Hello
I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and are looking forward to 2017, whether that’s getting back to work or searching for a new job.
Anyway I’ve been in my first HGV job for around a month now and I’m enjoying it. I enjoy the variety of not knowing where I’m heading from one day to the next.
I’m currently waiting to be loaded and thought I’d ask the question what was your first job and how good or bad was it. How long did you stay there, are you still there? What you’ve done since and are you enjoying it, hating it maybe?
Cheers 
I started my first trip to Europe, as an owner driver, a bit clueless . I was told to pick up my loaded trailer from Newhaven docks and ship out to Dieppe for Lisbon .
I got under the trailer and could not get get any further, it took a while to wind the legs on the slow gear not knowing about the faster trailer leg gear, that is one whoopsie .
Met up with fellow drivers , who said they were parking up once the ship docked in France, but i met a one hitter who escorted me to Lisbon in a day and a half.
Due to terrible roads back in the 90`s, the trip should have taken four days, the mountain roads would slow you down .
I threw the CMR paperwork out of the window, this is what you get paid on, so i had wait longer to be paid .
The freight forwarder then expected the same miracle every trip, and did not like me taking four days after meeting the one hitter, who only stopped for the loo and coffee .
Rubbish 
literally I started out on dustcarts
First job going overseas. I bet that was a eye opener. I’m curious to hear more as I suspect there’s only a minority that are still in the same job. I’m not sure about say 10 years ago but everyone I’ve met and spoke to usually stay in their first job a year or so max, then move onto bigger and better things. I might be wrong with this assumption so cut me some slack if so.
Started my first cat C job 7 months ago on general haulage and still totally enjoy it, only downside is some of the cretins on security or forklifts where you deliver but they are only the few as most people like a bit of a laugh. At the moment I don’t see me changing jobs anytime soon as the people I work with are on the whole a good bunch.
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1st HGV job was at NCL Leicester 1979,varied work on artics and rigids,moved on after a few months and struck gold when i landed at Carryfast near Lutterworth.young lad driving big artics…great fun,loved it 
now got my son-in-law driving artics at my current place…and he loves it! he’s earning good money and easier than turfing…he says
Well there are some good stories coming out and it’s good to hear that family are moving into the driving industry too. This is my last career change as I’m 40 now :-/ and hoping I enjoy it through to retirement. Will be constantly looking for opportunities to better myself though over the next year or so.
Got my HGV Licences in the Army, when I came out mid 80’s got work with a local general haulage firm. Only a small outfit, 4 drivers each with our ‘own’ truck. I spent first few weeks delivering various loads of steel about the local area and gained a good deal of knowledge doing that and then moved on to delivering it all over the place. Recall delivering a lot of steel to Uxbridge and Southampton shopping centres as well as prebuilt pedestrian bridges and other general long/ wide loads.
Boss did a runner from the taxman after a few years and I moved into I.T work. Good crack and good money for a good few years then about 15 years ago I started to get fed up of work, work, work mentality and went over to Thailand with a mate and we just dossed around over there for a couple of years till the money started to get low. Came back to the UK and settled back down into a bit of anything and everything.
andy_s:
Got my HGV Licences in the Army, when I came out mid 80’s got work with a local general haulage firm. Only a small outfit, 4 drivers each with our ‘own’ truck. I spent first few weeks delivering various loads of steel about the local area and gained a good deal of knowledge doing that and then moved on to delivering it all over the place. Recall delivering a lot of steel to Uxbridge and Southampton shopping centres as well as prebuilt pedestrian bridges and other general long/ wide loads.
Boss did a runner from the taxman after a few years and I moved into I.T work. Good crack and good money for a good few years then about 15 years ago I started to get fed up of work, work, work mentality and went over to Thailand with a mate and we just dossed around over there for a couple of years till the money started to get low. Came back to the UK and settled back down into a bit of anything and everything.
Interesting. So are you back driving or not?
Godzilla41:
andy_s:
Got my HGV Licences in the Army, when I came out mid 80’s got work with a local general haulage firm. Only a small outfit, 4 drivers each with our ‘own’ truck. I spent first few weeks delivering various loads of steel about the local area and gained a good deal of knowledge doing that and then moved on to delivering it all over the place. Recall delivering a lot of steel to Uxbridge and Southampton shopping centres as well as prebuilt pedestrian bridges and other general long/ wide loads.
Boss did a runner from the taxman after a few years and I moved into I.T work. Good crack and good money for a good few years then about 15 years ago I started to get fed up of work, work, work mentality and went over to Thailand with a mate and we just dossed around over there for a couple of years till the money started to get low. Came back to the UK and settled back down into a bit of anything and everything.
Interesting. So are you back driving or not?
