Ever feel trapped by truck driving?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Just thought i’d ask. I know most on here are probably in their twilight years of work, kids all grown up, happily settled and just waiting for the days of the lazy walk to the paper shop of a morning and long afternoons on the golf course, or something…

However, anybody reasonably young got into this, through percieved lack of other options and now feel a bit stuck by it? Despite drawing no great enjoyment or satisfaction from it. I think this is a less than desirable way to spend my time. Can’t type “■■■■” here can I.

Nobody frog marched me to the test centre with a gun to my head of course, but a few years in and I can’t think what else I could do, for the same money (or would even want to do, come to that, but that is arguably another story). I don’t think I could go back to the bottom rung as a postroom boy or trainee/apprentice whatever again. I get talked down to enough day to day as it is, and I can remember what it used to be like in my previous life. The horror.

The money will never go up, but I cannot afford it to go down much either. I’m not exactly complaining, it is what it is, and I suppose in the current climate, I am lucky to have a job at all. Possibly the scary thought is that in this “age of entitlement” in which we live, I am in fact already working the best I can hope for. So let this not be about me.

Simply feeling a bit marooned. Just a thought. Be interested to hear yours, anyone else feel similar?

Alternatively, feel free to share what it does for you, if it does in fact tick your boxes, to add a positive angle.

2

Yup I feel like that. Ill be 40 this year so hoping still young enough to retrain and move on. This job is ferked and wont be getting any better. The trouble is what to retrain as!!!

Dont get me wrong I love driving for a living and I have been since I was 20, but the trucking world has moved in a different direction since those days and the direction isnt right for me! So time to move on! :grimacing:

3

My Son wanted to follow me as a truck driver as a career.
I told him its not a job for a family man, poor money with long hours plus cost to pass HGV test (in stages) and CPC were a drawback.
I am glad he took my advice.

When I look at truck drivers I see most of them are my age so goodness only knows what will happen to the industry once us older drivers retire.

4

I packed up driving for a while, first to work in a transport office, then as a road tester/writer on TRUCK mag, then back on the road again as an O/D, then in the office again as I expanded and finally when I sold up I became a salesman for Mercedes Benz, so I’ve never felt trapped, I was lucky enough to be able to earn similar or more money when I came off the road, but I actually enjoy my job as a driver, although I did have to move half way round the world to keep enjoying it, which is a bit extreme I suppose :laughing:

5

I’ve tried a small variety of work. Initially mostly indoors and got sick of that. Working in an air conditioned building where if someone has a bug we all get it over time so in '02 went into Driving.

I’ve had a variety of that too and I’m currently trained on C and D and despite recently getting my HIAB (of which the agency concerned is still dragging their feet getting me the ticket even though I paid for it) I am actually now doing more PCV work than I had hoped. But it’s still work and still long hours, except in my case a 10 hour shift usually has 6-8 hours parked up waiting for the passengers to return, so I guess you could call that POA :smiley:

I’m still single and whilst it is relatively low pay considering I don’t see the market has anything better for me. It’s all well and good saying you feel trapped but often trying to get a job in another field is just as bad.

6

I think the problem isn’t as much the money as the job…

I could give this up and go and earn equal / more money doing other things, but I just couldn’t see what other job I’d rather do.

That’s not to say I’m a lover of truck driving, it’s a job to pay the bills and has a high price at times (family life etc) but honestly look around other jobs and see if you could do them for a month or 6 or 24 …

There’s a reason we take so much ■■■■ in this job, it’s because, even after all the ■■■■, it’s still just not that bad.

7

I’m in the opposite position, I left driving to be with my family, I was lucky enough to get a good job in an office working Mon-Fri 37 hours per week(local government with all the perks). My daughter is now of an age where she is independant and no longer needs me as such. I went back driving for ESL on a casual basis at the weekends to cure my wander ■■■■, and now its all I can think about, I am now looking at getting a job tramping, I want to do it for myself as I left the best driving job I ever had to be with my young family and feel its my time now. It is a bit of a worry with firms going bust all over the place, and hope I’m not seeing tramping through rose coloured spectatcles! I’m 44 now and if I don’t do it soon, I guess I never will.

