m all glassy eyed now Cheers pushrod47
I felt terrible, I thought ‘what the hell am I going to do is I’m not getting out of bed at silly o’clock to go to work.’
But within 2 weeks I’d taken to my new life like a duck to water. We can’t turn the clock back…so live for the day and enjoy it.
Some good replies lads, there’s certainly a lot I won’t miss but you must admit those Summer days and warm evenings with all the sights we came across and places we went to or passed through take some beating and are nice to recall, even better if you had a decent motor to do it all with. Plenty for me to do in retirement though and we can always look on here and reminisce. Cheers Franky.
Frankydobo:
Some good replies lads, there’s certainly a lot I won’t miss but you must admit those Summer days and warm evenings with all the sights we came across and places we went to or passed through take some beating and are nice to recall, even better if you had a decent motor to do it all with. Plenty for me to do in retirement though and we can always look on here and reminisce. Cheers Franky.
That is how I see it as well Franky, I still have my licence but haven’t been in a lorry as either a driver or passenger for over 15 years now and still miss it. Never say never though, I live in hope (well, Matlock actually!) haha! 
Plenty of good times to look back on, I always had decent tackle and very good workmates as well, some who I see occasionally at shows etc, plus topics pop up unexpectedly on here like the recent Tilcon enquiry that test my memory somewhat and help the grey cells tickover faster than normal! 
Pete.
I’ve just come back from Newport in south Wales ( 500 miles there and back ) for the first time in over 30 yrs. I was driving a rented Transit - the last time I went up the M4 was in a Transit reg No. KNG 675L - flat out at 65MPH. Stone me, the traffic on the M11, the M25 and the M4 was horrendous even on a Sunday. Nearly every wagon was Eastern European. The surfaces on the motorways were a disgrace with pot-holes every few hundred yards.
Anybody thinking of driving for a living has my respect - and deepest sympathy. I hope I never have to do a journey like that ever again. Jim.
Hi all, I have at long last (not sure my wife is happy) decided enough is enough at the end of this year.
For the last few years it is down to just a Sunday shift so hanging on till the bitter end, eh !!
CPC (5 days) due next year so £500 +£125 for medical says, times up.
Had a good run at it though, started driving trucks in 1969, HGV 1972, so at 73 its the bloody garden for me. cheers all and good luck. Harvey
Well I had my class one up to the age of 79, I do miss the haulage game but Im pleased that I dont do it anymore, Im old school & prefered the good old days, 
, Regards Larry.
After it taking me 1 hour 50 minutes to get home 16.5 miles from Trafford Park to Bolton this evening by car I’m thankful that I am now not licensed to drive HGVs. There have been occasions since I didn’t renew it when an LGV licence would have been very useful, but I had to find another way to get around the problem, instead of jumping in a lorry and going driving.
gingerfold:
After it taking me 1 hour 50 minutes to get home 16.5 miles from Trafford Park to Bolton this evening by car I’m thankful that I am now not licensed to drive HGVs. There have been occasions since I didn’t renew it when an LGV licence would have been very useful, but I had to find another way to get around the problem, instead of jumping in a lorry and going driving.
+1, Im just relaxing with a very large single malt, Thinking about when driving a wagon was a job & a pleasure sometimes, I made a good living driving for an employer, Then I had a go as a owner driver in 1972, I never made a fortune but I Did make a good living out of it Hard work I must admit, But at the end of the day I came out of it with plenty of money to see me for the rest of my life.Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Well I had my class one up to the age of 79, I do miss the haulage game but Im pleased that I dont do it anymore, Im old school & prefered the good old days,
As Larry has said above,a clue to a happy retirement Franky,keep busy doing what you want to do for a change!
Best of luck.
David
I’ve been retired four years now and don’t regret a moment of it. In a strange way, the huge changes in road transport have helped me not to yearn: I wouldn’t want to be driving today’s lorries on today’s roads. That simply leaves me happy memories of sailing down the old ‘nationals’ in the kind of lorries I enjoyed driving 20 or 30 years ago and with the kind of camaraderie we had among drivers of the day (ie sitting round a carafe or two of wine in a routier instead of sitting in the cab with an I-phone!). And this is where this forum comes in handy 
. I wish the OP a happy and fulfilling retirement!
Cheers, Robert
Lawrence Dunbar:
gingerfold:
After it taking me 1 hour 50 minutes to get home 16.5 miles from Trafford Park to Bolton this evening by car I’m thankful that I am now not licensed to drive HGVs. There have been occasions since I didn’t renew it when an LGV licence would have been very useful, but I had to find another way to get around the problem, instead of jumping in a lorry and going driving.+1, Im just relaxing with a very large single malt, Thinking about when driving a wagon was a job & a pleasure sometimes, I made a good living driving for an employer, Then I had a go as a owner driver in 1972, I never made a fortune but I Did make a good living out of it Hard work I must admit, But at the end of the day I came out of it with plenty of money to see me for the rest of my life.Regards Larry.
