Mike-C:
Well i can wholeheartedly agree with you there, English truckers are someone to look up to. Think of them as a standard to equall!! !
When i was young and easily led i might have but nowadays they seem to be best in Europe at one thing, they are good at moaning the job is hard for some unknown reason.
The guy who influenced my early days drove something that had to be double declutched, had no radio,spring suspension,sprung seats (they have air in them these days you know)it had a steering wheel the size of a double deckers tyres and he drove on roads that we today would laugh at.
Mike-C:
Well knock me down with a feather! I’m sure getting something better with better pay won’t be much of a problem to a person with your active brain power!
Finding another job in Nottinghamshire paying 28/30K P.A. for 45 hours which requires only a driving licence might be hard bit i am open to suggestions.
Driving a LORRY is hardly a job which involves using brain power and in this day and age it hardly needs any brawn either what with synchromesh , air con, route guides etc etc, the job gets easier every day.
Do you really find the job hard?, maybe you are the one who should look for something else if its so hard for you to do .
Which part is it you find difficult ?, is it the map reading with all the letters and numbers or is it the getting out the cab to communicate with people?.
Do explain please?.
I can understand maybe moaning about the poor standards of driving of other road users but as for getting in a lorry with a delivery note and taking a load from A to B and taking the lorry back to A it really could not be easier could it?.
Mike-C:
Well i can wholeheartedly agree with you there, English truckers are someone to look up to. Think of them as a standard to equall!! !
When i was young and easily led i might have but nowadays they seem to be best in Europe at one thing, they are good at moaning the job is hard for some unknown reason.
The guy who influenced my early days drove something that had to be double declutched, had no radio,spring suspension,sprung seats (they have air in them these days you know)it had a steering wheel the size of a double deckers tyres and he drove on roads that we today would laugh at.
Mike-C:
Well knock me down with a feather! I’m sure getting something better with better pay won’t be much of a problem to a person with your active brain power!
Finding another job in Nottinghamshire paying 28/30K P.A. for 45 hours which requires only a driving licence might be hard bit i am open to suggestions.
Driving a LORRY is hardly a job which involves using brain power and in this day and age it hardly needs any brawn either what with synchromesh , air con, route guides etc etc, the job gets easier every day.
Do you really find the job hard?, maybe you are the one who should look for something else if its so hard for you to do .
Which part is it you find difficult ?, is it the map reading with all the letters and numbers or is it the getting out the cab to communicate with people?.
Do explain please?.
I can understand maybe moaning about the poor standards of driving of other road users but as for getting in a lorry with a delivery note and taking a load from A to B and taking the lorry back to A it really could not be easier could it?.
Hi Jammymutt, we seem to have a language problem here,you might need to read my previous posts. I have never said it’s a hard job nor complained. I think you will find i said “it’s not rocket science” and “not always the most physically demanding” but it is demanding in other ways ( i.e socially regarding hours worked , or working outdoors in the winter like me today unloading in -5degrees for an hour and a half) all i said is that it is not easy.
BTW don’t give us the old tat about double declutch,spring seats and spring suspension because you would be suprised at how recently many of us have used that stuff and probably how many still do. And i can’t understand moaning about other road user standards of driving as i find them on the whole quite good so i think you are taking us (again!) off topic here. I’m sure you have something to get off your chest and it’s gonna be good but i’m sorry it’s not fitting in with the discussion !!! Don’t be influemced by Yorkie guys again, you seem a bit gullible to me and i tell you that as someone who cares !
its the trucks for me. i do enjoy my current job most of the time but on the other hand, i do get stressed with certain aspects, especially idiot drivers. things have vastly improved since numbnuts left us and my supervisor does actually know what he is doing but at the end of the day, i love driving trucks and thats why i wouldnt leave the industry. i am one of the few who feel a certain pride when they are cruising along the road
thanks to all for all the votes and posts so far, makes for interesting reading. im very glad to see theres at least 3 quarters love trucks and the job for a positive reason! i aint feeling such an oddball for loving the trucks and (most times) the job now!
kindle530:
I love the trucks and the job AND the lifestyle. Ive hated sitting at home twiddling my fingers the lasy week or so
Same here kindle, i love all three, yes its pretty grim at times… waiting for groupage at 0100 on a saturday morning in milan, stripping tilts out in steelworks, traffic nightmares…etc etc etc.
