What goes into an average shift driving a lorry?

Tom the lorryist, Twitter

20/09/2021

An XPO driver has tweeted his experiences during a whole shift delivering milk to a variety of supermarkets in the UK. And it’s illuminating. One Loadstar journalist recently considered re-training as an HGV driver, as a way of travelling, while earning more money. But after reading this insight, which shows just how skilled you need to be – and physically strong in this case – journalism is looking like the easier option.

Tom ‘the lorryist’ updated with this over the weekend: “The amount of people who have tweeted to say they have learned something, or had eyes opened…just incredibly humbling to read and makes it all seem worthwhile.”

Really worth a read, especially if you are wondering what all the fuss about driving lorries is about.

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Philip Hadland
September 22, 2021 at 1:57 pm
I’ve been driving trucks since I was 17,I am now 67 and, going strong .

When I started in civvy Street in 1975, I’m ex army,I had a flat bed rigid truck. We loaded bricks at Cherry brick kiln in Bedfordshire by hand. Then to the building site to offload by hand .

The next day a load of Breeze Blocks same thing.

Then on to farm deliveries where we had to load sacks of farm feed by hand off a conveyor.

Then onto to 2 or 3 farms to offload by hand. Roping and sheeting was a must.
Ask anyone you know if they know what a dolly knot is.

Life today is a breeze compared to those days I can tell you.

No trail lifts, No drivers mate, all done on my Jack Jones.

The money was very poor when I started.

Phil

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- Robert E Abraham
  September 23, 2021 at 1:40 am
  As with P .Hadland, i also ex army and left in ’76 and used to loaded 20t of potatoes from farm trailer onto my trailer by myself down on Romney Marsh and then finish
  with rope and sheeting, i used to make sure i had the perfect envelope on back of sheet and yes tired down with dolly and double dolly and then have a shandy in nearby pub before going to market, im now in my 70’s, still driving, working until brexit for German company driving all over Europe, North (Finland) west (Spain) and south (Italy) and in between, away from home (England) for weeks but i enjoyed it, but cannot see many younger drivers doing the same as older drivers used to do, i used to take drivers out with me to show them the ropes and on returning to yard they say it not for them (to hard) and quit.
  
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