Back in the day when I started driving (Early 70’s) for the majority of lads driving was more a lifestyle than a job. Everyone knew where the goalposts were and played the game accordingly. Today the goalposts have moved and are constantly moving. Middle East North Africa was commonplace runs then away for months at a time, Europe was on the itinerary but the lads loved the North African jobs best. Sons followed fathers and uncles into the job it was almost like a hereditary dynasty. The ability to moan was awesome but despite that that was their life not just a job.
Camaraderie the willingness to help another driver was part of their psyche. Employers respected them and in turn they were loyal one auld lad I knew worked all his life for the same company and he drove into his late 70’s and only retired when he died. I remember him saying to me once you know I have never worked a day of my adult life as I am doing a job I love and if you love it it is not work.
So lads is it a job for you or a lifestyle.
Its more of a job but I enjoy it most days. The only other person if my life to drive a truck is my Uncle but he’s not really my Uncle, just a really good friend of the family. My Grandad did drive a 7.5T in the late 60’s, early 70’s doing timber, brick and board deliverers into London but thats really it. I’m the only one to get my C+E.
For me it’s more of a lifestyle. In my mind I’m at work from card in Monday, to card out Friday. If I need to be home for something in between my planner is usually on the ball with it, but I don’t stress if it doesn’t happen. I do get home at least once a week, but don’t have set days home or away, so always treat it as a bonus. I enjoy my weekends and my annual leave, but the job pays my bills so I don’t take it for granted. In my opinion, people I’ve met that treat it as a lifestyle seem more happy and contented than those that see it as a job.
Depends on your work. Mine is definitely a job. I get in at 2, leave at 10 (sometimes a bit after but it’s rare). I do Mon-Fri. I’d call doing nights out more of a lifestyle, and several a week, or spending your weekly rest in the cab, that really is a lifestyle thing.
Its Definitely been a lifestyle for myself and the majority of drivers I know,
It’s definitely down to the kind of work your doing or you’ve done,
I’ve spent most of the last 27 years living in a metal box and sleeping on a thick piece of foam they call a “bed”,
It takes a very understanding wife and I know many a driver who are on there 2nd or 3rd marriage,
On the whole I still enjoy the job but I am coming to an age were I feel it would be nice to spend a bit more time at home.
For myself[and perhaps many like me]as an old sod now,when i started driving in the early 70s i was lucky [and priviliged]to be able to drive to ME and USSR and all of Europé and North Africa.It was an adventure to be able to visit so many places and Cultures.After a while it became a Lifestyle because you ‘‘live to work’’,due to the nature of the work.Also things seemed easier[they probably weren’t].Now,with all the PC,WTD,H and S and general bureacracy it seems more of a job.Also there are now more restrictions on what you can do and where you can go.
Got to be lifestyle for me. Away all week may not be true tramping by 70s standards but sleeping in the truck, a job where new experiences and challenges appear on a daily basis and the opportunity to feel some sort of work freedom ticks my boxes.
Camaradarie may not be as rife but there are still moments and after all life is what you make it.
Even with the dumbing down and scrutiny I still enjoy driving and feel I have made the correct career / lifestyle choice.
Even after 25 years im still like a dog with 2 dicks when a new motor is on the horizon, yep I suppose once I stop being a cab happy bugger thats the time to hang up me wetwipes.
just a job to me, a way to pay the bills,i don’t know anything else,i do moan about the job but on a nice summers day with music on and windows down it is good,also when you feel tired you can pull over for a quick 15 min kip,not many jobs you can do that on
I switched from 10 month trips at sea – going all over the world – to 2 month trips on the road
Was quite something on my first road trip to Damman (Saudi) 1975 to see what it was like inland compared to what it looked like from sea 1964
Have to say it was a way of life then – lucky to have been part of it - would still do it now if it was possible
Day off today so took the car on the next best road: B3306 from St Ives to St Just Greatest Driving Roads, B3306
In the space of a few miles it captures much of the magic of the Middle East
Kernow Bys Vycken (Braman Gas An Sousen)
Radar19:
The only other person if my life to drive a truck is my Uncle but he’s not really my Uncle, just a really good friend of the family.
