Scf, you came across very dismissive of the people best placed to answer that question. I was tying to make the point that you need experience to answer that truthfully. Just because the old hands slag it off, it doesn’t make them wrong. We just don’t want to give someone duff, sugar coated advice resulting in them, £3k later, saying it’s not for me.
OVLOV JAY:
Scf, you came across very dismissive of the people best placed to answer that question. I was tying to make the point that you need experience to answer that truthfully. Just because the old hands slag it off, it doesn’t make them wrong. We just don’t want to give someone duff, sugar coated advice resulting in them, £3k later, saying it’s not for me.
But Jay, when you were a nipper like him I bet you thought the job was the best thing since sliced bread too. The ink won’t be dry yet. 
Spot on Rob, I had the standard issue rose tinted specs for the first 2 years, a point I alluded to in my op
OVLOV JAY:
Spot on Rob, I had the standard issue rose tinted specs for the first 2 years, a point I alluded to in my op
I concur to having received the same ones too.
To add :
The job is as easy or as hard as what type of goods you are carrying.
Night trunking with trailer changes - easy peasy( and what I do) Sit on my arse all night with the radio on and no traffic - bliss. Can get a bit boring at times but rather do this than chase my tail all day on multidrop crap that does not have you stopping out, lorry has to be back.
Bottom end of the scale multidrop in town centres with a rigid and going into shop fronts - no parking - unforgiving public- traffic wardens- busy bodies-coppers- knobhead shop owners . List goes on.
Multidrop steel for the day.Chains on chains off chains on chains off chains on chains off 
Take your pick.
For obvious reasons the good jobs that are out there now , there will be no vacancies.Or if there is the openings will be as rare as hens teeth.
The jobs with vacancies are atm those less than desirable jobs .
Just the way it is at the moment.
Anyone who is new and still green, whilst the comments are valid you are still cutting your teeth and you are not the only ones to have come into driving from else where.
Now im sure this has been asked countless times in one way or another. But I wanna know what the new kids think about the job itself. I’ve heard all the old timers say it aint what it used to be and its [zb] etc etc.
I think a lot of folk have missed the original point of this thread. He’s heard all the doom and gloom before and wanted to know if new drivers enjoy the job.
It’s the same in any job, folk that have done it for too long get jaded and pee’d off with their life and talk about the good old days and what it used to be like when it was a proper job etc etc. It’s not just in haulage, I used to get bored to tears hearing it at sea from guys who first went to sea before I was born. Whingeing appears to be a common human infliction but one whinger in a group can bring the morale down of that group, same as the way one happy soul can brighten up a room. If a new guy enjoys his work then what’s wrong with that? To me it’s a good thing. If a new guy isn’t enjoying his job chances are it’s because he has to listen to old hands constantly telling him how crap it is.
It all depends what you are used to, To me, driving a lorry feels like the easiest job I’ve had. At the end of each day you’re done and no matter how stressful your day has been, you can put it all behind you when you get home and have no worries hanging over you unlike some other jobs where you take work/worries/projects home with you.
Certainly it can be stressful, but most of the problems you encounter are out of your control. Like I said, the best bit is once you get home the day is over and good or bad you can put it behind you and start afresh the next day instead of having the worries of long running projects or sales performance figures hanging over you every time you go to bed.
By the way, Rob K and Switchlogic are actually the same person using two different accounts. He argues with himself all the time and often looses.
paul@midway:
To add :
Bottom end of the scale multidrop in town centres with a rigid and going into shop fronts - no parking - unforgiving public- traffic wardens- busy bodies-coppers- knobhead shop owners .Anyone who is new and still green, whilst the comments are valid you are still cutting your teeth and you are not the only ones to have come into driving from else where.
I’m doing that on agency for £7.00 ph class 2. I have a class 1 licence did them back to back and used to work as a self employed driving instructor for 10 years (still qualified).
I enjoy it, I’m learning my trade at the age of 44, the way I see it the only way is up because this is the bottom of the barrel so to speak. I actually enjoy the graft out the back of the box, and for that I myself think I need my head examining.
Squiddy:
Certainly it can be stressful, but most of the problems you encounter are out of your control. Like I said, the best bit is once you get home the day is over and good or bad you can put it behind you and start afresh the next day instead of having the worries of long running projects or sales performance figures hanging over you every time you go to bed.
Tons of truth in that statement.
Arla dont use straps they bar everything… 80% of the drops on your route have bays/scissor lifts. I aint become a fat driver in this job yet anyway so abit of graft and sweat is good i dont wanna end up looking like some of the fat shunter grunts i see at most dis centres! I want a general haulage job again but just aint got the time to search for work with all the hrs im doing. Hopefully ill win the euro tonight then life would be good, id leAve a tub of chubber chupps and a tenas worth of hot chocies for the arla drivers there dicks to the agency evern after ive been there 7 months i hate the ignorant lazy zbs!!!
