Just to wind up some of you lads who come on here moaning about truck quality, your air seat is faulty or curtains let in too much light etc. 
I was driving, (well more like steering )my modern Mercedes with air con blowing icy, after getting a cold can out of my fridge, listening to crystal clear dab radio, on an air seat, and on air suspension and I was just comparing it with when I first started, driving the likes of a Mark2 Atkinson, which you had to actually DRIVE in the true sense, unlike today, with no power steering, a gear change like a stick in a bucket, where you had to judge the revs while double de clutcing the crash box, otherwise it just did NOT go in, while used very often as the 220 engine sensed a hill before you actually saw it.
The fumes coming through the daylight at the bottom of the gear lever and each pedal rubber, made worse on a hot day like this where you spent the entire day sweating like a blacksmithâs arse.
Then looking forward to building your bed at end of shift out of boards and a bit of foam.
I just got to thinking how much things had improved (in one sense that is 
)
Yeh I know, to some of you I may as well be talking about the middle ages, and you will just write it off as ancient history or whatever , but hey, it was not THAT long ago, and be warned, you will see what I mean after 20 or 30 yrs in the job how â â â â fast it all flies in, despite all the crap.
There aint such a thing as a BAD truck these days, just some are better than others.
So some of you lot donât know youâre â â â â born.
BtwâŚIâll beat you to itâŚââDuring the war Delââ 
robroy:
building your bed at end of shift out of boards and a bit of foam.
Dont know whats worse, building your own bed or nighting out!
robroy:
you will see what I mean after 20 or 30 yrs in the job how [zb] fast it all flies in, despite all the crap.
Funny you should say that. I was just thinking the other day that despite all the technology around today, 30 years from now that generation will wonder how we coped with it
My 18 yr old lorry is modern ,itâs synchromesh,has a near side electric window and is on air suspension,and air handbrake what more could I ask for
Leave the snow flake generation alone. Otherwise there go crying be off sick and troll you on facebook
Edit could do with a louder hands free thing because when the air con vents are open I canât here the phone for road noise
Punchy Dan:
Edit could do with a louder hands free thing because when the air con vents are open I canât here the phone for road noise
There just canât be anything wrong with the Foden Dan, it will be you needing hearing aids now the years are marching rapidly on! Iâm only glad that I wasnât driving back in Rob Royâs time, I donât think I could have coped with those sort of conditions and canât imagine not having any air-con! 
By the way, what is this thing called air-con? Is it like the designer air gap around the Foden door? 
Pete.
My first HGV was a 1965 Bedford TK Pantechnicon which I drove and slept in for a year in 1972/73. I was doing house removals from London to Irish Republic via Stranraer to Larne ferry.
I must be too old for that snowflake generation at 30 then. Was quite happy driving my DAF Scammell 8x6 and the not so fun Bedford MJ when I was in my early 20s. Both built before my time, both had to be DRIVEN and both had a gearbox from hell (at least compared to todays standards). Pretty sure I remember seeing daylight through the floor of the Bedford too. Iâm sure they were better than what you drove way back when and I wouldnât argue otherwise. Actually wish Iâd had an opportunity to drive the older trucks. Thereâs a lot to be said for appreciating what you have. Absolutely agree that most drivers donât appreciate how easy they have it (and yet still mess it up).
Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
I remember my first â â â â â ehh I mean truck, a little Leyland Freighter she was, day cab so it was brown paper for curtains till I got some curtain wire and put up me own frillys.
Cushion over the gear knob and slept across the seats.
Luckily for me I only had it 3 months then got a sleeper cab but omg did I rough it.
Now my company truck has more mod cons than me home, even my beds comfier in the truck.
But Iâve had her 3 years now and the microwave could do with a decoke and the bed needs an exorcism so itâs a new one for me in the next few months.
â â â â me what a hero.
Would have got used to all you said in 5 mins and cracked on.
Imagine perpetually being in desperation to be acknowledged as a hero 
ahhhhh the good old dayâs, and they were.i miss the craic as it was but not the equipment we had to do the job compared to today. I started in 1979 with a 7.5 d series flat, oh what a bag of crap.
SuperMultiBlue:
[zb] me what a hero.
