I’ve been driving a desk (IT) for most of my career. In my 50s now. As some changes are happening in current job, I find that I’m utterly fed up with what is referred to as “office politics”. All the bs around empire building, “look at me, aren’t I great?” when they don’t actually do anything other that generate buzz word soup…
Now, back in the day, I used to drive for a courier firm - multidrop doing Kodak delivery \ collect and evenings running from the Midlands to London. One of the best jobs I’ve had - and paid well at the time.
So I’m thinking… I’ve got the money for training… maybe driving would be a job move if (probably when) I find myself out of this job.
I’m not afraid of long days - I do 10 hours a day most days anyway. I enjoy driving - driven all over Europe (sometimes towing a caravan - sorry). Yes, there is a bit of apprehension in my mind for HGVs - but I imagine everyone has that - at least at first.
So what do you think? Am I nuts for even considering it?
WEll in the present day ‘climate’ I wouldn’t go back to HGV’s, this from a man who enjoyed his driving career, who got 100% job satisfaction. Conditions/restrictions/training costs, etc etc etc make it a non starter for me. You are always on the end of a mobile phone.
No no, I advise against it.
It depends on a lot. Where you are located and the work available near to where you live for example. There is a huge variety of driving jobs and roles in the industry and they key is to find what works for you. This may take months, it may not but I would be prepared for a potential 2-3 year transition and steep learning curve. There are plenty of newish starts on TN who are enjoying second careers, yes, enjoying, me included. It’s all up to you. A ■■■■■■ transport office at the beginning and end of each day can make life hell. The industry has more than its fair share of princesses but it is also a fairly small world and drivers of the genuine old school sort never forget what it’s like to learn and are helpful. That’s been my experience anyway. The best jobs I’ve had are driving out of a remote yard where I pick up the keys from a lock box. (No transport office to deal with) Another is the job I’m doing now which is for a yard which has 1 lorry - no other drivers to deal with. 6 employees including me and I’ve never laughed so much in my life, I almost wish I worked there. (I’m an agency driver). Good luck.
A lot of us older drivers will tell ypu “Things ain’t what they were”. And it’s true.
But neither are any other jobs.
Wait for advice from some newer entrants into the game.
Those wanting to enter the industry mostly seem influenced by messages in the media - The government have a lot to answer for with their repetitious doom laden “driver shortage” message.
Firstly, welcome to the forum. You’ve come to the right place for any advice you’ll need, along with the truths about the bad points in the industry.
I made the switch from an office job of 10 years on a full time basis at the end of last year (although most weeks I now only work around 30-35 hours max per week). I grew up always wanting to drive lorries after going out with my father on the bread vans and lorries at 4am in the morning on Saturdays
The route I took was to work on vans to save up for my class 2 then class 1 (you can now go straight to class 1) to make sure I would enjoy the job, but I think you already know that you would. I then worked on agency for 1 day per fortnight around my full time office job, driving mainly class 1 for a well known supermarket for almost 2 years. At the end of last year I decided to take the plunge to quit the office job and go “full-time” agency. I am available to work 4 days per week whilst saving on childcare for 2 days of the week also. It was a bit of a risk to rely on the one agency perhaps, but I had saved over 6 months of my previous wages and the work continued to be steady throughout my time there. It also helped make my mind up that I’d get at least 3 days off per week to spend with our 3 year old.
Fast forward to today and I am still doing the supermarket agency work - still enjoying it and still earning enough to pay the bills and mortgage, as well as build the savings up further.
Last week I also did a Royal Mail assessment via another agency and have done 2 shifts for them since, with the plan of using that work for when the supermarket work is quiet, which happens from time to time. It’s a bit closer to home and the pay is also higher (although they don’t pay breaks and shifts are generally shorter) but good additional experience too.
So in summary, I might be a bit too fresh faced in my mid-30s to give you the full picture on how bad everything is in the industry. My experiences have mainly been good so far, and in comparison to the office job, the stress is lower and when you hand in the keys, it’s done and there aren’t another 100 emails for you in the morning
For any questions you may have, as I said you’re in the right place!
I get that, for those of you who are “old salts”, you seen changes over the years and maybe not for the better. I don’t imagine this modern world of regulations and Elf & Safe T would stand Hell Drivers (1957)
Also get that there’s been a whole bunch of hype in the media about shortages and high pay - I’m taking that with a big dose of scepticism - hence asking.
On the outside, looking in, it’s hard to gauge what people find annoying \ stressful \ etc. I get that new passes have the no experience barrier to get over, and I can see that there’s lots of regs to navigate. And then there’s the lack of facilities when you’re out.
Location - I’m on the E side of Manchester
@goff118 has captured some of the positives compared to office BS that have me thinking about the switch.
Isn’t that called “sane-washing”?
If someone does a dirty trick they may be “white-washed”. A petro-chem industry may be “green-washed”.
And a person who says summat really dumb (politicians, choose your own) are treated as if they are saying sensible things as the media translates insanity into sense.
Those who (like myself) drop into FB for a laugh at the numbnuts may already have seen this excellent post. Newbies may not know the name but the author is/was well known in the industry for plain speaking, and most impressively, backing up his drivers in the face of complaints from Joe Public.
I was given to understand he’d given up running trucks altogether, but it seems he’s just scaled back, but he hasn’t lost the knack of plain speaking. I’m totally in agreement with his post.
In response to the OP, in my opinion, at least financially, it would be better to do mobile cranes. I was a new class 1 driver over a year ago and got into cranes.
Been a crane driver/operator for a year and it’s less stress and easy work.
I’m currently working out of an oil refinery for 6 weeks during a shutdown, and after tax I’m taking home just under £2000 per week.