Williams9881:
Arla dont use straps they bar everything… 80% of the drops on your route have bays/scissor lifts.
I know that’s why I said ‘acquire’ some straps so you can strap empties to the side. And I’ve never been to a Tesco express in a petrol station with a lift, nor a high street one, and there’s a lot of both kinds in London.
Although to be fair it’s a few years since I did Arla so the lift/bay situation may have changed
dave75:
Now im sure this has been asked countless times in one way or another. But I wanna know what the new kids think about the job itself. I’ve heard all the old timers say it aint what it used to be and its [zb] etc etc.
I think a lot of folk have missed the original point of this thread. He’s heard all the doom and gloom before and wanted to know if new drivers enjoy the job.
It’s the same in any job, folk that have done it for too long get jaded and pee’d off with their life and talk about the good old days and what it used to be like when it was a proper job etc etc. It’s not just in haulage, I used to get bored to tears hearing it at sea from guys who first went to sea before I was born. Whingeing appears to be a common human infliction but one whinger in a group can bring the morale down of that group, same as the way one happy soul can brighten up a room. If a new guy enjoys his work then what’s wrong with that? To me it’s a good thing. If a new guy isn’t enjoying his job chances are it’s because he has to listen to old hands constantly telling him how crap it is.
What that man said ^
Haha this thread is hillarious…
Message to the OP,
Imagine a grubby waiting room full of bored drivers verbalising this and the third lane thread. Repeat every day for the next twenty five years and you’ll get a good idea what a career in Road Haulage is like…
W
My advice would be to complete a ROSPA advanced drivers course and achieve gold.
Then complete the Approved Driving Instructor course.
Then complete the Diamond Advanced Driving Test.
Then complete the ROSPA Diploma in driving.
Then complete a fleet driver trainer course, ( ROSPA).
Then complete a BA ( HONS ) Degree.
Then, you will know what then well before this final remark. Good luck.
Stonehouse69:
Before i became a lorry driver, i was a bricklayer and certain circumstances made me give up work for 2 years. when i felt i could go back to work, a family member offered to pay for my licences.I
ve always wanted to drive big trucks round the country and my grandad was a driver for over 30 years. I also new that there were long hours involved but thought id give it ago.
Ive been driving trucks now for exactly 1 year (tomorrow) and i have to say its one of the most demanding jobs that i`ve ever had.My first job was driving for a home delivery, bed company and everyday for the whole time, i never worked no less than 13 hours and to carry massive boxes up flights of stairs aswell…lets just say it opened my eyes alot. not to mention the idiots that are on the roads these days, I dont think people in london were ever taught “legally” to drive!
I recently left that job and started work for a photocopier, delivery firm and although the work can be hard, i do it for the love of driving (same with my last job).
The fact that you get to go all over the country and see things that you wouldntwhilst laying bricks, you cant beat it… the money is quite good too (not gonna say how much)I always remember me and the mrs having “the talk” about the job and that it would be long hours blah blah blah and dya know what? i love it.
I do understand also when the elder generation say that “the job aint what it used to be”! theres alot of [zb] rules that have been introduced and i can always remember it when my grandad drove, drivers were alot less stressed out then. But on the other hand, alot more drivers were having accidents when they fell asleep at the wheel cuz they thought they`d have the will power to driv for 15 hours straight!
i think my advice would be to not go into it thinking that it was a doddle… its not! maybe get a drivers m8 job first and then see if you get a taste for it…that or spend crap loadsa money getting your licences to find that its not for you
snap,i am still a bricky, 
have been 17 yrs now,decided to take my class 1 last year which i did and passed first time,i thought great here we go was buzzing,arh draw back no experience nobody would look at me,thought what have i done just waisted 1600 quid, got in with a good agency and they have given work all the time,so i been plugging away here and there,my point is that i cant break away from my tools lol,just want to work on the weekends,plus i can earn more cash,which is whats it all about,i cant find a driving job that pays more than being a bricky,have been offered a driving job full time but money was s**t, so as a newbie driver i will stay part time me thinks,unless something good comes in
only been driving 5 months now luckily i got a job just 1 week after passing my test after knocking on 100’s of doors and loads of phone calls, got started with a company that everybody told me not to go with but im still there and loving it,got to meet some really nice drivers who helped me alot and still are helping me managed to get 3 or 4 nights out every week (which you need to make up the wages) and my controller is brilliant aslong as you come and go with him he will come and go with you.
The wages arent great i was making more money working in an office and doing multidrops in a van, but you can stilll make a living out of it.
I wouldnt recomend it to anyone but it suits me as i am a bit mad which i think you have to be to do this job
I still enjoy my work as much as when I first started (in spite of the boring drivers in waiting rooms).
I think if you realise fairly early on that most advice is actually opinion and can be pretty useless, that you need to find the facts out for yourself, your time in transport can be a lot easier.
W