Don’t really know where the desire to be a truck driver came from, no one in my family has ever been involved in road transport before, but from a fairly early age I had always wanted to do it.
When I left school I did a variety of jobs, worked in a couple of offices, worked as a travel agent, then in 1978 I went into the catering trade and ended up as a publican in West London. In 1984 I was fed up with that and packed it in and started driving, 7.5 ton at first then took Class 1 in '87. Set up on my own in '89 and I’m still doing it and still enjoy it as much as that first day 20 years ago. Don’t think I could do anything else now and I haven’t done a job with “normal” hours since 1978 so “9 - 5” would bore me rigid.
Also after 20 years of spending the biggest part of each day alone in the cab I really don’t think I could handle working in close proximity to others.
A month or so ago I was offered a chance of a job in a transport office running the European operations and I gave it some serious thought but thankfully the moment passed and I decided to stick with this.
Oh yea! and me being a truck driver is my brother fault. I looked destined to do a series of sensible office jobs, although they never realy suited me, and then he got his HGV’s and then a job and took me along sometimes and I was hooked.
If I could make $1,000 a week from Monday to Friday noon doing someting else i would gladly change my vocation, when I emigrated here I swore I would never drive another truck but needs must
It’s not from my dad, he doesn’t even have a car licence! Not my wife, she hates the fact that I drive trucks for a living, I believe I was just destined to be a trucker Good days or bad I still enjoy driving
jammymutt:
The old Yorkie advert in the early 80`s? was the leading influence in my trucking life, i think it was a blue erf? although i may be mistaken but it was definately a blue wagon.
Yellow DAF 2800, saw the advert the other day.
How did I become a lorry driver ? No idea ! Seriously !!!
Left school at 16, bummed around Europe for 18 months, did the kibbutz thing for 2 years, bummed around Europe some more, came backand met the wife. Did 3 years in the Fire Service and became impressed by the professionalism of lorry drivers, so became one !
I can’t blame anyone for becoming a LORRY driver, it was just a fasination with vehicles of any type. I had been driving well before but I passed all my tests, from moped @ 16 , motorbike and car @ 17 and finally my HGV @ 21 and then it was a long slippery slope into the cab. I am happy just to be out driving anything from a Fiesta van to a Renault Magnum and I still enjoy it to this day.
Long live the Knights of the road and Keep on Trucking
Hiya AndyM,
I’ve just got back from three weeks over the water in a Scania T cab, transporting horses of all shapes and colours. The work was great and it was a pleasure to do apart from the harassment I recieved from my double manning companion. I hate it when women scream harassment, this is a tough industry for anybody not just women but never ending requests for carnal knowledge and being told your in the wrong buisiness then having to do the lions share of the work, getting no respect, ect. The icing on the cake was meeting up with his buddies and them getting paraletic and indulging themselves with some serious bullying and picking up the nick name of the frigid ice queen (yes I know it’s hilarious!) and to be the only one sober enough to drive the next day. The boss now thinks I’m just a hysterical bleating woman and I’m back to my agency work in England which I know makes many people happy but I took my licence so that I could do International horse transport and I am really starting to wonder if I am tough enough, I have worked so hard!
An incident like this leaves you looking at the amount of hours that you put in to pay the bills, the effort you have put in to develop your skill and the futher effort you must put in to try and perfect it (I don’t think you ever can.)
I also used to go to work with my dad and the comradery (spelling■■?) of the road has definatly deteriated. So as you can imagine I am feeling a little disilusioned with the trucking world, I don’t want to put anybody off but I am starting to question my judgement.
Sorry for the rant peeps but AndyM did ask.
If you love dirving why don’t you seek some finaancial backing and set up with a few other Ladies to form ‘LADYTRUCKERS INTERNATIONAL HORSE TRANSPORT’ ? A decent truck, a few contacts and show the competition up.
I realise from readin some of the other threads and posts of others that Lorry drivers are very much fround upon, which is sad.
got a little story that made me chuckle… you’ll see what i mean in a minute.
