My advice: Stop thinking about it, and just do it.
As one of many career change newbies on this forum who need an escape from a job they dislike, I’m inclined to agree. At least get the ball rolling because things take time. You can do your medical, get your provisional, book and do your theory, all for under £150 before you commit to training. No great loss if you decide against, but taking those first steps might be all the push you need.
I say go for it. Don’t your waste your life by having regrets and questions. You won’t know until you try.
You do have to bare in mind you’ll get mixed opinions on here. Got to filter through the negativity sometimes.
Good luck
driveress:
My advice: Stop thinking about it, and just do it.
As one of many career change newbies on this forum who need an escape from a job they dislike, I’m inclined to agree. At least get the ball rolling because things take time. You can do your medical, get your provisional, book and do your theory, all for under £150 before you commit to training. No great loss if you decide against, but taking those first steps might be all the push you need.
To be honest, I dont think the OP will. I’ve noticed he’s posted the same question seven times since 2014 (reworded each time) and still is indecisive.
Myself being ex-service (15yrs) I made the decision to pull the trigger to be a trucker within 24hrs.
And yes we all live different lives with varying responsibilities, but sometimes we’ve got to take action regardless of fear and risk.
Never believe the adverts, i saw one advertising ‘‘up to £26.50’’ it made it look as though this was the hourly pay but when you looked into it properly this was the night out money rate, the actual job rate was £12 per hour. 
Here is my take on this as someone who got their Class 2 license just over a year ago. I also consider myself to have been very fortunate with jobs.
I came from an office based job in IT and worked my way up the ladder over 38 years. In the end I got so stressed out with office politics and just bad changes in the industry that one day I just went in and resigned. I was on an extremely good salary plus bonus and perks as a director of the company.
I had 6 months off and then thought what the hell do I do know still 12 years away from retirement.
I invested in a HGV course that included Class 2, Class 1, ADR, Hiab and CPC, medical and theory.
After a struggle due to the pandemic, I passed everything except Class 1 as my test was cancelled due to COVID and I have never gone back to do it again.
I got my first job around a week after getting my license delivering tyres. I was paid £14.20 per hour but in the few months I did it, I never really did less than 12 hours a day, sometimes more. I hated it. Difficult delivery points, people just wanting you off site as soon as you had done your drop, constant hassle from the office if you fell behind time for whatever reason and not being able to find places to be able to take breaks.
I got offered a job delivering and installing medical equipment. I am on £14.70 an hour but get paid time and a half after 8 hours in a day. The company themselves are very good to be fair, but all the other problems still exist. No places to stop at drops, no where to take breaks, other road users that just get frustrated they are behind a slower lorry etc etc.
After just over a year I am starting to regret it and am really evaluating what I am going to do going forward.
I will probably never go back to my previous role in IT, but I cannot see myself continuing what I am doing at present.
What I am trying to say is make sure you really hate your current job that much that it is affecting your mental state enough to jump ship, because changing my career to lorry driving has really opened my eyes to what my lorry driving colleagues on here go through. Long hours, hard work and very little respect. I now work twice as hard for a lot less money. I still have lots of stress just a different type of stress. I am earning fairly good money considering the experience I have, but I am putting in loads of hours, do loads of lifting and taking loads of crap to get that.
The grass is definitely not greener on the other side.
Steevo25:
Here is my take on this as someone who got their Class 2 license just over a year ago. I also consider myself to have been very fortunate with jobs.I came from an office based job in IT and worked my way up the ladder over 38 years. In the end I got so stressed out with office politics and just bad changes in the industry that one day I just went in and resigned. I was on an extremely good salary plus bonus and perks as a director of the company.
I had 6 months off and then thought what the hell do I do know still 12 years away from retirement.
I invested in a HGV course that included Class 2, Class 1, ADR, Hiab and CPC, medical and theory.
After a struggle due to the pandemic, I passed everything except Class 1 as my test was cancelled due to COVID and I have never gone back to do it again.
I got my first job around a week after getting my license delivering tyres. I was paid £14.20 per hour but in the few months I did it, I never really did less than 12 hours a day, sometimes more. I hated it. Difficult delivery points, people just wanting you off site as soon as you had done your drop, constant hassle from the office if you fell behind time for whatever reason and not being able to find places to be able to take breaks.
