I am new to trucking but not to internet forums and it almost feels impolite to start a new forum and not introduce myself… but yet I don’t see any “new members introduce yourself” type forum on here and I guess this is as close as it gets so … hello.
I was a taxi driver for years until the lockdowns put me out of business and made it a gamble to consider doing it again if the government can just kill of businesses in one fell swoop at any time it pleases so I thought that driving a truck would at least have the secure backing of 65 million starving peasants about to burn down parliament if the government decided to shut down that particular industry at a whim.
I only drive a dinky 7.5 tonne truck but I am looking to upgrade to Class 1 if I can get my head around things which is easier said and done given the views of the people who run the CPC courses and what my actual experience of working as a trucker is. I am interested in all aspects of haulage from the business side making a profit with an operators licence to just driving about taking people’s stuff to where they want it to be but all I know about so far is that a 7.5 tonne truck is more like a oversized transit van than an actual proper truck like you proper truck drivers drive and not quite what I was hoping for when applying for the CPC to use my “grandfather rights”.
I really thought I would be chewing on yorkie bars while passing kids fist pumping me to do the big horn as I passed them with my big wheels on the road, but the reality is chewing on a milky bars sat atop tiny little wheels not much bigger than a Luton’s.
I have lots of question and ambiguous / contradictory / non-existent answers from managers and other drivers does not make getting my head round things any easier, so I have joined a random truck forum where I hope I can meet people more experienced than myself to help me when things don’t make a lot of sense.
Hello then. Ask away with any questions you have but answers may be many and varied so as with any internet forum it’s up to the end user (i.e. you) to sort the wheat from the chaff.
I am not cut out for heavy lifting. I’m almost 50 and I have never did much heavy lifting in the past. The nearest was when I was younger I was expected to spend the bulk of a Tuesday morning handballing crates off a artic into the shops store rooms. The rest of the week there was very little heavy lifting involved outside of carrying a box of WD40 tins from the stores to the shelves. As a taxi driver, occassionally I would have to lug someone’s luggage in and out of the taxi. I applied for a job as a driver where some heavy lifting may be involved and I find myself as a heavy lifter where some driving is involved. Obviously I am not satisfied that the job I am doing meets with what was on the glossy brochure so I am seeking new adventures as soon as possible.
I note that all the heavy lifting guys have short sturdy frames and some of them are into body building. I am just of average physical fitness and I can drive no problem and do some heavy lifting when it is ocassionally needed but for the sake of my health I need a new job. I would prefer to keep on trucking but have to admit I have thrown money down the drain if all it has bought me is a muscular-skeletal disorder (as they call it).
I am seeing curtain sider 7.5 tonners and thinking that moving palettes from place to place is more up my street (if you pardon the pun). It was the “get a job quick” when covid laws came down that got me into logistics as a warehouseman where it came to my attention that the drivers only lift a tonne day for much better money. They were on Lutons which we loaded for them and they unloaded. Here I find myself with 2 tonnes on and 2 tonnes off by hand and I am getting the impression that a 7.5 tonne truck licence for me is a guaranteed medical bill which no employer will take responsability for.
How hard is it to get a job which is driving with occassional or no heavy lifting at all as a 7.5 tonne driver?
One of the questions I have is regarding weight.
I only found out yesterday that I have never known the actual weight being put on the van because when I got a manifest saying over 3 tonnes on a truck that can only lift 2 and a half (including fuel and driver) it was revealled to me that the weight being declared to me on the manifest is not the actual weight of the things on the manifest but some kind of weird value merely called “weight” which has something to do with volume combined with weight and I have to accept the operators word that I am not driving overweight. Two months into the job and suddenly this information is revealled? Am I taking the threat of government action against drivers too seriously or am I having the ■■■■ taken out of me. I have no way of knowing what weight is on my truck without upsetting the apple cart at the depot.
This unit of measurement adhoc described by the depot as the cubic kilogram declared as “weight” on the manifest is something I have never heard of and have no means by which to discern the actual weight from since “unfortunately the company does not provide training” (despite the HSAWA requirement). I know I am being ■■■■■■■■■■■ to some extent but to what extent? I am not a gambler. Is this cubic kilogram thing a normal thing or is it as messed up as I think it is? I feel like taking a few cans of beer on the road with me and when the police come to breathalise me, start telling them some story about the blood/alcohol unit for me being different from what they were expecting and that I am not actually as fissed as a part while driving but it merely looks that way because they dont know anything about alcohol and driving.
Are you feeling me? I feel like I have to know the weight as part of the deal as a driver for them but they feel its not important and its not my responsability to know this information.
Am I being too scrupulous and is it normal for the weight written on the manifest not to be the actual weight for the items on the manifest?