The other night i got to my “destination” and started to undo the curtains and noticed that my nsr trailer tyre was flat as yer like, so hey ho, add it to the list of things that have broken or i have broken in the last couple of weeks and i call the TM, cut a long story short, after about 90 minutes a nice ATS man turns up… hehe… imagine this… Lee evans with steelies and a hi-viz, except better looking and even funnier, anyway… nice bloke started to have a chat and a laff like yer do when there repairing yer truck. Anywayz, we get on to the subject of how he got to be where he is today (repairing trucks)… his reply simply went something like this…
"car drivers, = jumped up ■■■■■ who look down at you and expect it to be done very quickly, like yesterday, trying having a laff with them and it goes straight over there head. Truck drivers on the other hand are a totally different class, you can have a laff with them, friendly, can take a joke like. "
I smiled a huge smile inside and thought to myself, i really am glad i’m living my dream…
Anyway, so Mr ATS lee evans lookalike, thank you very much for making me smile, (and fixing me tyre in quick flat time) and hey guys/girls if you get an ATS bloke from chichester who looks like lee evans give him a pat on the back from us all.
Jonboy@RH wrote:
malc, have willy betz really been coming here that long? genuine question mate i`m not being funny.
They were here a long time before the recent uproar about foreign trucks on our roads.
They were using some long nosed MB plus the ultra modern 1418 Mercedes with tilt trailers. I think the trucks were Black then.
Does anybody remember:
Jac W Hereveld,
to my knowledge the first Dutch transport company to have a base in England.
Ladytrucker, Im sorry you feel a bit down after your latest trip. It is probably because this M-C-P is worried you are a better driver. and he is threatened by you. Dont give up, just get even
Well, its sounds like you have just had one of the worst trips of your career…
But what your collegues did, was out of order, and Highly ilegal. And how can your boss now turn round and call you a ‘Hysterical Bleating Woman’■■.. Tell ya what, I wouldnt stand for that at all.
Dont let these stupid idots spoil your dream. And dont for one minute, think you aint tough enough… You got the licence, so your more than tough enough, in my opinion… Stick with it girl…
The sugestion of Pats aint a bad one either… Its possible!! you must have enough contacts in the business now… Just ask around and see what people say. Not the Trasporters, but the people with the horses that would want them moved… I’m sure they would hirer you rather than a bunch of jumped up neanderthols…
Ladytrucker679:
Hiya AndyM,
I’ve just got back from three weeks over the water in a Scania T cab, transporting horses of all shapes and colours. The work was great and it was a pleasure to do apart from the harassment I recieved from my double manning companion. I hate it when women scream harassment, this is a tough industry for anybody not just women but never ending requests for carnal knowledge and being told your in the wrong buisiness then having to do the lions share of the work, getting no respect, ect. The icing on the cake was meeting up with his buddies and them getting paraletic and indulging themselves with some serious bullying and picking up the nick name of the frigid ice queen (yes I know it’s hilarious!) and to be the only one sober enough to drive the next day. The boss now thinks I’m just a hysterical bleating woman and I’m back to my agency work in England which I know makes many people happy but I took my licence so that I could do International horse transport and I am really starting to wonder if I am tough enough, I have worked so hard!
An incident like this leaves you looking at the amount of hours that you put in to pay the bills, the effort you have put in to develop your skill and the futher effort you must put in to try and perfect it (I don’t think you ever can.)
I also used to go to work with my dad and the comradery (spelling■■?) of the road has definatly deteriated. So as you can imagine I am feeling a little disilusioned with the trucking world, I don’t want to put anybody off but I am starting to question my judgement.
Sorry for the rant peeps but AndyM did ask.
Ladytrucker, reading stories like this make me want to spit!!! Where the hell does this guy think he is coming from? I bet he is no oil painting!! The ugly ones are always the worse.
