Drempels:
Just wondering why those that have given up or are going to give up in the near future are on this website.
Honest question, I don’t understand why you would spend time on something you don’t like. I (mostly) like being a driver, I come here because I can choose who I communicate with. In real life, I go out of my way to avoid talking to other drivers, lest the cone story comes out again and I feel the need to batter the teller with something blunt
I hate fishing, so I don’t go on fishnet.
I loved driving a lorry (still do when I do the odd shift on the weekend), its just the rest of the crap that comes with it that are spoken about on here all the time. If I could find a driving job thats 36hrs p/w and time and a half after like I get now, I’d jump at it.
Like a couple on here have already said, I’m looking to get out of the industry as a whole in January.
Yeah it’s a drop in pay but I might as well bite the bullet now while I’m still young enough and start at the bottom and work my way up.
I don’t want it to get to a stage where I’m trapped by money. I’ve tramped for the past year to get a bit of money but time at home with the wife is priceless, especially as were thinking of children soonish and I don’t want to be away whilst my child grows up.
In my opinion, I think the whole industry is not a good place to be. I don’t want to be doing nearly 2 weeks of hours in a week, or treated like crap everywhere.
Isn`t it rather sad that so many younger drivers all highlight the same problems? Problems that I got so tired of…Being treated like a sub-human, I was no diva, never insisted I was treated differently, merely treated like a human, each time I walked away, it was this attitude of others that was the final straw, sad, very sad state of affairs.
Drempels:
Just wondering why those that have given up or are going to give up in the near future are on this website.
Honest question, I don’t understand why you would spend time on something you don’t like. I (mostly) like being a driver, I come here because I can choose who I communicate with. In real life, I go out of my way to avoid talking to other drivers, lest the cone story comes out again and I feel the need to batter the teller with something blunt
I hate fishing, so I don’t go on fishnet.
When I joined it was to get information about getting my HGV licence.
I found a lot of helpful stuff on here so I stuck around and a lot of the stuff on here is often quite relevant to me so I do like reading it.
I like driving the trucks to be clear; It’s just everything else. If this forum turned into RDCnet or H&Snet I can assure you I would be gone.
I’m 28 and I’ll keep driving till I’m mortgage free in about 6 or so years. After that who knows. I like my job currently and it’s a job for life if I want it to be.
I’m very fortunate to not have to deal with some of the nonsense I see folk on here complaining about. Being treated poorly isn’t something I’ve encountered.
Also I don’t really go any further South than Lancaster which is great as I loathe driving in England. If I had to deal with that everyday I’d hang the keys up pretty quickly.
cypry0:
Im no expert, but i would think that automation will affect factory workers, long before drivers. so good luck there.
Automation will effect factory workers and it already has. (Go to any plant that makes cars)
My point is that for the younger drivers it is practically a given that it will happen at some point in the future and will affect us greatly.
If I was a parcel sorter I would be thinking the same as is not something I could do the rest of my life. Same with factory worker.
The difference with them jobs is that they are mainly only stop-gap jobs or can be filled very easily by the large unskilled workforce so even if you decide to leave they can replace you quite easily.
I think you’d be surprised how little automation is involved in making cars and it certainly doesn’t worry me in the slightest at my place
cypry0:
Im no expert, but i would think that automation will affect factory workers, long before drivers. so good luck there.
Automation will effect factory workers and it already has. (Go to any plant that makes cars)
My point is that for the younger drivers it is practically a given that it will happen at some point in the future and will affect us greatly.
If I was a parcel sorter I would be thinking the same as is not something I could do the rest of my life. Same with factory worker.
The difference with them jobs is that they are mainly only stop-gap jobs or can be filled very easily by the large unskilled workforce so even if you decide to leave they can replace you quite easily.
I think you’d be surprised how little automation is involved in making cars and it certainly doesn’t worry me in the slightest at my place
My dad brought a Morris Minor and the engine blew up 1000 miles after he got it. Apparently it was a Friday car so they didn’t tighten everything properly xD
adam277:
Also if you are a older driver what would you do if you was 21 again?
I would, if I knew I’d end up in a niche sector again, the few years of general haulage were good for getting experience, I did to a few RDC’s and decided to try and keep well away from them for the same reasons as you, but seems to have got worse.
Did a few other types of haulage such as forestry and agricultural work they weren’t too bad, could be challenging and mostly was treated ok by the customers.
There are youngish drivers on here who enjoy the work they do, Mrginge, radar19 are 2 I can think of, but they’ve got away from the RDC’s General Haulage work and found a niche.
adam277:
Would you see this as a career with plenty of life left in it or would you be looking elsewhere?
