8 months on since I started this career.
Discussion
So i've had my licence and have been driving artics since early november now and i think i've largely got the hang of it. It's been a fairly steep learning curve and i was definitely thrown in at the deep end but i now love my job, my boss likes me and has put me in his best truck, a pre adblue, manual gearboxed v8 r500 topline scania. he's even bought me some eminoxes and fancy lights hes going to put on it when i go on holiday next month.
i know a lot of people come on here complaing about this, that and everything else but also a lot of people come on here looking for advice about starting up in this job and i'd like to throw some balance into the argument and state some things i've learned, some musings and some tips.
1, expect to work a lot of hours 60+ hours a week. however, more hours - more wage.
2, its not that hard to be legal(ish) i work for a dodgy farmer and have een pulled in by vosa plenty of times. so far managed to dodge any fines etc. be nice to them, have a good attitude with them, a smile goes a long way.
3, not everybody you speak to hates you (as many people on here/seem to think), a smile goes a long way, as does being nice in the goods in/out window, be nice to them, make them smile and laugh, they will be nice to you.
4, when you are approaching the back of another lorry and dont want to cancel your cruise control, the following cars will not let you out
-vauxhall insignia the worst offender by a country mile
-vauxhall vectra
- any other vauxhall (says the man who drives a vauxhall monaro)
- audi a3
- almost any peugeot
- small asian cars - though chances are its you overtaking them
- any dawdling van
5, you will overtake more small cars with nervous drivers and small vans than you will lorrys. you will then have to listen to other drivers complaing about "elephant racing"
6, the people from the point above will also wait until they get in your blind sport, before deciding to match your speed, sometimes for miles, blissfully unaware of the danger they put themselves in. They also like to hover around the back of your trailer, unaware that you cant really see that they are actually a car length behind you.
7, when your overtake other lorrys on flat and level ground. some people will drop their cruise control by a single kmh, some wont, i call these people d
heads.
8, when cars pass you, you will naturally have a look inside them. a massively high proportion of drivers will be playing with their smart phone, only attractive girls will look up for awkward eye contact before presumably complaining about leering truck drivers.
9, Lynn Bowles and sally traffic are gods.
10, pre-dawn radio is awful.
11, coaches full of school kids are best ignored, you can pull faces at them all you want but when traffic slows, of course you will be parked next to a buss full of kids gawping and waving at you, trying to get you to blow the horn unaware that there is a timecand place for it.
12, sleeping in lorry is actually quite nice.
13, a clean interior is a happy interior, i go through a packet of tesco kitchen wipes a week, they cost almost nothing and always seem to pick up a lot of dirt. i cant understand why some lorry drivers choose to live like pigs.
14, the wage doesnt have to be as bad as people say. my brother is a train driver, they earn 46k+ a year for 35hr weeks, and they all complain, people will always complain, i earn nearly as much but work many more hours. however, he passes 1 red light by 1 metre and his career is over, i get to have the radio on at work, dont have to wear an awful (or any) uniform, i get to stop and pee wherever i want, i get to manage myself, chat st on handsfree all day, see different scenery all the time, and if it all gets too much, i can have a nap midway through my day.
15, marks and sparks at the motorway services is your friend, quality (ish) food for ginsters money.
16, before starting your job, get the best smartphone and data package you can justify. your will often be given the wrong address/details for somewhere, being able to figure this out yourself is a godsend, and to be able to sattelite view a farm/factory/narrow road before arrival is a godsend
Anyhow, dont know if that will be of any use to anyone but i felt the ned to have a blab.
i know a lot of people come on here complaing about this, that and everything else but also a lot of people come on here looking for advice about starting up in this job and i'd like to throw some balance into the argument and state some things i've learned, some musings and some tips.
1, expect to work a lot of hours 60+ hours a week. however, more hours - more wage.
2, its not that hard to be legal(ish) i work for a dodgy farmer and have een pulled in by vosa plenty of times. so far managed to dodge any fines etc. be nice to them, have a good attitude with them, a smile goes a long way.
3, not everybody you speak to hates you (as many people on here/seem to think), a smile goes a long way, as does being nice in the goods in/out window, be nice to them, make them smile and laugh, they will be nice to you.
