I do like the alone part of lorry driving and the autonomy, once i’m out the yard and on my way i’m quite content at that point. BUT I do find it stressful, I don’t like time pressure so being on time for deliveries and constantly worrying not to forget my tacho stresses me out. Plus the actual driving part can be stressful as well, especially during the day. I do feel kinda proud of myself in the lorry, and I do feel like the job has purpose. I even admire the lorry as a machine. But something just feels missing. I haven’t had the best experiences with the time that I have done with the lorries so far, (my first ever job was max hours, multi dropping, handballing 25kg bags of sugar and flour, with two nights out) (2nd was for a company where there were massive egos and you could never be perfect) (and 3rd was on the tippers,10,12hr shifts. Going from a to b to a again and repeat) so a part of me feels that, that might have spoiled it a little and maybe took the shine out of it. overall it just feels ok. I’m not sure if moving up to a class one would be any nicer. I like the kind of work more (much less handballing and multi dropping) and more driving which I would prefer a lot more BUT im really not keen on tramping which i feel is kinda unavoidable as a class one? I do like it in my own way at times, I have felt a good sense of camaraderie between fellow truckers and that overall are a nice bunch of people. I’m just not sure if this job is really for me when you put it all together? I understand that I’m probably the only one that can answer that. I would just like to hear other truckers’ thoughts on this. This is UK based if that matters at all. Thank you in advance.
You mention different companies and bosses. Are you working agency at the moment then?
If so, then you will have noticed that all driving jobs are not the same. There is a vast number of different jobs that require you to drive a truck. Where you live, how far you can travel, will limit you, but there are many flavours of driving out there.
Will C+E offer more choice? Depends where you are really. But having a bendy licence will never prevent you from driving a rigid. Although the investment might seem a waste, you won’t know until you try.
You will develop a way of working that suits you. Don’t worry about delivery times too much If the office haven’t given you enough time to get there or too much work that is their issue but i know that’s easier said than done.
As for worrying about the tacho try setting alarms on your phone if it helps don’t be tempted to do things like tipping on your break.
Another tip is get an app on your phone that records phone calls and if you think your not going to make a drop put it in the office’s hands
As said there is a multitude of class 1 work from tramping to local delivery type stuff. I prefer night work as there are less idiots about and tend to look for trunking work ie drive from point a to point b get tipped and reloaded and then a delivery or two on the way back to the yard.
As an after thought have you thought about bin work couple of guys in the wagon with you for company and to help you out.
Hi Franglais, some very good points made there. I think I got a little side tracked from the kind of work I had hoped to get on the lorries in the first place. I think if I can get the right kind of work I will be happy. I feel a little silly now but it has helped me to refocus, so thank you I really appreciate it.
Writing things down often helps. Talking also helps to line your ducks up.
If you have summat special in mind? Maybe let us know approximately where you are and what you are looking for?
Maybe there will be some specific advice around.
As Coop has said, don’t let managers ride you hard.
It isn`t their licence on the line. Not all of them are tough, and there are good employers out there.
Good luck.
what are your goals, what are your options
try, pause, and revisit your goals and if you still have options available
Hi cooper1203, Thank you for the reply, will definitely set some alarms going in the future.
- I prefer night work as there are less idiots about and tend to look for trunking work i.e. drive from point A to point B get tipped and reloaded and then a delivery or two on the way back to the yard. - This is exactly the kind of work I would prefer to do, ideally though was say, 12 hour shifts instead of tramping? although I would be willing to compromise on days/nights and the odd one or two nights out if no handballing was involved and it was the kind of run you stated above. being quite new to the industry I wasn’t sure if that kind of work was possible without doing the 4 on 4 off kind of life, so between a lack of knowledge and my experience with class 2. made me hesitant on getting my class one. but now I do think class one is the way to go for me personally. Cheers.
Hi Franglais, - Writing things down often helps. Talking also helps to line your ducks up. - definitely, I’ve started to this in the last year or so.
yer ideally the kind of work coop stated would be ideal for me i think.
I’m from the Swansea area in wales
i haven’t really had the option of being picky with the experience i had at first and had to take whatever company was willing to give me a chance.
thanks.
