Too much technology. I’m still kicking a two foot length of sleeper under the back wheels!
hutpik:
I Think it varies from person to person.After almost 40yrs of driving everywhere from Europé,M.E,U.S.S.R,and North America i would be happy not to see a truck again.I Think that when i started at the beginning of the 70s it was more of an adventure.We felt more alive as you were expected to Think for yourself,repair things,get yourself out of problems,plus the added bonus of going to strange exotic places that,quite often,few normal people had been to.Driving infringements,general problems and to a degree repairs seemed easier to deal with.Life seemed simpler.The last years have been increasingly more '‘politically correct’ and it seems ‘‘overcomplicated’’ to do what is basically an easy job which requires more common sense than academic qualifications.It now seems that as soon as you step in a truck you are considered a criminal and at any moment have the possibility to be relieved of a weeks wages for doing something about which you had no knowledge beforehand.For me the ‘‘fun’’ has gone,now it’s just a way to earn Money to enjoy my ‘‘free time’’.Mike
Most of that ^^
I don’t know about “addictive” but it is a job that I’ve done, left and gone to do other things for a time, come back to, left again for a long time, and come back to again. I agree with others’ comments that there’s far too much stuffing about in the job these days that has eff-all to do with the job itself but is more to do with an entire money-grubbing, brain-numbing and witless parasite called OH&S that is (excuse the pun) driving a lot of very experienced ‘old lags’ out of the job (if it’s any consolation I understand it’s as bad if not worse in the bus trade). When I started drivers had to have some wit (and were allowed to exercise it) to cope - these days it feels more and more as though the day we are replaced by robots is almost upon us, and given the amount of pointless “qualifications” and certificates you have to keep up with nowadays (not to mention the dosh you - or your employer - has to shell out), perhaps that’s just as well. And, much as it was when I started, the job still means long hours, frequent bouts of high stress (usually caused by the numbskulls in cars with whom we are obliged to share the road) and all for far too little money - given the stress and the pressure, wagon drivers are grossly underpaid, yet we’re expected to demonstrate far higher standards of driving behaviour as “professionals”. My view is that if we are required to be and act as professionals, then pay us a professional’s wage.
All that said I do still (after all these years) get some enjoyment out of it and especially out of doing it as well as I can, even if no-one but me notices. A properly sheeted load, backing a big wagon into a narrow space that I’ve never been to before in one shot, accurately predicting what some [zb] in a car is going to do before they’ve even begun to think about doing it and thus avoiding an incident, or bowling along somewhere on a sunny day witth the window open thinking “you know, I could be stuck in an office or a factory somewhere”. And when all is said and done, I’m reasonably confident that when push comes to shove, I can (touch wood) always find work.