Complete beginner - pros and cons of driving, educate me

Hello all,
First time post. I’m changing careers and thought truck driving would suit me - I enjoy driving, and like my own company. I’ve had my medical today, so am a step closer. But I want to be sure about it all before I make my final commitment.
So, about me- I’m the main bread winner in a family of 5 (wife and 3 kids). I want a job where I can spend time mostly on my own, work Monday to Friday and be back at home in the evenings to see my family. I would like to earn 26-30k.

Is this all viable? And, what are the pros and cons of the profession?
Thanks in advance.

Hi Zyx, first of all… you won’t earn 30k by being home every night, secondly… your never on your own as a truck driver, the public will loathe you and your office will push you to breaking point. My experience as a new driver in the last 12 months. Maybe just me so await the more experienced members.

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If you are lucky and have one of the top payers near you you may get £30k - and you may get home each night but it’ll be 1900/2000. I enjoyed the job at first, like you enjoyed the day out on my own, and then found how wages were cut… and office pushing to “breaking point”.

The industry is so wide and varied, any answer will be correct (if that makes sense!). What the OP has described is achievable. It’s also possible to be worked like a dog for less money. And between the two lies a huge array of different work with a host of employers.

IMO the OP has described one of the better jobs. This doesn’t mean it’s not there. In reality with any career change, you must expect to start at the bottom. But play your cards right, and progress can be reasonably rapid.

All the best, Pete :laughing: :laughing:

£30k and home every night is achievable, and a fair bit more besides if you go out and find your own niche, but the better paid end of daywork tends to involve shifts now including weekends and bank holidays and early or late shifts, you would be very lucky to find a 6am starting time 5 day week job @ £30k home every night until you’ve been doing the job for a while…though if you don’t mind ■■■■■■■ :wink: stuff then plenty of rigid lorry shop retail catering delivery work pays pretty well and home every night, and of course there’s always rubbish collection tippers and skip work.

Good jobs are out there, and with the ageing workforces often found in the better jobs, they are trying to find good young blood to recruit, but finding the right calibre is proving challenging in many cases shall we say, so IMHO younger drivers who have the right work ethic, look after the job and the customer, have a very good future ahead of them in the transport industry.
You can forget the automation ■■■■■■■■ they keep ■■■■■■■ money up the wall at (kerching eh researchers :unamused: ), that’s pie in the sky, you’ll still be driving lorries when you’re 75 if you want to.

The secret to getting on the best jobs in this industry i have found is either you need a bloody lot of luck, or have close relatives already inside, or you have to earn yourself a reputation and good work history so when you eventually knock on the right door that hard work bears fruit, this won’t happen overnight and there might be many years of hard graft before getting on the good jobs, knocking on doors produces better jobs than relying on adverts, good employers don’t need to advertise for staff.

I did various types of general haulage and some night trunking for11 to 13 years before i got my first big break by being at the right place right time (well actually i used to service a loader’s car and he put the word in for me where he was and i went there driving small vans at first but on better money than my previous artic work, thats how weird fate can be), some others just fall on their feet, luck plays a big part.

edit, i have only secured one job by answering an advert, that was in or around 1981 where i got made redundant twice within 3 months, there were 65 applicants and it proved to be the crappiest job i’ve had the misfortune to work at, i lasted about 3 months there before putting me notice in and they never spoke another word to me following receipt of my notice, which only confirmed what they were and how my decision to go was right.

Don’t bother mate. Housing shortage and HS2 means that the construction game is what you need to get into.

Heavy plant machinery; Excavators, diggers, bulldozers etc. £20 per hour Mon-Fri 35 hrs per week and home every night.

Truck driving is no good. The money is crap, the facilities are crap, and the vast majority of people in the industry are crap too. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY LIKE I DID. GET INTO CONSTRUCTION :wink:

eagerbeaver:
Don’t bother mate. Housing shortage and HS2 means that the construction game is what you need to get into.

Heavy plant machinery; Excavators, diggers, bulldozers etc. £20 per hour Mon-Fri 35 hrs per week and home every night.

Truck driving is no good. The money is crap, the facilities are crap, and the vast majority of people in the industry are crap too. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY LIKE I DID. GET INTO CONSTRUCTION :wink:

Can we keep the trolling out of here please?

ItsJoe:

eagerbeaver:
Don’t bother mate. Housing shortage and HS2 means that the construction game is what you need to get into.

Heavy plant machinery; Excavators, diggers, bulldozers etc. £20 per hour Mon-Fri 35 hrs per week and home every night.

