Article by the Guardian…
a few flaws i spoted but i got to ask what is the dazzeling light that floods the cab from the computer as the tacho uploads?
Presumably the fact checkers were off self isolating on full pay, but other than a few glaring errors and slight exaggerations about things it isn’t a bad article overall.
Can’t do any harm for the middle classes to see the other side, though the impression they’ll take that we were all working 16 to 18 hour days before the tachograph (brought into harmonise us with the then EEC) saved humanity from cowboy lorryists needs correcting.
@ Juddian, and others.
I agree that as a “scene setter” piece it was quite good. Gives a sort of feel of some aspects of the job.
We all have a different view of things, but this is a fair interpretation of one guys view. I dont know who he was working for before the tacho, but maybe that is an accurate reflection of his own life?
It isnt *my* view, anymore than it is *yours*, but it is as OK as we could expect.
Are you now going to subscribe to The Graudian!
Quite. A long interesting read.
Bit but he says doctors told him for his health eat better and go for a walk every night.
Then says impossible to eat healthy as a truck driver . no it is possible with planning .
Then says he can’t go for a walk as once parked up he can’t leave his truck unattendedi find this hard.to.belive .
If it’s true I’d tell them where to go really. And.go.for a walk anyway
Franglais:
Are you now going to subscribe to The Graudian!
Dear old mate you know the answer to that one, never so long as the rear orifice exists, it must be getting on for 35 years since i bought a newspaper, and possibly a dozen or more years now since i watched a live television broadcast or listened (when able to silence it) to a radio news or other uniformative segment.
Well, I’ve been driving longer than he has and we definitely had tachograph cards when I started. 
1985 IIRC…you used to see drivers who ran out of hours hitching…they would hold out their tacho cards.
Far fewer sleeper cabs then, and more places doing B&B for drivers.
I think it was '79 or '80 they started to appear, i was on night trunking at the time so the mileage limit affected us.
Recall they used a carrott and stick approach, with 281 miles being the max mileage you could cover in a day if you wanted to stick to log books but if you were prepared to fit and operate a tacho you could cover whatever mileage you could in a day (no speed limiters back then), and in the interests of safety you understand work 2.5 hours longer that the 12.5 hour max spreadover log book users were restricted to, and no not all companies ran umpteen log books nor expected their drivers to run bent.
Almost impossible to eat healthily? He needs to check out the TN “What do you have for lunch■■?” thread - plenty of good and healthy ideas on there 
I can only really comment on the tone, which I found warm and sympathetic, with the main takeaway for me being “spare a thought”and “be kind”.
Juddian:
I think it was '79 or '80 they started to appear, i was on night trunking at the time so the mileage limit affected us.Recall they used a carrott and stick approach, with 281 miles being the max mileage you could cover in a day if you wanted to stick to log books but if you were prepared to fit and operate a tacho you could cover whatever mileage you could in a day (no speed limiters back then), and in the interests of safety you understand work 2.5 hours longer that the 12.5 hour max spreadover log book users were restricted to, and no not all companies ran umpteen log books nor expected their drivers to run bent.
81 ish I think it was Juddian,.I was tramping for National Carriers at the time.
12 and a half hour spreadover…I remember it well (Despite all the ‘‘This is the nature of the job/always been that way’’ pleas on here in the oast)
If only that was the case now eh?
Problem in those days,.very few stuck to it,.and breaking the rules was just a matter of routine, but today with digi tachos and on the whole rules being stringently enforced as they are today, it would make it a far better job, on 21 st Century terms, abd make it less stressful.abd safer also.
(All the teararse/maxing out/I want to work 15 hour days type plonker heroes are reading this with amazement and horror 
)
I laugh when lorry drivers say they wish that they listened in school…
I listened in school, did a degree in Geography and now at 31 find myself wanting to drive a lorry 
Goff118:
I laugh when lorry drivers say they wish that they listened in school…I listened in school, did a degree in Geography and now at 31 find myself wanting to drive a lorry
I ain’t got a degree, but I did ok in Secondary school.and took a couple of A levels at college later on to fit in with my apprenticeship at the time.
Thing is I was easily led and bad influenced by my mates who were trampers, and I used to go away with them both in holidays and when skiving off work. 
I used to think…‘This is the life for me’.
The job was sooooo much different in those days, my mates used to run their job around their social lives on nights out,.and we had some bloody good nights away. …I’m still.influenced by that today in fact …but maybe not as much as when I was younger,.and certainly the nights out are less wilder nowadays. 
Unless I get in some bad company., still easily led today. 
robroy:
Goff118:
I laugh when lorry drivers say they wish that they listened in school…I listened in school, did a degree in Geography and now at 31 find myself wanting to drive a lorry
I ain’t got a degree, but I did ok in Secondary school.and took a couple of A levels at college later on to fit in with my apprenticeship at the time.
Thing is I was easily led and bad influenced by my mates
I used to think…‘This is the life for me’.
The job was sooooo much different in those days, my mates used to run their job around their social lives on nights out,.and we had some bloody good nights away. …I’m still.influenced by that today in fact
Unless I get in some bad company., still easily led today.
Hahaha, I blame my father, as I used to be up and out of the house in the early hours on a Saturday morning to go out with him when he drove bread vans locally and I used to join him on the odd lorry trip.
I suppose Geography is at least a relevant degree…
I remember some of the guys on Middle East in the 70s.
Biddle on Cantrell’s couldn’t read or write, but there were also Airline Pilots, Solicitors, Bent Accountants, Forgers, Merchant Navy officers like myself, etc… etc…
There was something about the freedom of the job that attracted all sorts, and if you had the aptitude for it you could do it regardless of qualifications.
Not everyone can handle a large vehicle, feel at one with it and handle the work involved, I would imagine most who slip through the net get found out eventually, as happened with Carryfast.
Yeah listened in school is a lazy one. I listened, did well, still drive a lorry. I’ve even done managerial/office roles previously, yet here I am back being a number…
Then there’s Conor who basically invented computers, is the godfather of design and basically created knowledge yet he also still drives a lorry.
toonsy:
Yeah listened in school is a lazy one. I listened, did well, still drive a lorry. I’ve even done managerial/office roles previously, yet here I am back being a number…Then there’s Conor who basically invented computers, is the godfather of design and basically created knowledge yet he also still drives a lorry.
Judging Conor’s persona on here, he’ll take that as a compliment.