I've seen the best and worst of this country

[Logan]

Hello all! My name is Logan, I'm a commercial truck driver from Michigan. I started to work at the age of 51, cuz I was desperate to find any decent work.

My day starts at 5 and a nice clean hot shower followed by a good meal at the end of the day are things that many other people are taking for granted, but not me if you know what I'm talking about. I don't know what work/life balance is and 21 days on the road is not a song title, it is my life.

WHile composing this post, I am thinking "why on earth I'm still here??!". But then I remember that I like my job no matter how hard it can be sometimes.

WHat about you guys? what is your story?

[G-CPTN]

I started off wanting to be a pilot in the Fleet Arm (our Navy), as my grandfather worked on flying boats during the First World War (the Great War 1914-1918).
As a teenager, I had a large circle of friends and a busy social life - when I discovered that navy airmen couldn't come home at weekends I decided that service life wasn't for me . . .
My next idea for a career was as a civil engineer - designing and building bridges - my ambition was to design and build a bridge from England to France.
I started work on a dam construction site - my first task was cutting the heads off thistles on the spoil heaps before I was promoted to soil shear sampling (it was an earth dam), but freezing early mornings being blown by freezing rain wasn't quite what I had in mind.
Then I found my ideal job - I joined a vehicle manufacturer, starting in the design office before being sent overseas to supervise vehicle testing. When I returned to the UK I was responsible for establishing test facilities for vehicles at the new 'proving ground' that was built from scratch on 700 acres of agricultural hillside.
Apart from investigating breakdowns and component breakages on the test vehicles, it gave me the opportunity of unlimited driving of a range of trucks, including military vehicles.
see:- https://www.truckandbusforum.com/gal...ge.php?i=52985
In addition to in-house driving, there were 'field trips' with a convoy of vehicles to overseas locations.
What was there not to like about that?

[robertdavey6]

A variety of jobs, straight out of school. These were:-

Double Glazing maker (3 weeks) Cutting aluminium frames and gluing glass to them.

Warehouseman. (20 months) Picking orders of honey and loading vans.

Tyre Fitter (6 months) Fitting tyres, from a wheelbarrow to an earthmover!

Driver/Warehouseman (5 years) First time DRIVER came first, in the job title. That was in 1978 and, in 2018 I'm still driving.

Leave home circa 04:00 Monday and home around 21:00 Friday. I get the occasional night home, through the week and, the occasional Friday night out.