Done under 55 hours again this week.
Start Tues finished Sat am.
Ran back in leisurely yesterday, and home for another 2 and a half day weekend at with the Mrs, but off down the pub later, to watch the football with a mate who does a similar shift pattern for another co…
I feel much more relaxed these days to when I was in the max out/min off ‘‘existence’’…more sense nowadays as I got a bit older, and if I’m honest, can’t be arsed anymore.
4 nights out again this week, 2 of which parked up had walk into the town, meal and a pint, so I still try and maintain a bit of social life even while away, rather than be a ■■■■ hermit endurance tester type for 10 hours 59 secs, or worse 8 59 parked in a remote ■■■■ hole like many trampers today…2 words spring to mind …■■■■ and that .
So yeh, …quite content with the job nowadays, would not go as far as to say 100% happy, but will settle for content.
I still like a moan now and again, especially on here, but you probably have never noticed.
I feel like the hours in my job are better than a lot of driving jobs paying you a decent living. I don’t start stupidly early (by this jobs standards) and eat dinner with the Mrs at a sensible hour much more often than I don’t. I don’t do weekends, no bank holidays either, so it’s an OK work-life balance. The thing that gets to me like most others is the totally unpredictable finish times, even though I am home at a good time most evenings, you can never guarantee it and sods law always seems to dictate that you’ll be shafted on the one day you have something planned, so it’s nigh on impossible doing this job to have any sort of decent life out of work on weekdays.
The thing is though, most HGV1 drivers earn a fairly decent living (annual wages of around £30K easily achievable for days). You’ll do well to jack this job in and go and find a semi-skilled, non managerial, low stress, 9-5 job with no homework paying that sort of salary, just look at Conor… he might be on a similar hourly rate but his take home pay is well down. How many of us can afford that?
At the moment I’ve got it easy. 7:30pm start and can finish and be heading home by 5am latest 6am. Work Monday night to Saturday morning. So if I stay up on a Saturday I’ve got two full days and a Monday day off but never works out like that. I get bank holidays off and Christmas I get that off to. This year it’s 10 days. Money ain’t the best but if you don’t need the money then it’s a ■■■■ easy job and it’s one I’m giving up to go work where I’ll be doing 60h a week easily and working weekends.
Sure you’ve got the right person? I’ve been extremely vocal about the stupid hours in the job ever since the WTD was announced over a decade ago and that the 48hr week should have been 48hrs total duty time and not using breaks and PoA to keep things as they were.
JaxDemon:
At the moment I’ve got it easy. 7:30pm start and can finish and be heading home by 5am latest 6am. Work Monday night to Saturday morning. So if I stay up on a Saturday I’ve got two full days and a Monday day off but never works out like that. I get bank holidays off and Christmas I get that off to. This year it’s 10 days. Money ain’t the best but if you don’t need the money then it’s a ■■■■ easy job and it’s one I’m giving up to go work where I’ll be doing 60h a week easily and working weekends.
So in order to feel like you’re get a full weekend off you have to have one day a week every week without any sleep. Assuming you get up around 1pm on a Friday like I do and go to bed at 11pm on the Saturday that will be 34hrs straight with no sleep. I tried that stupid trick when I used to be a Linehaul driver for Geopost and the only thing it does is royally screw you up in the end. You don’t enjoy your Saturdays because you feel like crap and eventually get to a point that on Sunday you end up dog tired too. You also suffer the effects of sleep depravation such as poor short term memory.
I’m not too bad I suppose, used to be Mon - Fri, no weekends, maybe two nights out, but not often, guaranteed 60 hours, now moved back to Scotland, so two weeks away, then fly home, £50 return from Stansted and the weekend I can’t get home, I book into the Premier inn and have about three showers and a decent meal. The night out money for four nights pays for that, but sometimes the boss pays for the hotel. I could get a local job in Scotland, but not for the money I’m earning now, only four years to go till retirement.
I do 4 on 4 off nights, average shifts vary between 9 and 14 hours, average about 11, and no nights out. The wage is very good. I average about 40 hours per week when averaged across the year. So my work life balance is about as good as I can get it without sacrificing too much pay.
Evil8Beezle:
Having limped around a bit over the last 18 months I’ve learnt a lot in the variety of Aldi life bags I’ve lifted in and out of different cabs. I’ve had some gigs where the hours are short and so are the wages, to some great earners where life outside the cab exists of sleeping!
We’ve had our 1k a week club on here before, generally having handbags with Pop’s! But so far when I’ve dome stints on that money, the quality of life isn’t worth the wage clocking 59 WTD hours whilst posting as much break as you dare, as there is no life…
And yes, I won’t be in my current ‘perm ’ limp for that much longer!
not good for me at the moment out early Monday and Didnt get home til Sat afternoon. causes friction within the house, To make matters worse
more of the same this week. kin hate my job, but like looking at the bank balance
Work 4 on 4 off which IMHO is a brilliant rota,12 -14 hr days , great money averaging 2500 -3000kms a week . Lots of spare time to run a seperate business with my better half .
AndrewG:
Mon to Sat around 70hrs and 2.5K - 2.8K kms a week. Prefer Malaga- Portugal- Barcelona groupage and backload return buts its usually Malaga to Calais or Reims return. No loading/ unloading , just trailer swops at each end on this run which is great, no waiting around just grab the paperwork and go, can be a little monotonous at times slogging up and down the autoroutes but i like it especially further south where its hardly ever cold…
Sounds very easy but if it’s mainly driving how do you still rack up so many hours ?
I do max my driving hours out and the Malaga to Calais/ Reims run involves no waiting around ill do less than 70hrs, the groupage run Portugal/Barcelona return does involve some load/unloading and thats where i get nearer the 70.
AndrewG:
Mon to Sat around 70hrs and 2.5K - 2.8K kms a week. Prefer Malaga- Portugal- Barcelona groupage and backload return buts its usually Malaga to Calais or Reims return. No loading/ unloading , just trailer swops at each end on this run which is great, no waiting around just grab the paperwork and go, can be a little monotonous at times slogging up and down the autoroutes but i like it especially further south where its hardly ever cold. Spend sunday at my home in Nerja close to the beach which overlooks the med, cant complain…
you have a nice regular job there…always nicer once your outside the uk…
when im working,by body is a temple…
when im off work…its an adventure playground…i always like to work to live which seems easier than living to work.
The co. i sub for are very good and they treat us two Brit drivers on a level with their own (bar the orange oil issue recently).
not good for me at the moment out early Monday and Didnt get home til Sat afternoon. causes friction within the house, To make matters worse
more of the same this week. kin hate my job, but like looking at the bank balance
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I was like that but had to take the hit in money and be home more with less hours…
Now settled with a great family life…
And I’m not exaggerating I would probably be dead if I’d stayed doing my last job
