[ilmiont]

HGV driving has long interested me and I still regularly reconsider my career choice. Since I left school I've been running my own software development business, which is now enjoying some degree of success, but after a hard day I end up trying to work out how I could get into driving instead.

The trouble for me with entering HGVs now isn't really the tests, theory, or working conditions - it's the future. I'm 22 now and I could have a few good years on the road but I don't see myself being satisfied driving something electric and semi-autonomous in a few more years time.

Really my dream is to make a living as an owner driver but looking at the practicalities it doesn't look like something I could sustain long-term. With reluctance I've conceded it's not worth destroying what I've built so far if I can't guarantee it will satisfy me in another decade. Maybe it's best this way - driving for me at the moment is for recreation only; perhaps a few bad days trucking would end up souring my relationship with my S60 too, as driving currently forms the basis of only my best and most memorable days.

It's even hard to find a vehicle that suits - try and find a manual gearbox FH, there are only a handful advertised at any time, almost all of them fitted for tipping/heavy haul. I'd want to run a manual Volvo on general distribution, preferably a late third-gen FH Euro 5, but there aren't any. Euro 6 fourth-gen FH units with manuals are practically non-existent on the market, then Volvo started saying "you can't have one" after 2017.

Even assuming I found a way to exit my business, opted for a career change, found a truck, and got on the road, how many years before it becomes impractical/uneconomical to run a Euro5/6 vehicle? It would be the worst thing to me, having to sell/scrap a usable vehicle which I'd made my living in, based on legislation, because for me the job would be a life and centred on the vehicle. Euro 7 is on the way, probably something non-diesel and nasty after that, tractor units are getting ever more electronic with digital dashboards and mirror cams... none of that appeals to me. If I could be sure I could drive a diesel with a proper gearbox and real mirrors for years to come, I'd be seriously looking at getting in the industry, but steering a mirrorless automatic about just doesn't interest me. I admire and aspire to drive the current-gen vehicles but the next-gen vehicles and emissions laws have driven me away from pursuing it as a full-time role.

I do intend to get my license soonish and am pinching myself for not doing it sooner as hauliers in my area are advertising a lot of casual positions, almost looking desperate in some cases. Now I'd be waiting weeks or months to get a test though, by which time the opportunities could be gone. I like the idea of an odd run at the weekend... but then you've got the 35 hours of CPC to keep a license I'd barely use. Nonetheless if the government follows through on suggestions of combining the C and C+E tests, I may finally get my license as that would be one obstacle removed.

I do wonder if I made the wrong career choice, I do almost envy the owner drivers who spend their lives on the roads in older Volvos, but I know I'm also only seeing the good bits and with transport vehicles, nothing can be taken for granted in the current climate of supply chain chaos and environmental lobbying. It seems very high risk to enter the industry, then have it all snatched away when they take our diesels.