jakethesnake:
One condition I have noticed that seems to have developed over the years with lorry drivers is “bad attitude”.
You just need to read some of the threads on here to realise that! Always everyone else’s fault and never ever wrong.
Every opportunity taken, however tenuous the link eh Jake.
Priceless. 
Sitting has been termed the ‘new smoking’. The sedentary nature of the job leads to atrophy. As soon as you sit, your stomach distends and relaxes, which means back problems will surely follow. Think of your stomach muscles as the protagonist to the antagonist back muscles. If you relax one, it stresses the other. So as somebody has already stated, my tip would be…sit up straight.
We are what we repeatedly do. So if you are turning the wheel in a certain way repeatedly, and getting shoulder pain, you need to exercise it in other directions as much as you stress it in your driving style.
I see so many drivers on loading bays stuffing their faces and doing whatever, but never walking. Get out and the cab and get active when on long tips, it will save you from so many maladies when you get older.
My latest payment to years of trucking is upper arm problems. 
Had scans, my tendons from shoulder are inflamed…■■■■ agony. 
Had injections, (think too many.)
You would think I had Tourettes syndrome, I shout out obscenities randomly as the pain shoots down my arm.
Oh yeh…Reversing like a ■■■■ amateur at the moment. 
can’t get lock off fast enough.
An old doorman mate of mine, grabbed my arm in the pub as a joke, I squealed like a girl, making him step back and look at me in disgust saying…
‘‘■■■■ me Rob, you’ve gone soft mate’’
robroy:
jakethesnake:
One condition I have noticed that seems to have developed over the years with lorry drivers is “bad attitude”.
You just need to read some of the threads on here to realise that! Always everyone else’s fault and never ever wrong.Every opportunity taken, however tenuous the link eh Jake.
Priceless.
He’s a TOTAL ■■■■ Rob
Janos:
Sitting has been termed the ‘new smoking’. The sedentary nature of the job leads to atrophy. As soon as you sit, your stomach distends and relaxes, which means back problems will surely follow. Think of your stomach muscles as the protagonist to the antagonist back muscles. If you relax one, it stresses the other. So as somebody has already stated, my tip would be…sit up straight.
We are what we repeatedly do. So if you are turning the wheel in a certain way repeatedly, and getting shoulder pain, you need to exercise it in other directions as much as you stress it in your driving style.
I see so many drivers on loading bays stuffing their faces and doing whatever, but never walking. Get out and the cab and get active when on long tips, it will save you from so many maladies when you get older.
How many pilots and train drivers get ‘back problems’.
They are called compressive spinal injuries and decompression treatments for a reason and it has nothing to do with sitting.It’s more about excessive weight being transmitted from the arms to the legs and compressing the spine in trying.The shock absorbing flexible pieces of gristle and cartilage between the vertebrae only being designed for that purpose not for being used to save the costs of mechanical handling devices. 
the maoster:
You’ll probably develop bad ears listening to all the mouths on sticks who couldn’t actually hack the job itself so then arse kissed or bluffed their way into easier and less demanding roles such as pretend trainers. Your ears will suffer as they regale you with tedious stories of how it was “back in the day”, and how drivers of today don’t have a clue.
Even though their last personal experience of a lorry was sometime in the last century.
Or maybe, they could do the jobs and were not muppets thinking a 15 hour day was acceptable, doing 9-5 and getting the same pay as you… what is hard about driving a truck? It’s not hard, work smart not silly.
robroy:
My latest payment to years of trucking is upper arm problems.
Had scans, my tendons from shoulder are inflamed…[zb] agony.
Had injections, (think too many.)
You would think I had Tourettes syndrome, I shout out obscenities randomly as the pain shoots down my arm.
Oh yeh…Reversing like a [zb] amateur at the moment.An old doorman mate of mine, grabbed my arm in the pub as a joke, I squealed like a girl, making him step back and look at me in disgust saying…
‘’[zb] me Rob, you’ve gone soft mate’’
Bugger me! I’d actually forgotten about the shoulders. I s’pose I’ve got so bloody used to it over the years that it doesn’t register any more. Then there’s two tennis elbows and neck pain. I’ve had a few cortisone injections over the years. The one in the thumb joint (that’s another one I forgot about) was painful. Left knee, probably from clutches that you had to nearly stand on lower back… bloody hell, I’m a physical wreck! 