Hi Jd, if I’m being honest I’ve just been trying to figure out what I want to do in life. and then hopefully crack on. trying to figure out what I want to do for work has took me down a few different paths at once so I’ve been trying to work on a lot of different things at the same time. I’m trying to chase the dream of “find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” kind of thing lol. I think needing experience when applying for jobs has been the biggest obstacle for me. so I think it might be a little while before I get the kind of work I would like.
you haven’t said roughly where you are in the country. places will take on new pass drivers but they will be the rougher end of the spectrum. if you want night work or at least evening work try supermarkets
Sounds like you’re probably a “new pass” and that you’ve managed to get some initial work. If both of those are true, you’re already quite a bit ahead of the pack 
.
There are countless newbies still waiting for their first sniff of work, have a browse of Fakebook and you’ll be tripping over them, especially in the north (we’re stowed off with licence holders up here)
That all important first “two years of experience” is a major obstacle to most. Much of the work available to newbies is simply the garbage more experienced drivers won’t touch, because their experience gives them options which you don’t have at this point.
Personally, I wouldn’t give too much thought to “moving up” to Class 1:
(a) your little experience of class 2 will count for nothing as a newbie Class 1
(b) there are more people chasing Class 1 work than there are those prepared to look at Class 2 work (because they’re thinking what you’re thinking) so you’d just be jumping to a bigger pond with the same disadvantages
(c) it isn’t “moving up” anyway, that’s a BS misconception, “bigger” does not always mean “better”, certainly not in terms of pay & conditions.
My favourite times as a driver was doing Class 2, four-on-four-off with a roro and hiab. I could pick my own start time, for most of that employment it was job & knock (till one knucklehead started taking the mick so it was removed), I knew in advance where I would be on any particular day (it was a rotating 12 week pattern of sites), so I’d know what time I’d be finished and could make arrangements to suit, Boss’s attitude was “As long as all the work gets done, you’re free to decide how you do it”, because of the vehicle type I wasn’t reliant on anyone else at all (no hanging around in RDC waiting rooms), so it was like being my own boss but without the headaches that go with a boss’s responsibilities.
Nothing you can do about the “stress” of the job, at the low end of the scale that’s pretty much all you can expect, also nothing you can do about whoever it is with “ego issues” apart from adopting a “whatever dude…” attitude as you walk away. There’s a lot of drivers who specifically don’t hang around in the yard because they CBA with all the BS - that was always my disposition too, get in, get sorted and get out asap, preferably with as little interaction with certain characters as possible.
As a newbie, bear in mind one thing: When going for a new job, your “references” aren’t what your last employer might or might not say about you, it is two-fold thing: Firstly, can you pass “the attitude test” ? Secondly, what does your tacho card says about your attitude to driving?
If I was sitting in on a meeting with a prospective new driver today, I’d take a positive-attitude newbie with a compliant driving record in preference to a “challenging” experienced driver with overspeeds and missed breaks on his card any day of the week.
For night time trunking, try the parcel companies directly.
No nights out (unless you’re specifically applying for such a job), usually one hit runs if they’re long, or maybe 2 runs if they’re both short.
it seems that my previous individual reply’s might not be visible to all. I’m not sure, so just in case I have made a copy and paste of my answers here again. this is the first forum I have ever done so I do apologise lol. (this was yesterday 25/02/24)
Hi Franglais, some very good points made there. I think I got a little side tracked from the kind of work I had hoped to get on the lorries in the first place. I think if I can get the right kind of work I will be happy. I feel a little silly now but it has helped me to refocus, so thank you I really appreciate it.
Hi cooper1203, Thank you for the reply, will definitely set some alarms going in the future.
- I prefer night work as there are less idiots about and tend to look for trunking work i.e. drive from point A to point B get tipped and reloaded and then a delivery or two on the way back to the yard. - This is exactly the kind of work I would prefer to do, ideally though was say, 12 hour shifts instead of tramping? although I would be willing to compromise on days/nights and the odd one or two nights out if no handballing was involved and it was the kind of run you stated above. being quite new to the industry I wasn’t sure if that kind of work was possible without doing the 4 on 4 off kind of life, so between a lack of knowledge and my experience with class 2. made me hesitant on getting my class one. but now I do think class one is the way to go for me personally. Cheers.
Hi Franglais, - Writing things down often helps. Talking also helps to line your ducks up. - definitely, I’ve started to this in the last year or so.
yer ideally the kind of work cooper1203 stated would be ideal for me I think.
I’m from the Swansea area in wales
I haven’t really had the option of being picky with the experience I had at first and had to take whatever company was willing to give me a chance.
thanks.