What type of class one would you be interested in, day runs with home every night, a week away in the cab or further afield on weeks away for continental work for concerts, live events to F1 race teams?
SCFD:
I am not cut out for heavy lifting. I note that all the heavy lifting guys have short sturdy frames and some of them are into body building.
Once upon a time (Heavy Lifting) truck drivers ranged from 5’4" to 6’2 and in the course of a day might handball 60 tons over a distance of 120 feet.
Load 6 am, handball 20tons on a 40 trailer, sheet & rope the load - drive 200 or so miles and arrive at a dock/coal mine or similar where Union rules meant no one could help you unload (let you in the canteen, use the toilets etc.) Handball 20tons over 40’ off.
It’s only 4:30pm, time to nip round to a nearby location to Handball, Rope & Sheet another 20tons over 40’ to get you home for a few hours sleep before you repeat the same Groundhog Day routine.
Body Builders were wimps compared to ‘Lorry’ Drivers
Henry Stephens:
What type of class one would you be interested in, day runs with home every night, a week away in the cab or further afield on weeks away for continental work for concerts, live events to F1 race teams?
I’m not sure about contintental work. It depends on the country. Austria and Germany are no go areas for me. France, spain, Portugal absolutely. Can I take a girlfriend or does the company provide a “fleshlite” along with a high viz vest and steelies? I have thought about extra long distance and there are alot of factors involved that dont merit description in any jobs available board. How many pairs of Y-fronts do I need if the cab isnt equipped with a washing machine?
I am a bit counter-curltural so I am not enured by working for some big event or famous team you see on TV. A job is a job.
How much does it pay? How honest is the employer with me? What are the health risks?
I’m more concerned about being injected with safe and effective god-knows-what that doesn’t do what was claimed than catching the flu. It’s the modern world and crap believed by millions of TV consumers does not mean its any less crap. My main concern is my own wellbeing in a world filled with loud stupid people and the silent who cant find ways to break through the indoctrinated willful ignorance as they push their latest piece of nonsense into peoples lives.
So its hard to say what my ideal job would be in a way I could explain to everyone on the forum but lets just say that if you know of any vacancies for an international ■■■■■■■, I’ll think it over and get back to you in about 3 seconds.
SCFD:
I am not cut out for heavy lifting. I note that all the heavy lifting guys have short sturdy frames and some of them are into body building.
Once upon a time (Heavy Lifting) truck drivers ranged from 5’4" to 6’2 and in the course of a day might handball 60 tons over a distance of 120 feet.
Load 6 am, handball 20tons on a 40 trailer, sheet & rope the load - drive 200 or so miles and arrive at a dock/coal mine or similar where Union rules meant no one could help you unload (let you in the canteen, use the toilets etc.) Handball 20tons over 40’ off.
It’s only 4:30pm, time to nip round to a nearby location to Handball, Rope & Sheet another 20tons over 40’ to get you home for a few hours sleep before you repeat the same Groundhog Day routine.
Body Builders were wimps compared to ‘Lorry’ Drivers
No wonder there’s a lot of a fat bar stewards who do trucking. That would take some amount of calories.
Most employers should provide the PPE, for the safety boots and hi-vis vests, some may say buy your own, or if self employed it will go down as expenses for the tax man.
Good point on what to take and washing clothes as truck stops and motorway service areas or MSA’s in Europe have washing machines and tumble driers and some are cropping up in the UK such as Cobham MSA M25.
Another issue is commuting and the law allows a nine or eleven hours daily rest period and driving to and from the yard if on day run work will eat in that very short time, an hour from the yard already takes two hours away then allow time to eat at home, wash and annoy the Mrs takes even more then do a fifteen hour duty time the next day on a few hours sleep.
If tramping all week then distance to the yard and back is not an issue as some could live 100 or more miles away , for an early Monday morning start they may drive the car down on Sunday to kip in the cab Sunday night rather than get up at two or three AM on Monday morning.
For distance work you could fill up the cab with stuff that will probably never get used and it’s a right pain transferring all that tat in the car if you go on holiday or swap units for a MOT or the unit is VOR and they give you a replacement shed to drive until you get your allocated unit back.
A long time ago it was ok to take the Mrs, the pet Poodle and the offspring (Not the puppy , a child) in a lorry but now there’s Gestapo on the security gates at factories and RDC’s who failed the police entry exams and take out their chip on their shoulder on visiting drivers:
You are not booked in.
There’s a reference number or one digit missing in your booking reference, join the back of the queue to sort it.
You are two minutes late/early , stand on the naughty step and write hundred lines of I must not be late.
But saying that most are ok and ex military and you can have a laugh, the cab passenger issue is down to insurance, so now young kids don’t get to see the life of a HGV driver to get a taste of it and inspire them to do the job.