Like Rolf Harris, young Radar?
Lifestyle for me, I do it for the love of the job, I’m not on the best money but I don’t care.
I love the challenges that it offers me and the new experiences.
The fact is that if I won the lottery I’d be in work the next day ready to keep going.
I intend to do this job until the day that it kills me.
Naive? Maybe. Sad? Most probably. Do I care? Not at all!
I love the industry, and I think that i always will.
Chunkzilla:
The fact is that if I won the lottery I’d be in work the next day ready to keep going.
I intend to do this job until the day that it kills me.
■■■■ me sideways. There’s some nutters on here ain’t there? 
Contraflow:
Chunkzilla:
The fact is that if I won the lottery I’d be in work the next day ready to keep going.
I intend to do this job until the day that it kills me.
[zb] me sideways. There’s some nutters on here ain’t there?
Yeh, that is a bit shocking tbh. 
He obviously hasn’t been in the job long, if he comes back and tells us he’s a 30 year man I want the name and address of his dealer, and I’ll put him on to some female contact sites
The way I see the job/lifestyle thing is that it is self explanatory.
If you tramp it’s lifestyle by it’s very nature, if you don’t it’s a job, again by it’ s very nature.
I’ve always seen nights out as part of the job of being a trucker, and I have always considered day men as just playing at it.
Not a dig btw (seriously) there are some good drivers out there, and on reflection, the guys who want/need to be home every night maybe have more sense than the likes of us trampers 
I liken it to the forces in a way , (another lifestyle occupation) you wouldn’t join up and say, yeh ok I’ll do it, but I aint going on tour, I want to be home every night.
That is how I see it anyway.
I would describe as more of a sentence. Without parole. …
I just work days so it’s a job but if you do nights out be it Monday to Thursday or one of the few brits that still goes further afeild it is more of a lifestyle that you and your family need to adapt to.
I don’t get the looking down at day drivers bit as at the end of the day we all move crap from a to b
kr79:
I just work days so it’s a job but if you do nights out be it Monday to Thursday or one of the few brits that still goes further afeild it is more of a lifestyle that you and your family need to adapt to.
I don’t get the looking down at day drivers bit as at the end of the day we all move crap from a to b
Mate…If you are referring to my post, I stressed I was not having a pop, and I certainly do NOT look down on ANY drivers, day night or otherwise.
The only ones I have no time for, and treat with the contempt they deserve are the ■■■■ poor ones who THINK they are drivers, and who give the rest of us the bad name that we have.
truckman020:
just a job to me, a way to pay the bills,i don’t know anything else,i do moan about the job but on a nice summers day with music on and windows down it is good,also when you feel tired you can pull over for a quick 15 min kip,not many jobs you can do that on
Ditto on that now.
Been in the game since I was 11 and am 52 in August and I now hate the job with a passion and see it as a way to keep my head above water as I know nothing else so am a little stuck for now.
Yes the warm sunny days are great, but they are few and far between in this country and the pressure to get the job done by all can sometimes ■■■■ me off, but as I don’t really care what a traffic office bod thinks or what a customer thinks, I don’t let it get to me. It gets done when it gets done and in a lawful way. Worked bloody hard for my licence, and it cost me in the day a few quid, so I am not going to let someone take it away by breaking the law for ANY company.
I have, by choice just put my notice in with the agency I have been with for 9 years, and start with one of our customers after I come back from honeymoon in 3 weeks time on 4 weeks temp to perm, and the job is no pressure to get done whatsoever like yesterday, however it won’t change my way the job gets done by myself anyhow. The hours are less because it suits me after changing my lifestyle around 2 years ago. No more 60+ hours a week. I will average 47 1/2 and it will be monitored to ensure that I do so get to spend more time off than at work.
We will see.
Ken.
volvo2:
one auld lad I knew worked all his life for the same company and he drove into his late 70’s and only retired when he died.
Hope he put his notice in.
Ken.
Quinny:
Been in the game since I was 11
Ken.
Did you leave the chimney sweep game to start.
Just found a pic of you btw.
