I’m curious to know how many companies you’ve worked for and what has been your most favourite job ?
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I’ve mostly done supermarket multidrop work, depending on the store it can be hard or easy but you get some chat at some stores and a brew, unlike delivering to some RDCs, but they are easier as someone else loads and unloads you. Best job was delivering water and snacks to races at weekends, one drop few pallets and home early if not too far away.
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I cant think of a driving job I trying enjoyed.
After a while it all gets a bit samey.
I’ve deliveried to unique places and fancy places. Done building sites, supermarkets, car dealerships, private estates etc.
I actually enjoyed being a forklift driving the most. Get to talk to the drivers have a laugh with the other forklift drivers. Do a good enough job and the drivers know to come to you to get unloaded. Bit of job satisfaction in that.
I might try my hand at recovery work though, I imagine that might suit me more. Although if you need to be a qualifed mechanic to do it. Because, I know the AA are somewhat qualifed. I imagine the same is true with HGV recovery.
From 1971 until i retired in 2016 i worked for about 20 different companies in Uk,Holland,Canada and Sweden.Driving Europe,ME,USSR,North Africa,Canada\USA and Scandinavia.I can honestly say that in 90% of cases i left for other work[more interesting],money was a negligible factor.If the work was crap no amount of money can compensate but if the work is fun,challenging and interesting then the money comes anyway because you work better.
I suppose the most enjoyable work was ME,ships stores, Diplomatic work,winter driving in Canada and glass transport for Pilkington.
Do we include washing dishes / making salads at berni inn in Bristol ( it must be 40 yrs + so I’m not even sure that was the name ) , did lots of steaks ) , think I was 13/14 ?
Jakeea:
I’m curious to know how many companies you’ve worked for and what has been your most favourite job ?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’m a very private man so won’t be disclosing anything about my career…
hutpik:
From 1971 until i retired in 2016 i worked for about 20 different companies in Uk,Holland,Canada and Sweden.Driving Europe,ME,USSR,North Africa,Canada\USA and Scandinavia.I can honestly say that in 90% of cases i left for other work[more interesting],money was a negligible factor.If the work was crap no amount of money can compensate but if the work is fun,challenging and interesting then the money comes anyway because you work better.
I suppose the most enjoyable work was ME,ships stores, Diplomatic work,winter driving in Canada and glass transport for Pilkington.
Ahhhhh this is the sort of career that makes me wish I was born 20 years earlier! Middle East was always a dream I dreamed as a kid. And spot on about money. I have never changed jobs for money. Most of time I don’t even know what my new job pays (for anyone reading not for a second saying that’s a good or bad way to be, just suits me)
seriously luke you really need to stop being so shy and show us the real you… 
…
I cant recall all the jobs I have had but I remember the ones I enjoyed and hated.
As a young driver I worked for a nationwide parcel company, no bling, just had down to earth Bedfords and ERF eventually culminating in DAF and Mercedes. Nobody thought so at the time but in hindsight it was probably the best job in the country, the hours worked for the financial reward worked for us all, home every night, had a second income from buying and selling cars, and could collect supplies & parts while working.
I had a romantic notion that Airfreight was the pinnacle of the driving jobs, I only worked for one red & white company and believe me it was the most badly organised job with childish drivers and office staff. Painting the lorries Yellow just turned a bad job into a worse job and I was pleased to be “let go” through illness.
In between that I drove a few tankers, tilts, tippers and tautliners. I had a dabble at car transporters but didn’t get on the super carriers. I held my own passport.
adam277:
I might try my hand at recovery work though, I imagine that might suit me more. Although if you need to be a qualifed mechanic to do it. Because, I know the AA are somewhat qualifed. I imagine the same is true with HGV recovery.
Can confirm the AA recovery drivers need no mechanical knowledge whatsoever. Not quite the job it once was but certainly the easiest recovery work out there.
m.a.n rules:
seriously luke you really need to stop being so shy and show us the real you…
My crippling shyness has always been a problem.
About 10 years ago I worked.for place in Stockport deliving roller shutter doors to sites all over the country.
Job was low paid minimum wage but it gave me a chance to gain the experience.
Job was great . Went all over the country and with it being building sites most were only open 8 to 4.
What I do miss though is used have a regular run once a fornight / 3 weeks to Devon Cornwall area ending up at Plymouth.
And every time depending on drops.had used park up done for the day near Ilfracombe or Torquay about 4ish .
And during the summers used alway be going down to the beach having a drink chilling out
etc kind of didn’t feel like was working at the time.
I loved it.
If they paid a decent wage I’d go back there tomorrow.
As job was great easy and.usually finished early managed to see places. .
switchlogic:
m.a.n rules:
seriously luke you really need to stop being so shy and show us the real you…My crippling shyness has always been a problem.
Those videos aren’t really Luke anyway. Obviously Cinese funded CGI* . That’s why you never make any mistakes and such a handsome actor/avatar is used.
*Communist Gay Indoctrination
I’ve worked for 4 companies in a bit over 40 years with my HGV licence, but have had a fair variety of work.
Started with rope’n’sheet, crash boxes, no power steering, hand-ball, through long and wide loads, hiab, liquid tanks, containers, fridges, low loaders, fork lifts of various types, even drove a desk for a while.
Aberdeen to Agidir, Andorra to Athens.
There are many places a truck licence will get you. Yes I’ve been in RDCs, but also been paid while on beaches in Portugal and Ibiza. I’ve had an armed ■■■■■■ continually pointing his gun at me in a military base, and had my hand held by a nice young lady as she escorted me to the office in her father’s chateau. Quarries high in the hills, underground chambers for hydro electric plants, airside, dockside, inside, outside.
