What motivated you to become a trucker 
Was it for the money
Was it for the freedom of the open road
Or you wanted to be a trucker since you was we boy/girl
And now the other question
Do you regret it
And if you could make the job better what one thing would you do
delboytwo:
What motivated you to become a truckerWas it for the money
Was it for the freedom of the open road
Or you wanted to be a trucker since you was we boy/girlAnd now the other question
Do you regret it
And if you could make the job better what one thing would you do
I can remember the occasion as clear as day. It would be some time around 1988/89 when my dad turned up one afternoon at home when I would have been about 4 or 5 with an E reg DAF2800, which I obviously eagerly climbed in to and from that moment onwards wanted to be a truck driver and spent every possible moment travelling with him in his subsequent trucks. I passed my test at 21 and held my dad’s boss to his word about a job when I passed my test, something he’d been saying to me since the age of 8 or 9 and spent 3 and a half years driving all around the UK and western Europe. In 2009 I used that experience to move across to Canada for a new adventure and I’ve seen some wonderful sights along the way and wouldn’t change it for a thing. I dont regret becoming a truck driver in the slightest, sometimes its hard being away but the job is what you make it and there is such a diversity of work available under the umberlla of “truck driving” that if one job doesn’t suit, there will be many others that will. The one thing I do hate about it is the ever increasing about of regulations, rules and red tape. North America is nowhere near as bad as Europe but it’ll slowly go that way. Thats the one thing I’d change about the job if I had a magic wand. Driving a truck doesn’t need to be so complicated, yet the rule book seems to be getting thicker than your average encycopedia and a driver needs to be a graduate of a law school to fully understand it all.
What motivated you to become a trucker = failed at school
Was it for the money = what money?
Was it for the freedom of the open road = where? we not talking UK here are we?
Or you wanted to be a trucker since you was we boy/girl = I had better aspirations!
And now the other question
Do you regret it = No! trucking is a hobby money type income for me.
And if you could make the job better what one thing would you do = build more cycle lanes!
divorce left me borrasic, had my Class 1, needed money 
Got made redundant and phoned the number for free training on the bus.
As soon as I started there I wondered wtf I had done, a driver said “I think I will go back to trucks as the load doesn`t talk back to you”, so I saved like hell and took his advice and he was still there when I never showed back up one day. lol
I detested that job.
Never gave a lorry a second glance before that.
Got class two and discovered that while I was constantly getting hand ball stuff, class one drivers were having a wee snooze.
So got that and now I am perfectly happy. lol
I love working myself though, lots of time for thinking about crap, hate talking till I am fully awake too, which can take hours. lol
Did loads of other jobs with less hours, but I can honestly say when I get into a daydream a 12 hour shift flies in but every other job I had I was constantly clock watching.
No romance in it for me, if I was rich I would hire a chauffeur, its just a job to me.
delboytwo:
What motivated you to become a truckerWas it for the money
Was it for the freedom of the open road
Or you wanted to be a trucker since you was we boy/girlAnd now the other question
Do you regret it
And if you could make the job better what one thing would you do
I’ve always wanted to be a trucker ever since I was a boy going everywhere with my uncle, but never got fount to doing it til earlier this year I was sick of tyre fitting and I’m enjoying the job money could be better and hate the auto box on the daf xf but other than that its all good
It was the Free knickers i got with my license 
Like earlier posters, thanks to my Dad. He was a carpenter since school, then decided to change jobs in the mid 70s. He did his class 1 with Slater’s Transport in Yorkshire, and spent a couple of years driving a Foden between Harwich Navyard & Vauxhall at Luton. When that contract ended, he changed to a company at Colchester, driving Scanias. He ended up doing the weekly Germany run in a 141, until he came off the road a few years later, when the euro work dried up and he ended up doing 8AMs in the North.
From the first time I sat in the Foden, I knew that I wanted to drive a lorry one day - I got my chance in Germany when I was 9 - Dad was in the office getting paperwork, and the loaders wanted the lorry pulled forward 3 feet or so (side-loading, and there was a concrete bollard in the way). They encouraged me to try, so I did - just how far can a Scania jump when you take your foot straight off the clutch!!! 
Fast forward 30 years - I’ve been to Grammar School, got a good education, good qualifications, and started a career with BT, then re-trained as a sparky, and finally done my class 1. Now driving lorries daily, and enjoying it immensely. Will I do it for the rest of my life? Probably not, but I would hope to be involved in transport in some way, shape or form, and will certainly keep my licence current for as long as I can.
Gary
I was leaving the army, the money was a lot better than what I was getting and I figured that no matter whatever happened, people would always need food etc that would always need a lorry journey at some point.
I always wanted to know how it felt to be an abused second class citizen on low pay having to work long hours whilst living in conditions that a tramp would turn down!
always liked the idea of driving , but foot & mouth & ever more lack of work on farms , i decided to take my HGV, trucks in the winter , tractors in the summer , i finished ploughing one autumn , got on a truck for the winter & never got back off 
My dad was a lorry driver and I used to go out with him whenever I got the chance. I loved every minute of it and knew that’s what I wanted to do when I was old enough. Still do enjoy it but not as much as when I was a 10 year old in the passenger seat.
