Just interested in this. Yeah, it’s not rough like some day men think and all that, but I’ve never just got exited enough about it to be saying I’m living the dream. Doing 8 hours a day work, then having 8 hours to do hobbies and other activities and be at home, then sleep on my own bed and all that for decent wage would be more like living the dream to me. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just interested in others views on this living the dream thing? Because I can’t tell if it’s sarcastic half the time. If you are one who says your living the dream and you genuinely mean it then fair play to you…it must be nice to be at work but not really see it as work. Wish I could feel like that towards it.
There are lots of different takes on life.
Somebody asked me in the pub…if I ever wanted to"progress"
To what?
Don’t understand the rush to get home to stare at the same walls every night. I would rather see loads of different places than the same TV every night. Boring and unadventurous.
As for hobbies, there’s not much I can’t do while away that someone who is home every night can. 3 days at home and I’m itching to be away across Europe again, living the dream.
We have covered this to death.
I mean the must be home Friday lot would crap themselves in my job, this Friday I’m off to Germany and I’m going to be out until the beginning of August.
Not sure about living the dream bit, but Tramping seems to suit some and not others, doesn’t mean either opinion is wrong, just we’re all different.
I think most of those who enjoy tramping make the best of the job, they try and avoid the crap layby’s and MSA’s as much as possible.
As for the idea that those who go home every night are engaged in useful and rewarding hobbies, I think you’ll find the reality for most is commuting then evenings spend eating tea, watching telly and going to bed. Also not sure how many jobs where you’d actually spend only 8 hours at work and manage to find 8 hours for your hobby?
I did have a 37.5 hour week job many years ago, that was an average of 7.5hours per day plus an hour for lunch and probably the best part of 2 hours commuting each day, that’s 10.5 hours before you add in time for eating, washing, sleeping etc.
Personally I found going to the same place everyday a bit boring, I much prefer travelling about, even though I often go to the same places at least there is a reasonable period of time between.
I don’t know, I can’t see how you can “live the dream” doing purely day work either. I have done tramping and day work too and I prefer tramping. My day work was running redditch to Liverpool or Manchester or down to the top end of London. By the time I got up, commuted to work, did my shift and got home again, I would have about 3 hours for myself to eat, shower make supper and get my ■■■■ ready for the following day and what not, even less time if I had a hold up somewhere or a road closed or something. At least with tramping, I only had to commute once a week and saved a bucket on fuel costs and just had my week supply of food and the likes in a cooler and showered if I passed a service area. Plus it was nice to find a quiet spot to park with some nice scenery around and no to little traffic and just get my stove out and cook supper on the back of my unit or in the back of my trailer or something. To me, tramping is more living the dream in that respect. Being back home with the family is nice too but by the time I done all my ■■■■, I’d have about an hour if that before I had to go to bed again. It’s each to their own I guess and both tramping and day work have their own pros and cons.
I never cared where I was going as long as it was something new, obviously we used the same borders and custom compounds, it was different people, different problems and different times. Unfortunately anyone younger will never experience the same things, mobiles, parking, customers, police, health and safety, just in time, have changed the job.
Problem Cafe
Dos tomorrow’s
Tramping when done the wrong way can be a miserable existence…
Get with a good firm that don’t pester you and let you decide where to park etc then it can be quite fun…
I grew to hate my last tramping job mainly due to the firm I was with so got a local job on Containers with the occasional night out which I enjoy…got a young family now so never will I do it again,I just couldn’t leave them all week…
I love tramping but don’t plan to do it for many more years as two solid days at the weekend home at best just isn’t enough time to fit my activities and do family things.
Kinda feel sorry for the guys who have done it for decades and decades. What a waste of life.
I’ve split with the now ex, kids are teenagers and doing their own thing so for me being home every night and doing the same local runs just wouldn’t work. Having said that, I’m not a ‘proper’ tramper as I usually only do 2-3 nights out which suits me down to the ground.
I think all this “living the dream” stuff is meant a bit tongue in cheek. Given the choice of dreams I think you’ll find every single driver claiming such would prefer to be living the dream on a yacht in the Bahamas than a V8 scania on the M25 [emoji23]
The jobs always gonna be what you make it, I’m a solitary bugger at times but have had some memorable nights out tramping.
A nice balance between doing the job at my own pace, not getting over pressured, covering ones arse and parking up when I like without stretching everyday out to the max works for me.
I’ve been luckily in a way as I’ve still been able to be present for the key moments in my children’s lives, like when they took their first steps or the first time my daughter got arrested and I was even there to witness my son roll his first spliff. Although his mum did over charge him for the weed.
Horses for courses and perhaps Dozys threads are a good example of how not to do the job but each to their own.