But i get paid to do a very easy job travelling through europe meeting different people seeing new things
Theres no backbiting in my cab, no-one telling me how fast to drive
I`m not having a go at anyone here but we sometimes forget how easy we have it now… my dad did the job before pallets! and sprung seats… and heaters… and sleepers…
JB:
my dad did the job before pallets! and sprung seats… and heaters… and sleepers…
sounds like an army bedford which will be in service til at least 2015. no power steering or air seats. had to change the wheel on your own rather than calling out tructyre
one of the trade mags did have an article which was a bit of an eye opener. the steam driven wagon which had the boiler in the cab. i didnt really fancy using one of them
My dad had a pub on the old A63 and every day the car park was full of trucks carrying fish and fruit to the markets from Hull, I used to stand on the bottom steps of the bar listening to truck driving tales, I could swear proficiently by the time I was 5
The trucks were all from a bygone age, Albions, Thames Traders and the like. about 1/4 mile away was a haulage company and as soon I was allowed to escape on my own, I could spend all day at the yard
From the age of 4 I was destined to be a truck driver, and through this haulage company, I got my dream, driving trucks round the yard, washing them and helping out in the workshop.
No one cared about H & S and yellow vests then
I like the job and wont do anything else, believe me I have tried
great stuff malc! aint it a shame that in trying to do good, (and i know they are, even though it poisses me off very much), the h&s crowd are denying youngsters things like you had! i loved being round the lorries at the co-op and alpine pop ect and it was probably there i got determined to be a diesel driver. it wouldntr be allowed now, thats very sad.
First of all well done Jammy, I have been a lorry driver ( i put pallets on a truck ) for 24 years now, started on a ford D series and now drive a 95, it is not the easiest job in the world but it certainely is not the hardest, you don’t have to be a brain surgeon but you do have to have a bit of common sense, i do it because i love the the lorries and the job, but just because i like it does not mean i have to like work, the last two jobs were boring and i admit i only worked nights for the money, but doing 13/15 hours a night takes it out of you, now i work for a manufacturer, hand balling up to 130 kg, the phone does not ring, they leave you alone to get on with it, and the money is good.
I have 3 and half years until my next medical and i dread it, if i lost my licence i would be more than gutted, it is not just a job it is a way of life.
I voted none of the above, although originally lifestyle.
Thirty years ago the lure of the open road, a girl at every truckstop. ha what a laugh.Even now i am back bus driving i stiil like to think i am my own boss.The thought of being in an office/factory fills me with dread.
It could still be such a good job, but now the cameradie has gone, its everyman/woman for thereselves.
Its the world we live in, the global economy. human resources, health and safety, its way beyond me.
As i have said before it is Atki Borderers, Guy Big Js, Mandators, smoke pouring out of exhausts, filling out your own logbooks, no 20 page application forms for a job, my old mate Sam who drove an an Atikinson Borderer all day with a pipe hanging from his toothless gob and dribble all over his unpleasantly stained muffler, i could go on but will probably bore you to tears even more, all these and more are why i became a truck driver.
leslie g heath:
Its the world we live in, the global economy. human resources, health and safety, its way beyond me.
As i have said before it is Atki Borderers, Guy Big Js, Mandators, smoke pouring out of exhausts, filling out your own logbooks, no 20 page application forms for a job,
a nostalgic picture leslie, all that stuff hr, h&s, stupid long applications and similar crap does my head in as well mate, it’s not the same of course, but theres nowt i like better.
Andyroo:
As regards sleeping on the job…that’s my only regret right now…I’ve got real cushy job with no pressure but it’s only a day cab…I just can’t get comfy for a kip.
andy, have you tried a couple of seat cushions off a old setee, they can do great things!
Not very subtle…I think the bosses might notice them…I’d love to see their faces though, cos they know I do the bare minimum as it is.
Malc - Rose and Crown, remember it well, just across field from Benny Webster’s where I used to get my maggots for fishing On NSF - wouldn’t have been a bald bloke called Derek would it?
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On NSF - wouldn’t have been a bald bloke called Derek would it?