Making the most of life is surely what it’s all about, but considering the lifestyle of (many) drivers, there’s not a lot of time left for life itself. After reading another thread relating to a narrow boat, the OP appears to work just enough to live, Unlike many other drivers who (seem) to live for work. There has to be a balance to strike, I know I have a hankering, I just don’t know for what yet.
global.
60 hours in one week is more than enough for me. Since I’m away all week I get the weekend to myself. I got a mate that does 80+, stuff that.
As last post I do 50ish hours but I’m home all week end also have a little car resto project on the go , a mk4 ■■■■■■ 1989 G reg that will become my work transport
People just need to accept that everyone lives their lives in different ways. Anyone looking at my life would see I devote the vast majority of my life to work and I do so through choice. Others see work as a necessary evil and work as little as possible which I also understand. There is no right answer, we all live in ways that suit us.
Part time for me, via agency, 3 maybe 4 days a week. Take Easter to mid October off, stay in France and Spain.
Point taken swithlogic, however this is the kind of flexibility I was referring to.
tommie1shunt:
Part time for me, via agency, 3 maybe 4 days a week. Take Easter to mid October off, stay in France and Spain.
When i was younger i was fortunate to be able to drive to the ME,USSR,North Africa and all of east and west Europé.Also Canada and USA.I was able to fulfill a desire to travel to obscure and sometime exotic places and earn a good living.After 40 odd years i decided to spend my declining years in Lappland.Using my savings i bought a house cash so after moving was ,like Harry,able to reduce my workload.I only worked during the summer and with the money made was able to stretch it through the winter being able to enjoy all of the wonderful things to do and having a good ‘‘quality of life’’.Now i have my pension so only work for a few weeks during the summer.Transport gave me a wonderful time to see and experience different countries and cultures and a '‘bit of extra cash’'to enjoy my declining years.
switchlogic:
People just need to accept that everyone lives their lives in different ways. Anyone looking at my life would see I devote the vast majority of my life to work and I do so through choice. Others see work as a necessary evil and work as little as possible which I also understand. There is no right answer, we all live in ways that suit us.
While I agree there are choices, such as having new cars and house full of latest gadgets all on finance or cheap car and basic stuff and more freedom on the hours you need to work, but for many drivers with families and mortgages there is little choice but to do the hours to earn the money just to pay the bills.
I spent my 20’s and 30’s chasing money to meet credit obligations for things I bought. Turned out I didn’t need it all in the end apart from the house the rest of it was foolishness.
I’m saving up now for a yacht. Sounds swish right? You can get a wee belter for less than 5 grand. I’ve blown more than that on bikes I’ve hardly rode, and cars that I simply didn’t need, and holidays I didn’t enjoy.
I understand the lads who love to work, and I respect the lads who have to bang the hours in to look after their family. I used to as well, then I paid the mortgage off and realised I didn’t care anymore, made some major lifestyle changes. It’s the most liberating experience, now I work my conkers off during the winter. Summers are all mine.
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switchlogic:
People just need to accept that everyone lives their lives in different ways. Anyone looking at my life would see I devote the vast majority of my life to work and I do so through choice. Others see work as a necessary evil and work as little as possible which I also understand. There is no right answer, we all live in ways that suit us.
It also helps if you like what your doing. Hours don’t come into it for me,its just take that from here to there who cares how many hours it takes or what time of day it is can I do it in my shift not enough hours is this legall how long to get there which way to go wot sat nav is best. Do I need sleeping bag? Unplanned nightout ■■■■■■■■.
Your a Driver not a fanny.
Rant over
Just get on with it.
And get well paid for doing it.
switchlogic:
People just need to accept that everyone lives their lives in different ways. Anyone looking at my life would see I devote the vast majority of my life to work and I do so through choice. Others see work as a necessary evil and work as little as possible which I also understand. There is no right answer, we all live in ways that suit us.
That’s probably the best quote ive read on Trucknet since being a member, But probably because I can relate to it so much. I look back at Euro and uk tramping as a very happy time of my life, Even if they were long hours and very little social life. I think driving trucks is in the blood and most folk kid there self that it’s not.
But things are very different now with what with marriage and young kids. I don’t see nothing wrong with long hours as long as the shoe fits sort of thing.
