Don’t regret starting on it but if I had my time over again, knowing what I know now, I’d not take up driving for a living. Fortunately my lads didn’t follow in my footsteps and I certainly didn’t encourage them to.
love the job, left it a couple of times through the years but always come back to it, its a bit like a drug can’t get enough of it, just like being out and about, could give a rats ■■■ if the traffic is bad just go with the flow, what don’t get done today gets done tomorrrow 
I am in different situation, i come from a family of lorry drivers and spent a lot of my life around lorries and coaches but have ended up in mechanical engineering. Don’t get me wrong the money is good but i am envious everytime i see you guys when i am on my way into work!. I am going to the same place everyday and miss travelling with my dad and uncle in trucks. Dad had his own coaches and lorries, before working continental for various firms and my uncle is ex asian transport, then spent many years doing Italy. I guess at the end of the day there must be some diesel in my veins and i regret not having done my hgv, though i have spent plenty of time driving them in quarries etc 
Do i regret getting my class 1? No, because it has seen me through tough times when i could have been out of work.
Do i regret having to go back to driving following 2 redundancies? ■■■■ right i do…but i won’t knock it because it enables me to pay my bills.
DonutUK:
Do i regret getting my class 1? No, because it has seen me through tough times when i could have been out of work.Do i regret having to go back to driving following 2 redundancies? ■■■■ right i do…but i won’t knock it because it enables me to pay my bills.
■■■■■
are you the lad in the red K line scania i met at the Orwell crossing truckshow a year or to back?
Regards Daz
dazteahan:
DonutUK:
Do i regret getting my class 1? No, because it has seen me through tough times when i could have been out of work.Do i regret having to go back to driving following 2 redundancies? ■■■■ right i do…but i won’t knock it because it enables me to pay my bills.
■■■■■
are you the lad in the red K line scania i met at the Orwell crossing truckshow a year or to back?
Regards Daz
No mate, never been to an Orwell Crossing truckshow.
robroy:
dukeofdirt:
No, my dream job as a child. None of my friends ever achieved that! Ok, they say I aimed low but [zb] 'em! I love it.YES, also my dream as a kid, and it was a good job/life first 10 to 12 years , but after that for next 20 or so constantly got worse to point of being unrecognisable from when I first started to present day where it has turned to sh.
There should be a part in the vote asking how long the yes/nos have done the job, I reckon there would be a pattern among the more, and less, experienced drivers.
I’m inclined to agree heartily with robroy in his last paragraph. As it happens, I’m a no, but then, I am a ‘johnny-come-lately’. Perhaps fortunately for me all the tales of the ‘good old days’ are just that and not precious memories. Also, I’m grateful for the fact that I’ll not be driving for a living long enough to get too blase` about it. 
robroy:
dukeofdirt:
No, my dream job as a child. None of my friends ever achieved that! Ok, they say I aimed low but [zb] 'em! I love it.YES, also my dream as a kid, and it was a good job/life first 10 to 12 years , but after that for next 20 or so constantly got worse to point of being unrecognisable from when I first started to present day where it has turned to sh.
There should be a part in the vote asking how long the yes/nos have done the job, I reckon there would be a pattern among the more, and less, experienced drivers.
I’m inclined to agree heartily with robroy in his last paragraph. As it happens, I’m a no, but then, I am a ‘johnny-come-lately’. Perhaps fortunately for me all the tales of the ‘good old days’ are just that and not precious memories. Also, I’m grateful for the fact that I’ll not be driving for a living long enough to get too blase` about it.
just hate it some days But sill love the job 
Y E S. It was probably the biggest mistake of my life. Let us now examine why:
-
Embarrassingly low wage for the workload and hours (plus don’t forget the additional cost of buying own equipment such as digicard/cpc, maps, gloves, straps, etc, … all things which in any other profession would be provided for you to do the job safely and legally)
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treated like worse than ■■■■ by agencies
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looked at as worse than ■■■■ by public
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never been able to get further than agency doing bottom of the rung class 2 work, plus sitting idle on a class 1 licence which cost the best part of a grand in total (what a waste!)
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expected to move heaven and earth in jig time… at the same time as complying to draconian and ever increasing EU tacho regulations which are simultaneously and conversely insisting that you slow down
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next to no career prospects or avenues for improvement
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never hearing the words “thank you” for up to years at a time (unless it’s being said sarcastically)
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having to put up with constant ■■■■■■■■ form other drivers
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automatically stereotyped and considered as ■■■■ when you try and apply for any other sort of work. (“Oh look what we have here… a sodding lorry driver trying to apply for this job! We don’t want any thickos here…” CV gets tossed into bin ) etc…
COOKiEEES!!:
- never been able to get further than agency doing bottom of the rung class 2 work, plus sitting idle on a class 1 licence which cost the best part of a grand in total (what a waste!)
you havnt actually become a hgv driver yet...your just ■■■■■■ coz you havnt found a decent job yet 
Been lots of ups and downs over the years, but ept at it worked hard and earned some serious money which hasn’t been ■■■■■■ up the wall, i have no regrets.
It takes a certain type or nature to be a lorry driver, you can see from some of the posts on this very forum that many of the people now doing the job shouldn’t be, its not for them and they’ll never be happy, no pride in doing the job well so no satisfaction gained.
Assuming lucky enough to keep in good health i’ll see me working life out on the lorries, don’t think i could to the same work place and look at the same miserable sods every day.
Mind you wouldn’t have minded swapping places with an above posters mate who’s now a finance house director, he must be surrounded by nicely dressed totty constantly…whats hard about that. 
commonrail:
you havnt actually become a hgv driver yet...your just ■■■■■■ coz you havnt found a decent job yet
Are you saying that unless you specifically drive an artic you’re not an hgv driver?
