TokenYank:
And the reason I don’t complain about it, is that last time I phoned the office to say I was exhausted from constantly swapping from days to nights and I needed to do one or the other, I was given 12 hours a week for the next 3 weeks to teach me how to keep my mouth shut.
Yep,You learned it.
Me too.i take the Work un-commented and cancel it 2 Hour before Start.
They did that too for some Time
skell790:
This is more my sort of thing if I’m in the mood to romanticise the job.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sdk-ZnrHkw
would you call that jazz 
commonrail:
skell790:
This is more my sort of thing if I’m in the mood to romanticise the job.
would you call that jazz
It’s not improvised afaik, so not really; though it has a jazz/blues feel to it.
The entire record is good driving music btw.
The track is from ‘The Heart of Saturday Night’
i want to drive a truck because i like driving and i earn £6.52 phr with a £45 bonus each week for working nights now if i can drive a truck for that per hour or even more be it 7.5 or rigid and working daytime then i would be happy as im earning money for little effort also if u have a hgv licence its a skill you have to fall back on if you needed too i know someone who has gone from earning minimum wage to earning about £8-9 ph driving a tipper and he is over the moon becuase he is earning more than before and working days
OK, OK…
So people take this up because they really like the idea, or because they have a crap job? I’m not having a go at anyone with a crap job; everyone has to put food on the table somehow. I just wanted to know if there were people entering the profession with allusions that it’s better than it really is.
No illusions here… is happily shovel ■■■■ for £9 an hour…
skell790:
OK, OK…So people take this up because they really like the idea, or because they have a crap job? I’m not having a go at anyone with a crap job; everyone has to put food on the table somehow. I just wanted to know if there were people entering the profession with allusions that it’s better than it really is.
if i can earn more than im doin now for little effort and something i like doin the hell yeah i will do it
peewee:
if i can earn more than im doin now for little effort and something i like doin the hell yeah i will do it
Little effort? Well, good luck with that. Though you might change your mind when you’ve got eighteen timed deliveries all in a big heap in the back, with the phone going off every ten minutes asking why you haven’t delivered all three pre 9.00am calls that are fifty miles apart, when you didn’t get away until 8.30 because the trunk motor was late.
skell790:
Well, maybe, but I spoke to someone a while ago who was dead keen.Then I told him about the hours and what he could expect to earn.
i had a mate who was well keen thinking about all the money till i spelt it out to him… he now works erecting fencing. 
skell790:
peewee:
if i can earn more than im doin now for little effort and something i like doin the hell yeah i will do itLittle effort? Well, good luck with that. Though you might change your mind when you’ve got eighteen timed deliveries all in a big heap in the back, with the phone going off every ten minutes asking why you haven’t delivered all three pre 9.00am calls that are fifty miles apart, when you didn’t get away until 8.30 because the trunk motor was late.
do you find driving takes a lot of effort ? if someone is late or something happens like traffic jam accident or someones ill things like happen everyday it cant be helped
I got into the profession this year - the ink isn’t dry on my licence yet.
I do it because it is ‘stress free’. I go to work, I work and I go home. I don’t take the job home with me and I don’t worry about what problems tomorrow may bring, because they will be someone else’s problems.
I don’t make the money I used to but that is my choice. I work days Mon-Fri and can live on what I earn. I have turned down better paying jobs because quality of life is more important to me than money.
I know wouldn’t suit everyone but it suits me fine.
For the first time in years I work to live, not live to work.
peewee:
do you find driving takes a lot of effort ? if someone is late or something happens like traffic jam accident or someones ill things like happen everyday it cant be helped
Sounds like you’ve never been phoned at 16.30 on a Friday afternoon when you’ve promised the missus you’ll take her out and been asked* if you wouldn’t mind doing ‘a little local’ when you get back.
*if you don’t do it then don’t bother turning up Monday
You can’t really generalise to people on the outside about wages and working times etc. The only thing I would say to anyone considering it, is be prepared to work 13 hour days as if it’s perfectly normal, and you can’t go far wrong.
I don’t consider it a lifestyle (diesel in the veins or any of that wibble), it’s just a job, but it’s not a bad job, as long as you can find a decent place to work for, and they do still exist.