Punchy Dan:
Don’t ever hold on if you need a ■■■■ stop soon as pos in later life you could end up with serious problems .
That’s the downside of screenwash bottles not being fitted inside the cab nowadays! 
Dan’s right though, luckily at 69 I’m ok but if I was still driving now and taking these water tablets I’m on nowadays for swollen ankles I would be stopping at every lamp post!
Pete.
The way it’s going RSI of thumbs and sore finger tips are more likely hazards for future drivers than over extended biceps.
discoman:
the maoster:
You’ll probably develop bad ears listening to all the mouths on sticks who couldn’t actually hack the job itself so then arse kissed or bluffed their way into easier and less demanding roles such as pretend trainers. Your ears will suffer as they regale you with tedious stories of how it was “back in the day”, and how drivers of today don’t have a clue.
Even though their last personal experience of a lorry was sometime in the last century.Or maybe, they could do the jobs and were not muppets thinking a 15 hour day was acceptable, doing 9-5 and getting the same pay as you… what is hard about driving a truck? It’s not hard, work smart not silly.
Nail on head discoman, apart from the fact I definitely earned more than the average driver and did a hell of a lot less hours. I also learned an awful lot for free!
Oh and to put the record straight I drove lorries after my training years. Worked for a mate on my terms and not for the money but because I enjoyed it.
All done now though and happily retired many years before most.
You’re not endearing yourself here Jake.
Some of us have indeed managed to get in on the better end of things, but grateful we were given the chance and humble enough to know it wasn’t cos we was masterbleedinmind and we are under no illusions that it was because were too bloody clever by half but because we had a combination of luck and offered a life altering opportunity at some point that we snatched with both hands.
Maybe we stacked luck in our direction in the first place because we’d earned ourselves a reputation for honesty reliability discretion when needed loyalty and hard work, but without those moments of good fortune, and being in the right place at the right time, maybe we wouldn’t have been so fortunate.
It certainly doesn’t mean we who got in on the better end are any better than anyone else just that fortune (no bugger makes a fortune in this industry) fell our way, maybe encouraging others who are yet to get their chance instead of telling them how hopeless they are or their attitude stinks or whatever would help.
Let me just tell anyone interested the realities here.
The jobs in dead mans shoes world are rare indeed, if you have one look after it and do your best to make it last all of your working life and then some.
Jobs that pay top money require either long or odd hours or bloody hard work or a certain skill set and various combinations of each.
■■■■ easy jobs requiring no skill and short hours will always be oversubscribed and inevitably they will pass into the hands of the big logistics mobs where it will be dumbed down to idiot level and destroyed.
Own account jobs are almost always better termed than hire and reward, transport isn’t their business it’s serving the customer with the company’s products or other services.
Unionised jobs are also better usually termed than others, so if you get a job there join the union and be a sensible contributing hard worker who stands up for themselves but also realises that unless the company makes a profit and there’s mutual co-operation the job will be ruined and you will lose that plum job to…one of the logistics giants again.
Anyone on here can have good career for want of a better word in this industry, there is no cast iron route to the better jobs, each of us has to find our own way and what one may like another will detest, the good employer will not come looking for you so start now making your work history and yourself into the sort of person you would want to employ, that way when the opportunity happens your CV or application stands out from the rest.
Juddian:
You’re not endearing yourself here Jake.Some of us have indeed managed to get in on the better end of things, but grateful we were given the chance and humble enough to know it wasn’t cos we was masterbleedinmind and we are under no illusions that it was because were too bloody clever by half but because we had a combination of luck and offered a life altering opportunity at some point that we snatched with both hands.
Maybe we stacked luck in our direction in the first place because we’d earned ourselves a reputation for honesty reliability discretion when needed loyalty and hard work, but without those moments of good fortune, and being in the right place at the right time, maybe we wouldn’t have been so fortunate.It certainly doesn’t mean we who got in on the better end are any better than anyone else just that fortune (no bugger makes a fortune in this industry) fell our way, maybe encouraging others who are yet to get their chance instead of telling them how hopeless they are or their attitude stinks or whatever would help.
Let me just tell anyone interested the realities here.
The jobs in dead mans shoes world are rare indeed, if you have one look after it and do your best to make it last all of your working life and then some.
