After 32 years on the road I too am seriously thinking of packing it in.
I am now 54,over the last year my health has gone downhill quite rapidly,I struggle to climb in the cab,let alone clamber all over the trailer strapping the load down.
I’m fed up with the odd starting times,one day 4am,the next day 7am etc.
I’m fed up working 12-15 hours every day.
I’m fed up sitting in queue’s day in,day out.
I’m fed up struggling to find a place to park in the evening’s.
I’m fed up waking up in the morning to find the curtains slashed.Again!
But,what else would I do? What other job would I be able to do? What would I be happy doing?
Driving a truck is all I’d ever wanted to do,right from the age of five or six,in fact when I told my mum a few months ago that I want to pack it in she couldn’t believe it.“But that’s all you ever wanted to do” she said.
Then,on top of all that,I now have to have a driver cpc to tell me how to do the job I’ve been doing for the past 32 years!
According to the news tonight, the fuel prices are set to hit £2 a litre this year, so there might be more than a few hanging the keys up, the only thing is that it’ll be a forced action, not through choice.
Yes, i’ve hung the keys up on more than 1 occaision & went on to do something else, only to return to the industry after a few weeks away.
Now there’s very few jobs left anywhere in Fife, so i’m moving back to Lancs (where the mrs belongs) next weekend & we’ll see what happens
After 22 years you are not a lone.
I dont want to give up driving i just want a job local driving job 50 hours max, home every night no rdcs
and so i can have some family life but the problem is i need £400 to £450 pw to live on and you cant get that in a warehouse or factory so i think i will be working trucks until the british haulage industry is all dried up
Big ■■■■:
After 22 years you are not a lone.
I dont want to give up driving i just want a job local driving job 50 hours max, home every night no rdcs
and so i can have some family life but the problem is i need £400 to £450 pw to live on and you cant get that in a warehouse or factory so i think i will be working trucks until the british haulage industry is all dried up
brother works in a engineering factory working a cnc lathe,he earns as much as me for a basic 37.5 hrs[6 a.m- 2 pm,half hour dinner],does odd sat morn[6 a.m-12a.m o/t] , depends what you do in factory,warehouse
I am finding all these posts very sad All I wanted to do from the age of 18 was to get my class 1. At the time I had to wait until I was 21 so I decided to join the army, cheat and get it earlier - Plan 1 knocked on the head due to falling off my motorbike and crushing my wrist - end of army career. By the age of 26 still wanting my licence - was transfered across country by work 1 week before class 1 course and couldn’t afford to loose job. Now at the grand old age of 48 have decided to have another go. Only because the company I work for has an 18 tonne rigid and only one driver am I going for it, reason why, because I can’t see the sense in spending all this money on a job that pays less than I got for maintaining gardens. I can’t believe the pay can be so dire. Nobody can exist on the wages offered without working massive hours. Check out a recent ad by David Bratts of Manchester for class 1 and 2 - £6.73 (ish) an hour! Something has to be done but what?
Diz-e-dee:
I am finding all these posts very sad All I wanted to do from the age of 18 was to get my class 1. At the time I had to wait until I was 21 so I decided to join the army, cheat and get it earlier - Plan 1 knocked on the head due to falling off my motorbike and crushing my wrist - end of army career. By the age of 26 still wanting my licence - was transfered across country by work 1 week before class 1 course and couldn’t afford to loose job. Now at the grand old age of 48 have decided to have another go. Only because the company I work for has an 18 tonne rigid and only one driver am I going for it, reason why, because I can’t see the sense in spending all this money on a job that pays less than I got for maintaining gardens. I can’t believe the pay can be so dire. Nobody can exist on the wages offered without working massive hours. Check out a recent ad by David Bratts of Manchester for class 1 and 2 - £6.73 (ish) an hour! Something has to be done but what?
My mate works for Bratts on Class 2 HIAB and comes out with the same as I do on class 1 containers.
Both away all week, doing similar hours.
Big ■■■■:
After 22 years you are not a lone.
I dont want to give up driving i just want a job local driving job 50 hours max, home every night no rdcs
and so i can have some family life but the problem is i need £400 to £450 pw to live on and you cant get that in a warehouse or factory so i think i will be working trucks until the british haulage industry is all dried up
me too big ■■■■, i’ve been round trucks man and boy, been driving class 1 for 20 years now, before that psv, i’d like to be home every night, walk my dog, watch my tv, eat at my table, and sleep in my bed for more than two nights a week, but i can’t find a decent enough job thats local, gets me home every night and pays me the same wage that i get for tramping all week, and i only tramp purely and simply for the money, not a disgruntled driver, just basically sick and tired of working extremely long hours for very little benefit, (only to get worse i think)
