Just wondering how other ex drivers are getting by with retirement, I’ve been retired for two years and still find it hard not to be out on the road earning a crust, don’t get me wrong my pension has worked out well, its getting used to being able to earn it. I have still managed to keep my licence going, even though I had a minor heart attack last year and now have been told I have mild diabetes, I never done illness before, must be getting old and that’s what takes some get used to, never had to do that before, so I think this is the last year I’ll applying for my licence, been driving lorries since I was 18 never wanted to do anything else, loved every minuet of it, the bad times as well as the good, thankfully mostly good. Visiting different towns and places through out this country, and then into Europe with new places and new countries to visit, I happily like to think, I was there at the best years in road transport, would I do it again? you bet I would, but not under the so called modern conditions, I enjoyed the challenge of driving different types of lorries, from tippers, tankers, tilt, low loaders up to heavy haulage motors and getting to a destination safe and hopefully on time, with out the office telling you do this and do that, it never happened, the boss gave you your papers and had the trust in you to get the job done professionally, that doesn’t seem to be the way today they need an army of control freak office bods and cab phones, sat navs etc, etc, they seem to have no trust in their drivers to do the job using their own resourcefulness. Lest not forget the many, many good friends, acquaintances and characters you met along the way, some still with us some sadly gone that’s what made the job so good. It’s nice have this type of forum to read helps pass the time and brings back many happy memories, and nice to hear we still haven’t stopped moaning about life As I said before would I do it all again YES, would I change a thing NO. Happy days.
Ossie,
Know how you feel mate.
I was able to retire at 60 because we could afford to,but after two weeks I was crawling up the walls with boredom.
I signed on for an agency and was doing 3 days a week for a while,then went to a better agency and have now been doing two night trunks a week and it’s the easiest job I’ve ever done.
It’s a paying hobby and still gives me time for many other things to fill my time.
I was diagnosed as type 2 diabetic about 4 years ago,but type two does not affect your licence,and anyway,I lost a stone and a half so now every blood test I have to have shows I’m below diabetic level.
I am pleased to be able to continue passing my medical and am now licenced up till I’m 70.
As long as I keep passing the medical and as long as I enjoy the job,I’ll keep on taking the money.
Hi all.I’m not retired as such yet[62]but when i moved up here from Holland 4yrs ago i made the decision to try to ‘‘work to live’’ instead of what most of us have been doing for the last 40yrs,‘‘living to work’’.Although i have been offered various jobs doing '‘long distance’'i have vehnemently refused them.I receive a small pre-pension from Holland and drive a tipper for app 1 week each month in the mines up here.I am quite content and have no interest to go back full time driving.Just the increase in regulations and restrictions, and the volume of traffic has dissapated any interest i may have had in transport.
Having driven all over Europe,the Middle East and North America i have seen and done enough to have a sufficient amount of memories to last until i die.
Now i am content to drive a bit and spend the rest of my time enjoying the lifestyle and recreational pusuits which this area affords me.Mike
i had to retire at 62 with heart problems , no chance of getting my license back so i made other plans . i got all those jobs done round the house and garden that i never had time for before , and we hook the caravan up every may and clear off to the top of scotland for 7 or 8 weeks . i couldn’t do the job as it is now with all the bullcrap involved , but i have the memories of the good days when the job was worth doing and we could earn good money .
rigsby:
i had to retire at 62 with heart problems , no chance of getting my license back so i made other plans . i got all those jobs done round the house and garden that i never had time for before , and we hook the caravan up every may and clear off to the top of scotland for 7 or 8 weeks . i couldn’t do the job as it is now with all the bullcrap involved , but i have the memories of the good days when the job was worth doing and we could earn good money .
CJA1:
Hi Rigsby/Dave, How u doin mate/You got that right mate, up to the ankles in the Bull/crap most days, I don"t how we managed 40+yrs ago do u mate Regards Chris/CJA1, 66 in wks LOL!!!
Retirement? Best job I’ve ever had!!! Money isn’t bad if you got the pension right, and the hours are fantastic! As for being bored, I just don’t have time.!0 or 12 weeks touring Europe in my caravan, and at least one week a month in it in this country gives us both plenty to do. I’ve had ten years of retirement now, and can’t understand why the hell I spent so long working!
I decideded to early retire in 2010 aged 58, although at the time I was working in the Traffic Office, previous to this had I done a lot of tanker work since 1978. Anyway I let my ADR expire thinking ‘won’t need that again’. To cut a long story short in September 2011 I signed on to a local large general haulage company I worked for in the '70s (part time) because I was bored to tears, still working for them and have done all sorts, curtain siders, pallex, steel etc, but when confronted with structural steel about as high as a c/sider when on the trailer and it needs chaining, I do think 'why the bloody hell am I doing this!!!? Anyway I’m still enjoying it, wish I had one of the Scanias I drive now when I was doing it in the 70s!! Regards, Mizzo.