I may be wrong on this but a lot of the more experienced drivers I’ve spoken to have said they had it a lot easier in their day and they wouldn’t of bothered driving if it was like what it is now.
I think it would be difficult to pick a job you could guarantee a long term future with, about 30 years ago I was a Digital Cartographer, it was a new hi-tech job at the time, with top of the range PC’s with a massive 1 meg of storage, and because everybody wanted their paper maps transferred to computer there was loads of work for the few companies in the sector, but it didn’t last long, companies from places like India and Romania started to undercut for the contracts and most of the big contracts were done, it was just the update work everybody was fighting for.
I think many people are going to go through many different jobs in their working life and to stay employed you’ll need to be adaptable and quick to learn new skills, but despite all the planning etc, you just might fall into the job you’re suited to more by accident than due to any sort of master plan.
maga:
I started driving class 2 at 19 and at 22 passed class 1. I started a new job in a factory the day after my first class 1 run
i’m 26 now and still at the same factory and cant see me going back driving (bar the odd agency shift to keep my hand in) unless I’m made redundant.
being treated like complete crap by more or less everyone is what finished it for me.
Youth of today have no staying power,snow flake genaration, the job is what you make it
TBH, the 25-35 year olds Ive had either working for me, or potentially looking for a job, have been very un-inspiring in their outlook…no charisma, no ambition and no real idea about what they actually want to do in life
Everybody seems to want 9-5 and do as little as possible, which just ain`t going to happen in this industry, unless you want to be paid a pittance and/or worked to death on 3663 type work
As a good mate of mine always says…you can see why there are so many lesbians about, modern man ain`t what he was
I’m 31 and I’d get out the job tomorrow if I could, but I have nothing to fall back on and I’d end up taking a huge pay cut, I actually wanted to do it from been a small lad but back then you don’t imagine you will be treated as the lowest of the low.
The job itself I love, meet some really nice people and see some amazing places… but they is far more negatives than positives. Would I be happy if my son said “daddy I want to be a lorry driver” NO! If he really wanted that’ I would do my best to make him get a trade learnt before hand to fall back on.
yt03:
I’m 31 and I’d get out the job tomorrow if I could, but I have nothing to fall back on and I’d end up taking a huge pay cut, I actually wanted to do it from been a small lad but back then you don’t imagine you will be treated as the lowest of the low.
The job itself I love, meet some really nice people and see some amazing places… but they is far more negatives than positives. Would I be happy if my son said “daddy I want to be a lorry driver” NO! If he really wanted that’ I would do my best to make him get a trade learnt before hand to fall back on.
I hear the “treated like xyz” claim a lot, but I don’t recognise it day-to-day. Who are these people that treat us so badly? What do they do to us?
Could we have some examples?
I have a simple policy when meeting people, I’m polite and treat them how I would like to be treated. If they turn out to be unworthy of civility and politeness, I treat them accordingly.
adam277:
Also it really bugs me everyone calls me drive lol. I think it dehumanizes the drivers. When I was a forklift driver If I had to address a driver regularly I would ask his name or call him mate or something if I had to address him as a one off.
Funnily enough I’ve always hated being called ‘drive’. You’d think after 30 odd years I’d have got used to it but no
malcolmgbell:
Youth of today have no staying power,snow flake genaration, the job is what you make it
TBH, the 25-35 year olds Ive had either working for me, or potentially looking for a job, have been very un-inspiring in their outlook…no charisma, no ambition and no real idea about what they actually want to do in life
Everybody seems to want 9-5 and do as little as possible, which just ain`t going to happen in this industry, unless you want to be paid a pittance and/or worked to death on 3663 type work
I’ve worked with loads of people in that age group over the last few years, most of them have had plenty of drive, ambition, charisma, and they’ll work the hours needed to get the job done, but they’re not truck drivers, so maybe the problem is with the haulage industry being so unattractive it only gets those who can’t find anything else and the one or 2 who are genuinely interested in driving trucks.
Why would any young person with drive and ambition want to drive trucks in the present Haulage Industry, sorry I mean Logistics sector, most of us older drivers were attracted by the prospect of travel to far flung places and being left alone to do the job, not delivering to yet another soulless RDC, trying to choose between the delights of parking in some pot-holed service station smelling of ■■■■, or some layby or industrial area without even the basic facilities or trying to get back home in 15 hours on our overcrowded road network and having every part of your day micro-managed by a pointy shoed manager.
