I gather now Skoda is owned by VW, they’re no longer one size fits all “Communist cars”, or indeed the ■■■■ of many jokes about Skodas and skips. I remember a friend’s Mum driving a 1970’s Skoda , not sure exactly what model it was, but if I remember it was similar to this motorbasar.de/skoda-110r-coupe-t1929369.html.
PottyPott:
Male or female, have to have nereves of steel to drive the Alaskan or Canadian ice roads. I do miss Rick Yemm from the latest series of Ice Road Truckers. Thanks Ramon.
Agreed,you wouldn’t catch me driving on the ice (river/sea)not even a car ! Wouldn’t have minded having a go on the roads there,but too late now.
Rick is good value,nuts but entertaining. 
Outback Truckers is pretty good,if you haven’t seen it,worth a viewing. 
I was in a similar business. Owned an internet hosting company. After 20 years in that trade I was ready for a change. Got my C training/test booked for next month.
Can’t wait to get off the keyboard and random hours with no holidays. The only bit that is a bit worrying is having to do real work for a change 
I will be going the agency route as well as I already have a limited company and prefer to be in control as much as is possible.
I passed my C at Guildford on Friday… Saw the EP trucks down there… I think most had a good day in Guildford on Friday
I’ve got a Mk1 Octavia vRS… Skodas rule 
animal:
Dont worry there are plenty of us female drivers out therego for it
I’ll echo that !!
I’d love to drive the ice roads , only I wouldn’t cope with the extreme cold of - 35 degrees {{{ 
}}}
bonnie lass:
animal:
Dont worry there are plenty of us female drivers out therego for it
I’ll echo that !!
I’d love to drive the ice roads , only I wouldn’t cope with the extreme cold of - 35 degrees {{{
If you’re driving on an ice covered lake then -35c is exactly what you want, the colder it is the more ice you’ll have underneath you [emoji38]
newmercman:
bonnie lass:
animal:
Dont worry there are plenty of us female drivers out therego for it
I’ll echo that !!
I’d love to drive the ice roads , only I wouldn’t cope with the extreme cold of - 35 degrees {{{
If you’re driving on an ice covered lake then -35c is exactly what you want, the colder it is the more ice you’ll have underneath you [emoji38]
You’d want a good thick layer of ice under you for definite
I’m in Canada, so it would be easy enough to do it, but there’s no way I’m driving on a bloody lake, I don’t care how thick the ice is, about the only way I would do it is if they filled the lake up with concrete!
I’m quite surprised 
I thought you’d be out there sho
wing us how it done!! & how to keep warm & safe from the elements & local wildlife too
I can tell you how to keep safe from the elements, stay in the nice warm cab!
As for wildlife, a set of really bright lights too spot them and a really big bumper just in case they’re determined to commit suicide works for me.
I can only imagine it must be an amazing place to have a driving career
It can be, but because of the length of my lorry I’m restricted to the prairies and they are boring flat empty spaces. I’ve seen some spectacular scenery before I started doing this though.
Hi… I am embarking on a career on the road too… Medical completed, just waiting to receive my provisional then I’ll book an hours taster in a lorry… Going for my class 1, although the process seems very complex … Another female let loose on the roads … I am soooooo excited, have wanted to do this since I was 14…a few years ago now!!! Any tips or words of advise■■?
Hi & welcome, go for it !
Rhea:
Any tips or words of advise■■?
Don’t go in the woods with strange men
BeardedBlunder:
Rhea:
Any tips or words of advise■■?Don’t go in the woods with strange men
Too late for that!!!
bonnie lass:
Hi & welcome, go for it !
Cheers…still waiting for my provisional to come back…It’s worse than waiting for xmas morning!!! 
Mowglie:
Hi Vrs, I too have gone through a similar change.
I’m 41 years old and since leaving university I had a successful career in the NHS as a Psychiatric Nurse, eventually becoming a Manager of a Community Mental Health Team. I had been unhappy for some time with all the cutbacks, stealing pay rises, taking pensions and the ever increasing beauracratic crap the senior managers made to try and justify their jobs was eventually enough for me.
I wanted to be a HGV driver when I was younger but was advised to get a degree first, did that but my dream was always in the back of my mind.
I started the HGV process in the new year after lengthy conversations with my wife around paying Bills, Morgage and adapting our lives until I can earn a half decent wage (my ambition is to drive ADR arctics) and like you I still have another profession as a Nurse where I can earn good money until I get my experience built up.
I start my Class 1 training in 2 weeks with Elmet Driver Training based in Sherburn, only a 40 min drive from Where I live.
Although it’s been emotional and at times worrying about money I don’t regret the move, I left the NHS 3 weeks ago and have worked 5 days a week Driving 32 Tonne tippers, tiring with poor pay but it’s not for ever, always have a plan and a back up plan.
Good luck.
Kris
oh ‘wow’ this sounds so much like me!!!
similar anyway…
I am: 45 years old, Midwife, Manager as well of a team of hospital based colleagues, also ‘very’ unhappy with cutbacks, pay cuts, increasing workload and bureaucracy, the blame is ALWAYS shifted on us! it’s not that we are given a humongous amount of work to do that any human being would not be able to do well all of the time. We get told off for not ticking boxes, we get told off for anything that does not go ‘as’ well, we have to ‘pay attention’ not to let it happen again, but the fact that the workload increases, the responsibility increases, the forms mount up, the staff shortages get more severe is never taken seriously enough and it just goes on… We have debts so we cannot afford x, y, z however ‘you can do more and you can do it at an even higher standard than 20 years ago when you had 20% more of everything!!!’‘’’ AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH can you tell I’ve had enough?
unlike you I was a ‘truck driver’, class one on the continent, before embarking on the above…
so now am really really trying hard to come up with a plan for me to be able to go back to driving full time and leave that world, the stress is not worth it.
I have to do my periodic CPC training, have done 14 hours. As soon as I have the 35 I am starting with agency work but just limited hours/part time and keep my full time NHS job. It will be to taste the waters as we say. As soon as I have got back into it I will apply for a part time job somewhere possibly into long distance as that’s where my heart lies, still keep my job. THEN once I can find a way to earn enough to live on (yes, mortgage, debts etc etc) I will have to take the plunge.
thankfully in the NHS they will ‘never’ be appropriately staffed so I will always be able to do part time shifts with them to top up my driving wages when needed (of course working time regulations/drivers hours permitting…) and if I ever want to go back there would be no problem either.
PS I am female like the original poster…
Welcome Nobodysdriving, I used to work for the NHS, in the operating theatre department at the RUH Bath as an orderly , fetching blood, and moving patients.
Part of the job was to be inside theatre watching procedures, knee and hip ops, the surgeon banging hard with his hammer.
The benefits were subsidized meals, use of the outdoor pool, social outings.
The negatives were being indoors and lack of sunlight.
What parts of Europe did you drive to, and was it fridge work or general haulage ?
There are many driving jobs, Gregory distribution have at least 12 jobs on their website.
Sounds a good plan nobodysdriving
My Mrs bailed out of the NHS (Nurse) a few years back,too many pen pushers/managers/over worked etc:
You’ll have no problem getting sorted for some work,which area are you in ?
Good luck.