Job is zb??
Maybe, but I bet it probably can still get worse no doubt…?
F-reds:
For me its simple, I’m practically minded, so I enjoy the precision of driving a largeish vehicle(its only Class ■■■) and being challenged to solve the problems of getting the Green Stuff from load bed to garden as quickly and efficiently as possible.I like my own company, and I especially like attending F-reds University, one day a week an educational something gets piped directly from stereo to ears, and hopefully some of it trickles into my brain.
I look at my friends, who all earn more money than I do, and I feel a twinge of envy, but then I remember that actually I have always dreaded being in an office, and being a drone…
Remind me, why am I giving it up again?
Because while you know being an office drone isn’t for you, until you actually do it, you’ll never know! 
As for why I do it, i’m not breaking my balls for the wage I earn…
I’d like to be paid more for the responsibility, long days and regular randomly enforced overtime, but who wouldn’t? 
erm
nothing…
Passed HGV Class 1 May 1987 whilst on agency, sorry limping or whatever it is referred to now? Went from car licence to HGV 1 (C+E) at the second attempt.
Got full time job 6 weeks later with the ink still wet on the licence (brown book) and I was green. £2.84 time, £4.26 time and a half and £5.68 double time. Based South London. General Haulage with 3 to 5 nights out every week at £15.00 per night.
Over the last 29 years, I have tried everything to earn money driving. The stories I have to tell may be worthy of a few pages on here or my own book.
Driving is all I know how/what to do. Left skool with nothing.
I have bought and paid for the house, a few cars and a few nice holidays and one or two other bits. Still live in South London.
Forget driving as a means to earn money.
Retirement beckons but according to the government it will be at least 2032 before I am eligible to collect my state pension or whatever might be left of it?
Harry Monk:
Back in the day you could do long-distance trips to the end of Europe and beyond, I wouldn’t get into the job now if I was the age I was then. I used to love the job, now I absolutely hate it and just do the minimum amount of agency work possible to pay essential bills. Neither of my kids are remotely interested in driving a truck, they’ve both got more sense.
The stuff that attracted me to the job has mostly all gone.
Freedom has gone due to phones trackers etc.
Long gone are the days when you left the office on a Monday telling the boss you would ring him at end of week, then set off using your own initiative for the whole time, instead of some little sh hassling you on the phone all day. If that aint enough to put you off,… some are actually putting up with a camera watching them constantly in the cab
(Incidentally, how tf did that ever come about without drivers kicking off about it. )
The days when drivers would socialise on nights away (another attraction to me after going off with mates) have also nearly died out in favour of the work/sleep pattern, and to cap it all the sleep part in some ■■■■ hole of a lay by 
… is that a job or an endurance test.
Unlike Harry I don’t hate the job by any means…, maybe partly because I have not succumbed to the method of doing my job in the last paragraph, but try and make it as easy and pleasant as I can…and I manage.
My boys also have not followed me into the job, surprising as they both spent a lot of time away with me, but I managed to talk them out of it.
Would I do it again? Knowing what I know now maybe not.
Given the ridiculous long days coupled with inadequate wages, and the points I have made it does not paint a rosy picture to any new potential driver.
For me its the ease of the work i have pulling tilts/reefers from southern Spain to Calais return. Sometimes half loaded and pick up in Madrid/S.O.F enroute, plus (mostly) the warm dry weather and being an O/D dont have a big brother watching over me…
The job is like everything else in our society, done! Owning your own truck is as distant a dream as owning your own house for anyone under 40 these days (unless you’ve got family backing) and even being a paye driver is all but done. The good companies are dwindling down to being counted on fingers, and you really need to look elsewhere if you want any semblance of a social life. Decent parking facilities disappear all the time, you struggle to find a decent meal for less than half your night out money, so no real advantage financially or health wise to doing nights out anymore. Now if you cook in the cab, and park on an industrial estate you will be taxed on your allowances because you can’t prove the expense. This industry has become one big joke to be honest.
