Just do what I do Juddian, keep my head down, look after no1 (as there is zero chance of drivers becoming One to improve things for all) and just both laugh, and view in contempt the robots and ■■■■ whits.
If ever there is a revolution to banish the latter from the job, I will be up front somewhere, I’ll start with lynching those ■■■■ who cut in on you when overtaking, those who keep you out in the middle lane when you let them out,… then I’ll start looking at those culprits who insist on driving in a hi viz 
Admittedly new to the game, but for me the feeling of heading home empty at the back after a day of misery on the roads and ■■■■■■■ 150kg carpets around building sites and driving 18 miles out my way to deliver 1 bucket of adhesive, knob head customers and transport on my back for eta,s, 3 hour wait to get tipped and dinner in a lay by being rocked by artics for 46 minutes, the driving home empty part knowing I’m done for the day and all being said and done know one is hurt or no goods damaged, it’s a very good feeling doing an honest days work- and if it’s just before the start of my weekly rest double winner.
Alfa1M:
Admittedly new to the game, but for me the feeling of heading home empty at the back after a day of misery on the roads and ■■■■■■■ 150kg carpets around building sites and driving 18 miles out my way to deliver 1 bucket of adhesive, knob head customers and transport on my back for eta,s, 3 hour wait to get tipped and dinner in a lay by being rocked by artics for 46 minutes, the driving home empty part knowing I’m done for the day and all being said and done know one is hurt or no goods damaged, it’s a very good feeling doing an honest days work- and if it’s just before the start of my weekly rest double winner.
Sounds a bit like banging your head a against a brick wall, because you enjoy the feeling of relief when you stop.
muckles:
Alfa1M:
Admittedly new to the game, but for me the feeling of heading home empty at the back after a day of misery on the roads and ■■■■■■■ 150kg carpets around building sites and driving 18 miles out my way to deliver 1 bucket of adhesive, knob head customers and transport on my back for eta,s, 3 hour wait to get tipped and dinner in a lay by being rocked by artics for 46 minutes, the driving home empty part knowing I’m done for the day and all being said and done know one is hurt or no goods damaged, it’s a very good feeling doing an honest days work- and if it’s just before the start of my weekly rest double winner.Sounds a bit like banging your head a against a brick wall, because you enjoy the feeling of relief when you stop.
Or the feeling of losing a wallet where you’ve just poured a fresh 200 notes into only to find it half an hour later, well worth 29 minutes of stress and tantrums
Dear Lucy
You do seem to have issues as to where you want to be. I did consider writing for CM an honour…back when and
thoroughly enjoyed it and no, I did not require a ‘help out’ merely relied on my own experiences which I transferred
onto paper, you obviously have an insufficient number to count upon but relax you are not alone in that press empire.
And what you ask is good about this job…the reasons run into thousands but why don’t you just fill another 4 pages
with ‘shiny trucks’ T&D’s usual format.
The Boss
I was working in a quarry and waste transfer station fixing the trucks and plant in the early '90s when the boss offered to pay for my HGV lessons and test up front if I paid it back a bit each week so I could cover for the skip and tipper drivers when they were off. A week of lessons and straight in to a C+E test and I was now a mechanic/driver paying back £600 at £50 a week.
I’m over 50 now and, financially, I don’t need to work full time.
Truck driving’s the only thing I’ve got qualifications for, and it’s also the only job where employers are interested when I say I only want to work three days a week, so there wasn’t much choice really.
I’ve got a job with a family firm on a zero hours contract, which suits me. I’m currently doing two 5 day weeks night trunking for the Palletline side, but I normally do 3 days either on Palletline multidrop in an artic, multidrop in a rigid, general haulage in an artic, or inspections and taking trucks for MOT in the workshop .
I reckon I’ll stick at it. The only thing I’d change is maybe having a few months off in the summer and working five day weeks in the winter if I could.
In short, what’s good about the job?
The qualification was relatively quick and cheap to obtain, when I did it.
It pays better than jobs that don’t need any sort of qualification.
I can more or less pick and choose which days I work.
robroy:
What’s with all this [zb] ing in the hedge ■■■■■■■■, can I just distance myself from all this stereotype crap.I’ve tramped for more years than I want to admit, but can never remember [zb] ing in a [zb] hedge.
Our reputation is in shreds as it is, people who are non drivers dip into this forum, keep things real and speak for yourselves, we are not all [zb] low life socially inept members of the underclass just because we live in trucks.
ffs.
Although you didnt quote me, it was related to an earlier post re the hedge antics.
I havent driven in the UK for a number of years now but can vividly recall pretty disgusting behaviour in plenty of uk laybys, many drivers using the side of the truck or the adjacent field to ■■■■/crap in. Couple this with the many out of shape fried egg and bean slurping scruffy drivers still about (no not everyones like it) and this is the stereotypical image the general public has of truck drivers sadly.
Its rarely seen on the continent partly to do with the hugely superior facilities on offer especially on the French autoroutes (Aires) which even offer clothe washing facilities in the outside sinks ect. The fight for better UK facilities has been a long one but from what i see/ read it just gets worse…
muckles:
Did you really expect a load of drivers to come on here gushing about great the job is, how they love it?