8

Fileep:
I’m in the opposite position, I left driving to be with my family, I was lucky enough to get a good job in an office working Mon-Fri 37 hours per week(local government with all the perks). My daughter is now of an age where she is independant and no longer needs me as such. I went back driving for ESL on a casual basis at the weekends to cure my wander ■■■■, and now its all I can think about, I am now looking at getting a job tramping, I want to do it for myself as I left the best driving job I ever had to be with my young family and feel its my time now. It is a bit of a worry with firms going bust all over the place, and hope I’m not seeing tramping through rose coloured spectatcles! I’m 44 now and if I don’t do it soon, I guess I never will.

You probably are.

Let me help, ■■■■ soaked car parks / service areas / laybys.

Queues for the shower that will scold you or be freezing.

Yesterdays reheats for food at the cost of a decent restaurant near home.

Just as you dose off, a fridge pulls up next to you, it’s a left ■■■■■■ so the driver bashes his door into your cab on his way out and in, you get used to the sound of the fridge just as his 45 finishes and he ■■■■■ off…

Your daughter’s special birthday, you promise you’ll be home, only on a local, can you just nip down to blah blah… out of hours, 3g video phone call of the birthday bash and, btw, you’re a basty for missing it and she never wants to see you again…

Have I missed anything?

Still, wouldn’t change it for the world… DOCTOR!! I need a top up :laughing:

9

recently i was getting fed up of the fact that the only way i could earn a decent wage was working 3 out of four weekends a month that on top of the fact my daughter didnt know if and when i was coming home had me looking at other possibilities.
apart from my C&G in fibre optics that i got when i left the army im pretty much left with driving as the only thing im good at, so i looked around over the last six months and decided the best place i can be at is my old employer who luckily after i had made enquiries rang me back to tell me of work avalible.
its not the best scenario 5 days on 3 days off but they way i see it is im home after the 5 days so my daughter knows when i home and the wages are better.
if all goes well tomorrow i will be back working for them and happy im not working my ■■■■ off to have one decent weekend home a month so i guess the moral of the story is, yes truck driving aint the best job in the world but you can make it suit you.

10

Not so much feel trapped but there is nothing else I have the knowledge, skills or desire to do where I could still earn the same decent money for the little effort required. If I really wanted to I could walk away and do something else so no real feeling of being trapped.

11

All I ever wanted to do as a kid was drive lorries for a living. I was very lucky and realised my dream when I was put through the original Young Drivers scheme in the early eighties. I had some great employers, good tidy kit and made a lot of good friends but after 17 years I was fed up to the back teeth with the job, some of the new drivers and the long hours. My wife wanted me to come off the road because it was affecting my home life.

I completely changed careers nearly 12 years ago now and haven’t missed the driving at all, ever! BUT…it ain’t all a bed of roses! The relentless march of H and S, too many know-nothings with a pip AND a chip on their shoulder, and the economic climate haven’t made the job any better… I still get the yearning for the open road but it passes within minutes!

I wouldn’t have missed it for the world and I haven’t ruled out going back to it but at the moment I don’t want to… More and more lately, I have been thinking that the only way to satisfy the craving is to buy an old wagon and do the shows…

The only good thing is that the wife left me anyway… :smiley: :smiley:

12

I’d give my eye teeth to come off the road. I did my licences at 23 because, as a forklift driver on about 9 grand a year at the time, I wanted to be the one parked up watching telly in the queue instead of the one running around like a blue-arsed fly in the ■■■■■■■ rain doing the tipping for half the money. Of course, no-one tells you about the hours and conditions at that point, do they? I remember the first time someone said “That’s ok, you didn’t start until 6 so you can go until 9 tonight and start again at 6 tomorrow.” I nearly died, truth be told.

One of my clearest memories is of my daughter’s first smile. I heard about it by phone, I was in a poxy wagon on the A34, and so it would continue. Problem is, we need the money - there’s nothing else I can step sideways into that’ll pay 30 grand a year, and whilst I may be working a lot of hours for that money the bills still need paying. I’ll be 35 this year and the novelty wore off long ago, but I still haven’t come up with a viable alternative. I guess the other factor for me which is different to most other people is that I know I’ll only be able to work for a limited amount of time, so I need maximise my earnings for as long as possible and try and clear things like the mortgage off for when my time is up. The great fear is that if we were to take the financial hit while I retrained and climbed the ladder elsewhere, I may be forced onto disability before I ever catch up again, at which point we really would be screwed.

I was an RAF child, so the concept of having a parent working away is not an abnormal one for me, nor is being away from my family too much of a hardship in itself - I went to boarding school for a few years courtesy of HM Forces, so again my view of “normality” is slightly different to others - but I’m caught between two ticking time bombs dragging me in opposite directions (my kids growing up and my body running out of steam) so yes, I very definately feel trapped, no doubt about it.