Hi Jd, if I’m being honest I’ve just been trying to figure out what I want to do in life. and then hopefully crack on. trying to figure out what I want to do for work has took me down a few different paths at once so I’ve been trying to work on a lot of different things at the same time. I’m trying to chase the dream of “find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” kind of thing lol. I think needing experience when applying for jobs has been the biggest obstacle for me. so I think it might be a little while before I get the kind of work I would like.
And then to further add to Dav1d’s comment - this is exactly the kind of work I would like to do if I could. is trunking and tramping the same thing?
while I’m here, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone that has took the time to leave a comment all is appreciated.
I’m not sure how old you are but I’m guessing quite a bit younger than me, so as for “trying to figure out what I want to do in life” 
That is in itself a lifelong condition - that’s why we have philosophy.
It’s worth quoting the thoughts of a couple of notable “philosophers”
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”
John Lennon, but also attributed to Thomas La Mance
and
“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes, you might find, you get what you need”
Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones (just in case you are under 30)
Reflecting on what @zac_a says
Re work choices.
We generally regret not trying things out, than we regret trying things out that later fail. Take a positive attitude to new opportunities.
Re life in general
Five-haitch-one -tee Happens!
But it is rarely fatal. In fact, it is only ever fatal once for anyone.
Yes, the biggest regrets are the choices/decisions/actions we didn’t take or make.
No one, single definitive source for that (that I know of) but I like this one from (Sir) Michael Caine
I never regret anything. I always said that when I’m old, I want to be sitting there regretting the things that I did and not the things that I didn’t do; and now I’m old, and I don’t regret anything! I had fun. I had fun, and I’m still having it.
Hi Zac,
I’m 30
clean licence, never been done for anything. I’m clean and organised, as far as the tacho goes I play by the book. no over speeding, always switch to break.
I think I have a good attitude, I have a good work ethic, am willing to listen and learn. I have been called conscientious once or twice. I know what I want/need from work and a company and I wont hang about to long if I’m not happy there.
yer I do have an interest in philosophy, psychology e.t.c
I can see myself being happy and doing it for a long time with the right work.
franglais’s first reply brought me back to focus. It reminded me of why I did my licence in the first place and what kind of work I wanted to do on the lorries eventually. I was unsure about some things with regards to trucking and the actual day to day work. but I thought to myself I will never know until I do it. but then when I eventually manged to get work I thought this isn’t what I set out to do and I just lost sight of my end goal I think.
Absolutely, its all about mentality I think.
Thanks to everyone here, I’ve been reminded of my goals and I feel now that I know what to aim for and will now continue to work towards it. (some kind of the routes that have been stated above)
I think I will leave this post now just in case it might help someone else. if you have any further advice however I am all ears.
I just want to say once again a big thank you to everyone, and I hope you all have a good day.
Just remember to treat delivery times as a guideline. They’re what you should be doing and able to achieve if everything runs to plan which generally it doesn’t. The company I’m driving at now is own contract and with the exception of those that have access issues so a specific time you have to be there, typically before 7am, they have 4hr delivery time windows for delivering to their own stores.
Don’t kill yourself or stress out trying to meet them. Worst that can happen is the delivery location refuse the delivery and then you just get on the phone and let the office sort it out.
I had it brought home to me many years ago when I was on a 6pm-6am night shift running out of Sara Lee for Reed Boardall. For an entire week I was starting at 6pm in East Yorkshire and given a delivery for Iceland RDC at Queensferry on the opposite side of the country at 6pm. So as the office told me to take it I went over with it, security refused it, signed the paperwork, let me in to spin round, I’d phone up the transport office and they’d tell me to take it back to Sara Lee or to their yard at Boroughbridge. By the third night it got to be a bit of a joke between me and the guys on security.
absolute madness, sometimes the company you work for is just if not as important as the job itself.
yer I was always on time for the most part, but you had to graft all day to make sure you didn’t fall behind. left that job a little while ago now. (later on you realise why you got the job in the first place) between that and doing max hours and two nights out, was just a bit much for me especially being my first class 2 job. like I say I haven’t particularly had the best of experience’s. which lead me to creating this forum in end. I just wrote everything down on a document once, and then I thought put it on here and see what other people’s thoughts are on my feelings about the job and the situation. but I have faith it will work if I keep at it now.
thanks for the reply, any thoughts or advice are welcome.