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?
No credit cards, cheap mortgage and 1 kid, granted I have a few cars but I like holidays and restoring modern classic cars from the 80’s and they are the things I will not give up!!!
Won’t say i feel trapped, if I was that bad, then I would get out, but i don’t enjoy it anything like as much as I used to.
Every day now there is more hassle from H&S, security guards, and the standard of car driving is appalling, but ssomehow we seem to be the ones who get the finger! I hate it when, and this happens nearly everyday, you see the break lights in front of you on the motorway, and know that you will be sitting in traffic, answering endless calls from thw transport office, while watching idiot car drivers trying to gain a few yarda advantage by constantly changing lanes.
all the BS at RDC’s don’t help, i refuse now to be spoken to like something on he bottom of a shoe, which is how many people talk with us.
If i could find something that pays as well, for the actual amount of physical work i do, and that I would enjoy more, then i would tear up my licence tomorrow. That’s why I am now trying to devlop my writing, not to earn a fortune, but to give me the chance to drive a bit less
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?
Never had a credit card, 2 kids, admittedly a 4x4 fetish but only a 65k mortgage. Oh, and a Great Dane. It’s a long-term planning/realism about being on borrowed time thing with me. That and the bloody kids keep eating and growing… 
'Tis a good point though, Rob. It never ceases to amaze me how many of our drivers freak about the slightest slackening in the work because they have a houseful of consumer durables they don’t need and bought on the drip, 2 holidays a year and a new wardrobe for the missus every 3 weeks to fund. 
Hi all. YES,i would stop tomorrow but as i am 60 i only have to work for[hopefully] 
5 more years.Iwas[i think] one of the more lucky drivers as i started in 1971 so for the 70s,80,and most of the 90s,was able to indulge a passion and drove to the M.E.,U.S.S.R.,all of West and East Europe,North Africa,and spent some time in Canada. 
This i hasten to add without the horrendous controls,fines and health and safety regs .Did i do long hours,YES,was i illegal,YES but still the job seemed safer,i don’t think we had more accidents,or that the job was less efficiently done.Now it seems that as soon as you step into the truck you are classed as a criminal with the punishments akin to that of a mass murderer 
.It has always been a profession which has revolved around hard work and long hours to make money.In days gone by you done what was needed to get the job done[to the benefit of all].We made good money,met good people,and had a reasonable time,without all the stress which the computer and '‘just in time’'transport has brought.
I am lucky since having moved up here to Lappland,Idrive a tipper in a mine[off road]so life is easier.Idrive 10hrs a day for 7 days then 1 week free.For this i clear £2200 each month so have a good life. 
Ihave no incentive whatsoever to go back '‘on the road’'One of the problems has always been that the job takes over your life and in the end you just ‘‘live to work’’.Now i ‘‘work to live’’. Take care.Mike
I havn’t read through all these posts but I can tell you that I feel very trapped 
The job I have is very easy, highly paid compared to others out there and there is no way a man of my age could get another job anywhere that could give the same pay for so little work.
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?
I have no credit cards apart from a prepay one which I use for online purchases at places that don’t do Maestro and keep some money on it as emergency funds and another which just gives me easy access to the money in my PayPal account, my book royalties go into my PayPal account. Two kids but both grown up and self sufficient. One car and no mortgage. I like to gamble a bit and I have a gadget habit to support but I can do without those if funds are short. That does seem to support your theory as I don’t really feel trapped.
would people feel less trapped if they were paid more?
I’ve never felt trapped by anything, certainly not truck driving, quite the opposite, it’s given me so much over the years and allows me to live my life how I wish. I can see how people may over time feel trapped though, which is why I’m doing a degree so by time I’m 40 I’ve got options.
I do feel a little trapped, but like many others i can’t think of anything else i could do without taking a cut in wages.
The job im in is only temp at the moment but the only thing i want to do is driving.
My previous job the wages were good for class 2 day work nd home every day, but got sacked from that so took the first job that came up…
Id like to do my class 1 at some point but the initial cost is an issue as is the 2 years experience many employers and agencies demand…
To be honest I actually came back to driving for the break - no really
I’ve had very senior management jobs in blue chip companies and the stress of getting a business and people to do things that they may not want to do is a killer. I very nearly had a heart attack and although the money is great the hours where far longer than I have ever done driving a truck as it always spilled into my days off and my private life. I also actually used to spend more time away from home too
I’m back doing what I love best - I’ve got the freedom that I want during the day and someone is always there to pick up the daily problems as I certainly don’t see them as mine. I actually wish that i had stayed on the road for my entire career.
Ok so I have to put up with some really bad treatment and attitude from customers and also get treated like some kind of sub human by some people - but when the keys turn the truck off at the end of the day - so do I and that’s worth much more to me than a fancy job.
