So as this is a newbie forum i thought i would start a thread of what made you want to become a driver for the new and old among us… As it seems most of us have or knew family members that were or are drivers so what made you want to carry it on? For those that just wanted to drive what were your reasons?
For me yes in the past i had family members that were drivers like my grandad and my dad oh and my cousin that now is on the tippers for a local company in andover so i have always had it in the back of my mind that i want to drive for a living but as i was growing up i didnt have the funds to save and do it so when i left school with not many gcse i bummed about for a while doing the things teenagers do ie festivals partying partying. then to college to study mechanics which i have a nvq lvl 2 and then from job to job from cleaner to removal man to go kart marshall while never saving to do my dream as i had a feeling i would never get a job as being young…plus i was happy partying ha. but now fast forward a few years and now after packing in my job as a mechanic from the last 3 years to work for the CO-OP better pay less hours and know im saving like mad but we have a 6month old boy so saving alot is hard but anyway i seem to have gone off track. I want to drive not just for me but for my family, yes i know its hard but after time i will have a good job earning well hopefuly good money i dont want to have to worry month to month i want to put my son through uni and buy him things when hes older…
My ten year plan hopefully less but still = Good steady job , doing euro work, not worrying about money.
By then ill be 36 so fingers crossed for a better life for myself and family.
seems to be a rant rather then a question in to what made “you” want to drive…
Dan
I always put it down to a bump on the head i had as a kid 
Being slightly more serious, get a bit of experience and get to NZ at your age!
i would love to get over there im trying to drum it in to the wife but she wont have any of it and i couldnt leave them behind
My Mrs was too wrapped up in her family, well mainly her gran who was a smashing old lady. Now, she realises that she would have wanted what’s best for her and the rest are a bunch of no marks (apart from her dad), butit’s too late for us now.
Don’t let it pass you bye. A bit of constant bombardment on how this country is going is called for…
And if you’ve got kids even more ammo. What future for them!
ill keep trying but her family is everything to her aswell maybe one day… hey surely its never to late.
My Father and Uncle were drivers and the size of the things when I stand beside them still amazes me, and i still get a bit of excitement when i say “i can drive that!”
always loved driving , when i first passed my car test i was young free n single and on my days off (worked shiftsso would get midweek off every three weeks) would point the car in a direction and head for coast these were before the days of mobile phones and family and friends used to go mental at me for disappearing with no contact lol, always wanted to drive lorries as dad was a lorry driver and used to go out and help him in hols when was a kid crawling all over trailers helping him sheet up trying to tighten the dolly knots by using my body weight to swing them tight then me dad would come along and with a sharp pull would tighten em even more used to drive me round the bend , but got the bug , tried to save up for licences but rent food etc needed the money and then met my hubby started family so then money tight on mortgage kids etc so gave up and continued driving a taxi for a living so still driving ,then as things go get a bit more disposable income and then my hubby offered to pay for my hgv as a 40th birthday present to which i said was too old but he went ahead and booked it and the rest is as they say history , the job is not always rose tinted but you do get some fantastic days and never regretted it i still love the smell of a lorry and I try to explain to people why i love them but I cant I guess its the old saying its in my blood and nothing can change that maybe im a bit mad but im doing something I love to do and thats priceless these days , i wish my dad could have seen me get my licences he would have probably told me dont even go down that route but I know deep down he would have bin as proud as punch of me , Im proud to say I drive hgv and its a tick for my bucket list never regretted it once 
good luck to you and i hope in 20ish years time you can feel like I do now proud of meself
jx
What made me want to drive for a living?
I grew up on a South Birmingham council estate in the 70s and 80s. Most of the men in my street worked at Longbridge so I grew up listening to stories about spending 10 hours a day in a noisy windowless factoryand I really didn’t fancy that. There were day shift workers I knew who didn’t see daylight in the winter for weeks at a time.
As I got older it was obvious to me I’d never be the exam passing type or the sales rep type but I knew I didn’t want to work “indoors” as it were. When not in school I used to watch trucks and coaches on the main road and look at the signwriting on them, most were from outside Birmingham. I hated the estate and the idea of going to work and being able to escape the place and the people I grew up with constantly moaning about thier lot at “The Austin” drew me in. When we had work done at the school I got in trouble for watching the skip wagons and tippers on the site instead of working. One highlight of the week was the Alpine pop lorry coming round every friday night. Ok it was only a 7.5 tonne Ford D series but I loved seeing it and I was only about 10 so it was huge to me.
When I went into see the careers officer at school there were 2 leaflets on the table, one for “The Austin” and one for The Army. That’s the choice a boy from my area was given, we were conditioned to be fed into the infantry to be shot at or factories to be worn down until chucked out with a cheap watch and a bunch of flowers for the wife, then pension followed quickly by a pine box. I told Mr careers man I wanted niether option and wanted to be a driver, I wanted both HGV and PSV licences and I would never wear an Army uniform or a set of British Leyland overalls.
After leaving school I did various jobs until I turned 18 and went to West Midlands Travel to get my PSV and drive buses, ending up eventually driving the biggest double deck coaches on tours all over the UK and Europe. The HGV took a few years longer but I guess I’m a driver to the bone, I firmly believe you’re born to it, it’s either there or it isn’t.
