Its like everything else out there, yes you can work the hours to suit what you expect family life to be, just don’t expect to be earning fantastic pay for it.
The best pay in driving is to be found in several sectors, one is awkward shifts, i won’t class overly long hours resulting in high pay as well paid (if you do the work of 1.7 people but get paid wages for 1 it aint well paid), other high payers include speciality work but the equipment is seriously expensive so quite naturally the invester needs to operate than machinery for at least 60 hours a week.
So yes by all means get into the game but don’t expect £40k+ for a 40 hour week based around office hours, it’ll be in the £20/24k region.
As mentioned above the bread game is a decent number, very early starts lots of drops rushing about but early finishes and usually decently paid, at least at the big bakeries.
As for the doom and gloom posters, yes the industry has its ups and downs, if your glass is permanently half empty and you’re a bloody misery to be around don’t expect the better employers to be falling over themselves to get you on board, but, if you carve yourself a niche and/or specialise and earn yourself a good reputation on the game then you can make a very decent living from lorrying, an industry where you arn’t on the scrap heap aged 55 either, just don’t expect it to happen overnight.
Finding your niche is the thing.