Why trucking (or driving a lorry)

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

I guess i’ve always had an interest in anything powered by an engine but it was probably summer days spent in the cab a with mates dad that made we want to drive trucks.

I ended up in engineering when I left school because it was the easy option and to be fair after 10 years I had a decent paying 9-5 job but the hankering was still there so I did my class 1 test.

I started doing a bit of weekend agency work and within 6 months I had jacked in the engineering and gone full time with the agency. A decision I have never regretted for a single moment.

Having started with fridges, a job that in one form or another I stuck at for 7 years, including 4 years on the continent I then spent a year on a flatbed followed by a year on containers then 18months muck away that lead to a low loader for a further 6 years before ending up where I am now pulling medical scanners around.

I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed them all and despite the odd bad day I wouldn’t hesitate to return to any of them.

The thing I enjoy most about the job is the variety and meeting new people. Also you tend to have to sort your own ■■■■ which makes has made me very adaptable and able to deal with whatever is thrown at me without a major stress out. The job still has its bad days, as does life in general, but I for one couldn’t think of another job I really fancy doing.

Cheers
Neilf

22

Took me a long time to do what I always wanted to do…Be a truck driver.
I was in the food business for 26 years, never really liked it, but got to the top. Because I could do it and didn`t believe in bull.
It was thanks to the large supermarkets that I ended up as a truck driver…Dealing with those made me lose my mind, so I quit my well paid job and all the perks that went with it, along with all the responsibility (Ops Manager) Took a 60-65% pay cut.

Drving is the best thing that ever happened to me, the seasons, the light, being open to all the conditions of nature and what she has to throw at us, the relaxing one hits with a long drive, where you have time to think about everything or nothing, to be totally lost in your own world.
The people you meet, all different kinds, miserable, happy, helpful, funny, useless, mental…Every aspect of the human condition is experienced every week.

The challenge of multi-drop and knowing that you are being sent to a rigid drop, in an artic, in London…Love it, especially when you do it with no probs.

The job has endless permutations and opportunities and you can gain so much knowledge by trying to do most of them.

The differnet kinds of trucks there are to drive, so many, yet most the same.

Watching the world happening before your very eyes, constantly changing, the feeling you get when you see something developing in front and manage to avoid it and stay safe.

Being hated by the publice and abused too…I love it, because I just laugh at them and do things that are considered weird.

All the worlds a stage…And after those years stuck behind a desk, working with others who take life so serious, I am carefree and whimsical and now consider myself to be a main player on the stage, before I was just a number, chasing numbers for numbers and earning numbers.

I am a massive disappointment to most of my family, having had the big responsible job and now just being a lorry driver, but I am 100X happier than they are…But most importantly, I absolutely love what I do and I reckon it has put at least 5 years on my life, who is not going to love that?

23

Squiddy:
‘… what you love about the job…’

I’m respectfully keeping it my secret in fear of both the EU legislating it to become miserable and the massed ranks of employers (?) twisting it to pay us less.

Two ears & one mouth = I’ll listen twice before gobbing-off once :wink:

24

beacuse its the easiest job going quite good money! done lots of jobs, if i have a bad day an get peaved off i just think i could be lying down in loft insulation, in a boiling attic, trying to do a joint box in the dark, or working outside getting soaked, cold and watching the clock! theres not many jobs you can do with 2 weeks training! (technically speaking :wink: )

I recomend lorry driving to everyone!

25

Not a truck driver yet but I’ll add my 2 bob worth :slight_smile:

It started with the first trip out with dad, since then I’ve been hooked. And the longer I’ve gone on the more I like this industry regardless of the pitfalls, to me I can’t see myself doing anything else. Traveling the country and being paid to see things you wouldn’t get to see if you sat in an office doing the boring 9-5 routine is an ideal job for me. I love to see new sights. I’ve had my hand in helping out when I was about 10 every chance I got to go with dad or granddad. I love the early mornings and the view of a sunrise and seeing the sunsets also. Thanks to this industry I’ve seen more of this country than anybody in my college/school and I loved to brag about the places I went with my dad. The things you would think would put a lad off, getting up and off the trailer to help load and unload the trailer, all the farms I visited with dad and granddad when they were on bulk tippers.

It’s a simple enough job and I love trucks, the industry and the benefits I’ve been given. I try not to look at the negatives, because it just depresses me and I’d rather be happy than miserable. Just a case of whether I’m going to feel this way in another 10 years. I think I will, but only time shall tell!!

Cheers

Jonny :sunglasses:

26

I drive a tipper, mostly carrying tar or dry stone out of local quarries, and the occasional muckshift job. Probably not the job of choice for many but I love the fact that every day is different, I go different places, see bits of the country that I would otherwise probably never see, meet different people. I have a nice lorry, a boss that lets me get on with my work with no hassle and doesn’t shout when things go wrong :laughing: Oh and I enjoy driving :slight_smile:
The downsides of getting out of bed at too early o’clock, leaving the yard in the dark and usually ending the day with both the lorry and me filthy dirty are more than made up for by the fact that I am not stuck in an office or shop somewhere having to be polite to endless awkward customers! Been there and wouldn’t go back!

27

It’s an easy life

28

Trukkertone:
Me ?.. I just love sitting in a tin can, getting stuck in traffic jams, avoiding all the idiots on the roads, meeting obnoxious goods inwards staff, being tracked all day, getting moaned at cos i havn’t quite managed to get all my drops off… going without a proper meal or getting ripped off in the services for something you wouldn’t dare feed to prisoners… then going home and getting it in the ear cos my supper is in the dog… but then I think of my fantastic wages… ( NO, HANG ON…DREAM ABOUT THE FANTASTIC WAGES I SHOULD GET FOR WHAT I DO, INSTEAD OF THE PITTANCE I GET.)

That made me laugh. Good one m8.

29

The only problem with trucking these days is your are not allowed to think for yourself,
Big brother is watching you all the time , either on tracker or roadside camera’s.
When I started driving trucks back in the 60’s we did our own thing , got paid a fair wage for a fair days work .
but before we started the actual driving , first we had to sheet and rope the load, sometimes in artic conditions, and for no extra pay, this was part of the job.
When I got my first tilt I thought I was in truckers heaven,sheeted up in less than 30 minutes.
Then I got my first curtainsider,this was unbelievable, sheeted up in less than 5 minutes.
It won’t happen of course but if trucking could return to the 70’s it would be a much better job than it is today. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

30

best thing about this job… a blond in in the passenger seat of a merc convertible on friday showing everything she had and a bit more, i would have come to work for nothing last friday :laughing: :smiley: :smiley: