Lifestyle

Pillar 3 – Lifestyle: future you vs current you

This pillar isn’t about trucks. It’s about you and the life you’re building around the job.

Before you chase any rate or contract, ask yourself: what does future me actually want? Is this going to be a 1–2 year push to clear debt or get a house deposit, or are you planning to live like this for 10–15 years?

Extra money is great, but it always comes with a bill somewhere else – sleep, weekends, birthdays, energy, health. If you’re constantly saying “I’ll sort that later”, later never turns up. The point of this pillar is simple: don’t just fall into a pattern because the planner said so. Decide what you’re willing to give, and what’s non-negotiable for the life you want outside the cab.

Shifts, patterns and your body clock

HGV work isn’t 9–5. The shift pattern you pick will shape your whole life.

Days
Day work usually means early starts, traffic, and being home most nights.

• Upside: you’re in a normal-ish rhythm, more overlap with family and friends.

• Downside: brutal alarms, morning chaos, and you’re often wiped by the evening.

Nights
Night work gives you quiet roads and fewer people, but your body clock gets hammered.

• Upside: better running, less faff on the bays, usually better money.

• Downside: sleeping in daylight, shops and social life on the opposite timetable.

Tramping / nights-out
Living out of the cab most of the week.

• Upside: big money weeks, no daily commute, some people like the freedom and headspace.

• Downside: loneliness, parking stress, basic facilities, missing everyday moments at home.

Weekends and “unsocial hours”
Those weekend and night premiums sound great until you realise you haven’t had a proper Sunday roast in months or a beer with your friends. You need to be honest: are you OK missing social stuff, kids’ events and normal weekends for that extra cash, or will it grind you down?

There’s no “right” pattern, but there is a right one for you. If you’re a zombie at night or you hate being away all week, don’t kid yourself it’ll magically get better. It usually doesn’t.

Relationships – the “relationship tax”

Every job charges a relationship tax. HGV just does it in long days and odd hours. You walk through the door tired and smelling of diesel – sometimes stripping off at the front door before you’ve even said hello.

If you’ve got a partner, they’re not just dealing with your hours – they’re dealing with your mood when you finally get home. You might be on decent money, but if you’re half asleep on the sofa every weekend and snapping at everyone because you’re shattered, that’s the price they’re paying for it.

Think about:

• Time vs money – is the extra cash worth never being around on weekends?

• Social life – are you OK missing nights out because you’re up at 2am?

• Communication – big one for most. Are you actually talking to your partner about what’s best for the family: shifts, pay, and what you can realistically handle? Or are you just lurching from week to week?

If you’ve got or want kids, go a level deeper:

• Do you want to be there for school runs, bedtimes, clubs and weekends?

• Or are you OK being the parent who’s “always working” but brings in strong money – and allows your partner to be full time for the family?

There’s no judgement here. Some families are happy with one parent smashing hours while the other holds the fort. Others want balance. The key is: don’t pretend you can have every pattern, every weekend off and top-end wages. Something has to give. Decide deliberately, not by accident.

Health and fitness – keeping yourself out of an early grave

HGV drivers are famous for poor health conditions and big bellies. You don’t have to add yourself to that list, but if you do nothing, the job will happily push you in that direction.

Food
Living on pasties, crisps and energy drinks is easy. It’s also why a lot of drivers feel like rubbish.

• Get a cool box or fridge.

• Cook a bit extra at home and bring proper meals.

• Swap at least some of the junk for stuff that actually fuels you.

You don’t need to turn into a fitness influencer. Just stop living like every day is a service-station treat day.

Movement
You’re sat down for hours. Your body isn’t built for that.

• 5–10 minutes of walking before or after a shift.

• Simple stretches and bodyweight moves by the trailer.

• Basic resistance bands in the cab if you can be bothered.

• When you’re on nights-out, get a long walk in or do a few laps around the service station.

It doesn’t have to be pretty. It just has to happen.

Sleep and recovery
If you’re on nights or doing a lot of nights-out, sleep becomes a job in itself.

• Blackout mask, earplugs, decent pillow, sleeping bag, or whip out the Egyptian cotton duvet.

• Don’t just neck energy drinks or coffee and hope for the best – tiredness is a killer. If you’re struggling, pull over and have a kip. My go-to is a 30-minute break, aiming for at least 15–20 minutes of actual sleep.

• One or two drinks might take the edge off; turning every night-out into a session will wreck you.

• Be careful driving home in your car after a long shift – faster speeds and lack of focus don’t mix. I was a victim of my own lack of patience on this one.

Your own MOT
You pay tax and National Insurance. Use what you’re paying for. Get your blood pressure, weight and general health checked. The truck has a yearly MOT; so should you.

Mental health – pressure, boredom and loneliness

This job doesn’t just hit your body. It hits your head too.

Pressure
Over-planned routes, tight time slots, constant tracking, phone calls from planners who think the truck can teleport. The temptation is always there to “just cut this corner once”. That’s where infringements, stress and accidents live.

Boredom
Same run. Same roads. Same Regional Distribution Centre (RDC). Five days a week. Boredom sounds harmless, but that’s when your mind wanders, you start overthinking life, or you drift off mentally behind the wheel.

Loneliness
Especially if you’re tramping or on nights. Days can go by where the only people you speak to are gatehouse staff and other drivers.