Back in the early to mid 80’s I used to ‘date’ a girl who was a truckie!! Back then she was one of a very few lady truckers in the country … I am sure she said the number was in single figures. She did car transporters as well … not an easy job. I went with her one day, watched her at work and ever since that day have nothing but admiration for lady truckies.
So you keep at it, lady, and don’t let this neanderthal put you off your chosen vocation!! We ain’t all like that … honest! Guys who act like this towards you are normally ‘threatened’ by the fact a woman can do the job as well, if not better, than him. Just laugh about it and put it down to experience… I am sure it will not be the last time you face this but unfortunately , at this time, it is a fact in this industry that there are still neanderthals out there
Ladytrucker, there is truck driver banter, which although it can be quite harsh is still given in good fun, but it sounds like what you got was a load of lets pick on the woman driver.
However you have upset me as I thought you promised me the next trip out with the horses. and although I’m a bit of a ■■■■ taker I’m not a lecherous old male chauvinist pig. Hopefully your next trip you will go better and let you re-gain your enthusiasm.
I got the diesel bug when I started driving farm tractors at 12 years old .
Ladytrucker679:
Hiya AndyM,
I’ve just got back from three weeks over the water in a Scania T cab, transporting horses of all shapes and colours. The work was great and it was a pleasure to do apart from the harassment I received from my double manning companion… …I also used to go to work with my dad and the comradery (spelling■■?) of the road has definatly deteriated. So as you can imagine I am feeling a little disilusioned with the trucking world, I don’t want to put anybody off but I am starting to question my judgement.
Sorry for the rant peeps but AndyM did ask.
I’m sorry that your trip turned out so badly LT. It seems you were hooked up with one of the many MCPs in the job (and even worse, met up with his Neanderthal mates). Did your double-manning mate( ) suggest the stop, or did it simply work out that way? It was possibly pre-arrainged.
I have no doubt, that the majority of us deplore this type of behaviour and would welcome the opportunity to try and redress the balance.
Having “chatted” with you in here, many of us think of you as a mate (as we do for most of the other members), We would hate it, if you stopped doing the job you enjoy so much, for the sake of a few unthinking MCP’s on a trip. They aren’t worth it. Hopefully a similar trip will come up again. If it does, don’t turn it down. Tell the boss that you would like to meet your “mate” before the trip, to see if you would get on (and to have a veto). A decent boss should have no problems with that, after all, you will be together 24hrs a day for the duration of the trip.
Another thought, your tacho’s for that trip will show that you did most of the work. Point that out to the boss, he’ll have both sets to compare.
I really have no idea how to express the way I feel about the support you have all showed me it is overwhelming, thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Jokes I can take, I have been doing this for some time now but this was just a little intence even for me! but thank god I posted what had happened and may this be a lesson particulaly to the newbies. Trucking can be an isolating game and problems rarely solve themselves so there is no shame in sharing your troubles and your friends at Trucknet will have probably been there before and will always help.
I don’t know what to do next I will run agency for the time being I still don’t know enough about the industry to get my own wagon I like to be armed with information before I take anything on. There is one company who runs along side the one I have been driving for and they have only treated me with respect so hopefully a vacancy will arise there.
Muckles I haven’t forgotten you .
Once again thank you all for your company and Friendship.
Niall I am sorry for ruining your thread.
Ladytrucker, I think I was on the same ferry as you when you shipped back to the UK. Last Thusday morning there was a women driver driving a white t cab with a blue horse trailer and she was accompanied by a couple or three other horse trucks. A little later you had stopped in Clackett Lane services. If I had know it was you i would have said hello.
O.K. Everyone,when did you know you were destined to be a trucker?
No, this is is not a poll or a questionnaire,but a simple question.
when i got my licence no seriously. i don’t really know where my interest of trucks came from .none of my family are in the industry. i just knew it was for me when i started driving trucks in the forces.
Good days or bad I still enjoy driving 
Hopefully your next trip you will go better and let you re-gain your enthusiasm. 