But to return to the question of what’s good in the industry■■? Er, um, well… most trucks have an iPod connection now, and you can listen to what you want on the radio.
As I’ve stated before
Nearly two years ago I hung up the keys to focus on becoming a carer for a parent with dementia which in itself was a tough decision to do. I had regular and varied work as a limper earning £30K+ a year, so going down to £62 a week was in itself a hard pill to swallow.
That aside I like many had the Ltd Co and was doing well with all the benefits etc. I originally had the view that after a year or two I would return to the job as before, but as time has passed it’s given me time to reflect on the future and how the industry is progressing, I’m still in contact with many former workmates, I read the trade magazines and read the banter on TNUK etc. But as time passes and the longer I’m out the less the rose tinted glasses fit, the taxman is wanting more, the hauliers are monitoring every move you make, you risk your licence every time you drive out the yard, and the attraction of returning to the job is less and less as each week passes. Having been in previous careers where I was working excessive hours, and each time I’ve got out and took stock vowing I’d be happier with just the simpler things in life only to return to find myself doing it again. However now I’m much older I have most of the stuff in life to hand I worked excessively for, I’m healthier, happier, I have money in my pocket so maybe it IS time I stepped back to enjoy life. IF I ever decide to do some driving again I suspect it will be as a limper doing a few days a week just to bring in a little income to pay for a few beers etc, leaving me without the stress of being overly concerned about the profit margins of the haulier, the race to the bottom, and the dumbing down of the job.
Sounds like when you’re comparing the ‘good’ old days to today…
These days, you’re just an expendable piece of meat on a seat, and so when the new meat comes to take your place, they don’t realise they’re paid less each time they get ‘renewed’…
‘A race to the bottom’…■■
It’ll then be automated / driverless trucks next, since automated cars are now near enough here…
I’ve just spent the last 4 weeks back in the office, it’s open plan and I share it with 8 other people including my manager, the temperature in the office is preset, too hot for some too cold for others, the radio is set to a local commercial station and is so quiet you can hardly hear it, but from experience of working in other offices actually having a radio is unusual, I spend most of my days trying not to fall asleep or trying to get out in the van, ok so it’s only an 8.5 hour day but it drags far more than a day in a truck.
The truck driving part of my job is often the best bit, on my own driving through Europe, running to my own schedule, as long as I’m where I should be when I should be there nobody cares how it was done.
But I know from my experience of doing general haulage this is rare, I’ve had the maxed out hours jobs and constant phone calls wanting to know if you’re going to make the delivery point on time, even though the reason the truck is running late isn’t down to the way I’ve done the job.
But saying that I’ve also had some pretty good haulage jobs, where the boss was relaxed and you were left to get the job done, but sadly once the big players see somebody with a nice little contract that means everybody does ok, they come in cut the price, in the hope that the profit will come from pushing the drivers harder or cutting their pay.
Whats good about the job, for most probably very little, but that can be said for many jobs.
in what other profession could you lie in your bed watching the telly and let the prozzies come to you instead of having to prowl about red light areas wasting your own petrol,? plenty of room in the back for the rolled up rug and shovel,a bit of light gardening and off in the morning to pastures new…the job was great before mobiles and trackers,rdc and 24/7 operations.now your just a bum in a seat with nothing to entice anyone but the usual freedom of the road dream,which soon turns into reality for the newbie brainwashed Tosco type plobbers that don’t know any better…logistics cannon fodder.
Lucy:
I’ve spent most of this morning sitting here trying to think of reasons why people SHOULD become wagon drivers for part of a feature on the subject I’m supposed to be writing.
Why only write about the positive reasons when surely you should be writing a balanced piece showing the pro’s and the cons.
The good thing about the job now, is that it is just like any other job, there is a clear divide between work and home. You can start at 4am and be home before the afternoon rush hour, have a few hours and a meal with the family and a night in your own bed.