43 years driving trucks / lorries etc. I started out doing night trunk work before going on days and being away from Monday to Friday. Then came Tesco and being home every day which bored the crap out of me to tell you the truth, then I had a complete change to doing exhibition, motor sports and hospitality work, sometimes being away for a month or more at a time, that cost me my second marriage. I came to the USA to ‘live the dream’ and it was more like ‘living the nightmare’. There is nothing dream like about driving trucks across the USA, I hate every second of it. Most companies here pay rubbish wages and complain if you even think about stopping for a shower 
I travelled the entire 48 lower states and nearly lost my third wife in the process, 6 to 8 weeks out and 1 day home for pittance pay doesn’t do it for me, now I work for probably the best and certainly the fairest paying transport company in the USA, I ma home every weekend and 1 or 2 nights during the week, I stick to the north eastern USA and eastern Canada and as far as I am concerned that’s too much, I can’t wait to retire … That to me will be living the dream my friends 
what is a great dream life anyway. ? local to me is a bakers shop guy, won the lottery gave the shop to an employee and took off round the world in a new fancy yacht .Bought 2 houses one in Asia one elsewhere i forget now . After a year or so he was 1.5 times round the world but bored silly and yearned for his old life. Couldnt take back his old shop so set up a new bakers shop in a unit in Tower Ramparts shopping centre in Ipswich . Far as i know is still in it 4yrs later
Perhaps I am odd, but when times were quiet in my original trade ( electrical engineering and HV ) in the early eighties I started driving for the old man part time , as growing up with hay and straw deliveries you went and got a class one licence straight off. By luck I found a woman who also had an HGV licence and when I had no electrical work we both drove, often double cabbing , and the biggest ever stroke of luck meant along came an absolute peach of a job which we did for 5 years straight Bristol - Malaga - Ipswich on a round robin, the money bought us a new F12 and paid off the mortgage it was great in those days !
BUT… MONEY WAS THE REASON , living in a cab long term was not my dream , the money was the motivator.
Now with no licence due to medical I am part time electrical engineering again, two days a week and I day dream of driving again, but it’s rose tinted as I make more now doing 2 days than I would in a cab in a week , that’s a reality of life…and the biggest stumbling block would be that ■■■■■■■ stupid dcpc.
Just for fun I sometimes think I might buy a show truck , but as the new motorhome turns up finally in August I doubt it, to many places to see , so the two days will become none !
One thing the heart problem and near death taught me more than anything.
FFS do what makes you happy TODAY , you may not see tomorrow.
We are all very different. I for one am a drifter, always have been, tried settling down and being home every night and found it soul destroying whereas for others it’s everything, there is no right answer. This week I started in Scrabster, I tip in a Spanish fish market later, load Bordeaux tomorrow then head back. This sort of work is what makes me happy whereas I know the uncertainty of it would be crushing for some. Each. To. Their. Own.
Oh and yes, I am living a dream, my childhood dream
I loved tramping back in the day, when I never knew if my next trip would be to Istanbul, Kiev or Bucharest but tramping in the UK just does my swede in so I packed up tramping two years ago after thirty-odd years at it. In a way though, I suppose what I do on my narrowboat nowadays isn’t too dissimilar in that it’s too hot in Summer and I have to ■■■■ in a container then empty it out afterwards. 
Ha,I will be living the dream after next month. Retirement and I cannot wait, although I enjoyed my younger years tramping mainly in UK when the roads were more pleasurable to drive on.
Have done varied work but will not be sad if I never drive a truck again. Plenty hobbies and luckily plenty dosh to keep me going for hopefully a while yet.Life’s been good but about to get a whole lot better! 
jakethesnake:
Ha,I will be living the dream after next month. Retirement and I cannot wait, although I enjoyed my younger years tramping mainly in UK when the roads were more pleasurable to drive on.
Have done varied work but will not be sad if I never drive a truck again. Plenty hobbies and luckily plenty dosh to keep me going for hopefully a while yet.Life’s been good but about to get a whole lot better!
Enjoy 
Years ago I used to tramp on container tanks and I used to love it. I worked for a small outfit but went to a large company for better money and better kit but it turned tramping into a bloody nightmare. The planners had no idea what they were doing and then spent the day calling you and asking where you were. After 10 years I gave up tramping and worked for local companies on fuel tankers and gas deliveries. Then I took a job off the road and never looked back for ten years until I got made redundant. I ended up back on the road driving for a grain company but found I was back doing what Id left the industry for. But now I work for a local tipper company and I can say I actually enjoy my driving again. I guess a lot of it depends on how the company treat you but tramping to me doesnt seem as much fun as it used to be.