Truck driving is no good. The money is crap, the facilities are crap, and the vast majority of people in the industry are crap too. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY LIKE I DID. GET INTO CONSTRUCTION :wink:

Can we keep the trolling out of here please?

Trolling? :laughing: I’ve been doing the job from scratch for the last 4 years. And I am telling the OP the truth.

I am really not arsed if you take the advice or not folks, but it’s there for you if you want it :unamused: A real waste of £2.5k. If you want to know the real world wages of a truck driver (on days), a simple look on Indeed will tell you. The trainers on here make a living from training so they are obviously not going to tell candidates that the job is crap…

Everyone is entitled to give their opinion especially if it is based on their experience

The experience they base it on is going to be very different for each individual and possibly relates to the area they live in

Certain things are facts such as the MYTH of a general LGV driver shortage - that can be backed up simply by looking for full time permanent jobs on the job sites + if there was a real shortage then newbies would be snapped up by companies for a full time perm job virtually the moment they pass the tests

For the first year you will feel completely deflated .Why?Well you read that the UK has a driver shortage? ,And here you are.It is not true about a shortage of drivers .it is hogwash,Good companies are the rarety believe me …You will pass the tests then face many many rejections .No two years blah blah .no experience blah blah .I’m sure it is all designed to get you down and belittle you into the minimum wages joke that is Trucking.
Good luck pal ,You will need rhinos skin aswell :laughing:

Beetlejuice:
For the first year you will feel completely deflated .Why?Well you read that the UK has a driver shortage? ,And here you are.It is not true about a shortage of drivers .it is hogwash,Good companies are the rarety believe me …You will pass the tests then face many many rejections .No two years blah blah .no experience blah blah .I’m sure it is all designed to get you down and belittle you into the minimum wages joke that is Trucking.
Good luck pal ,You will need rhinos skin aswell :laughing:

That is not the experience for all especially for those that are more pro-active in finding work such as going to companies early in the morning and giving CVs by hand to the TMs along with work gear in the boot of the car just in case they say we need you now !

ROG:

Beetlejuice:
For the first year you will feel completely deflated .Why?Well you read that the UK has a driver shortage? ,And here you are.It is not true about a shortage of drivers .it is hogwash,Good companies are the rarety believe me …You will pass the tests then face many many rejections .No two years blah blah .no experience blah blah .I’m sure it is all designed to get you down and belittle you into the minimum wages joke that is Trucking.
Good luck pal ,You will need rhinos skin aswell :laughing:

That is not the experience for all especially for those that are more pro-active in finding work such as going to companies early in the morning and giving CVs by hand to the TMs along with work gear in the boot of the car just in case they say we need you now !

Sorry but this is 2017 ,Do you mean more proactice in taking minimum wages ? And that is my experience having had a lot of jobs in my first twelve months .And I am 150% pro active pal.Haulage is a minefield full of tossers

Beetlejuice:

ROG:

Beetlejuice:
For the first year you will feel completely deflated .Why?Well you read that the UK has a driver shortage? ,And here you are.It is not true about a shortage of drivers .it is hogwash,Good companies are the rarety believe me …You will pass the tests then face many many rejections .No two years blah blah .no experience blah blah .I’m sure it is all designed to get you down and belittle you into the minimum wages joke that is Trucking.
Good luck pal ,You will need rhinos skin aswell :laughing:

That is not the experience for all especially for those that are more pro-active in finding work such as going to companies early in the morning and giving CVs by hand to the TMs along with work gear in the boot of the car just in case they say we need you now !

Sorry but this is 2017 ,Do you mean more proactice in taking minimum wages ? And that is my experience having had a lot of jobs in my first twelve months .And I am 150% pro active pal.Haulage is a minefield full of tossers

So are you saying that you were a new pass who expected to walk straight into one of the better jobs right off? It seems to sound like that to me.

I have been driving for 6 weeks. I applied for 5 jobs and got offered 3! So there are firms that will take new passes. I am salaried for the day so I will admit that if I do 15 hours its roughly £8.50. If I do 10 (like the last couple of days) its around £12.50. My employer does not push to breaking point or ask me to break laws. From what I understand I am more likely to be sacked for breaking them than not. The 48 hour average is followed as well so if you do some longer weeks there will also be some short ones to balance those off.

I do a permanent Sunday to Thursday shift,early starts and top line is about £33500 plus a driving style bonus and nights out if done. I am not going to say its a great job compared to what some of the guys on here might have but for me (as a new pass especially) I am happy with it. If nothing else it is experience. As others have said you cant start a new career and expect to walk into one of the better work/money jobs out there without some serious luck. Do your 2 years then go to the goo jobs if not. You might even find 1 year would be enough for some if you have a good record.

