DAF_MAN:
‘… a life on the road has a lot of downsides…’
You’re right 
Briefly, very recently and un-voluntarily witnessing a dude ■■■■■■■■■■■■ for his benefit whilst driving his tatty white Toyota van with seats and silver-tape bodged windows carrying furniture in the back with torn rear wiper between J’s 9-7 of the M1 s/b was defo not a career high point for me 
At least the winkers in my last (office-based) job thankfully hid behind a solid door in the bog…
DAF_MAN:
Tazbug:
I have just binned my 37hr week, 25k, plenty of hols and a pension to go tramping (reefers) as from 3rd June. Ok mine wasn’t an office job but I couldn’t bear to work in an office anyway. I got sick of the civil service bureaucracy and senior management sticking their nose into a job they had never done. TBH I can’t wait to get started, i’m 51 yrs old and about to start an adventure I’ve wanted to go on for over 30 years. Its more money with more hours, less hols, away from home and a pension after 6 months if I want it.…it’ll do for me
Tazbug
Sounds ideal, Tazbug! Good luck with it. I’m jealous. How long have you held your licence?
Passed C+E in July last year and have been agency driving on my rest days since then (only 1 day in 10 but it all helps).
Tazbug
Bassman:
Hi JuddianOh how I agree with your last post. Too many drivers seem to think the be all and end all is a big shiny truck that they can live in from Monday to Friday and spend all day Saturday (unpaid ) polishing the bloody thing.
I do not try to beat some one who is enthusiastic and takes a pride in his gear down,but while drivers are prepared to work for a fiver an hour and a tin of polish,just to get the new truck in the yard, the rest of us will alway’s struggle to get a good wage.
In my opinion “night-out” money is not part of the wage, it’s compensation for being tied to a lump of metal 24hrs a day of which for 9 or 11 hrs. you are a security man for the bosses equipment,again not paid any extra cos that would mean you are still technically working and not getting your legal rest.
To me the conditions of the job and the pay come first, you don’t put a shiny Scania on the dinner table on Sunday and carve it up, the food on that table is paid for by what a truck earns you, and the more pay you earn and in the conditions you want to work in mean there will be more meals eaten by happier drivers.Cheers Bassman
Very well said 
I have seen and still do, young men who would rather have a flashy truck that a living wage, it has always amused me 
I am away from my home 123 hours per week (6.30 am Monday to 09.30 Saturday) and work a 72 hour week and for the dubious pleasure of doing this job I cleared £37462 before tax including night out money, if your work it out on a 48 week year after holidays I am on £6.34 for every hour I am away from home. Like many drivers who have been doing this job for 20 years plus, there is no way I could earn this money doing anything else, and like many others I am addicted to the money, but in my 50th year I now believe that my life is being stolen from me and I am helping them do it. So I would not recommend this job to any newbie
£32000+ last year after tax takehome max hours but strictly legal away all week sometimes 2 weeks on food tanks been on same sort of work for 20 yrs and could not see me doing anything else
chester:
I know jobs,terms and conditions differ between company’s, but do none of you think whilst you get up at 4am for a 5am start,and drive down your road and see the houses either side of your road still in darkness as the home owners still have a few more hours tucked up in bed before they need to get up. You then do a15hr day and come home to see the same households you past 15hrs earlier are now enjoying some quality time with folks. Although being 10pm they have probably enjoyed a evening out with the wife, taken kids to a evening club, or perhaps been out with the dogs or a bike ride!Then think back to what you acheived in that 24hr period. Ahh yes work 15 for 8 hrs off, mega life that isint it?
Although your no better in the pocket for it.
And to some £20 to sleep in a layby is a perk
To all the guys that say I’ve been driving 20+ years and want to get out of the game but wouldn’t know what to do, why don’t you try and join the railway as a train driver? I’m a driver, work a 35 hour week for 42K a year, and if I did the hours in overtime that some of you do in a normal week, I would easily top 50K.
If you think you’re too old, think again. A guy on the latest training course is 53, and many trainees are in their late forties. Most of the train operating companies apart from East Coast and Virgin have been recruiting in the past year, although it is a fact that hundreds of people chase each vacancy. However, it’s like the lottery. You have to be in it to win it so bang an application in next time your local train company recruits. And if you’re lucky, you may be driving between 90 - 125mph instead of 56mph.
By the way, I do have my bus and truck licence, but only use them for part time work and I am doing my DCPC to keep them.