Much the same as Franglais. Mon to Fri, 4 nights out a week, salaried so no incentive to work excess hours, plus the company keep to 48 hr average for the WTD. Don’t deliver to RDCs or similar. Everything is self offload using a Moffett so no waiting around for others. As someone else said Mon to Fri work, Sat and Sun play. When I used to do day work many years ago, by the time I got home , showered and had a meal it was time to go to bed anyway!
4 on 4 off 12hr shifts, nights then days and repeat again for another 4 weeks then 16 days off. Nice work life balance. Salaried so the same amount in the bank every month.
Fortunately for me driving is a casual thing due to yearly licence renewal, work is factory based. If the law aloud I would return to driving tomorrow.
According to my wife I do her nut in when I’m off so go tramping when I’m on my 16 days off. Might do the odd day shift in between only if they are struggling.
Trust me though it’s no much better in a factory, plenty H&S Bollrocks and back stabbing.
I do as little as possible for as much money as possible. It’s always been my philosophy.
Currently I leave on Sunday afternoon/evening and I’m home Wednesday or Thursday.
ezydriver:
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.No kids, no mortgage, and no wife.
I think 4 on and off would work well for me as I also don’t have the family ties, and think I’d appreciate the 4 days off better than I’m feeling getting only 2 every other week. (The single day off the opposing week doesn’t feel like it even exists! 
) I’m happy to pile in the hours for my 4 days on, and as it’s only 4 days, you know you’ll soon be off again! 
Currently I drive about 500k a shift and and am booking say 74 hours duty on a 6 day week, which equates to shifts of 12-14 hours and no shifts under 10 hours. There is no sitting around and waiting either, so no real chance to recharge, hence I’m so drained by the end of the week I struggle with the basic maths to fill in my time sheet…
The job it’s self however isn’t bad, and if they operated a 4 on 4 pattern I think it would be pretty good.
But not for me long term with the current setup…
Anyone got a good job in Southampton? 
If your planning on tramping away all week, make sure you get a good understanding woman who understands the job!
Conor:
commonrail:
You’ve changed your tuneSure 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.
Agree with you wholeheartedly about this. The 60 hour working time limit and 48 hour average should be total duty time.
Unfortunately it’s yet another example of the totally different ends of the spectrum different drivers mentalities are at. There are the guys like us, who want a homelife and to work a sensible number of hours for a good wage, then you have the workaholic cab-happy brigade who want to work shed loads of hours & be at home as little as possible. It’s impossible to please everybody, plenty of guys out there wouldn’t want to be limited to a 60 hour week.
rob22888:
Conor:
commonrail:
You’ve changed your tuneSure 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.
Agree with you wholeheartedly about this. The 60 hour working time limit and 48 hour average should be total duty time.
Unfortunately it’s yet another example of the totally different ends of the spectrum different drivers mentalities are at. There are the guys like us, who want a homelife and to work a sensible number of hours for a good wage, then you have the workaholic cab-happy brigade who want to work shed loads of hours & be at home as little as possible. It’s impossible to please everybody, plenty of guys out there wouldn’t want to be limited to a 60 hour week.
As I see it the all encompassing ‘One size fits all’ just isn’t fit for purpose to govern all the different job types, and it’s a lot different doing a 15 hour shift if you’re on the go for all of it, or sat waiting a fair percentage of it. And then you have the difference between day men and trampers where a reduced rest probably only means 6 or so hours sleep to a day man…
45 hours over 4 days last week doing supermarket work, decent wage & a 3 day weekend, can’t grumble too much
Start 5am Monday, out all week then home Friday anytime from 4pm to 7pm.
Run in the odd Saturday if my beloved is working (Care nurse not on the game).
Friday night I’m normally ■■■■■■ by 10pm dancing round the living room with the grandkids, much the same Saturday. Sunday the wife and I prepare lunch all day, it takes this long as we are usually both ■■■■■■ by dinner time.
Up early Monday again so try and slip in a knee trembler Sunday during dinner preparation…I find seductive peeling of a carrot gets the wife’s juices flowing.
I’m off all this week so will no doubt be getting on the wife’s ■■■■ by Wednesday, well if she let’s me.
All in all WLB is what you make it, for now this works but the day will come when I’m unable to work such long hours, enjoy it while it lasts and if your not enjoying it make a change.
Regrets I’ve had a few etc but in the end I did it my way.
Conor:
commonrail:
You’ve changed your tuneSure 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.
We have some weeks that are completely silly. We mitigate it as much as possible, but ferry timetables are what they are and the nature of our work means that we have to have crews to swap over with in Europe. Those crews put 24 hours in a hotel waiting to swap, is that duty time? Gothenburg ferry is 26 hours each way - if that is duty time then they are stuffed just by being on the ferry there and back.
