…Was a topic on here a couple of weeks back.
The question was what would make you do so.
I answered in general, but I have hung up my keys after only 7 years of driving.
It was dream to get my class1, I had a life of education and good jobs and took a pay cut of over 50% To be a class 1 driver.
Now after only 18 months of full time and the rest(5.5yrs) part time(2 days a week) I can not put up with the crap…Health & safety bollox, the general treatment of LGV drivers, but it has to be the lack of standard drivers out on the roads, both car and LGV. In my opinion it is now dangerous to the point of just waiting to be a statistic…No longer enjoyable, inconsiderate drivers, selfish drivers and those just with a death wish…I want no part of it, so much so that I am going to change countries, I am going to Portugal where they discourage vehicle ownership through taxation…I really do want to get away from all vehicles and there pilots!
Best of luck to you mate. You always come across as a very thoughtful kind of guy who analyses situations and life a lot. Not knocking you for that at all but IMO it is possible to over analyse everyday life and therefore get into a situation where frustration and then anger become your primary drivers.
As for myself I tend to just go with the flow, short of becoming a doormat that is. I’m determined that a stress related illness will not finish me off so aim for laid back and DILLIGAF.
Whatever, I wish you all the best for the future.
Agree with the Maoster, hope you find what you want out there mate.
Keep your licence active though, you just never know what life can throw your way.
I have Portuguese friends over Lisboa (Sesimbra), one of whom is a truck driver maxing out hours, all for €800+ a month. I also have Portuguese friends who have had to leave Portugal to seek work in the UK due to the dire Portuguese economy.
However don’t let me put you off, I too intend to consider retirement in Portugal in a few years time and for several years have had my own Portuguese NIF (Número de Identificação Fiscal or Tax No). These can be acquired from any local fiscal (Financas) office for an admin fee of around €10, just take your passport to get one as it’s probably the 1st thing as a foreigner you’ll need to get. You’ll need one to open bank accounts, get mobile phone contracts, & even get your online supermarket shopping delivered etc
att:
…Was a topic on here a couple of weeks back.
The question was what would make you do so.
I answered in general, but I have hung up my keys after only 7 years of driving.
It was dream to get my class1, I had a life of education and good jobs and took a pay cut of over 50% To be a class 1 driver.
Now after only 18 months of full time and the rest(5.5yrs) part time(2 days a week) I can not put up with the crap…Health & safety bollox, the general treatment of LGV drivers, but it has to be the lack of standard drivers out on the roads, both car and LGV. In my opinion it is now dangerous to the point of just waiting to be a statistic…No longer enjoyable, inconsiderate drivers, selfish drivers and those just with a death wish…I want no part of it, so much so that I am going to change countries, I am going to Portugal where they discourage vehicle ownership through taxation…I really do want to get away from all vehicles and there pilots!
Wow! You paint a pretty grim picture of the job mate tbh.
Ok, it aint good but maybe not as bad as you say.
It’s maybe as well you discovered that it wasn’t for you in the short time you have done it rather than prolonging the agony and doing something that you don’t really want to do.
It sounds as if you have other strings to your bow to go back to, so it looks like it could be ok for you,… especially moving to Porto which sounds great.
The rest of us will just carry on as normal, rising above all the crap and bs you mention, and then some, with some enjoying, or hating, it more than others. 
Hope it goes well and I only wish it was me.
CPC, medical costs, Driver card, and becoming a full time carer. … I retired at 45
In answer to the question, the answer would be, the amount of hours I am working lately. I now work part time, one week on one week off, the week I work I find myself working more hours than I did when I was full time and on more than one occasion have come very close to having a night out. Now I know this doesn’t bother most people but in twelve years of driving I have never done one and at 66 I’m not about to start now. It would be a shame because most of the time I enjoy the job.
Driver-Once-More:
CPC, medical costs, Driver card, and becoming a full time carer. … I retired at 45
‘‘CPC, medical costs, Driver card’’ all paid for by all decent employers, including being paid for the time to attend the DCPC.
Juddian:
Driver-Once-More:
CPC, medical costs, Driver card, and becoming a full time carer. … I retired at 45‘‘CPC, medical costs, Driver card’’ all paid for by all decent employers, including being paid for the time to attend the DCPC.
I’m a full time carer (not by choice) and have been for 7yrs now, I paid out of my own pocket for my 35hrs DCPC and also renewed my medical (both in Nov 2014) as I thought I’d be able to go back to work at least part time, unfortunately it didn’t pan out that way and it’s now looking like I may be going back to work in two years time instead (significant enough changes to the family circumstances then should allow my absence) and I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel and up the road, no rose tinted glasses, no wishy washy fairy tale thoughts of the job, I’ve always loved (to hate) it and I always will, and I miss it like ruddy hell…
Roll on 2 yrs (fingers firmly crossed)
The jobs not for everyone,23 years for me and still loving it.
