toonsy:
Thing is… look at it through the eyes of a youngun thinking about giving HGV driving a go… sell it to them.
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Probably be about 60 more a week or so.
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You’ll most likely be working unsociable hours.
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You might not even know if you’re home on a particular day.
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Lack of facilities generally.
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Monitored to within an inch of your life.
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Looked down upon.
The list goes on and on. Its hardly an inspiring environment but at least those who went with their dad or whatever had an insight into it and got the taste for it. If you didn’t, why go through the above over a job with more structure regarding work/life balance?
Maybe if kids did go with their Dads today on some of the rat racing, run ragged endurance test jobs that some of you have, it would put them off it for life.
It amazes me today that any young kid is attracted to it.
I’m very proud of myself that I managed to talk my 2 lads out of going for a Class 1,.and both of them have proper jobs that are very well paid.
I suppose on the flip side of things is the question of, what if you had an accident due to the kids been in the cab with you. Your concentration was disturbed through taking something off them or looking at something they have drawn. I know, I know this is all easily blown out of proportion but it could be a factor worse than using a mobile phone whilst driving. I can understand it but it is a shame that it is now frowned upon and in most circumstances against any company policy. It is one of those questions that will always have two sides to the argument and neither is right or wrong.
My earliest memories are going with my dad to collieries loading coal for the coal merchant he worked for and watching the colliery steam loco’s trundling about the site up close.
One thing my dad taught me (and I used to see him doing it) was to mark down the height of bridges and location of telephone box’s (or anything of note) on his maps when he was going somewhere new and I did the same when I started out driving in the early eighties.
Unfortunately my lad has got into the industry as both a class one driver and Spannerman - he is more tech savvy than me so no paper maps for him !
cmld2018:
I’ve been driving trucks now for 3 years and every week my kids ask to come with me. The employers I’ve worked for its a definite no. I see other drivers with their kids with them. Is this allowed or being done on the sly?
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Those were the days not anymore !!
Pennineman:
My earliest memories are going with my dad to collieries loading coal for the coal merchant he worked for and watching the colliery steam loco’s trundling about the site up close.
One thing my dad taught me (and I used to see him doing it) was to mark down the height of bridges and location of telephone box’s (or anything of note) on his maps when he was going somewhere new and I did the same when I started out driving in the early eighties.
Unfortunately my lad has got into the industry as both a class one driver and Spannerman - he is more tech savvy than me so no paper maps for him !
I’m more tech savvy than my old man, but I also used to map read for him. He did a lot of London so even though I keep it quiet from my lot I know it pretty well, and I can read a map. I’ve got my maps with pokys of interest marked on it, truckstops, stopovers etc, all taught to me by learning from my old man on the job.
lolipop:
Something that became a NO NO for me 40+ years ago. My lad used to come with me,with permission, until I went to Grimsby Docks on a trip,fortunately without him that day. Had a serious accident and landed up in Grimsby`s Scatho Rd Hospital for three months. My lad would have been terrified if he had been there,after that he never ever went with me again to risky.
The strange nature of fate combined with “What If” - could be argued that “Would you have not been in that particular place at that exact time to have said accident - had you been with your lad that day?”?
You might have made an extra toilet stop for instance, and missed the “danger zone” by some minutes or seconds even… A miss is as good as a mile.
I get your point though that if the accident you were to have - were already fixed in time and space as a historical event that cannot be side-stepped… then YES - you wouldn’t want anyone close to you to witness that…
I dunno. I remember my old man pulled out in front of a scaffold wagon in Epsom moons ago, at the time I wasn’t massively happy seeing a Bedford flying at my side but the impact came and went, nobody was hurt, all was well. It was character building I guess 
robroy:
Carryfast:
Given the wrong time and the wrong place in a serious RTA, a cab over truck cab at least can be terrible place to be.It’s not really the type of harm’s way they need to be in.Imagine a poor mum lost her husband and her children in a bad truck collision.On that basis alone the downsides outweigh the upsides.Let alone if they got out and are involved in the hazards of many types of loading unloading environments added to that.Just because such hazards were often overlooked completely in less snowflake times doesn’t mean that they weren’t there.
So you do everything to avoid every thing you point out by …LOOKING AFTER your kid 
Yes it was always in the back of my mind an rta, but I weighed up the chances (an h&s risk assessment 
if you like.) and went for it…and pleeease don’t any snowflake come back with…"Are you really prepared to risk your child’s life’’ ffs.
You are just illustrating the mindset of these [zb] s who have devised all this H&S ■■■■■■■■ for every bloody thing we do these days, life determines one rule …[zb] happens.
This COULD happen, that COULD happen, …so let’s wrap everybody in cotton wool and stop them doing every bloody thing, …kids aren’t allowed to play conkers at school nowadays ffs, unless they dress up like a construction worker.
Thing is Carryfast, if 
we all thought like that, we would never go over the doorstep.
Read what I actually said.Not what you think I said.
I’d have no problem with them climbing bleedin high trees let alone play conkers just as I did.
That’s not the same thing as a high rise construction worker taking the family up to work with him to admire the view that he gets to see every day.
Then gets home and says to the wife sorry we’ve lost one or two they fell off the sky scraper or bridge framework which I was working on.But look on the bright side I’m ok and it could just as easily have been a tree they were climbing.
Used to go out with my Dad in the eighties in his bus then his van and 7.5t , remember a trip from notts to Scotland. Think that’s what got me into a career of driving!
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God only knows what H&S. would say about dad driving , Mum on passenger seat and two kids on the tartan engine cover o an Albion reiver/ Clydesdale, or my mate wae a F7 unit wae four kids in the cab for a week ( as wife was in hospital $)tramping.
Several years ago I was doing some work for Wilkos at worksop, one day there was a huge fuss as one of the limpers had been seen on the A57 with his wife and 4 kids in the truck enroute back to the yard. The wife was in the passenger seat and the kids where on the bunk
peirre:
Several years ago I was doing some work for Wilkos at worksop, one day there was a huge fuss as one of the limpers had been seen on the A57 with his wife and 4 kids in the truck enroute back to the yard. The wife was in the passenger seat and the kids where on the bunk
Again, you used to see this, ok maybe not often, but now and again, guy brings his wife and kids out on a day run.
Got to confess I used to run into Teesport to pick up my imported trailer on the odd Siunday morning, and the wife and 2 of the kids used to come with me, and seeing as I was only bringing trailer home, we used to call in at the car boot sale in Hexham. 
In mitigation I had a net across the bottom bunk for the kids as a safety feature, (but no doubt I’ll still get some flak for it 
)
When we were kids there were not even seat belts in many cars (nor horse and carts, ) let alone trucks, kids used to just sit in the back or front unstrapped, maybe 4 or so at a time, in fact I remember being a toddler and sitting on the front bench seat armrest in my Granda’s car for miles and miles, and in my Dad’s motor I used to stand up in the foot well quite often…and lived to tell the tale.
I know…different times.