I train the future hgv drivers now but boy do I miss being behind the wheel of me old Fh12. Sad ■■■■■■■ I know
I retired Wednesday morning. 
thank you. 
muckles:
switchlogic:
People just need to accept that everyone lives their lives in different ways. Anyone looking at my life would see I devote the vast majority of my life to work and I do so through choice. Others see work as a necessary evil and work as little as possible which I also understand. There is no right answer, we all live in ways that suit us.While I agree there are choices, such as having new cars and house full of latest gadgets all on finance or cheap car and basic stuff and more freedom on the hours you need to work, but for many drivers with families and mortgages there is little choice but to do the hours to earn the money just to pay the bills.
Having a family is also a choice
switchlogic:
muckles:
switchlogic:
People just need to accept that everyone lives their lives in different ways. Anyone looking at my life would see I devote the vast majority of my life to work and I do so through choice. Others see work as a necessary evil and work as little as possible which I also understand. There is no right answer, we all live in ways that suit us.While I agree there are choices, such as having new cars and house full of latest gadgets all on finance or cheap car and basic stuff and more freedom on the hours you need to work, but for many drivers with families and mortgages there is little choice but to do the hours to earn the money just to pay the bills.
Having a family is also a choice
Well I suppose it is, although not always a planned choice and I wouldn’t put it in the same category as having a new car or Kitchen.
atm I’m 100% driving my sofa, maybe sometime around September I’ll consider agency work up to Xmas for beer money
If you want a good work - life balance come to France . Its been the best 10 years of seeing the family grow up and being around for it . I did the 6 weeks away thing and then 3 weeks away and then terrible hours on hazardous tankers in the uk and finally enough so we moved here .
Part time suits me, I need to clear 250 per week so limping 3 days a week suits me fine. But that being said, I want to use me class 1 entitlement so when the gig I am currently doing finishes in 3 weeks time, I am looking to do some night trunking because that’s something I’ve always wanted to do.
It’s all about choices, I chose for many years to be always away ( up to 40 weekends a year)
I did thorough enjoy that very much and it give me fantastic opertunities to see the world.
It was a bonus that I made decent money during that time, and it gave me the opportunity to semi retire on a relatively young age.
Yes I loved to work as much as I could, and now I love my new live.
Another one for each to their own. I did really bonkers hours for a few years, 100+ hours, eased off an probably do around 55 now, which still feels part time.
Never wanted children so that was easy decision to make and Mr Albion had worked away a lot of his life, so he was never bothered by my rolling in at all times of the day and night.
Those hours early on in life meant that I could have retired last year, so now I work because I like to.
Do you all really believe your life choices have been totally in your own hands or partly you’re dealing with the circumstances you find yourself in at the time?
In my case I never left school intending to be a truck driver and never even imagined I’d work in motorsport, (as I only had a passing interest in it) I suppose I imagined I’d would have been married and have children as it is a pretty normal path to follow, things didn’t work out that way.
Ok I made a conscious decision to get an HGV licence, but it was only as a challenge to myself, becoming a truck drivers only really happened when my previous job came to an end and a local haulier offered me a job.
After a few years I made another choice and went to college and then with my new qualification embarked on a career in IT, I might have kept doing that if Norwich Union hadn’t of merged with CGU and they cut jobs, so my temporary contract wasn’t made permanent even though that was happening before the merger went through.
So I went back to driving trucks while I looked for another IT job, while looking I saw a job for a race team, so applied for it, another choice, but I only saw it because I was reading the jobs section of the local paper every week looking for an IT job.
Left the Motorsport job after a couple of years and went back to haulage and was happy doing the job, but then I got a phone call from somebody I’d never met offering me another motorsport job with team I’d never heard of, and traveling the World something I hadn’t done, so I had to take it. Ok it was a choice to take it, but I never made the choice to apply for the job.
After many years of working as an employee for various teams I now find myself self employed, specialising in motorsport and prestige car transport, but again it was a decision forced on me by the fact the Nissan didn’t renew their contract with my previous employer meaning I was out of a job.
I have very few expenses, I don’t have loans or a mortgage, true I’ve made decisions not to have an expensive car on finance or loads of expensive gadgets at home, but then I was lucky finding my flat and great Landlords who have only just put my rent up after 10 years of living here and it’s still cheap.
And if relationships had gone a different way I might not be single, and if false alarms hadn’t been I might be a family man with all that goes with it.
Maybe it’s just me that hasn’t had every aspect of their life in their own control, but I doubt it.
As the quote goes
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.