Every other industry; plumbers, electricians, mechanics, fitters, office staff, even doctors, have had their job dumbed down and every action critised in the name of lowering their wage to maximise profit margins. The only difference is that some, like doctors, have good union representation to restrict that wage loss; and others didn’t pay for any training as it was supplied by a college/yts/apprenticeship.
parkus:
The good thing about the job now, is that it is just like any other job, there is a clear divide between work and home. You can start at 4am and be home before the afternoon rush hour, have a few hours and a meal with the family and a night in your own bed.
Only if you are a dayman or ‘playing at it’ as I prefer to call it.
Being a tramper or a ‘proper trucker’ is a whole different ball game and more a way of life than a job.
I can see more people being attracted to day work than tramping nowadays, due to the ■■■■ poor conditions us proper truckers ( ) have to put up with.
Tongue firmly in cheek (apart from the obvious bits of course) …so don’t bother biting 
)
parkus:
The good thing about the job now, is that it is just like any other job, there is a clear divide between work and home. You can start at 4am and be home before the afternoon rush hour, have a few hours and a meal with the family and a night in your own bed.Every other industry; plumbers, electricians, mechanics, fitters, office staff, even doctors, have had their job dumbed down and every action critised in the name of lowering their wage to maximise profit margins. The only difference is that some, like doctors, have good union representation to restrict that wage loss; and others didn’t pay for any training as it was supplied by a college/yts/apprenticeship
You could say a tramper has a clear divide between work and home, just it’s a longer period between getting home. But if the point you are trying to make is that many lorry drivers spend a week or more away from home, then there are plenty of other people whose job means they don’t get home everyday, I regularly stay in B&B’s and hotels, and during the week most others people staying thee will be there because of work and talking to a few of them in the past sometimes they won’t go home on a weekend because it’s a 6 day a week job and the time it would take to get home would mean they basically spent most of Sunday driving.
But you’re right it seems to be getting worse for many workers, not just truck drivers.
“Why SHOULD anyone in their right mind choose lorry driving for a living?”
because my grandad did it.
because my dad did it.
because my first wife’s dad did it.
because my current wife’s dad did it.
and I’ve done it since 1977
am I in my right mind ■■
is it truck driving in the blood or insanity in the family ■■
With good fortune (not always though!) you can start early and rattle most of your work off before the idiots get on the road, and then get back home by mid afternoon. Unless you are hourly paid of course which could be a different matter. The time passes rapidly as well, better than ‘clock watching’ in an office.
Pete.
If you didn’t pay much attention at school it’s better than flipping burgers at mc Donalds and not as physically demanding as labouring on a building site.
You don’t have someone sitting next to you which I like too.
Stanley Knife:
Lucy:
I’ve spent most of this morning sitting here trying to think of reasons why people SHOULD become wagon drivers for part of a feature on the subject I’m supposed to be writing.Why only write about the positive reasons when surely you should be writing a balanced piece showing the pro’s and the cons.
Because the whole point of this feature is to balance out some of the more negative ones which will have come before it. Besides which, who’s to say I won’t be pointing out that posting here to ask for positives this time just got me more of the same misery?
Thanks all. Keep it coming…
Lucy:
Stanley Knife:
Lucy:
I’ve spent most of this morning sitting here trying to think of reasons why people SHOULD become wagon drivers for part of a feature on the subject I’m supposed to be writing.Why only write about the positive reasons when surely you should be writing a balanced piece showing the pro’s and the cons.
Because the whole point of this feature is to balance out some of the more negative ones which will have come before it. Besides which, who’s to say I won’t be pointing out that posting here to ask for positives this time just got me more of the same misery?
Thanks all. Keep it coming…
Did you really expect a load of drivers to come on here gushing about great the job is, how they love it?
Maybe the RHA and FTA and the rest of the Industry who believe they can solve the problems of recruitment and retention of lorry drivers by gimmicky schemes should spend a bit of time reading these threads and then try to do something about it.
…