Renewed my hgv licence earlier this year along with cpc etc. and recently been getting occasional class 2/3 work through the agency route to build up my experience again. Probably give that 6 months or so and mix it up with a bit of class 1 if I get the chance and then get a full time tramping job.
My class 2 was paid for by the company I was working for at the time as a recovery driver, so my first job was driving a Renault Midlum about. Really enjoyed the actual job, most people are awesome and super happy too see you. You do get the odd pain in the arse but few and far between and you get a lot of tips if you are enthusiastic and cheerful which I am. The problem was the randomness and unpredictable hours. Some days you are out at 2pm and then back at 4 then out at 6 doing some 200 mile run then doing flat batteries, also being dragged out of bed to change some posh guys wheel at 3 am gets real old real quick. So I left and retrained as a tree surgeon, loved it but the money is god awful, especially for the job. Lost my bottle a bit for doing big trees and packed it in 4 years later. Done my c+e now, landed a great job straight onto artics. Currently waiting too go back on the 9th so I am driving a low loader recovering buses and artics (this truck is seriously long) while i wait.
Lol not for too long I hope… 
was a plant operator for highways in sw Scotland on A74 in the 70s and after I turned 21 I passed my licence and following day after passing at Gala I was thrown the keys to a 6 month old Clydesdale tipper and intae the 3 shift rota for the a74 driving Maggie 6x6 and Atki 6x6 gritters.then spare low loader man on a ford d with a knockout lowloader. first load was either chips out o Morrington quarry or tarmac out o Coatsgate .job was a good un but being young and stupid I wanted to see the world ,so at 25yrs old I was behind the wheel o a lhd Maggie drawbar outfit and after 35yrs after getting my hgv I now drive Mack trucks in Canada. 
on highway work …funny how the world changes but things stay the same . jimmy
How the hell did you go from working in Scotland to Canada? You must of met a lass as and settled down. Glad your enjoying it, seems my assumption is right so far. It’s intriguing to think where I’ll end up and what I’ll be doing in 10 years from now.
nope …married a wee scots lass ,started a family did 21yrs for the same company and started to hate every minute off it at the age o 48 was given the chance o a job in Canada ,visited the company ,came hame ,sold my , house ,cars, told the company tae stick it up there arse (did a rant over the two way telling them what a good company it had been
and how they wouldn’t know customer relations if it bit their arse etc)put everything on 3 skids photos clothes(20yrs married ) and went for it no fallback , nothing to lose but money and it has worked out (well so far 9yrs in ) jimmy. (pics on the expat side wae highway work ,think its my new buggy for the season also in my gallery at top o forum)
Hats off to you pal. Glad it worked out for you.
Godzilla41:
Lol not for too long I hope…
Thankfully not. 
And my first real truck gig other than 2 initial days at P&H was on the pallet network, and I’d step back into that if needed as I didn’t mind it at all. Each day had it’s variety, as well as familiar faces, so a good balance for me as I also got a bit of light exercise in. Time didn’t drag, didn’t get bored, didn’t feel rushed and didn’t dread the drive to work…
However, I do suspect each firm will be different, and I was maybe lucky…
Initially I spent about 6 months with them, progressing classes as I went, and did another stint for about a month some time later when I needed a filler. So it’s always best to leave on good terms people…
Not the best paid limp I’ve had, and I’m earning more now doing less!
But whether that’s a good thing I’m not sure?
For the rest of non male prostitute history: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=140686
I passed with Peter Lane Transport who then took me on and my first job was a trailer full of paint from their base at Portbury upto Halesowen and as I was totally not used to having a heavy load on board having passed my test with an empty flat bed I stopped after 15 minutes thinking the trailer handbrake must be on slightly as the lorry was sluggish pulling away but it wasn’t it was just the fact that I probably had about 20 more ton behind me than I’ve had previously. 
After a couple of years ‘On the Buses’ my first HGV job was around late 80’s driving a rigid for Wimpy International & delivering buns, pickles, ketchup and all the other associated stuff to Wimpy restaurants around the Home Counties and in particular East London… my usual delivery round was in such lovely places like Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Hackney, Dalston, Canning Town, etc… horrible areas to be at 5am, having to move tramps from doorways so I could unlock the store to make my deliveries!
Then I had to collect all the money on Fridays from the restaurant owners, mostly Greeks, Turks and other dodgy foreigners and stash it in a safe in the vehicle & pray not to get done over before getting back to the depot to cash in the weeks takings, and hope it all added up right!.. I hated every minute of this job 
I wanted to get on the artics here but they only had 2 and one was driven by the guv’ners son, and the other driver had been there years, so I knew I’d never get a look in without joining a long waiting list!
So I eventually left and got my first class one job for a haulier in Salfords, Surrey and spent a few happy years hauling sugar out of Tate & Lyle at Silvertown, ( regular breaks at ‘Georges Diner! )’ amongst other UK general haulage! - Happier times!