Anyway, who cares, as a matter of fact maybe you’re even right. I simply couldn’t give a toss either way any more to be honest.
But it is exactly that sort of “my [zb]'s bigger than yours” attitude from other drivers that I will certainly not miss if I’m ever lucky enough to make it out of this profession
T’was my vocation, I lay awake as a kid listening to the overnight hauliers crawling up the hill out of my town. That distinctive axle whine that many of those old ex military vehicles they were using had evoked something in me.
All in all I have loved the job, the early starts, driving along watching dawn come up in another county …and country. The not knowing where you will end up at the end of the day, even the novel idea of sleeping in the truck when you got your first proper, by then standards, sleeper cab, an F88 in my case.
The first time ‘over the water’ arriving in Zeebrugge and not having a clue what I was up to until put right by an old hand and pointed in the right direction. Waking up in the remote highlands of Scotland opening the curtains and seeing a huge Stag just outside, standing on a few rocks with its breath condensing in the cold morning air.
Thats the romantic stuff about the job, I can just as easily remember the bad parts. Letting the job come first, seeing the hurt in the wife & kids faces when you told them you would be away on those birthdays/sportsdays/anniversaries/weekends or when either of them were ill.
Waking up in hospital with the first stages of hypothermia by sleeping in an a series ERF in the winter.A german hospital after falling off the top of a tilt. Finding yourself in a French nick for bribing the wrong officer, stuck in seemingly endless blockades of one type or another. Having to wake up and drive away from a industrial estate in Sheffield at midnight because two people you dont know wish to take you lorry off of you. This list seems to go on and on the more i think about it.
Wish I had never got my licence?..sometimes.
Wish I was still doing general haulage? …sometimes!
regret it?..Nah!
COOKiEEES!!:
Are you saying that unless you specifically drive an artic you’re not an hgv driver?
no…im saying you havnt given it enough time before adopting a defeatist attitude
I don’t, I’ve always loved travel from a very early age so I found a way to do it not just for free but with other people paying me to do it. I did tot it up once and I think I’ve been to 28 different countries in a truck.
I still love it most of the time, we all have bad days but 9 out of 10 I still enjoy the job, and as for
COOKiEEES!!:
- next to no career prospects or avenues for improvement
[/quote]
I couldn’t disagree more, I started out doing the odd bit of driving in 7.5t and 18t curtainsiders, then moved on to 26t Flat doing steel, now i work for a general haulage company driving a 26t Hiab, So since passing my class 2 I have got my Forklift license, my Hi-ab license, I have done various other courses (working at heights etc). I have my ADR booked to do soon. I still indend to do my class 1 at some point and we run a couple of Moffets so I fancy doing my lcence for them…
Owen
commonrail:
COOKiEEES!!:
Are you saying that unless you specifically drive an artic you’re not an hgv driver?no…i
m saying you havnt given it enough time before adopting a defeatist attitude
commonrail your wasting your time with cookiees, he has resigned him self to being defeatist, anytime you read any of his posts on threads like this its the same bull he comes out with he thinks because he spent mony on his license he should have walked straight into a job paying 15bucks an hour
me a like the job because am not stuck looking at the same 4 walls everyday and the same folk aswell, and if somebody is being bellend then a walk away whats the point getting ■■■■■■ off
and for spending money to keep your self in a job IE ppe stuff most companys pay for that ,try working in the motor trade (did for 15years) constant upgrading tools that anit cheep by far and before anybody says the moneys better in a trade its not always the case
Juddian:
Been lots of ups and downs over the years, but ept at it worked hard and earned some serious money which hasn’t been ■■■■■■ up the wall, i have no regrets.
It takes a certain type or nature to be a lorry driver, you can see from some of the posts on this very forum that many of the people now doing the job shouldn’t be, its not for them and they’ll never be happy, no pride in doing the job well so no satisfaction gained:
Seeing as I was one of the negative posts I should maybe try and explain why. I also was brought up on trucks going away with my Dad in the 60s when it WAS a hard job (Shap in winter etc) Then in the 70s going away with a mate, who led me astray (taking me around the err… less savoury pubs in all major cities) when o/n parking was …actually provided…YEH! . At 21 I couldnt wait to pass my test, got my class3, and off I went first trip armed with sleeping bag, map and flask in a TK Bedford, 300miles down M1, THROUGH London, no M25, no sat navs, to Kent. You learned the hard way then.
A few years down the line, owner driver, small fleet owner, recession…bankruptcy , start again o/driver, main contract goes bust no warning so…so do I again lose house, and everything else. Dusted myself down, no drama.
Get a couple of GOOD Euro jobs, redundant x2, a worse Euro job, a relatively poor paid UK job now.
So Mr Juddian, I DID have the “certain nature”, it was for me, and I was happy and did have pride, the only bit I agree with you is…yeh, maybe I shouldn’t be doing the job now, as it has turned me cynical in as far as I believe everything in transport has a hidden agenda ie… DCPC, all parking gone, speed cameras, Euro legislation, VOSA… the list goes on. I also believe that a lot of drivers are as good as ever, but an ever growing amount of d/heads with licences shouldn’t be let out with a bike, never mind 44tonnes, so sorry if I have bored the arses off you all , but that is why I am on a downer with the job and put forward a YES vote.
bit harsh @ smallsie.
Anyway, @ commonrail, I’d say that 7 years is more than an adequate length of time to have developed an accurate outlook. Unfortunately that outlook is indeed very very bleak, but it does not mean it’s not correct.
So I reject your accusation @ smallsie that I’m one of those who
“thinks because he spent mony on his license he should have walked straight into a job paying 15bucks an hour”
Don’t make rash assumptions about people you do not even know.