Some weeks they might not get further than a 50 mile radius each week and not hit 48 hours.
I’m not disagreeing per se, merely pointing out that some jobs don’t easily fit into a standard. And going back to my days of doing Europe, the last thing I ever wanted was to be stuck out there because hours were up.
albion:
And going back to my days of doing Europe, the last thing I ever wanted was to be stuck out there because hours were up.
The last thing, really?
I looked upon just that as a perk of the job, I’ve had great times out there when time was up. 
robroy:
albion:
And going back to my days of doing Europe, the last thing I ever wanted was to be stuck out there because hours were up.The last thing, really?
I looked upon just that as a perk of the job, I’ve had great times out there when time was up.
I know a lot of people did, but given a choice of coming back or staying out, It was always coming back. I ike driving, I don’t like getting somewhere - holidays are wasted on me for that reason.
When I was doing the tesco store work I did short days with early finishes and you know what? I wasted so much time being lazy and doing sod all. I’m annoyed with myself at how much time I wasted now. In contrast I’m away two weeks at a time now doing Euro work again and I find my days off and occasional early finishes have become special again and I don’t waste them.
Harry Monk:
Work Monday to Friday between September and March and spend the Summer bimbling around on my boat.
Do you venture up to New Mills Marina? The father in law has a house boat moored up there…grumpy old Bass turd he is, dead spit for Dr Shipman…been an engineer pretty much all his life, but did some driving ‘back in the day’. His boat was custom built apparently and has a square stern… bit of a rarity apparently
Franglais:
bald bloke:
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 ?
And Malaga Reims is nearer 2000km each way surely? Still, each to their own, I find nowt but autoroute driving boring, but we`re all different.
Franglais, yes youre right, only just seen my typo in there…it should read 3.8K km’s not 2.8k kms. And yes i also find autoroute a bit boring but its easy with very few hold ups…
Conor:
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.
Haha yeah. I end up having an hours kip in the truck sometimes 2h. Then when I get home I have around 5-6h sleep waking up at midday. It’s working at the moment.
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switchlogic:
When I was doing the tesco store work I did short days with early finishes and you know what? I wasted so much time being lazy and doing sod all. I’m annoyed with myself at how much time I wasted now. In contrast I’m away two weeks at a time now doing Euro work again and I find my days off and occasional early finishes have become special again and I don’t waste them.
Hey Luke, how much time do you get off after a two week trip? Do you find it’s enough? I worked away 3 weeks/1 week off but I didn’t like the time being condensed into one block and dreaded going away as it felt so epic each time. I wanted more frequent time off. I now work away for say 4 days but you only get 2 off. Just enough time to do washing and some bits and bobs and you’re off again still very tired. I’ve come to realise for me I prefer not going away as day work didn’t feel so epic. I still worked shifts on days, say earlies and lates but no packing or frustrating travel arrangements before you start were involved. I’m tired of travelling constantly I think.
I think weaknesses in my character make me inattentive to my life outside of work when I’m working away and it all gets a bit of a mess sometimes, as a I find adjusting to home quite hard coming back, friendships suffer, domestic to do lists get forgotten whilst you’re knackered on your time off and all you want to do is rest and veg. It’s just who I am as a person. Day work suited my nature best and didn’t allow my personal weaknesses to take such a hold.
rob22888:
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?
You get a fairly decent living because you work one and a half weeks for your one weeks wages and who else do you know in this world works for that
nightline:
You get a fairly decent living because you work one and a half weeks for your one weeks wages and who else do you know in this world works for that
This. Funny how many truck drivers seem to want to conveniently forget how many hours they’ve taken to earn the national average wage.
Whilst the average person in this country does 40-43hrs a week to earn the £530 a week / £27,600 a year national average wage for 2016 most truck drivers are doing over 50. If you’re on £30k chances are you’re doing 60 or not far off.
Conor:
nightline:
You get a fairly decent living because you work one and a half weeks for your one weeks wages and who else do you know in this world works for thatThis. Funny how many truck drivers seem to want to conveniently forget how many hours they’ve taken to earn the national average wage.
Whilst the average person in this country does 40-43hrs a week to earn the £530 a week / £27,600 a year national average wage for 2016 most truck drivers are doing over 50. If you’re on £30k chances are you’re doing 60 or not far off.
No I don’t think they forget at all mate, they are fully aware.
Half of them are like this.
The other half, when you try and point it out rub their ears hard and sing ‘’ la la la larr’’
Drivers eh 
…don’t you just love em.