Jobs that pay top money require either long or odd hours or bloody hard work or a certain skill set and various combinations of each.
■■■■ easy jobs requiring no skill and short hours will always be oversubscribed and inevitably they will pass into the hands of the big logistics mobs where it will be dumbed down to idiot level and destroyed.
Own account jobs are almost always better termed than hire and reward, transport isn’t their business it’s serving the customer with the company’s products or other services.
Unionised jobs are also better usually termed than others, so if you get a job there join the union and be a sensible contributing hard worker who stands up for themselves but also realises that unless the company makes a profit and there’s mutual co-operation the job will be ruined and you will lose that plum job to…one of the logistics giants again.Anyone on here can have good career for want of a better word in this industry, there is no cast iron route to the better jobs, each of us has to find our own way and what one may like another will detest, the good employer will not come looking for you so start now making your work history and yourself into the sort of person you would want to employ, that way when the opportunity happens your CV or application stands out from the rest.
Hear hear!
Even the ‘big logistics mobs’ have good numbers and better positions, but some drivers do the bare minimum so get the bare minimum. It isn’t a case of sucking up or brown nosing, it is just a case of having enough pride in yourself to do the best you can.
Juddian:
Unionised jobs are also better usually termed than others, so if you get a job there join the union and be a sensible contributing hard worker who stands up for themselves but also realises that unless the company makes a profit and there’s mutual co-operation the job will be ruined and you will lose that plum job to…one of the logistics giants again.
Yeah right we’re going all handball we’ve ditched pallets and direct trunks now we want the drivers involved in loading and unloading at the hub.Yeah fine they’ll do that. 
Juddian:
You’re not endearing yourself here Jake.Some of us have indeed managed to get in on the better end of things, but grateful we were given the chance and humble enough to know it wasn’t cos we was masterbleedinmind and we are under no illusions that it was because were too bloody clever by half but because we had a combination of luck and offered a life altering opportunity at some point that we snatched with both hands.
Maybe we stacked luck in our direction in the first place because we’d earned ourselves a reputation for honesty reliability discretion when needed loyalty and hard work, but without those moments of good fortune, and being in the right place at the right time, maybe we wouldn’t have been so fortunate.It certainly doesn’t mean we who got in on the better end are any better than anyone else just that fortune (no bugger makes a fortune in this industry) fell our way, maybe encouraging others who are yet to get their chance instead of telling them how hopeless they are or their attitude stinks or whatever would help.
Let me just tell anyone interested the realities here.
The jobs in dead mans shoes world are rare indeed, if you have one look after it and do your best to make it last all of your working life and then some.
Jobs that pay top money require either long or odd hours or bloody hard work or a certain skill set and various combinations of each.
■■■■ easy jobs requiring no skill and short hours will always be oversubscribed and inevitably they will pass into the hands of the big logistics mobs where it will be dumbed down to idiot level and destroyed.
Own account jobs are almost always better termed than hire and reward, transport isn’t their business it’s serving the customer with the company’s products or other services.
Unionised jobs are also better usually termed than others, so if you get a job there join the union and be a sensible contributing hard worker who stands up for themselves but also realises that unless the company makes a profit and there’s mutual co-operation the job will be ruined and you will lose that plum job to…one of the logistics giants again.Anyone on here can have good career for want of a better word in this industry, there is no cast iron route to the better jobs, each of us has to find our own way and what one may like another will detest, the good employer will not come looking for you so start now making your work history and yourself into the sort of person you would want to employ, that way when the opportunity happens your CV or application stands out from the rest.
Jezuz Juddian, what’s all that about? TBH I don’t care whether I am endearing myself or not on here. I was merely replying to discoman telling him he was correct with his thoughts.
I started like you or any other lorry driver and through a bit of luck and initiative made my way to work that suited me and that was generally paid well. Getting onto petrol tankers was a bit of luck but also putting myself about a bit to let it be known I was interested. After that I was getting a little bored with lorry driving and decided I needed a change hence I managed through very hard work to get myself basically qualified in training and it all went from there. I don’t in anyway disrespect anyone who wants to stay as a driver. Each to their own as they say.
jakethesnake:
discoman:
the maoster:
You’ll probably develop bad ears listening to all the mouths on sticks who couldn’t actually hack the job itself so then arse kissed or bluffed their way into easier and less demanding roles such as pretend trainers. Your ears will suffer as they regale you with tedious stories of how it was “back in the day”, and how drivers of today don’t have a clue.
