long distance hgv driving

clare ny

Hi all
Eventually like to get into long distance driving , so hoping to get some info off drivers who on here who are or have been involved in this ..
Would i want to get some extra langauges?? have basic french and
spainish .What is the average salary hourly wage like ..
what are the hours like ? how many hours can you drive
if your away for 10 days do you get few days off .. etc
Could someone give me an example of there schedule ...
all info would be greet thanks very much ...

corktina

i believe the hours are long and the pay poor.

CiniO

Hours can't be that long, as limit is 9 hours driving per day, which you can extend 2 times a week to 10 hours.
You have to take rest periods every day (I think at least 11 hours), and weekly rest periods (something about 40 hours, I'm not sure), so you can't drive more than 6 days a week.
Assuming all this is during the journey, you will be spending lots of time in the cab sleeping, watching dvds, etc. I doubt there's a need to know any other language than English, but surely this will make your work easier. I would rather expect working like 3 weeks away, and then 1 week off at home, or something similar. I can't say anything about money, as I just don't know.

corktina

so three weeks solid work in effect. What life is that?

Scottie99

You could be working up to 15hrs a day (9/10hrsdriving)
Rest periods between 9/11 hrs
Its a tough life and the money recently has become poor

analfabets

Another thing you need to consider is home sickness.
Have you ever been away for any longer then couple of weeks on your own?
While it might seem to be fun, jumping in a truck ang heading off accross the whole Europe, you'll soon get tired of continuous driving. After couple of weeks you own voice will sound weird to you as won't be hearing it that much.

My father in law went to truck driving. He was transporting loads of Salmon from Norway to Ukraine. They where given good money for on road expenses (meals, water, parking etc), got paid by mileage and he was employed as a subcontractor so he could decide if he wanted to pick up next available load or skip it for next one. It was all good. On top of that his home was in about middle of journey, so he could sleep one night in his own bed. He is a tough guy, very hard worker, never sleeps more than 5-6 hours. Anyway - he gave up because he could't cope with being constantly away from home. He was even getting a little depressed. That just shows how much influence home sickness can have on somebody.

guil

have you got the licence yet, it'll be the guts of 2 grand or more before ya even sit in a truck on your own and then nearly every employer wants 2 years minimum experience

all that aside the pay is gone to sh!te, there is employers looking for drivers for uk and ireland work for €8.65ph

working fool

its a tough horrable job ,
there was money in it but not anymore ..unless your willing to run illegaly .
with the new digital tacograph its very hard to fiddle your hours .
and if you hold a proper european licence you will be caught and prosecuted .

Owen

+1 on the hours and pay. And a friend was recently the victim of stowaway refugees in his trailer. The lock on his container was sealed with a special seal designed by his company, and they managed to copy and duplicate it. He got stung for thousands in a fine.

-Corkie-

I done it before I often covered 7k kms during a 7 day week with no days off. Those days are gone but I was earning over 1500 euros a week.

CiniO

-Corkie- wrote: »

I done it before I often covered 7k kms during a 7 day week with no days off. Those days are gone but I was earning over 1500 euros a week.

Jeezas.... that makes 1k kms everyday. Even on perfect motorway in a truck it's probably 12-13hours of pure driving everyday, or probably more.

On the other hand for such money, it would be tempting, at least for a while.

-Corkie-

CiniO wrote: »

Jeezas.... that makes 1k kms everyday. Even on perfect motorway in a truck it's probably 12-13hours of pure driving everyday, or probably more.

On the other hand for such money, it would be tempting, at least for a while.

It was all motorway driving Cinio. Hollyhead/Pembroke to London most days and back again. You would not need any rocking when you went to bed. I gave up all that 7 years ago. It would kill a good man.

Oh ya hours were 2am off the boat until 9pm on return to boat for another load.

MugMugs

Used to take a transit from Dublin to Liverpool to London and back twice a week few years back. Broke my heart. Drove from Dublin to Briancon in France a few times too.... 26 hour drive. Gets very boring very quick.

eire-kp

And even worse is being stuck in some dump of a motorway service in England at night...horrible places.

Here is the driving hours for you.
http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Tachograph_Enf/Drivers_Hours.pdf


I have done a few European trips and spent a year at interstate work in the US.
I went over while I took a career break..from my real job.

Its actually nice work there..nice roads, 75 mph limit on a lot of the roads, and logbooks instead of tachographs, proper big beds to sleep in, good truck stops...(nice food, clean showers, free parking etc) nice driving hours which we stuck to-unlike here there was no pressure to break them.
Made it clear how bad the industry is over this side.

Id advise you to stay well clear of it.

clare ny

Thanks all ,
Must say i am really shocked on how low the wages are ,
also with the hours restricted no chance to make up for the bad wages ..
Again thanks all ...