You need ways to keep your head straight:

• Decent podcasts, audiobooks, music, books or even learning something new whilst parked up. I use Udemy’s training courses for that.

• Having a couple of drivers you can actually talk to and have banter with helps. It’s OK to have a moan – just don’t turn into the full-time mood hoover.

• Noticing when you’re cooked – constant dread heading into work, no patience with anyone, and nothing bringing you any enjoyment.

If that’s you, it might not be “you’re weak”. It might be you’re in the wrong pattern, the wrong company or you’ve been doing too much for too long. The job is hard enough without beating yourself up on top.

Identity – life outside the cab

You’re not “just a driver”. You’re a person who happens to drive a lorry for a living. Big difference.

If you let it, the job will swallow your whole identity. Every conversation becomes about work, every thought is about routes and hours, and your world shrinks to the cab, the yard and your bed.

You need at least one or two things that are yours outside of work:

• A hobby you actually care about – gym, fishing, running, bikes, gaming, whatever.

• A couple of mates who aren’t only from the yard.

• Something you’re slowly building towards – a better contract, a transport office role, training/assessing, your own thing one day.

Even if it’s only an hour here and there, protect it. That’s the difference between using the job as a tool and letting it turn into a cage.

Lifestyle creep – when “good money” makes you feel stuck

One thing no one tells you about HGV money is how easy it is to trap yourself with it. You go from a baseline job to decent HGV wages, then the overtime starts rolling in, and before you know it the extra cash is already spoken for – newer car on finance, bigger rent or mortgage, more takeaways, more “I’ve earned it” spends.

That’s lifestyle creep. Your costs slowly rise to match your new income, and suddenly you can’t afford to drop a shift pattern you hate because the bills won’t stretch. You’re not working overtime to get ahead any more – you’re working overtime just to stand still. You feel “better off” on paper, but in reality you’ve lost freedom, not gained it.

I’m not saying don’t enjoy your money. But be honest with yourself. If every pay rise or big week disappears into fixed payments, you’re building your own cage. Better to keep some slack in the system so you can say “no” to a pattern that’s wrecking your sleep, your health or your family time.

A simple sense-check:

• If your hours dropped to 40–45 for a couple of months, would you be OK or instantly in panic mode?

• Are you doing extra shifts because you choose to, or because you’ve boxed yourself in?

• When you get a pay bump, do you improve your life or just increase your payments?

The job is hard enough. Don’t let lifestyle creep be the thing that quietly takes away your options.

Even if it’s only an hour here and there, protect it. That’s the difference between using the job as a tool and letting it turn into a cage.

Lifestyle checklist – questions only you can answer

Use this as a quick sense-check:

• Can I honestly handle this shift pattern (days/nights/tramping) for the next 2–3 years?

• What matters more to me right now – maximum money, time at home, or a balance?

• How will this job affect my partner, kids and social life in real terms, not just in my head?

• What am I actually doing to look after my health while I’m driving?

• Do I have anything in my life that isn’t about trucks or work?

• If this pattern stops working for me, what’s my next move?

No one can answer these for you. My job with this pillar is just to make sure you ask them before you jump in, not years down the line when you’re burnt out and wondering how you got there.

So… is HGV driving really for you?

New week, New me

I’ve done my time on rough shifts, warehouse starts, bad yards, good firms and everything in between. I’m not perfect and I still have weeks where I have to give my head a wobble. But these three pillars – work environment, earnings and lifestyle – are how I decide what I’ll put up with and what I won’t. They’re how I’ve inched my way from “just taking whatever the industry gives me” to building a life that actually works for me and my family.

HGV driving can give you solid money, freedom and a skill you can take anywhere in the country. It can also burn you out, wreck your sleep and make you feel trapped if you never stop to ask the questions in this guide. My aim with all of this isn’t to sell you the dream or scare you off – it’s to show you the reality so you can make a clean decision.

People always say “take the rough with the smooth”. Dig through this guide and find your own meaning to that phrase. Here’s mine – at least for this week.

Where I am now

I’ve laced up my boots and built a lifestyle I’m actually happy with. Here’s a glimpse.

This week I’ve woken my child up for school three times. I don’t just get one hug, I get two – and it’s the second one that hits the spot. We’re heading to the indoor ramp tracks this weekend. Before work I’ve been out on the pedal bike, listening to audiobooks and music, and I’ve spent plenty of long-haul hours in the cab belting out some strange sounds to my playlists.

I’ve got a supportive partner with a rewarding job of her own. We saved and got a place we actually cherish. Everything I own is paid for apart from the mortgage. I earn more than double what I made in a non-HGV role and I’m building a solid pension. If this salary ended tomorrow, I could step into another job without panicking. That’s taken time, mistakes and graft – not luck.

Next week I’ll be trying to hit the same standard again. Some weeks I’ll manage it, some weeks I won’t. That’s life.

There’s also a truth no one likes to say out loud: a lot of the uncommon, better-paying jobs still come down to who you know as much as what you know. I’ve built strong foundations, learned how to survive and move up, and I’ve never been out of work. In this game, the only thing that’s really guaranteed is a start time.

Use the industry as a tool for you, not the other way round. You don’t have to love every minute of the job – but you should be building a life you don’t hate living.

• Read Pillar 1 – Work environment & culture

• Read Pillar 2 – Money & Earnings