Ive just started doing nights out for the first time(5 a week) and I have to admit I missed my wife and kids like mad.
I would like to know if it gets any easier and any advice would be great
5 is a bit ■■■■■■■■, how old are your kids?
4&6, been told it wont always be 5 but usually will
To be honest, im about to go back on nights out, 4 a week, my boys are 1 and 3, it would be interesting to see what others say on the subject, as im a bit nervous that im going to miss them to much, i know what that sunday night/monday morning feeling is like.
I think that if I even got 1 night at home during the week it would help a lot, the problem is that where i stay, i dont really pass through during the week.
some drivers have told me that you get used to it after a while but i’m really not so sure.
I guess its a case, of making sure you make the most of the weekends with them, thats my intention, and thats why im going back on nights out, to have weekends off, as the job im in i only get 2 out of 7 weekends off, and often i work them anyway.
Im going to make sure i plan with the mrs, what we are doing next weekend with the kids, ie a day out somewhere, or a bbq with family round, or whatever really, but at least it gives you something to think of in the back of your head.
Especially when your sat in a que down the docks on a friday afternoon at pentlavers waiting to get a box off, not knowing if you will get home or have to run in saturday morning 
If it doesnt feel right, dont do it. Long distance is a marriage wrecker. 4 is tolarable until something better comes along. 5 is grim for a guy with a young family.
Gurner : I know that feeling well. On containers I would only work Monday morning to Friday night. I pulled out of FX . And if i wasn`t in the docks to change boxes by 1300 on a Friday afternoon I would make the TMs life a misery. I found you had to be selfish otherwise hometime was zero. Do you love your family or do you love boss more. its a no brainer!
I’d kill for 5 nights a week out at the moment, so it is horses for courses. Having done virtually every week away for the 17 years prior to the start of this year, I am finding it difficult to be home so much and am choosing to stay out some nights. A couple of nights just a mile from my house, when I could easily go home.
I was like that on int. work . I would get back after a couple of weeks away & if it was after midnight I would sleep in the local carpark rather than call a cab.
But the UK game is different . Nights out are misery…
I’m not on international work now Harry, I’m talking about UK work, it’s practically all I’ve done for the last six months.
I know. I have followed your posts, coffee. When I first did UK after years int. work the novelty of getting home without running for a boat ect. was wonderfull & the money was great. But after a 18 months it became like working in a factory . Great equipment ,good conditions but all the life had been sucked out of the job. Christmas Eve was the same as a wet Tuesday… I went home for Xmas, hung up my clogs & never went back. I retired. I thought about doing 1 more year but I had been thinking that all my life & decided to stop. & I lived happily ever after.I still go for medicals to keep my licence but the UK bit put me off truck driving for life…
If you are a (UK ) int. OD like the one or two that post on here then you are an endangered species & should be given a grant or a subsidy to preserve your way of life ,the same as other minority groups in the UK. I would gladly buy a lottery ticket to see you boys flying the flag in Europe & beyond.
Again it is each to their own Harry. At the moment I have no real desire to venture back over the water, in fact in the last couple of weeks I have declined offers of 3 seperate jobs that would have taken me back over.
But you would still be in favour of some kind of subsidy like the farmers get, Coffee ? EG. Spares & labour. Fuel subsidy as long as you only run on red diesel. Just a few perks to keep your head above water… & more flexible driving hours… Just a thought.
No I wouldn’t, not just for a choosen few. I would, only if it applied to ALL UK hauliers, and not just OD’s on international work.
I meant All ODs with a fleet of up to five trucks… something like that. And as for int. work its a matter of prefefence. I know that UK pays better. I am not biased towards the int. game but I do think that small outfits should have a level playing field to help them survive, competing against cheap diesl imports ect.
i dont do many nights away to be honest. but do actually quiet enjoy doing them. bit of peace for couple of days.lol
then again aint got kids so may be different if i did.
I used to enjoy nights out too…but then I was the porter and not the driver… 
Old friend of mine, Alfie on Hercocks did int. for years. Lived at home with his old mum in the East End. When he came home he slept in a van in the front garden because he prefered sleeping in a truck. He got tired after years of int. & did local work. Hercock had a yard at South Mimms . Although he lived only a few miles away he used to sleep in the yard every night & at weekends sleep in the van…
have done nights away… dont know about sleeping in a van its usually the doghouse after a few beers on a weekend .