I got 100% job satisfaction out of my lorry driving life, sure, there were crap days but there were a hell of a lot of good days. It’s a whole different job now compared to the times us old lads were on the road. In our day we got loaded, got our notes, AND THEN we just got on with the job, we were left to do our job ourselves, nobody ringing every ten minutes wanting updates on progress. If you stop for a pee now the tracker knows 
I’ve no desire to go back…but I’d like just one day with a Mk 5 AEC with a 4000 gallon tank on the back
Good luck in your retirement Franky, I’m still hanging on to my licence (71 in July). I only do occasional shifts now for our mutual friend George P. I nearly gave it up at the end of last year, but when the crunch came I couldn’t do it 
My plan now is to renew once more (December) and that will take it through until the DCPC runs out. Then I’ll give it up, honest
I couldn’t find the time for a job full time now as I have so much to do, what with my “Old Codgers” Bike club, plus volunteer driving for the local blind club, that is great fun, these ladies have so many health and other problems, yet they are the funniest and most upbeat bunch I’ve ever met. ( I call them my Golden Girls). As they all have major sight problems it’s been quite easy to convince them I’m a George Cloony stand in. . I’ll probably catch up with you at the Tyne Tees Run in June. Regards Kev.
Cheers Kev, yeah I should find more time now to go to shows and gatherings, we just need the weather to play ball now, today is a good start! Just a couple of points regarding renewing or ending entitlements, reading through the Licence Information sheet they sent along with my reminder it seemed to say if you want to keep your licence up after the age of 70 you have to apply every year, if I read this correctly it seems a bit excessive. Mind I found the form I had to fill in less than easy to understand, typical of the DVLA, I was ticking boxes for this and that and when I gave the form and the Info sheet a second look over it seems I only needed to tick one box to relinquish my LGV entitlement and send the form off with my current licence (which I didn’t do and it was returned a week later for me to add both photocard and paper copy) again this was confusing as it said on one section of the form, when you get your licence send your old one to DVLA! It would have all been much easier if they had added a short note to say if you are not renewing your LGV/Bus then just put a cross in Box whatever and send it to DVLA with your current licence’s, simple, do they not realise we are getting old! Neither when speaking of your licence on the form do they differentiate between the Photocard and paper type. All this could have been made easier if we had just kept the old style HGV Booklet licence as a separate entitlement. Oh well suppose I shouldn’t worry now until I need my 100 year old driving assessment! Franky.
Just Before 65 i deliberated for a long time about renewing my HGV,i had been working part time anyway so as to enjoy the Lifestyle up here.I renewed it and the DCPC as other people paid for it so i could ‘‘help out’’ during holiday times in the mines and on roadworks.I shall not renew it again in 71.More and more when i look on internet and see more old friends have left us[almost weekly] i realise that there is so much still to do for ME,and we don’t know when our time is up so we must use the time we have earned after a long hard Life of working to enjoy what is left.
I reluctantly gave up driving for a job 14 years ago soon after getting a new transport manager who had phones and trackers fitted to all the fleet, and insisted on checking up on drivers the moment the wheels stopped turning. I went into quality Inspection work, initially for a “logistics” company, then for a precision engineering firm. The money was better, but the routine soon became boring so I semi-retired nearly four years ago. Now, I can’t imagine how I ever found time for a full-time job (plus lots of overtime). I still drive a couple of days a week, collecting and delivering for a charity as a volunteer, and I love the work. Gets me out and keeps me fit. I’ve got a Senior Railpass and my Bus Pass, a pushbike, a motorbike and a camper van and a whole nation to be explored, not just glanced at through a big windscreen whilst on the way to somewhere else. I still get up at 0-silly hundred hours in a morning, and still look out for bridge heights and weight limits out of habit and will usually stop to help a driver struggling with a manoeuvre, or let them out of a junction. I got my CPC “just in case”, and kept my HGV1 until last year. The prospect of enriching the doctor again for his signature on another medical certificate finally put the lid on it for me. Did I enjoy my driving years? There were some crap days, but most were good - yes, I did enjoy driving. Would I go back to doing it for a living? No, definitely not. The increasing bureaucracy and controls on the job (digital tacho, trackers, cab phones, must do this, can’t do that, must be there at such a time) would do my head in. I probably envy some of the modern drivers their quiet, comfortable and powerful new wagons, but I bet they can’t do a roadside fix to get them home when something goes wrong like we could. I’m not really surprised that there’s a shortage of drivers nowadays, and I wouldn’t choose lorry driving as a career if I was starting my time again.