No. 
I was going to ignore this one, but sod it, I’m asking for your input so it’s only fair to return the favour.
Armagedon:
Dear Lucy
You do seem to have issues as to where you want to be.
Yes and no, but since I no longer have a choice we work with the hand we have been dealt.
I did consider writing for CM an honour…back when and
thoroughly enjoyed it and no, I did not require a ‘help out’ merely relied on my own experiences which I transferred
onto paper, you obviously have an insufficient number to count upon but relax you are not alone in that press empire.
Not at all, but since I’m not writing purely as a columnist I tend to assume people would rapidly get bored of hearing about me - hell, I’d rapidly have got bored writing about me! No-one could make a full-time income working like that anyway - there’s a limit to how much you could get commissioned. Pieces about your own life work fine when you’re a hobbyist, but not for the long term.
And what you ask is good about this job…the reasons run into thousands but why don’t you just fill another 4 pages
with ‘shiny trucks’ T&D’s usual format.
The Boss
Because that’s not the brief I’m writing to. But then, if you’ve written features for magazines you’d know that, wouldn’t you?
Thanks everyone, by the way. This thread has played out pretty much as I expected - it’s always better to have quotes from a range of people saying what you suspect to be the case rather than just hoping people will believe you, though.
I’m also working on another feature for T&D about how we got to the point of being so short of people willing to drive (there’s your balance), and your replies will help with that as well.
In the meantime, feel free to carry on!
Lucy:
I’m also working on another feature for T&D about how we got to the point of being so short of people willing to drive (there’s your balance), and your replies will help with that as well.
OK, well, the simple answer to that one is that we aren’t short of people willing to drive, otherwise it wouldn’t be an £8 an hour job. 
Aye, fair point!
The big thing which appealed to me before I first started 40 years ago was the thought of being paid to see the country. I got to see it alright… at night mostly. In spite of that I enjoyed it because I did get to come back home again mainly in daylight and I was left alone to get on with it, but knew that the company I worked for cared. As for returning to it for more than the odd day as a favour to a customer? NO THANK YOU, I’d rather start sawing a leg off, everything today is hurry up, me, me, me, me, me first, money, money, money. The industry is run now by people I’d rather just not have anything to do with.
Harry Monk:
Lucy:
I’m also working on another feature for T&D about how we got to the point of being so short of people willing to drive (there’s your balance), and your replies will help with that as well.OK, well, the simple answer to that one is that we aren’t short of people willing to drive, otherwise it wouldn’t be an £8 an hour job.
Think it more a shortage of decent people willing to drive. That’s down to all the factors that have been mentioned in this thread, pay, conditions etc.
I’m glad I’m out of it, HGV driving is a very small part of my work, and becoming less so as I get higher up the grade list. We have a cross section of people drive for us, some who got their license to do our work, to people who drive for a living and work for us on a Saturday night for extra money. And from this I see the standard dropping massively, from plain road sense to the positioning of the truck ready for a reverse ( have been known to do it for some of them when we’re short on time or a particularly tricky access), to basically needing babysitting with directions from A to B or a postcode (some accesses are in the middle of nowhere and we don’t have a post code).
If I had my time again, I’d still do it as I wouldn’t be working where I am now without it, but as to going back full time, NEVER!!! I’ll just do the odd day to bolster the weekend income when I pack in doing this job full time
Lucy:
Aye, fair point!
I look forward immensely to contributing to this article, I am just about ready to give the road transport industry both barrels- not that they would listen!
Not just about the fact that the money is about half of what it was in real terms when I started, but also the fact that most folk were originally attracted to the job because of the freedom of the road, and this is rather compromised if some stuffed shirt in an office wants to examine you through the onboard camera whenever you feel the need to pick your nose, talk to yourself or scratch your testicles.
Harry Monk:
Lucy:
Aye, fair point!I look forward immensely to contributing to this article, I am just about ready to give the road transport industry both barrels- not that they would listen!
Not just about the fact that the money is about half of what it was in real terms when I started, but also the fact that most folk were originally attracted to the job because of the freedom of the road, and this is rather compromised if some stuffed shirt in an office wants to examine you through the onboard camera whenever you feel the need to pick your nose, talk to yourself or scratch your testicles.
To be fair the pump price of fuel then was less than £2 per ‘gallon’ combined with a 6 tonne increase in vehicle weights.Together with a not totally defeated working class.At least until the NUM were finished off and while some of the more ‘militant’ WW2 generation were still alive and kicking and not retired.
As for freedom of the road the rot set in when we went from log books to tachos in that regard with trackers and cameras being the logical progression from such control freakery.While ironically you won’t find many drivers now who’d prefer to go back to log books. 
On that note I’ll stand by the idea of LHV’s running on red diesel and going back to domestic regs and stopping the effects of the East Euro invasion by getting out of the EU and drivers discovering the meaning of workers’ solidarity would fix most of that.Although ironically,like log books,too many drivers and their so called ‘unions’ seem to be acting like turkeys voting for Christmas in that regard. 