4, when you are approaching the back of another lorry and dont want to cancel your cruise control, the following cars will not let you out
-vauxhall insignia the worst offender by a country mile
-vauxhall vectra
- any other vauxhall (says the man who drives a vauxhall monaro)
- audi a3
- almost any peugeot
- small asian cars - though chances are its you overtaking them
- any dawdling van
5, you will overtake more small cars with nervous drivers and small vans than you will lorrys. you will then have to listen to other drivers complaing about "elephant racing"
6, the people from the point above will also wait until they get in your blind sport, before deciding to match your speed, sometimes for miles, blissfully unaware of the danger they put themselves in. They also like to hover around the back of your trailer, unaware that you cant really see that they are actually a car length behind you.
7, when your overtake other lorrys on flat and level ground. some people will drop their cruise control by a single kmh, some wont, i call these people d
heads.8, when cars pass you, you will naturally have a look inside them. a massively high proportion of drivers will be playing with their smart phone, only attractive girls will look up for awkward eye contact before presumably complaining about leering truck drivers.
9, Lynn Bowles and sally traffic are gods.
10, pre-dawn radio is awful.
11, coaches full of school kids are best ignored, you can pull faces at them all you want but when traffic slows, of course you will be parked next to a buss full of kids gawping and waving at you, trying to get you to blow the horn unaware that there is a timecand place for it.
12, sleeping in lorry is actually quite nice.
13, a clean interior is a happy interior, i go through a packet of tesco kitchen wipes a week, they cost almost nothing and always seem to pick up a lot of dirt. i cant understand why some lorry drivers choose to live like pigs.
14, the wage doesnt have to be as bad as people say. my brother is a train driver, they earn 46k+ a year for 35hr weeks, and they all complain, people will always complain, i earn nearly as much but work many more hours. however, he passes 1 red light by 1 metre and his career is over, i get to have the radio on at work, dont have to wear an awful (or any) uniform, i get to stop and pee wherever i want, i get to manage myself, chat s
t on handsfree all day, see different scenery all the time, and if it all gets too much, i can have a nap midway through my day.15, marks and sparks at the motorway services is your friend, quality (ish) food for ginsters money.
16, before starting your job, get the best smartphone and data package you can justify. your will often be given the wrong address/details for somewhere, being able to figure this out yourself is a godsend, and to be able to sattelite view a farm/factory/narrow road before arrival is a godsend
Anyhow, dont know if that will be of any use to anyone but i felt the ned to have a blab.
Edited by bigfatnick on Friday 6th June 09:18
when loaded to max gross weight, on the slightest incline, i will try my very hardest to not cancel the cruise control/drop from the speed limiter, it doesn't take much of a hill for you to drop a lot of speed. you learn hills and on many will drop a gear before you even get to the hill. if you have to slow mid hill, not only do you lose the speed you had for the hill, but you also lose revs, your boost drops off, (which unlike a car turbo, actually takes a good chunk of time to build back up) and can often mean the difference between coming over the brow of the hill at 48mph, or something like 44mph, with everything overtaking you and having to drop mutiple gears. The lightweight supermarket truck you just passed having regained its position in front of you meaning you have to spend more time in lane two, getting in peoples way.
I dont think any truck driver wants to intimidate the cars in front of them, but it becomes a game of all or nothing to lose as little speed as possible. I remember once getting caught up behind an erratic driver at the bottom of the big eastbound hill on the a66 leaving cumbria, i'm convinced i used an extra 2 litres of diesel and lost a minute or two of driving time just from that one small thing, not to mention getting in loads of peoples way, and the girl in the focus who did it, no doubt had no idea she had disrupted so many peoples journey.