There are aspects I didn’t used to like, nights out on the road etc, but it all depends on what you have to get back to. I’m just renting a room in someone elses house, I don’t have much of a place in the world, so the way I feel at the moment, it doesn’t particularly fuss me about being in the truck or in my room.
Yes, you may go to depressing bleak places but at least you know, no matter how bad it is, you will eventually be leaving. Imagine having to drive a desk in that place, for example, or knowing that you have to come back to it the next day.
The only real stress is that which you choose to make for yourself. You might have a days worth of unrealistic delivery times, but you can only do what you can do, it isn’t your problem. Assuming you are half competent, then nobody else is going to do it any quicker than you, no matter how badly planned it is.
I feel like a lot of drivers I speak to, create their own stress, because they are convinced that there should be some.
I honestly don’t know what else i’d do, for the same effort (little) and the same money (not ‘lots’ but fair).
Sounds like you’ve never been phoned at 16.30 on a Friday afternoon when you’ve promised the missus you’ll take her out and been asked* if you wouldn’t mind doing ‘a little local’ when you get back.
*if you don’t do it then don’t bother turning up Monday
Having plans is the worst thing you can do, i’ve done it in the past, and you are just asking to be disappointed. Those nights where you thought you were getting back, had been looking forward to it all day, only for something to go wrong and you get stuck out. That ■■■■■, but if you don’t build yourself up, you can’t be disappointed.
In terms of extra work, you either have the hours to do it, or you don’t. No stress.
WildGoose:
Having plans is the worst thing you can do, i’ve done it in the past, and you are just asking to be disappointed. Those nights where you thought you were getting back, had been looking forward to it all day, only for something to go wrong and you get stuck out. That ■■■■■, but if you don’t build yourself up, you can’t be disappointed.In terms of extra work, you either have the hours to do it, or you don’t. No stress.
That’s OK if other people don’t have a call on your time. Like your kids birthday or something. No one can help traffic delays, but suddenly having to do an extra four hours overtime - often at a flat rate these days - is rubbish.
Mind you, if I do have to be somewhere these days I cut the stress by taking a days holiday.
What is it with the phone calls? I had the same zb call me, The first time told the guy I am delayed because the mtor was left with no diesel in it and the forkie could not find my load.The zb kept right on calling me.
Some interesting comments on this thread.
Stress free … IMO its anything but & only now in hindsight can I see how stressed I used to be on the UK motorways, let my try an give an example ?
You all know that rush of adrenaline when someone breaks for no good reason/the car dives in front at the last second/ etc etc etc, well that is in fact stress as when behind the wheel you are powerless to (bye & large) respond.
At least a good few years back the job involved some degree of physical effort throughout the day & you could indeed claim to be your own boss (ish)
Now ?
Dear o lord you every move in monitored, the pay is less than it was (in real terms) 10 years ago, the week is what big sir decides upon & they can contact you in the blink of an eye.
nope,my working life is now completly stress free 
‘‘those who moan about the ‘crap’ money and ‘obscene’ working conditions should go and work in a factory in China for a bit of a reality check or just to ‘[zb] right off’ might be an idea and get another career!!’’
And that’s another reason we have to have a ‘global economy’! It’s the Far Eastern ‘Tiger’ economies that have got endless cheap labour, and none of the developed worlds’ overheads that force everyone else to try and compete with them. Not a chance! Those in China don’t have the need of iPods, 52’’ plasma TV’s and BMW’s so therefore don’t aspire to own them. If they complained they would be sent to labour camps or mysteriously disappear overnight!
The day may yet come where the needs of business and the upper classes make us all work for 25p per hour to improve profitability and make them competetive in the global market!
Did I read somewhere that one day the only thing left to eat will be the upper classes and politicians! And to those who subscribe to the ‘if you don’t like it **** off and moan somewhere else’ brigade should keep looking over their shoulder! You too could be tomorrows’ breakfast!!
Apathy is like an ailment - one day it will kill you!!!
‘‘those who moan about the ‘crap’ money and ‘obscene’ working conditions should go and work in a factory in China for a bit of a reality check or just to ‘[zb] right off’ might be an idea and get another career!!’’
What are they going to do? Fly in Chinese drivers every morning?