Counselling and duty of care

toonsy:
Bit of a long one this but basically after eight years in getting back in the HGV saddle.

I used to do Class 2 nights and enjoyed it until one night I was following an Eastern European lorry in the M1 up near Wakefield. I was going just faster than it but he was all over the road and I was coming off at the next junction so held back. Then I saw sparks and brake lights so anchored on. Hed wandered into the hard shoulder hit a Vauxhall Zafira and wiped out an entire family including a six month old child.

Obviously time has passed since then but being first person in the scene only for just a few seconds which felt like hours stuck with me and affected me more than I wanted to admit at the time.

My company at first appeared compassionate and gave me a few nights off but after that I was just expected to get back on with it. I tried but couldn’t face it so gave up HGV work and nights.

Obviously trucking is a generally male orientated world and can be old school, or it was back then anyway. Has it changed since? Was I just unlucky by not having a very supportive company behind me? I sought counselling myself in the end but i feel that had i had that opportunity sooner i wouldn’t have walked away from the industry.

Has time moved on?

I think it was company you worked for , me & Mrs had a still born boy , company , boss could not of been better , were always on phone , boss , his mrs asking how could they help , ring us anytime day or night , 30 yrs ago ,
Same when dad died , got driver , car out to me and told me to not worry about work just sort things out in my own time , said if I’d needed finicial help just ask
only time I can rember different was when brother died from mnd , I asked with help with shifts as I was helping with lifting him for nurses to wash him , lifting him from wheel chair to bed etc and as he only had weeks to live he just wanted to see me as I did him , I asked for help which I never had before to be told weve 20 other drivers with problems :smiling_imp: , not with weeks to live you haven’t :exclamation: , I just went home and said sod them and looked after my brother ,
Little outfits seem better in this aspect , big ones not so , though I do find hr can be really good and they went ape when they realised what had been said to me with brother , bloke who said it got a right bollocking