Thanks for the adulation 
âŚ, but please no, Iâm not worthy.
The-Snowman:
0
Was that you when you were told you might be having a night out.
I know how you like them.
Times have changed, some improvements, some changes not so good.
If you think of the delicate ones in any transport operation these days, nearly all of them that kick off or canât cope are not really lorry drivers at all, holding a lorry licence probably wasnât their choice of job, and if things were as they once were then chances are you wouldnât catch any of them wanting to do the job.
The good younger generation genuine lorry drivers i know and work with are just as tough and can cope with just as much as any old stager did back in their day, thankfully they donât have to sleep across bloody planks or sellotape newspapers on the windows at night, nor have to scrape the ice off the insides of said windows when they wake up bent double and aching on a freezing morning, nor sweat buckets or have to drive along with their bonce stuck out the wide open window to get some air, nor put one foot up against the steel lump optimistically known as a dashboard and pull the steering wheel round like theyâre pulling in a bloody anchor, and thank Christ nor do any of us any more.
Yes there are some crap lorries about, poorly specified underpowered crap that is sheer frustration to have to go out in, some makes (who should be ashamed of themselves) still having the boneshaker ride quality really little better than the basic jalopies some of the old hands drove in their youth, gearboxes in particular unfit for purpose, some makes insisting on scattergun switch layout where the switch you want could be any bloody where.
Now just as back then, the driver who gets themselves a good reputation and work record can eventually work themselves into the few remaining really top jobs, if anything now its easier to do so, because back in time those jobs really were dead mans jobs and strangers really could not get a start no matter how good they might be, now (apart from ford and one or two others, where its seriously difficult to get in unless family etc) the good younger drivers really can by their merit get their feet under the table at the few remaining well trousered own account operations the thing then is to keep it up so the job stays good, and thereâs always the sick note and wrecking crews doing their best to â â â â â â â â it up for everyone.
robroy:
Was that you when you were told you might be having a night out.
Nah, this is more like it -
SuperMultiBlue:
[zb] me what a hero.
Would have got used to all you said in 5 mins and cracked on.
No you wouldnât, because youâve proven before that you wonât be a lorry driver for as long as youâve got a hole in your arse.
Nah sod that thanks robroy.
The only thing Iâd say (Iâm from the younger snowflake generation by the way) is that this thing about âyou young ones wouldnât be able to change gear on an old boxâ, Iâm not saying you specifically put it like that rob, but obviously you mention the gear thing. Just in defence for us snowflakes I donât think itâs a case that we would not able to. Itâs a case of thereâs no need to anymore so therefore we have never been shown how to and have never practised it. Iâm sure if thatâs how the gear boxes still operated then all us young ones would be able to do it once taught, just as well as you old boys
The way some talk is that you got your licence 30 years ago youâve got the ability to change gear on a crash box and if you got you licence 3 years ago youâve not got it in your genes to do it. No. Itâs simply one generation needed to and was taught, the other generation doesnât need to so hast been taught. Both generation physically can do it.
DickyNick:
Nah sod that thanks robroy.
The only thing Iâd say (Iâm from the younger snowflake generation by the way) is that this thing about âyou young ones wouldnât be able to change gear on an old boxâ, Iâm not saying you specifically put it like that rob, but obviously you mention the gear thing. Just in defence for us snowflakes I donât think itâs a case that we would not able to. Itâs a case of thereâs no need to anymore so therefore we have never been shown how to and have never practised it. Iâm sure if thatâs how the gear boxes still operated then all us young ones would be able to do it once taught, just as well as you old boys
The way some talk is that you got your licence 30 years ago youâve got the ability to change gear on a crash box and if you got you licence 3 years ago youâve not got it in your genes to do it. No. Itâs simply one generation needed to and was taught, the other generation doesnât need to so hast been taught. Both generation physically can do it.
Not quite right DickyNick, let me put you straight. First of all most of us were not taught how to use a crash box, we taught ourselves, or some of us did!
Believe you me there were a few that never learned correctly!
Another thing you lot would never manage is to manoevre a loaded truck on to a bay with no power steering. I mean some of you cannot do it with it.
You youngsters donât know how good you have it as the OP states.