Lots of ups and downs. Lots of opportunities to learn about other people and their work, other places, and a little of other cultures and languages. Ample opportunity to spend a few days killing brain cells with alcohol on occasion too. Through work I’ve been invited into homes of several really nice people, and had a few to visit me.
I’m not a special person, but I’ve tried to get around more than some others maybe. The world is different than it was when I started but there are still varying jobs out there for those who want to look for them.
I’ve had 4 jobs in nearly 50 years. First one was office based as too young to drive, second for local council delivering to schools, third was for a builders merchants on local (60 mile radius) deliveries. Last one was for a building materials manufacturer delivering nationwide. Was there just over 40 years, first 30 direct employed and then 2 different contractors. Best was obviously the last one, or I wouldn’t have stayed so long. The very best part was the last 12 years delivering sheet roofing, mainly to farms all over the UK. Could often go all day without seeing a motorway or major trunk road. Most places were actually pleased to see you as it meant either the farmer got his shed, or the contractor could finish it and get paid. It was all self off load with a Moffett. Delivery times were fairly relaxed, basically as long as it was light, though I tipped more than once in the pitch black in winter. I once phoned a farm near Penzance in mid summer to see how late I could tip, and was told, I’m ploughing until midnight, as long as you’re here before I go to bed! In the end, haulier lost that part of the contract and I didn’t fancy going back to roof tiles so I retired.
I’ve worked for two companies in the space of 28 years since passing my class 1 HGV test in the early 70’s, My first job with Inter-city transport was delivering Ford parts from their site in Daventry around Liverpool area. As Franglais commented it was the same thing, ERF’s GUY’s Seddon Atkinson, Ford’s, DAF units & all flat bed trailer work, everything was rope & sheets with a passenger foot well full of wet ropes / chains & dwangs for steel/machinery jobs.
Favourite job with Inter-city was working from the paper mill in Irvine delivering reels of paper all over the country & back loading pulp from the nearest docks back up to Irvine.
Franglais:
switchlogic:
m.a.n rules:
seriously luke you really need to stop being so shy and show us the real you…My crippling shyness has always been a problem.
Those videos aren’t really Luke anyway. Obviously Cinese funded CGI* . That’s why you never make any mistakes and such a handsome actor/avatar is used.
*Communist Gay Indoctrination
EXACTLY! It’s all deep fakes. I’m actually a bald overweight 70 year old in a vest, covered in baked beans
*Communist Gay Indoctrination - 
But you just KNOW this will be a new (maybe old) opinion, that being gay isn’t natural, we’re genetically engineered by the EUSSR
Precious Bodily Fluids are being compromised. And the commies have been doing it for years. Trump’s hair…a failed plot to turn it red.
And check this documentary footage:
youtu.be/N1KvgtEnABY
Worked at dozens through agency although only worked for 5 agencies over 26 years.
I can’t narrow down one best job, I’ve got a few in no particular order…
Delivering gravestones for a stone masons in Hull which was Class 2 flatbed with tail lift. Usually it was to either undertakers or direct to cemetary and for some reason they all gave you a tip which was nice.
Spent a summer driving the big Terex tippers in a Tarmac quarry at Routh which was strangely enjoyable even though all you were doing was going from loader to plant and back all day.
Doing STGO Cat 1/2 work on agency at Mammoets moving wind turbine masts and blades from Hull docks to Ireland.
Waste food compactors/skips for SugaRich near Hull. Very nice kit as I started just after they’d got some brand new Scania 8 leggers, laid back work, no booking times and because nobody at the agency liked the sound of it there was always plenty of work. Didn’t take long to become nose deaf to the smell.
However given I’ve been at Howdens Joinery on agency for the last 6 and a bit years and now do it exclusively I’d have to say if I were to pick just one it would be this. Job is a breeze, no rushing, kit well maintained and the fact the money is pretty much the best in the area is just a bonus.
In the 11 years I have been driving I have eventually realised that it was the one employment sector that is the most archaic.
I started doing mostly London in an artic and enjoyed it for 18 months, it was multi drop with new units etc.
But the people try and grind you down, loved driving the lorry and all that finding addresses etc. Just the people that were mostly miserable and grumpy at the drops.
Moved to Lincs. and started doing farms, tates mostly and that was better, the people not as grumpy, but the H&S kept on coming, then the cameras at the processing plants and I watched as people were ground down even more, worried to talk because they were on camera, so these people became miserable.
Worked for a couple of different companies and it was pretty much the same archaic way of doing business and the expectation that you didn`t mind being behind the wheel at 5 in the morning, well I did and I left for a year and made preperations to change my life.
I went back and lasted 18 months before I realised this industry just ■■■■■ the life out of you and I was only doing days!
It`s the people see, they are mostly enslaved and because they are getting paid they feel they are not, but they are in the way in which they are treated and I had no more fight left in me, so when I was asked to take a unit out with a water leak from the coolant system which I had just brought back, I just walked.
I perhaps have being spoiled with my previous occupations in the food industry and having my own business and being a ■■■■■■ analyst is probably the thing that made it hard for me, in that people are not at all regarded as an asset, just a means to an end, so the sooner they have these self driving vehicles the better.
No living human should be allowed to sleep in a metal box with little or no facilities day in day out, nor should they be degraded and humiliated as and when the mood suits others and I really feel if the general public knew what a hard life it is for many out there, then they may be more gracious in their attitude towards drivers.
I am thinking of going back out there for a few more months this summer, just to see how drivers are now being treated with all this covid stuff and to fully accept that I may well have masochistic tendencies.