Do I even bother?
So, I’ve just sent off my D2 pack and completed the medical, but honestly, I’m starting to lose motivation.
I’ve been driving buses for almost two years now, and I got so fed up with dealing with terrible road users and difficult passengers that I ended up quitting during my break.
After that, I started looking into becoming a police constable or getting into lorry driving. At first, I thought lorry driving might be the one for me, especially tramping, because it sounds like there’s more money to be made and a lot more independence compared to other driving jobs.
But after looking at some job adverts, it turns out that most companies won’t touch anyone with zero HGV experience. The few that do seem willing to take on new drivers are offering such poor pay that I’d have been better off staying on the buses and putting up with the stress.
I’m not really interested in taking a pay cut either. I got used to bringing home around £1,000 a week after tax, so dropping below that would be hard to justify. Granted, I was only making that kind of money because I was doing loads of extra mileage and taking on as much work as possible. I’d rather be at work than sitting at home doing nothing.
But when you factor in having to pay for your own licence, the lack of jobs for newly qualified drivers, and the lower pay on offer, the whole industry starts to sound a bit rubbish.
On top of that, there seem to be loads of experienced drivers saying they wouldn’t recommend lorry driving to anyone and that the pay isn’t what people think it is. Hearing that from people who’ve been in the industry for years doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.
What do i do?