As of Monday 6 may it will be 14 weeks since I’ve been any where near a truck. I got made redundant when my Sainsburys depot closed down, and the wife and myself opened a cafe on 4 th February. Never thought I’d take to it after driving fo 20 years plus and growing up around trucks, absolutely love it. Proper career change, listening to the traffic reports on radio, don’t miss that 1 bit. Thought I would have been pestering agency by now, but am perfectly happy delivering bacon buttys and meat and potato pies in a 1 mile radius. Loving the 9 hour days.
What’s the longest you’ve not ever driven a truck for?
Closest I get to a truck is the single axle artic delivering to the co Op up the road. I always make sure our delvery drivers get a brew when delivering to us though!
6months in 2009 after my accident (fell at work) seemed a lot sorter due to the drugs I was on ,miss the pink elephants and other weird things I saw lol. Been driving for a living since 81/82
13 weeks…after having an accident at home in january, i was off the road,and couldn’t wait to get back! luckily working for a decent Company (DHL) and didn’t lose any pay. not out of the woods yet though,but enjoying being back on the road
10½ years due to emigrating! I’ve already booked my flight back for next weekend. D4 pack and renew my licence, medical, CPC and let’s see what happens. Did I miss it? To be honest, no, it was always a job and something to fall back on.
Nearly 6 years, when I became a type 1 diabetic (before they changed the laws) I had group 2 licenses revoked, but got them back when laws changed. I even quit my job before I got my license back! [emoji15] I couldn’t wait to get back in the seat!
10 months after an accident back in 72/73
8 years come July since retiring,strange for the for the first few weeks, but it soon begins to grow on you, don`t miss it one bit.
I still like to keep up with some of the goings on here on TNUK and have chuckle at some of the postings,especially from some of what I call “trucking snowflakes”
5 years. Had to stop in 2008 when I couldn’t walk from truck to goods in office. Set up a business refurbishing, repairing and selling laptops throughout the EU and if it weren’t for Joe Public ramping up the prices at the IT auctions I went to and world and dog jumping on the bandwagon thinking that because they once installed windows on their mum’s PC they were experts and competing in a race to the bottom effectively working for below minimum wage I’d not have gone back to driving.
Good news is my back has gone pop again a few weeks ago and all of those bedroom experts long since gave up when Tax Credits made them prove they actually had a viable business or lose their tax credits so I might go back to it.
At 52 I’ve quit driving and so far I’ve driven twice ( a favour for a mate and not a full shift either ) over the last 6 weeks, so looking at the length of time some of you have been away I’ve a long way to go, but as an employment I’m steering clear.
Had a couple of years off when my children were born and drove a taxi instead. Money was crap but I got to spend time with them in their first few years. Had to go back driving a truck when my savings ran out.
Currently haven’t driven a truck since February, am away on the boat.
Probably around 4 years, left to get a job on a farm, thought I’d really miss it, but didn’t, but I was spending most of my time driving big ■■■■, then the farm got an artic, did a bit on it in harvest, then about a year later had my 1st kid, one of the bosses got word I was looking for a new job as didn’t want to work another harvest, upto 120 hours per week, only get a day off if it rained for about 3 months! So offer me a different job.
They had an 8 wheeler on order for delivering the feed, so come off the farm and drove the 8 wheeler and worked in the mill, then the artic driver left, so back on that for about 3 years, it’s quite good as me and a mate job share, 2 weeks on the artic, then 2 weeks of whatever needs doing, good variety, still do big hours in harvest but not as much as when on the farm plus I can take my lads with me and we’re back to normal when the harvest is done where the lads on the farm are still busy drilling the new crop, suits me spot on.
25 weeks off in 2015 whilst having a couple of operations to remove my appendix and the cancer that they accidentally found during the process and the recovery time.
Glad to get back to work after climbing the walls with anxiety and boredom and also needed to be somewhere else to get away from all the crap that had happened to me in a very short period of time.
Never take life for granted because you definitely don’t know what’s around the corner.