One thing I could never wait for was to drive a Scania that everyone seemed to rave about. My dad never had a Scania, usualy ERF’s or MAN’s. Have to say I was slightly disappointed when I got my first drive in one. Couldn’t and still can’t understand what all the fuss is about Scanias.
I just wanted to drive lorry’s / trucks/ When I was in my late teens I used to drive the car on the motorway maybe going for a drive with a girlfriend after finishing work. It’d be 6pm or so and I’d look at the trucks as I’d pass them and think to myself “These are the night lads just heading out on their run”, little did I know they were the lads who’d started at 4.30am and still had an hours work to do. I used to program computers and could have gone down that road, but stupid ■■■ me went this way. This job is getting worse week by week now though.
delboytwo:
What motivated you to become a truckerWas it for the money
Was it for the freedom of the open road
Or you wanted to be a trucker since you was we boy/girlAnd now the other question
Do you regret it
And if you could make the job better what one thing would you do
Get rid of agencies
Get rid of umbrella companies
Get rid of tracking systems
Get rid of automatic gearboxes (even though I quite like them I think they dumb down the job)
Get rid of the RT(WT)R break and night time working regulations, and the 48 hour average week.
Get rid of managed motorways, at-least until they’re managed properly.
Get rid of the notion that straps are always good and ropes are always badBasically I’d return the job to where it was in the 70s but with better lorries
What motivated you to become a trucker
Was it for the money Yes, I like being paid, and trucks pay more than Big Macs.
Was it for the freedom of the open road To a certain extent
Or you wanted to be a trucker since you was we boy/girl No, since I was a car salesman and I saw the guy going up and down the +11s delivering the cars. Got the chance to take my own car off the transporter, (the last car before the peak deck) and thought, errgh, thats scary. I WANT TO HAVE A GO!
And now the other question
Do you regret it Not at all, the hours are long, the pay is crap compared to what my step dad was on about five years ago and the bosses tend to be idiots. The problem is, despite all of this, I can turn up to work in a foul mood, do the necessary and head out to the unit. When i hit the button and the lights flash, the world is right. (Now if only I could find a woman that has the same effect.)
And if you could make the job better what one thing would you do
Shoot the contract supervisor, somewhere painful so it will take a while for him to die.
Pass a law banning speed limiters which are not set to 56. Those Tosco units can be dangerous.
i qualified as a computer programmer and electronics engineer.
couldn’t [zb]ing stand it. my parents didn’t want me to be a hgv driver, but i did.
i always wanted to. my grandad had his own firm, i used to go to spain with my brother. i got the bug.
i love driving trucks, it’s what i do, and i’m good at it.
C.W.McCall with his hit record Convoy , as a youngster i bought this record and played it to death , it painted a picture of a man doing a mans job in a mans world i was inspired by the final line " let them truckers roll 10 4 " still makes my hair curl where i hear it.
i would get rid of Bristol , it is a complete waste of space and is between my depot and the midlands , the amount of agro that place causes me with delays etc is unbelievable
From being knee high to a grass hopper its all i ever wanted to do.My dad always said if you ever drive a truck i will kick your arse! He never did but wasnt pleased when i said i was going to do it.I totally regret ever doing it theres a couple of pluses about the job but thats it!I have had numerous jobs pulling most sorts of loads/trailers but i came back to bulk for me its the best work and its what i grew up with.Sod your rdcs etc.I now work for a farmer who has five trucks and its the best job i have ever had but thats the difference i dont work for a haulier where you are treat like ■■■■.I was once told theres only two jobs in this world where you get done for trying to earn an honest living and thats driving trucks or being a prostitute,how right he is!The job wont ever get any better as hauliers dont give a toss if you have a life etc.You will do it or theres the door attiutde should have gone years ago.The one thing i would change is the cars drivers perception of a truck driver by making everyone who wants a car license take a lesson in a truck!
tamarman:
i would get rid of Bristol , it is a complete waste of space …
I really did Laugh Out Loud. (not LOL, I can spell). Thats getting added to my sig. Fantastic line.
I always wanted to be a trucker, but for many years and many reasons, never took the plunge. It was getting into part-time agency work, driving 7.5’s and vans that got me going. I’ve had my class1 for 7 and a half years now, and been full time in my present job for just a few days short of 5 years. Generally speaking, I did the right thing, I don’t think I have enough working years left to get blase about it, perish the thought. I more than doubled my money by getting this job, so thats a definite plus. Yes, I have my bad days, and the winter nights aren’t too very attractive, but hey, theres no one with a gun pointed at me telling me thats what I have to do.
On reflexion, I’m glad now that I came to it when I did. If I’d been a life long trucker, I think that I’d be mightily ■■■■■■ off with it by now, with all the new bull-■■■■ and regulations, I think that as I know no different thers not so much comparrison, until I talk to an old timer, that is.