For the OP, I havn’t done it but do agree you might be best looking at food service work. Hard graft but good money and social hours compared to many jobs out there

I’m a new driver transporting fresh foods on a 26 tonne rigid around Surrey and SW London. I’m on a fixed salary of approximately £32k per year (before deductions) and my whole route and other work takes me about 10 hours per day.

At least that’s what I think i’m on lol. I need to get hold of my first payslip to check the workings

EDIT: After another 3 days of work - my shift from start to finish is turning into 8.5-9 hours depending on if the warehouse staff manage to put the correct stock on my lorry! :imp:

Thank you all for your perspectives. I really do appreciate it.
As an update, Ive had some serious second thoughts, done a bit more research and had a call from the training service I signed up to (which is Specialised hgv BTW). They put forward that they have a post pass recruitment team that farm you out to companies to place you into the right job. I told them what I would want (see op) , and the person I spoke to indicated that this would be possible.
What do you guys think? Does anyone have experience with this training firm?

Zyx:
Thank you all for your perspectives. I really do appreciate it.
As an update, Ive had some serious second thoughts, done a bit more research and had a call from the training service I signed up to (which is Specialised hgv BTW). They put forward that they have a post pass recruitment team that farm you out to companies to place you into the right job. I told them what I would want (see op) , and the person I spoke to indicated that this would be possible.
What do you guys think? Does anyone have experience with this training firm?

Run forest run , they’re a broker

As blue estate said it sounds like a broker rather than a proper HGV training company, my advice would have to be to not pay any money until you’ve been advised by the people here, but to be advised by the people here you’ll need to tell us who the training company are.

kcrussell25:

Beetlejuice:

ROG:

Beetlejuice:
For the first year you will feel completely deflated .Why?Well you read that the UK has a driver shortage? ,And here you are.It is not true about a shortage of drivers .it is hogwash,Good companies are the rarety believe me …You will pass the tests then face many many rejections .No two years blah blah .no experience blah blah .I’m sure it is all designed to get you down and belittle you into the minimum wages joke that is Trucking.
Good luck pal ,You will need rhinos skin aswell :laughing:

That is not the experience for all especially for those that are more pro-active in finding work such as going to companies early in the morning and giving CVs by hand to the TMs along with work gear in the boot of the car just in case they say we need you now !

Sorry but this is 2017 ,Do you mean more proactice in taking minimum wages ? And that is my experience having had a lot of jobs in my first twelve months .And I am 150% pro active pal.Haulage is a minefield full of tossers

So are you saying that you were a new pass who expected to walk straight into one of the better jobs right off? It seems to sound like that to me.

I walked straight into a well payed job .And have also worked for a few low payed tossers ,As stated .Your happy on £8.50 o
Ph good lad well done .

Don’t use a broker. Waste money and they’re full of lies. And also still ring me every few months despite being told to do one.

As for the job itself, I reckon it’s what you make it. I’ve just got my practical training to go. But I think I’m realistic. I know no job in any industry is perfect. I know there’s no driver shortage but they’re are jobs going at least here in the Midlands. I’m not expecting to earn millions but for me I’m on 20p more than minimum wage so I’m gonna be happy just making more than I do now whatever the driving job is. And lastly I expect to graft bloody hard especially in the beginning.

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Beetlejuice:

ROG:

Beetlejuice:
For the first year you will feel completely deflated .Why?Well you read that the UK has a driver shortage? ,And here you are.It is not true about a shortage of drivers .it is hogwash,Good companies are the rarety believe me …You will pass the tests then face many many rejections .No two years blah blah .no experience blah blah .I’m sure it is all designed to get you down and belittle you into the minimum wages joke that is Trucking.
Good luck pal ,You will need rhinos skin aswell :laughing:

That is not the experience for all especially for those that are more pro-active in finding work such as going to companies early in the morning and giving CVs by hand to the TMs along with work gear in the boot of the car just in case they say we need you now !

Sorry but this is 2017 ,Do you mean more proactice in taking minimum wages ? And that is my experience having had a lot of jobs in my first twelve months .And I am 150% pro active pal.Haulage is a minefield full of tossers

24 year old, couple of months on agency, came to us doing a mix of Euro and UK, tops 40k. Home every night some weeks, away other weeks. Double manned and not for hours, usually 1- 2 drops a week on Euro, 1-2,a day on UK. Worst of it is sometimes we make him drive a van. :open_mouth:

He’s smart, polite, hard working, good attitude, no wonder he walked into a job that suits him.