So no I don’t feel trapped - actually I feel quite liberated 
Although this will not be a popular post on here!
M4rky i know how you feel, before taking a career in driving i worked in retail. Comparing the 2 i wouldn’t change what i do now. I love being on my own for most of the day
m4rky:
To be honest I actually came back to driving for the break - no reallyI’ve had very senior management jobs in blue chip companies and the stress of getting a business and people to do things that they may not want to do is a killer. I very nearly had a heart attack and although the money is great the hours where far longer than I have ever done driving a truck as it always spilled into my days off and my private life. I also actually used to spend more time away from home too
I’m back doing what I love best - I’ve got the freedom that I want during the day and someone is always there to pick up the daily problems as I certainly don’t see them as mine. I actually wish that i had stayed on the road for my entire career.
Ok so I have to put up with some really bad treatment and attitude from customers and also get treated like some kind of sub human by some people - but when the keys turn the truck off at the end of the day - so do I and that’s worth much more to me than a fancy job.
So no I don’t feel trapped - actually I feel quite liberated
A great example of the grass looking greener on the other side.
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?
Ands thats the funny thing. I have small mortgage, no debts and in fact came into a nice inheritence a few months ago. So I dont really need to bang 60+ hours in a week, but I have to because its the way the job goes.
Firstly, the option to feel trapped would be nice as I can’t get a sodding job!
But, back in 1994 I was involved in a bad accident and was told that my driving days were over…It’s amazing how much that concentrates your mind! I retrained in all manner of things, and had jobs that paid more for far less hours, but still couldn’t get rid of that pull to get back on the road. Obviously, I recovered (took five years) and got straight back out there.
Have deviated again since, but still got dragged back 
I’m giving into it now, going to stop fighting it… Of course I’ll moan about any job I may get, but I’ll be doing what I want to do. That’s not being trapped, that’s being content As soon as someone employs me 
i never feel trapped have them days when i think what am i doin this for n then il b drivin through lincoln the sun is out radio is playin a good tune n it dawns on me all my mates are in a warehouse pullin there nuts out never see outside untill its home time never meet new ppl n have no verity in there job so in short i always think there are a lot worse things i could b doin the money aint to shabby either pluss i aint got the brains for college / uni lol
I was driving from 1976 to 2008, and I loved it for most of the time. It was my choice to get into it, and I thought I would never pack up until I physically couldn’t climb into a wagon any more. But then in my last job it started to lose it’s appeal, I got sick of getting caught up in motorway traffic jams, and thought I could be doing something else. So I chose to work for an agency which meant I could choose who I worked for and when I wanted to work. If I didn’t fancy going in I said I was unavailable. Yes, I had to take a drop in money, but my sanity was worth more than that. I never felt trapped though because I knew I could do something about it, I didn’t have to be there.
Ilona
oh come on. where else can you get paid to sit on your arse and listen to the radio. this is not work!
I think the rose tinted specs make you oblivious of the wood because of the trees…
I spent 16 years on the road, mostly on the continent and including some very specialist work. I enoyed it (or so I thought) at the time.
My circumstances drasticaly changed several years ago, which resulted in me having custody of my 4 children during the week. The one thing i noticed on reflection, is that the one thing I never had with my children (and that I take for granted now) is time. When I was on the road, I worked out that between my (then) 3 sons and step daughter, there were around 17 or 18 birthdays, and that I had probably only been around for 3 or 4 of them. That’s not including all the stuff like first words, first steps, first day of school etc.
I haven’t set foot in a cab in nearly 3 years now. I fill my time doing voluntary work and love it to bits!
Would I go up the road again? Well, I do get the odd yearning every now and again, and when I do, I phone a member of my family who is always out tramping and ask him to shoot me - he then invariably reminds me what the job has become since I left it.
Road haulage has been good to me. It paid my first mortgage, as well as paid for my custody battle and subsequent divorce. Ironically though, it also caused the break up of my marriage and subsequent custody battle.
I would love to go back into transport, as that is where my heart is. Unfortunately I also have a brain inside my head and thats the part that I have to listen to.
My mantra is and will allways be; “if it has t*ts or tyres, it’s trouble”
joedwyer1:
oh come on. where else can you get paid to sit on your arse and listen to the radio. this is not work!
This^
msgyorkie:
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?Ands thats the funny thing. I have small mortgage, no debts and in fact came into a nice inheritence a few months ago. So I dont really need to bang 60+ hours in a week, but I have to because its the way the job goes.
Sorry but that’s BS. If you think all trucking jobs are 60+ hour weeks then you need to open your eyes and take a look around. For someone in your alleged financial position, there is absolutely no reason for you to feel trapped.