It’s one of the easiest jobs out there,and for reasonable money.better than begin stuck in some
Windowless warehouse where you have to work for a living.
alans123:
It’s one of the easiest jobs out there,and for reasonable money.better than begin stuck in some
Windowless warehouse where you have to work for a living.
Thing is mate it aint ‘easy’ for everybody.
I agree though, as I have it sussed out myself, and more or less please myself up to a point.
I don’t do stupid o clock starts anymore, only do Tues to Sat am, don’t teararse on the limiter all day , and don’t allow anyone to push me, and very rarely max my daily hours out…but I still manage to get through my workload. 
so get no complaints.
It’s the ones that do all of the above, and treat the job like some kind of ■■■■ endurance test, and at the same time think they are doing it properly…(aka ■■■■ knobs) that do not find it easy.
Fair play to you pal.
Good luck for the future buddy. Hope it goes well.
I would just remind folks though, that there are so many different facets to truck driving.
What suits one will not suit another. Take tramping for instance that is a totally different job to what I do.
Supermarket and retail work in general in my eyes is the worst possible job. Fridge work/container work, where you sit for hours suits some just fine but wouldnt do for me. Ive found my niche in steel haulage, but theres loads of differing aspects to what is collectively called "lorry driving". Therell be something to suit people if they`d only be willing to shop around.
The only way I’ll be hanging my keys up is if I’m forced to (medically etc). 19 years a driver this year and I love it more now than I did the first day. I’ve lived the alternative and I never want to live it again. If you have the get up and go to make this job into what you want it to be then you’re set up. There is not a job on this planet that I’d give up my job for.
Never say never…
Sometimes life deals you a blow forcing you to hang up the keys. As D-O-M has eluded to in this thread and I have stated elsewhere, we have been presented with a life changing situation of having to choose to become a carer for someone we love. Despite not having the luxury of an employer to pay for DCPC training etc, requiring the need to seek self funded training.
cheekymonkey:
I would just remind folks though, that there are so many different facets to truck driving.
What suits one will not suit another.
^This.
Unfortunately for some people, that niche that suits them may never be in reach (no firm doing it in their area, dead mans shoes etc. or the thought never springs to mind) so they will never find that job that suits them. Some drivers fall into the right job, others spend a lot of years moving about until they find something.
It doesn’t surprise me the amount of people that jack it after a short while, for many the obvious choices after passing the test (agency, multi-drop retail outfits, Stobarts & the like, crappy general haulage firms etc.) do enough to completely tarnish most men’s opinion of a profession.
It depends on your attitude TBH, i have found getting older, that most things go over my head now, irate drivers, incompetent staff, hitler gatehouse people, h&s etc, but it depends who you work for, and what type of work, if its a boring job, doing the same run day in day out, it would get to most people…I have just had a 2 month stint in my home in BG, i enjoyed the run across europe and back in my car ( not the same thing i know ) but on seeing the trucks queing for hours at the borders with Rumo, Hungary at both ends, i said thats not for me anymore, however at 70 i am taking my medical once more, and looking forward to doing some part time euro work if possible…never have been a day person…nights out or long distance…so a week on and a week off would suit me…
Fair play to the poster for doing what he wants to do, and i hope it works out fine for him.
I started driving fuel tankers in 1976 and made a decision to retire next April, I think 41 years is long enough. I do my last shift on 5th April and on the 10th my wife and me fly to New Zealand to visit family. When I come back in June I will get a wee part time job that will last me until my official retirement date. When I started driving hgvs all those years ago I loved my job but feel now I’m struggling a bit lifting hoses etc,and now we have ADR,CPC PDP. etc. I drive from Grangemouth to Campbeltown on the A83 and anyone who drives this road knows it takes a lot out of the driver, so 7months and I hang my keys up. I have been offered plenty of work on fuel after I retire but I think I will pass.
As I enter this world people are leaving for all sorts of reasons I’m yet to encounter. I wish you all the best in whatever you do after truck driving.
Very few jobs 9 to 5 in this game and most that are pay bad money for short hours which would be a normal working week for anyone else.
If you like working when you should be sleeping and like sleeping when you should be working then this is the ideal job for you.
If you don’t mind getting paid buttons for the hours you put in and it is buttons for what you do then this is the job for you.
you pay
Some say go work in mc Donald’s if you complain about the job, if you did the hours that drivers did you would get more money working in mc Donald’s, but that’s only if you could get the hours you wont so your doing extra hours driving to bring up the pot at a flat rate and that makes it workable and liveable for most, long days and lack of proper sleep is the price you pay for a half descent living.
Then you have some with the good paying jobs working for a good company with starting times between 10 at night to 4 in the morning and getting well paid for it, the people who do this all the time go around like zombies on there time off eyes hanging out of there head all the time cranky and moody but that’s the price you pay,
I love this job, being in it years, seen all of Europe and got paid a fortune for it, raised a family and paid off my mortgage age 42 and have experienced all the above, thank ■■■■ I have a local job with ok hours now and can live on the wage because if I could go back I would never ever do the hours or time again you have to put in.
Good luck.