I dont think any truck driver wants to intimidate the cars in front of them, but it becomes a game of all or nothing to lose as little speed as possible. I remember once getting caught up behind an erratic driver at the bottom of the big eastbound hill on the a66 leaving cumbria, i'm convinced i used an extra 2 litres of diesel and lost a minute or two of driving time just from that one small thing, not to mention getting in loads of peoples way, and the girl in the focus who did it, no doubt had no idea she had disrupted so many peoples journey.
mp3manager said:
bigfatnick said:
So i've had my licence and have been driving artics since early november now
14, the wage doesnt have to be as bad as people say. my brother is a train driver, they earn 46k+ a year for 35hr weeks, and they all complain, people will always complain, i earn nearly as much
Who are you working for that pays a newcomer, "nearly as much as 46k a year"?14, the wage doesnt have to be as bad as people say. my brother is a train driver, they earn 46k+ a year for 35hr weeks, and they all complain, people will always complain, i earn nearly as much
Edited by bigfatnick on Sunday 8th June 21:02
GC8 said:
Point 5 Nick: no camera? My experience is all specialised and Ive never driven a 'normal' vehicle on the road since my training, but I would imagine that driving without a camera puts you at a massive disadvantage.
Left on all the time its like a rear view mirror and it allows you to see all of the clowns who would otherwise be hidden from view.
id love one, but neither us or the company we share work/trailers with has them, shame!Left on all the time its like a rear view mirror and it allows you to see all of the clowns who would otherwise be hidden from view.
chilistrucker said:
i'm with a few of the others, the scanias are ok, decent looking truck but not as good as the old 3 series toplines.
i'd rather keep my daf than swap it for a scania these days. personal preference i guess.
im sure a lot of the newer trucks would be better in almost every way than mine, but the way i see it is that mine is one of the last trucks i will ever be able to use (in the uk at least) with a loud exhaust and manual gearbox, and its big inside and doesnt look too old. ive got the rest of forever to drive adblued up auto boxes peices of engineering brilliance, but are possibly just a bit "white goods". the first truck i ever drove was a roatrain spec kenworth on a farm in australia when i was backpacking. it had a almost unsilenced 15litre 550bhp cummins with an unbelievably loud jake brake and a 4 over 4 constant mesh eaton road ranger. the time for driving stuff like that (at least in europe) has already passed, and i find that a massive shame. id love to go back and master that truck now i have half an idea of what im doing.i'd rather keep my daf than swap it for a scania these days. personal preference i guess.
GEARJAMMER said:
I had to laugh at number 8, lol.
I used to enjoy the job, still do, but not as much as I did, so we'll see how you feel after a few years.
Oh and welcome to my 'I drive a Scania for work and a Monaro for play' club..... now consisting of 2 members, lol.
im sure i wont enjoy this job forever, but once i dont, i'll stop. and will still have the licences, which will always be useful.I used to enjoy the job, still do, but not as much as I did, so we'll see how you feel after a few years.
Oh and welcome to my 'I drive a Scania for work and a Monaro for play' club..... now consisting of 2 members, lol.
everybody needs 2 loud v8's! i was back in my old volvo for a few days last week and it has a slight blow on the exhaust, sounds cool from the outside but so droney and boring inside, no turbo noises, no v8 lope. was great fun having the decent engine/compression brake though, i love playing the "i'm gonna see how long i can go without touching the brake pedal" game.
REALIST123 said:
Test driver said:
I think lorries should be lane 1 only. Minimum speed for cars 65mph (conditions permitting).
3pts for infringements.
Not a bad idea but not going to get support from those who can't see how dumb it is to block two lanes for mile after mile, just to avoid losing 1 mph...........3pts for infringements.
leggly said:
I'm sorry but doing two weeks work in one isn't a way to judge how well paid a job is. Do a basic 40 or 35 hour week and work out your rate from there.
i didnt want to get involved in the money side of it and wish id never made the money point. but one thing to note. people getting into this job (which the point was kind of aimed at) arent already truck drivers, they have not seen the decline of the industry (that im always told about). if they had a st hot job, they wouldnt be considering getting into lorry driving. they are mostly minimum wage jockeys like i was, having done lots of st jobs. in which case for me it sees a good rise in your hourly wage, plus plenty more hours, plus night out money, plus bonuses and since im single and without kids, keeping me locked in a box all week means i dont spend any more. i know the job isnt what it used to be, but no job is any more. its an easy, relatively stress free job which allows you to sit on your arse all week and gives you a decent payslip at the end.but i guess if you did this job years ago, i can see why people thinks its gone to the dogs
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