Even though their last personal experience of a lorry was sometime in the last century.Or maybe, they could do the jobs and were not muppets thinking a 15 hour day was acceptable, doing 9-5 and getting the same pay as you… what is hard about driving a truck? It’s not hard, work smart not silly.
Nail on head discoman, apart from the fact I definitely earned more than the average driver and did a hell of a lot less hours. I also learned an awful lot for free!
Oh and to put the record straight I drove lorries after my training years. Worked for a mate on my terms and not for the money but because I enjoyed it.
All done now though and happily retired many years before most.
Jakes dream factory is away again
jakethesnake:
Each to their own as they say.
But you…
Don’t actualy subscribe to that though. You constantly, almost incessantly put other drivers down with your ‘I’m better than you’ attitude.
People don’t like it and people constantly rebuke you for it but that never seems to stop you.
Carryfast:
Janos:
Sitting has been termed the ‘new smoking’. The sedentary nature of the job leads to atrophy. As soon as you sit, your stomach distends and relaxes, which means back problems will surely follow. Think of your stomach muscles as the protagonist to the antagonist back muscles. If you relax one, it stresses the other. So as somebody has already stated, my tip would be…sit up straight.
We are what we repeatedly do. So if you are turning the wheel in a certain way repeatedly, and getting shoulder pain, you need to exercise it in other directions as much as you stress it in your driving style.
I see so many drivers on loading bays stuffing their faces and doing whatever, but never walking. Get out and the cab and get active when on long tips, it will save you from so many maladies when you get older.How many pilots and train drivers get ‘back problems’.
They are called compressive spinal injuries and decompression treatments for a reason and it has nothing to do with sitting.It’s more about excessive weight being transmitted from the arms to the legs and compressing the spine in trying.The shock absorbing flexible pieces of gristle and cartilage between the vertebrae only being designed for that purpose not for being used to save the costs of mechanical handling devices.
Loath as I am to reply and feed a Carryfast cut and paste debate, there are many ways to provoke back pain. It is well documented that a big stomach with atrophied muscles will pull your pelvis forward, causing a larger curve in the spine, which will invite all sorts of problems, none of them welcome, and all of them painful.
Why not contribute something constructive to the OP’s question, so perhaps somebody younger might learn from your experience, and possibly avoid suffering in later life.
yourhavingalarf:
jakethesnake:
Each to their own as they say.But you…
Don’t actualy subscribe to that though. You constantly, almost incessantly put other drivers down with your ‘I’m better than you’ attitude.
People don’t like it and people constantly rebuke you for it but that never seems to stop you.
Oh really, show me any of my posts where I have put a driver down? The only time I will put a driver down is if he drives like a clown or admits to it on here.
As for I am better than you, well that could be true in many cases. Jezuz there are some clowns around.
I also suggest you have a read at the content of most of your posts before you slag anyone else.
And just to be brutally honest there are some drivers who should not even be drivers and there are some that could never be anything else than a driver. Fact.
Being overweight is a big factor to future back, leg and knee problems of course but with very little manual work involved in many driving jobs nowadays it probably isn’t as easy to keep in check. I was lucky, when in the early eighties I transferred to driving tippers from fitting the weight dropped off of me, over a stone in the first month, and I have never felt as fit and well as I did then but the job itself changed (good old H&S! ) and there was less manual work allowed. Since being retired it crept back on again alas and I’m not active enough now to get it off easily. In those days I was sometimes sheeting up seven times a day, plus a lot of shovelling/levelling the load and a one mile walk home at the end of the day mostly up a 1 in 8 hill. My younger brother is a train driver and he has to battle hard to keep his weight down, plenty of walking when off duty and watches his food intake as well.
I was warned about the weight issue by a former B.J Waters driver from the sixties, with being away all week and lodging in digs and living on chips and beer his weight ballooned to the 25 stone region. His Doctor told him his life was in danger (he was diabetic as well) so he quit the job for a steadier one on powder tankers, no nights out, and he got down to around 13 stone which he still maintains in his eighties.
Pete.