If I lost my licences through health I’ve told the wife she might as well have me put down because I could never be an office/factory/warehouse drone, resistance is not futile 
AndyH71:
What made me want to drive for a living?
I grew up on a South Birmingham council estate in the 70s and 80s. Most of the men in my street worked at Longbridge so I grew up listening to stories about spending 10 hours a day in a noisy windowless factoryand I really didn’t fancy that. There were day shift workers I knew who didn’t see daylight in the winter for weeks at a time.
As I got older it was obvious to me I’d never be the exam passing type or the sales rep type but I knew I didn’t want to work “indoors” as it were. When not in school I used to watch trucks and coaches on the main road and look at the signwriting on them, most were from outside Birmingham. I hated the estate and the idea of going to work and being able to escape the place and the people I grew up with constantly moaning about thier lot at “The Austin” drew me in. When we had work done at the school I got in trouble for watching the skip wagons and tippers on the site instead of working. One highlight of the week was the Alpine pop lorry coming round every friday night. Ok it was only a 7.5 tonne Ford D series but I loved seeing it and I was only about 10 so it was huge to me.
When I went into see the careers officer at school there were 2 leaflets on the table, one for “The Austin” and one for The Army. That’s the choice a boy from my area was given, we were conditioned to be fed into the infantry to be shot at or factories to be worn down until chucked out with a cheap watch and a bunch of flowers for the wife, then pension followed quickly by a pine box. I told Mr careers man I wanted niether option and wanted to be a driver, I wanted both HGV and PSV licences and I would never wear an Army uniform or a set of British Leyland overalls.
thats pretty much the same for me as well even got the area right
I think I’m the only one from my family (that I know of) who drives trucks ! I just love driving, when I went to the army careers the sgt asked me what I was interested in I told him driving then he threw me an RLC brochure , I done all mine through the army so I was lucky 
especially only just turned 22 , some days like yesterday it doesn’t feel like a job , but then most days it does lol!! But I don’t plan on a career change anytime soon I only drive class 2 at the min occasionally class1 so hopefully in the near future ill be on class 1 all the time and not ■■■■■■■ and dumping like a slave !!
its my dads fault!
always spent a lot of time around trucks with my dad while groing up, didnt get the opportunity to meet my grandad, who drove for je churchill, a man responsible for one of the first loads of stone for the humber bridge !!
there are other family members that drive, and now have quite a few friends that drive.
one of wich i used to ride out with on wide loads, hiab and plant work on saturdays
im a mechanic by trade, and worked on trucks recently for mercedes.driving trucks round the yard reminded me of those days out with my dad, and made my mind up.like many, didnt have the money when i was younger, spent it all on chaved up nova’s and nights out!
now ive finally passed my class 2 and things have gotten in the way of my class 1.once i have wheeled and dealed my way to funding it, i WILL pass my class 1!!
loopyjuice:
[thats pretty much the same for me as well even got the area right
Must be something in the water in South Brum that makes us all want to GTFO as soon as we can
I failed my computer science degree. Best thing I ever did !
Dad is a coal merchant and has his own family business. Always been around wagons and loading shovels from a young age(smashed my head in the yard too at age 3 so could be that hard hit on the head lol)
I did well at school really(bit of an academic tbh)
Didnt get good enough results on my a levels to do a physics and education degree, then worked in an office for a bit and hated it.
so joined the ta to top up the wages and ended up on a full time contract in germany. Got put through my c, c+e and h within 3 months of being there (lucky aye) stayed there for 3 years.
I love driving but i’m in a bit of rut of a job at the moment. It pays well, I know what I’m doin all the time and have a decent truck but the boredom has kicked in after 18months so I’m looking about.
Would love to give a go at heavy haulage, but have no experience of moving plant or oversized loads( I pull a double decker every night but thats the biggest thing I put my hand to lol!)
I shall keep searching and trying. But I can’t see me doing anything else.
Anyhows I’ve got plenty of time to look around by the time I reach 60 retirement age will be 85 lol!
(Sorry for the essay )
AndyH71:
loopyjuice:
[thats pretty much the same for me as well even got the area right
Must be something in the water in South Brum that makes us all want to GTFO as soon as we can
very true
so which part are you from then, i started at woodgate valley am now over west heath
loopyjuice:
AndyH71:
loopyjuice:
[thats pretty much the same for me as well even got the area right
Must be something in the water in South Brum that makes us all want to GTFO as soon as we can
very true
so which part are you from then, i started at woodgate valley am now over west heath
Bit of a roamer really. Born in Good Hope Hospital in Sutton in 1971 (that was still in Warwickshire then) and lived in Great barr until my parents split up in 78. We then ended up in Rubery in a flat next door to one that was the venue for a police seige/shooting before moving to Northfield. When old enough I went to live with my Dad in Sutton, stayed there until I bought my own place in Wolverhampton so I could be nearer to work. When I met the wife we rented a flat in Balsall Heath 
before getting a house in Erdington. We left Birmingham in 02 for rural Northamptonshire and intend to stay here for good.
The wife is a King’s Norton girl so she grew up not far from you.
Like I said, I’ve roamed a fair bit.
I’m sorry to say this, but the reasons I became a driver are mostly the reasons why I wouldn’t become one now.
I can condense most of these into the evolution of the microchip.