Could turn into an interesting thread this,and my suggestion of 40 years is only for “guidence” as lets say a varience of 5 years either side of 40 should give enough flexibility to produce some interesting results I would guess,now come on,who’s going to kick this thread off ? Cheers Bewick.
I was almost 18 and had my very first driving job. I drove a Ford Transit for A J Letts in Northampton delivering shoe repair supplies around an 80 mile radius. That van seemed like a monster to me after learning to drive in an Austin 1300. I had held my licence for about 4 weeks before applying and getting the job, it stood me in good stead for my life and taught me to use side mirrors to reverse.
My wage was 15 quid a week.
40 ish years ago, february 1970 i was just starting my first driving job with DENTS OF SPENNYMOOR
4 days local then down the road to manchester and liverpool and back loaded out of birkenhead
a thames trader, aye bye gum, those were the days 
regards alan
40 years ago i got the boot because my foden was 3mph faster than the bosses son’s atki and i dared to pass him on the motorway , so i became spare night driver delivering mushrooms . 7 drops per night , guaranteed £52 as i was also spare class 1 driver , but i never had to touch an artic , cheers , dave
Driving a Commer Karrier for Bradford Council and waiting for a year to come so I could take my HGV test at the ripe old age of 21. Memories most good a few bad!
1972,aye,after 5 years on general and market work I had been at A E Evans for three years and had a Mandator JWW 896D ex LPG Morley and I were chuffed to bits.Sth Wales,Scotland,Thames,Merseyside and Teessside were general haunts,wherever tank farms were.Southampton,Whitehaven,Felixstowe,Immingham all in the same pot.I would probably be on a dodgy night out tonight this time 40 years ago,wagon on t’Oakamoor cafe A38,booked off at Tweeksbury(sorry Tewkesbury) on t’log book,loaded for E.Port from Baglan Bay,and log booked to Sheffield courtesy of Brian Harris -ex Harris and Miners or maybe another one from the South West running North East on a sunday afternoon.
Anon
Dennis would be counting his money. 
Anonagain
In 1972 I would running around in either of these two wagons
A very boring answer from me I was just starting primary school.
I was driving this Scammell I got new in 1970 on Shell contract but why the TIR on the tank i don’t know. It was never needed.
Having served my time as a HGV mechanic for 6yrs from 1962 for a company who ran Dodge tippers I decided to get more experiance working on other vehicles and in 1972 @ the age of 25 I was working for another tipper firm in manchester J Biesty Ltd who ran a mixture of lorries- Leyland Comets Albion Rievers Scammell Routemans Bedford KMs and one or two D series Fords working all the hours god sent to have them out on the road the following day,mainly good memories just a few bad ones.Also in 72 I had been married for 2yr and had a 1yr old son who is now a lorry driver(but to him its just a job)he dosent have the same interest in them has we older ones seem to have.Glad I was about in them distant days because I dont think I would cope with the rat race of today.
An attendee at Moseley Hall Grammar Skewl…
I had just turned 21 so would still be working at Morris Garages in Reading repairing BMC FJ’s, FFK’s, FHK, FGK, LD, EA, JU etc etc! 
One of the best times of my life, just I didn’t realise it at the time. 
Pete.
Still recovering from the accident I had 41 years ago.
I was 14, the Ouse Bridge on the M62 was going to be built by Redpath Dorman Long, at the Eastern end there was another company called Budge from Retford (UK Coal) They were responsible for the concrete section from North Cave to Howden Spur. My dad had a pub that was frequented by a company called Chiswick Tippers. We also had a couple of lodgers who worked for Budge as site foreman and works agent, so I got a job and beer money.
Mr Budge used to bring me a wage packet every Friday and all I really did was drive a knackered ■■■■■■ van up and down the site. I was at school or should have been but I probably didn’t go enough 
Another one of my tasks was to change wheels at the site shed in Eastrington or occasionally take them down site, for this I used a 4 wheel rigid tipper called a Haulamatic. Long before construction cards and classrooms were thought of I was a boy in a mans world.
I often came home to a broken window or a police car as one the Irish lads had a disagreement in the pub. One such argument led to the destruction of an Hotel window in Howden as a Chiswick Tipper driver drove his 8 wheel Foden through because the landlady had spurned his advances
40 years ago i was still playing with my toy corgi lorries
I was a mechanic at the Scania agents, B+W motors in Wolverhampton.
1970-80 working my way through this lot,a good cross section of bsc lorries,marathon was my favourite–alan
Evening Gentlemen, Dennis, you just have the knack, dont you. A full day post and rail fencing, just in for a shower, then a roast chicken dinner, (one of ours, not a Tesco), and you start another trip down memory lane! Oh dear, well according to my old diaries, Jan 72, severe reprimand from "my Director", reason upsetting a major fleet customer. Why? well this operator, based in sunny Stoke on Trent, had agreed a deal with young Saviem on a couple of 180 Gardner Atkinson units, two part exchanges, ERFs. Where is the problem? Well, with this operator I had previous experience where what I had valued, was not what I received when delivering the new units! Normally the good tyres had been swapped for worn ones, and the value was consequently depreciated. What to do? easy, I used to dodge underneath, and with a bit of indellible chalk, write my initials on each tyres inside wall. Then when the new delivery was effected, and tyres were not as valued, then I would go in search of the "proper ones". If I found them, great, if I did not, well if the operator really wanted the lorry, we re=negotiated, or I went and sold it to someone else! Now, in the instance I recall, the operator saw me emerging from under one of the ERFs, and asked, (in a very direct manner), what I was doing! How could I lie? He was furious, and became a very "Wilde" operator . Hence the reprimand from my Director!You know selling lorries was great fun, I loved it , I had started five years before, having decided that living behind the windscreen of one of the familys "Micky Mouse" Fodens, (despite the wonderful vistas of France and Italy), was not to be my future. But selling lorries on commission was not a stable income for a new family man. No problem, the Black Country was alive with work. One day , at lunchtime, my "Director", espised me taking a sandwich from the top layer inside a sliced bread wrapper. "Young man, thy new wife is feeding thou up like a Tunkey Pig", he said. What he did not know was that at leaving time, (when all was done and dusted), I was away to Dudley to pick up a Seddon unit, thence to Cape Hill, (M&B Brewery), full load to Yeovil, empties back to Cape Hill, home , wash, back to work selling lorries!! The sliced bread wrapper contained not only my lunch, tea, midnight dinner, and breakfast! It was not always beer, steel, bricks, concrete pipes, HP Sauce, Sanitry Towels, Ive carried the lot! Atkinsons, Seddons, Ergo Leylands, AECs, Dodges, BMCs, Denniss, I loved to drive them! (and it kept us afloat), and I made great and lasting friendships. Five years later I was sitting looking at a very grey and gloomy rain swept river Seine, from the window of my little corner of our Suresnes office, wondering with trepidation, what my new job in Lyon would bring, would the Berliet people be ok, and in many ways longing for the security of the Black Country. Dennis, youve started yet another good thread, (and not an 8LXB Guy in site)!! Really looking forward to every ones recollections, Cheerio for now, (roast chicken, and Bollinger beckon), and I`ve yet to clean up!