I got offered a job delivering and installing medical equipment. I am on £14.70 an hour but get paid time and a half after 8 hours in a day. The company themselves are very good to be fair, but all the other problems still exist. No places to stop at drops, no where to take breaks, other road users that just get frustrated they are behind a slower lorry etc etc.
After just over a year I am starting to regret it and am really evaluating what I am going to do going forward.
I will probably never go back to my previous role in IT, but I cannot see myself continuing what I am doing at present.
What I am trying to say is make sure you really hate your current job that much that it is affecting your mental state enough to jump ship, because changing my career to lorry driving has really opened my eyes to what my lorry driving colleagues on here go through. Long hours, hard work and very little respect. I now work twice as hard for a lot less money. I still have lots of stress just a different type of stress. I am earning fairly good money considering the experience I have, but I am putting in loads of hours, do loads of lifting and taking loads of crap to get that.
The grass is definitely not greener on the other side.
Well done on giving a reasoned take on what the job is like for someone completely new to it all. Most of us have done it long enough so we know the score. Most people think driving for a living is easy, the driving part is relatively easy, it’s the rest of the crap that goes with it.
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I think whatever industry you work in then you’re likely to focus on the problems and issues. No job is perfect and realistically most of us work because society forces us to.
I’m currently a mental health nurse. If someone asked me should they go into that then my initial reaction would be “hell no”. But that’s because of my experiences and some nurses would say it’s amazing.
4 years of studying and thousands of debt. I’ve been assaulted and verbally abused so many times. I’ve been through more suicides than I care to think about. I’m constantly expected to see more patients with less and less resources. Going home some nights hoping my patients are alive the next day. The waiting lists are frightening. All of this for less money than most drivers. So perspective is key because most jobs aren’t perfect.
Tlgamble:
I think whatever industry you work in then you’re likely to focus on the problems and issues. No job is perfect and realistically most of us work because society forces us to.
I’m currently a mental health nurse. If someone asked me should they go into that then my initial reaction would be “hell no”. But that’s because of my experiences and some nurses would say it’s amazing.
4 years of studying and thousands of debt. I’ve been assaulted and verbally abused so many times. I’ve been through more suicides than I care to think about. I’m constantly expected to see more patients with less and less resources. Going home some nights hoping my patients are alive the next day. The waiting lists are frightening. All of this for less money than most drivers. So perspective is key because most jobs aren’t perfect.
Valid points.
A lot of people forget that some will hate a job and some will love the exact same job. I believe that it depends on the individual’s mindset and their personal motivations on why they took the job.
For example, some people are just naturally negative and spend their lives complaining but not doing anything about it…and others are largely optimistic and just get things done to achieve a long term plan.
Interesting problem.
I’d say go for it, but with your eyes open. At the moment they aren’t. You have zero experience of haulage and logistics and your entire knowledge of it is based on one job advert and one person that works at one company.
It is your decision, but having done 12 years as an ad hoc agency driver, all I will say is there is more b s in this industry than you can shake a stick at. And job adverts are always written to make the job sound attractive. That is the idea…
The wages advertised may well be possible to achieve. But, it will almost never be for the basic hours, and is very rarely achievable by a new pass driver…
If you actually know someone that is in a position to offer you the work and they guarantee it, you may be ok. Even then I’d be sceptical…
If you’re waiting for someone to say " marvellous, crack on and well done", it won’t happen.
There is too high a chance it won’t be all it seems…
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Just do the tests then decide…always remember the category is an investment to be used as and when you want to use it…and the cost of the training will only ever go up and not down.
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I just want a job I can do as I grow old
You sound like your in a similar situation to me before I went back to driving before xmas. I was making fence panels on a machine for 10+ hours a day (9 years). Good money but taking it’s toll on my body as I am now 52 so had to change jobs to be able to work into retirement which is still 15 years away.
The decision wasn’t easy as I was used to the money and I had to take a 4k pay drop but after 6mths all my aches and pains are going and I am feeling great about taking the plunge back into driving. My comment for you would be …“think about the long game”. Being able to work up until YOUR ready to retire is worth more than ending up in a situation where something happens to prevent you from working at all.
rearaxle:
Just do the tests then decide…always remember the category is an investment to be used as and when you want to use it…and the cost of the training will only ever go up and not down.Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk
Excellent advice!