13

I tell people in the pub that I was a male prostitute, it is lots easier than admitting to being a lorry driver!

14

I hate it, fed up not knowing when I’m coming home, expected to run in on weekend off, having to sleep in a tin hut and working 69 hour weeks. I’ve never liked the job nor did I want to do it I was forced into it by me old man. I’ve got an interview on Friday with my local college and hopefully I’ll be starting my road to become an electrician in September. 3 year course, by the end I’ll hopefully be working in the field and won’t be renewing my dcpc it’s a loads of rubbish. I can’t wait for my final run out in my lorry, knowing I won’t be treated like crap to that degree anymore will be bliss. Won’t miss it at all :imp:

15

Trapped in my comfort zone maybe, my job suits me well, wouldnt want to do anything else. My only fear is having to move on to pastures new and entering a totally different work environment through no choice of my own.

16

I feel trapped too, I’m 34 and have been driving commercially since I was 22, I was quite happy for a good long while but in recent years I hate it with a passion, it’s just a wage for me now and all I can think about when I get in the wagon on Monday is getting out on a Friday, but I made my bed and now I’ve got to lay in it!!!

17

Coffeeholic:
Not so much feel trapped but there is nothing else I have the knowledge, skills or desire to do where I could still earn the same decent money for the little effort required. If I really wanted to I could walk away and do something else so no real feeling of being trapped.

+1, thats exactly how i feel, good money for little effort.

I’ve recently returned to driving after a 9yr lay-off, & i only left because i got divorced & got custody of my 4 kids. I attempted to re-train as a teacher (purely to get a job with a good wage that would pay the mortgage, bills etc, & a job that fit in with the kids) but during my 2nd year at Uni i ruptured my Achilles tendon, 12 weeks in plaster meant i couldn’t get to Uni, so decided to start again the following year, unfortunately i couldn’t get funding to re-take my 2nd year, so that plan went pear shaped. I then got a job in a shop in the retail industry, &, believe me, that was no fun, spent many an hour skiving in the warehouse dreaming of the day i could get back on the road. After 3 years of shop work i found a job driving a van delivering food to supermarkets for a small firm, good bunch to work for but after 2 years i wanted a return to the bigguns.

Last year with the kids all older & increasingly self reliant i went back on agency to get my eye-in again, as such, & to learn about the new fangled digi-tacho thingy. After a few months of that & a chat to the kids i got a job tramping again with a firm i’d worked for back in the mid 90’s. Been back 10 months now, i can’t say on reflection that its any different to 9-10yrs ago, but i do think that the 9yr break i’ve had has been a godsend.

Before i got divorced i was working continental & doing anything from 3-5 weeks away at a time, not ideal with 4 kids at home, but the ex loved the money & i loved being 100’s of miles away from her. These last 9yrs i’ve been home with the kids has helped me to re-connect with them, & although its been tough financially, i feel i definitely benefited from the break.

Maybe the answer is to have some time away from the industry & look to do something totally different, if its not greener on the other side, you always have the option of returning to driving.

18

I wonder how many of the people that feel “trapped” by it have 25 credit cards, 14 kids, 2 cars and a £300k mortgage so don’t have any other choice but to work all hours God sends to keep afloat?

19

I know exactly where you are coming from, i used to put the job 1st and me 2nd. And that is a recipe for disaster, its the stress that will get to you. You must always make sure you eat and drink properly and have enouth sleep, or you will end up in hospital like i did a few times and that was telling me that it had all caught up with me. You need to pace yourself and dont let your boss bully you and that way you wont feel trapped.

20

RobK:
I wonder how many of the people that feel “trapped” by it have 25 credit cards, 14 kids, 2 cars and a £300k mortgage so don’t have any other choice but to work all hours God sends to keep afloat?

Most drivers I talk to about money tell me they need to get 500 a week in the bank just to live :open_mouth:
I’m not in debt, and this year saved 3k for two hols and everything paid for cash, I don’t need the big money now like I did a few months ago when we were living off one wage. But that being said I’d probably moan if I only did 50 hours because the money would be crap :smiley:
I do the job purely for the money and in the short term I’m gonna bang the hours in now so I can save a few k so when I take a drop in wages in a new field of work it won’t feel as bad till I’m fully qualified and earning 20 quid an hour :sunglasses: