Same story with me used to go all over the country with my dad from about two year old, could tie a dolly knot at 8 years. started in transport myself in 71 still at it another 4 1/2 years to go still love it most of the time, and the usual ups and downs crap motors, crap bosses but the there as been good ones as well never did want to do anything else.
Dave the Renegade:
Who wanted to be a lorry driver,and how many of you ended up as lorry drivers as a second choice.
Myself I wanted to be a lorry driver from a young age.How many of you hand on heart can say,thats what I wanted to do.
Hello all, I used to take detour on my way home from school in the late 50s early 60s just to look at the lorries arriving and parked up. Preston had a very large lorry park.I would then walk the long way home past a couple of haulage yards.In the 50s loved watching walter southworths 8 wheelers nosing the drag into the bakery loaded with flour.wanted to be a truck driver but and was a drivers mate then a driver and could not wait to be 21 to get a real driving job.that came in 62 and was driving most of my working life ,loved it.
Dave the Renegade:
Who wanted to be a lorry driver,and how many of you ended up as lorry drivers as a second choice.
Myself I wanted to be a lorry driver from a young age.How many of you hand on heart can say,thats what I wanted to do.
That was me, too, right from when I was in my pushchair. I can still remember watching the lorries go past our house in North Lincs and my mum tells me that one of the first things I learned to say was “s’lorry” (“it’s a lorry”). I’ve been driving them for fifteen years now and I still feel a bit like I’m living the dream some nights.
Nope wanted to be a soldier and a mechanic. So I did the soldiering albeit part time) qualified as a mechanic and my ambition was to own my own garage.
I bought into a running business which had been in my family for years after I got divorced, had that 3 years. It’s not busy enough to sustain 3 full time staff and myself so I’ve taken to driving.
I drive a lorry because it’s easy money, you get to see the country and the hours suit me. I do really enjoy the job and if I was to find myself driving for the rest of my life I’d be ok with that.
Although no-one in the family drove anything bigger than a car, I wanted to be a lorry driver from a very early age. At around nine or ten I could identify lorries by just the sound of their engines - well, there weren’t that many of them about those days!, I was unfortunate enough to pass the 11 plus exam (who remembers those!) and went to grammar school, from where I emerged with more GCE passes than I care to remember. My dad was determined that I was not going to waste an education on lorry driving so he got me a job at an engineering works in Derby where I served my time and qualified as an engineering draughtsman,
Shortly after qualifying, and having left home, I was on annual holiday when a local chap who ran a small fleet knocked on the door and asked if I would help out for a couple of weeks as he was short-handed (this was before the days of HGV licences) Needless to say, I never went back to the drawing office!
I used to drive around in my little 14 ton tipper and see the early DAFs, Scania Vabis and Mercs and think how great it would be to drive one of them! A few years later, and another job down the line, I finally made it! I got one of the very first Volvo F88 290s to be sold in Derbyshire.
I shall always remember the feeling - roaring up the long drag M18 southbound from the A1 junction, fully loaded, effortlessly passing the lesser mortals struggling along with their (empty) 240 Gardner/■■■■■■■ powered motors. You really WERE king of the road in those days!
I shall also always remember the feeling - 9-o-clock on a January Friday night, somewhere north of Aberdeen, horizontal rain, blowing a force 9 gale, and there’s me trying to sheet up a tall load with two sheets and a fly sheet on my own. That’s when I realised I was totally bonkers!
For the last 25 years up to my retirement I was lucky enough to work for a government department, driving two-axle rigids and a dog ‘n’ pup, before ‘slowing down’ to a 7.5 and then a white van for the last year or so.
All in all, I enjoyed it all!
hiya,
Couldn’t wear rubber gloves so that ruled out brain surgery so the only
alternative was lorry driving cos I had a driving licence and it did pay
the mortgage managed to stick it for forty four years should have had
a medal. Did manage to escape for a couple of short spells along the
way, but always got drawn back, I wouldn’t do it again though.
thanks harry, long retired.
hey, Think was made in a lorry and after some months born lying in the sleepercab. So what do you want, luckely anymore on the road today but in the workshop. Listening to the trafficjams on the radio ever morning.
From early age pre school travelled with dad all over uk and europe bunking off school to go in later years
Knew from early age it was for me and in my blood but only wanted to do the contnent even today hate doing uk work
By the time i was a teen hated school bunk off and work in tpt company yard
Left school told il be a waster in life and get nowhere
Well already made my mind up wamted my own truck or trucks so
Left school got job in transport office to learn that side of things and how to cost out etc etc
21 passed test shipped out sameday in a left ■■■■■■ for that employer drove for them for about 12 months
Then bought my own unit subbying to them to start and have never looked back
Only regret wish was older to of done the middle east and love the stories
And pics on here of the old boys proper drivers than half of todays
And storys and pics of some guys i have worked with
Some have seamed far fetched but thenyears later two of themtoyeather remonising
And turns out storys were true
Who wanted to be a lorry driver,and how many of you ended up as lorry drivers as a second choice.
Myself I wanted to be a lorry driver from a young age.How many of you hand on heart can say,thats what I wanted to do.
Being a driver, it was all I ever wanted to be, when I was growing up I was always with my dad he was a driver all his working life.
Passed my class 1 at 21 and still driving now 28 years later and to be honest I don’t want to do anything else. A bit sad but there you go.
I wanted to be lorry driver from around 7 or 8 as I used to go with my dad regular and I started at Pickfords mating and by the time I was 22 I was driving. I did try a couple of other jobs salesman it only lasted a couple of weeks, bus driving and heavy lifting gang but they were not for me so I went back to what I enjoyed to me it was like getting paid for doing your hobby and if I was able to live my life again in the same times would do it all over again.
WhenI was approaching school leaving age,my mum said to me,“Work hard to get some qualifications for a good job.Don’t ever become a lorry driver,they’re ten a penny”.
Sorry to be a disappointment to you mum,I’ve been at it 40 years and still doing some in my retirement.
Same as the two of you,my dad was a lorry driver all his working life. I did the same went with him every chance I could,couldn’t wait to be a driver.Would do it all over again.
From the age of 5 I was operating the trailer brake in the cab on a wagon &drag, from that moment on I was never going to do anything else ! When I did leave school the old man insisted that I served an apprenticeship at a garage and get my city & guilds before I decided I would go driving lorries, I can see his wisdom now ! his favourite saying was " you can’t put an old head on young shoulders"
Trev_H:
From the age of 5 I was operating the trailer brake in the cab on a wagon &drag, from that moment on I was never going to do anything else ! When I did leave school the old man insisted that I served an apprenticeship at a garage and get my city & guilds before I decided I would go driving lorries, I can see his wisdom now ! his favourite saying was " you can’t put an old head on young shoulders"
Pretty much the same as above. Apprenticeship was worth having, as later in life when I finished on the road, at 40, I was able to go back in to a garage on the admin side.
As a kid yeh, left school and went through various jobs that paid me money, wasnt until I was in my late 20’s that I thought about getting my HGV because I was happily spending my money on beer, cars, houses, holidays and tarts.
Now ive got my HGV ive pretty much carried on the old lifestyle
For me it was my grandad not my dad who drove lorries, and it was more down to childcare during school holidays from about the age of 4, then after that you couldn’t keep me away from it. Always knew what i wanted to do so couldn’t focus on anything else, at or after, school. Always thought i’d fall straight into the family buisness, but that finished just as i left school, " hows ya donald duck ". My uncle was an owner driver, used to have a brown and orange P-reg Ford transcon doing continental and my mums new boyfriend had an R-reg F88-290 that was the dogs. So if i couldn’t go with one for one reason or another i could go with another " bliss ". So when i finished school i took various jobs for beer and holiday money. As soon as i was 21 passed my test and thats been it for 20 odd years, and i’d do it all again, well perhaps might change the odd gaffer !..
hi, same as trev h and fergie 47, i always wanted to be a lorry driver from the time i was a young kid,i used to go out with my dad in his lorry sat between the seats on an old beer crate, i couldnt wait for saturday mornings so i could go down the yard and help wash all the lorrys, my dad also insisted that i served an apprenticeship in the workshop of the company he worked for.i worked in the garage for many years ,but was always out driving lorrys on extended test ,lol finally i was offered a driving job, i was in heaven, i spent the next thirty years on the road , best times of my life,retired now,but with all the rules and regulations in force today i think the golden days of lorry driving have gone forever.
cheers diesel.
I did, because when I was at the bus stop waiting to go into town one day, I told her that’s what I wanted to do because when everybody else had to go to work they got to just drive around all day
Most people of my acquaintance would say I never actually made it though
and after some months born lying in the sleepercab. So what do you want, luckely anymore on the road today but in the workshop. Listening to the trafficjams on the radio ever morning.