I have one major problem, I was born a lazy B, but having spent 50yrs hard work driving, I didn’t have time to get in any practice, at being a lazy B, now I’m retired I’m working to catch up and believe me its not hard work, which means I don’t think I could very easily get back into a work routine again, plus I recently got married again to a lovely but very demanding lady which keeps me busy most of the time, as somebody else has said I don’t now how I had the time to fit work in………what…. yes dear coming, sorry lads I’ll have to go I’m wanted upstairs for some reason.
OK, i may have a slight advantage by living in Thailand and having good weather for 365 days a year, even when it’s raining it warm. But i expect you do still get the odd glimpse of sunshine !! Having said that, some of my best trips when i lived in the UK were during the winter months. As long as the roads are not icy then get yourself out there…
I retired this year, a bit early but a health problem made it a good idea and I now understand when I used to hear people say that they don’t know how they ever found time to work!
The pension covers a basic life and a bit of extra makes all the difference but, although my licence is good till 2017 I would not even consider going back driving. I, like so many here, can remember when we were respected for the job that we did and the freedom that we had doing it especially on the Continent and the Middle East - we had the best of it and it has now gone to hell. I’m not going to go out there and be treated like a criminal by the pretend Policemen from Vosa nor will I be treated like an idiot by a fool in a reflective jacket in some RDC. But the real nail in the coffin is the Certificate of ‘Competence’ for drivers. I got my class 1 on ‘Grandfather Rights’ when they were issued, in 1968 I think it was, and if anyone thinks I am going to pay my own, limited money to be lectured by a 14 year old on how I should check my oil or secure my load then they need to think again!
But I am really enjoying this retirement malarky. I’m lucky that I had a job - not transport related - that I can still do a bit of and get to travel doing it (just back from 2 weeks in Africa) and time passes even quicker than it did when I was working. The important thing is not to get in the rut of thinking that your life is over and you are not wanted anymore. My friend Kit says that you should always keep the dairy full and he is dead right. If nothing else, for example, local health authorities are forever looking for drivers to transport the elderly around. It doesn’t pay anything but it gives a reason to get out of bed!
We should all enjoy our retirement - we worked bloody hard for it after all.
emmerson2: Retirement? Best job I’ve ever had!!! Money isn’t bad if you got the pension right, and the hours are fantastic! As for being bored, I just don’t have time.!0 or 12 weeks touring Europe in my caravan, and at least one week a month in it in this country gives us both plenty to do. I’ve had ten years of retirement now, and can’t understand why the hell I spent so long working!
Yes indeed, I’ve been retired for quite “a few years” now and enjoy every minute. If I’d known what it was like long ago I could have made a wonderful career out of it. I did 49 years driving, never out of work and I got 100% job satisfaction. There were good days, there were bad days, but they were happy days. would I go back to modern day lorry driving? NO. Would I go back 25/30 years to the job? oh yes.
49 years working, what’s left is mine now. Licence is expired.
emmerson2:
Retirement? Best job I’ve ever had!!! Money isn’t bad if you got the pension right, and the hours are fantastic! As for being bored, I just don’t have time.!0 or 12 weeks touring Europe in my caravan, and at least one week a month in it in this country gives us both plenty to do. I’ve had ten years of retirement now, and can’t understand why the hell I spent so long working!
Hullo “emmerson2”’
Are you by any chance Emmet ?
Cheers, Archie.
emmerson2:
Retirement? Best job I’ve ever had!!! Money isn’t bad if you got the pension right, and the hours are fantastic! As for being bored, I just don’t have time.!0 or 12 weeks touring Europe in my caravan, and at least one week a month in it in this country gives us both plenty to do. I’ve had ten years of retirement now, and can’t understand why the hell I spent so long working!
Hullo “emmerson2”’
Are you by any chance Emmet ?
Cheers, Archie.
Retired and moved to Thailand when I was 48.
Now busy doing nothing…great!
Went back to the UK in 2008 thinking that I would do a few months on the road with an agency. It didn’t work out and I thought afterwards “what a fool I was to even try”.
Being a member of “TruckNet” is the nearest I want to get to wagon these days.
I really enjoyed my days on the road but that’s all in the past for me.
I retired the first time in 1998 and thanks to my last employer went to live in the sun,in Cyprus,got bored witless and finished up doing container work from the port of Limassol,then left Cyprus,too much sun and finished up in Ireland,where for a lifelong tanker driver i did just about everything,bulk Guinness(and i dont like the stuff) curtain siders tippers and even car transporters,left there for Chicago,did my CDL drove a short while with a Volvo then decided maybe Europes better,but,who knows!!!
