muckles:
@ KTM rider, has nobody taken you round the back of the lorry park and had a quiet word you? We’re trying to put people off the job, so we can actually create the much talked about driver shortage..
By the way, Nice to read of a newbie thats dropped into a decent job, they are out there.
oops sorry 
didn’t mean to let the cat out of the bag… erm…oh yes that’s it ! - The decription of my job above is a complete fabrication designed to wind up the vast majority of forum members who all of course have an utterly thankless trucking existence because that is the only one available in 2017 in the UK
albion:
KTMrider:
IronEddie:
Great, interesting and insightful post. Reassuring to read as I start my cat C practical training tomorrow.On the subject of myths and this forum. I think I’ve learnt a lot here. But I also think there’s a core of users with a jaded glass half empty view of trucking, nay life in general. My advice to any new members would be to take most of what you read with a pinch of salt.
Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
There’s definitely a common theme to a fair few of the opnions expressed in the main forum which boils down to “trucking was better in the 70s / 80s / 90s”
That may well be true, however when you start looking for work you will find 80s style trucking is no longer available. .
Oi, here at Albion trucking we’ve barely crawled out of the 70s into the 80s
Maybe it is an age thing and you’ll don rose tinted glasses in a few decades, but I am pretty confident that pre mobile phones and tablets, drivers did talk to each other more and the volume of traffic makes the actual driving infinitely less pleasurable - everyone is more stressed. And there was more freedom and control when you weren’t tracked and monitored.
Here endeth the lesson!
Good post OP.
In simple terms I don’t compare modern trucking, to trucking in the past, because I wasn’t there. What I do compare it to is the modern workplace in general and I think it compares very favourably.
I agree with your general point about traffic volumes, I’ve been riding motorcycles long enough to know it was alot better in the 80’s & 90’s - I rode through much of the UK and my general rule was I would overtake untill there was clear road ahead, something that no longer seems to apply on too many roads these days 
As the only truck driving I have known is up against a limiter, then at least your progress is not really affected by the heavy traffic volume - which is what I meant by “significant congestion is very rare” - the major routes are of course generally fairly congested much of the time, it’s just not bad enough to particularly affect journey times.
thehig:
there not all myths, some of those you posted are somewhat true for some and not for others. My experience has been somewhere in the middle.
You are of course quite correct, so my apologies to anyone currently working 60 hours a week on multidrop for minimum wage, if my post has made them feel even worse.
I did put this at the end of my post:
For sure some of the things I’ve highlighted will be issues for some people some of the time, but definitely not for every driver all of the time !
and that was really the point I was trying to make, that the idea that HGV driving has to mean dealing with most of these issues week in week out is a myth.