“Just relax,” says the instructor. If only you are! I hold my breath behind the wheel of a gigantic HGV, a 44-ton articulated truck that can comfortably plunder a small house if I take the wrong turn. And we are so high that I can't even see the way directly below me.
My hands are clamped on the steering wheel, knuckles white, while the sample winds forward – and runs into the sidewalk. Here in the cabin, which you almost have to climb to get in, I look down over the sharp drop in front of me – and drive on.
A light turn of the wheel and the 16 meter long truck springs alarmingly aside, the trailer judgments behind.
And don't even start my reversal technique. Mirrors protrude in every direction, but none offers a clear view. I count six of them, some the size of computer screens. It's too much to choose from.
Then there is the fact that when I turn the wheel on one side, the trailer behind it goes in the opposite direction, which means that I correct. So my Goliath deteriorates in a zigzag movement.
Not so reassuring for passing pedestrians – and a threat to nearby vehicles. But luckily there is nothing left.
I am on a huge parade site at Barracks in Croydon, South Londs, I learn to control this gigantic truck because there is a shortage of truck drivers. My country needs me.
It does not matter that the only car I have ever driven is a Ford focus and I passed my test only four years ago. Or that the enormous size of this dreadnough of the roads, with five rows of massive wheels, is impossible to understand.
Writer Lily Amory starts the wheel of a 46 tons of Mercedes -articulated truck
Lily (depicted with a truck in the National Drivers Center in Croydon) passed its test four years ago and only drove a Ford Focus
Last month, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) warned that 200,000 HGV programs will be needed in the next five years.
More than 81 percent of our goods are transported per road, but the number of drivers has fallen to 266,000 – 20,000 less than before the pandemic. This is a complete crisis.
It started in 2021 with Covid when an older generation of drivers gave up, online shopping flourished and Brexit saw an exodus of European truck drivers.
Suddenly supermarket boards were empty and gas pumps were dry. Do you remember those queues for fuel, the panic purchases? Wetherpoons even announced that it had to do with a beer deficiency. The army was standing byby to help.
The government has issued 5,000 temporary employee visa for truck drivers to alleviate the problem, while the wages of HGV drivers rose by 27 percent. It all calmed again; We can get our groceries and our gasoline.
But the problem never left. Not in the least because since then more truck drivers have retired – the HGV brotherhood consists mainly of male drivers between 50 and 59 years old. Only 1.6 percent are younger than 24 percent and only 2 percent are women.
And so, again, there is empty shelves and imminent shortages of the pumps.
That is why I, 22 years old, walked around in the National Driving Center in a vehicle with heavy goods. My instructors look nervous.
The HGV brotherhood mainly consists of male drivers between 50 and 59 years old
More than 81 percent of our goods are transported per road, but the driver's figures have been taken to 266,000 (file image)
Laurence Bolton, 32, the director, and Paul Mcintyre, 42, the chief inspector, have trained everyone from pastors to pilots, even those who have never driven a car before.
The women they have taught have mainly been from the transporters families. But there is no reason why young women from outside the trade are not allowed to participate.
Companies want more of them in this men -dominated industry, and to encourage the trend, there have been campaigns for better facilities and surveys of the best truck stops for female drivers, assessing showers, false and changing rooms, as well as parking, restaurants and garages.
Nottinghamshire Hijlig -company Mitchells suggests another reason to register: the opportunities on social media for female truck drivers.
A quick look at my computer shows that many women have become truck brothers, such as the 22-year-old Amelie who places experiences on Tiktok as @truckeroak about here.
Could I be one of the new female tribe? In the cabin I try to remember the basic instructions that Mr. Mcintyre had given me.
My attempts to steer around cones and to avoid flagpoles on the Paradebound at around 5-10 mph are not clear success. At some point the speedometer pushes to 20 mph and it is a bit scary.
“Safety over progress,” says Mr. Mcintyre while we weave our way. “Making exercise permanent – not perfect.”
The government has issued 5,000 temporary employee visa for truck drivers to alleviate the problem, while the wages of the HGV drivers rose by 27 percent
During the COVID Pandemie, supermarket boards were empty and petrol pumps walked dry (file image)
When I stop the vehicle with relief, the chair decomples without warning. It feels like I suddenly dropped three meters. “Don't worry,” he says. “It's just the air suspension system.”
My driving experience was so far limited to the expired Ford of my parents named Gimli (after the dwarf in the Lord of the Rings). Gimli was small, squat, susceptible to breaking down, smoke of mold and had to be retired last year because he had not failed, but crucial was easy to drive.
But after a day in the HGV, I managed to return with cones and to perform with some ease. As time progressed, it became more and more fun. Maybe I had found my calling.
None of my friends has considered truck as a career. But as a English graduate I start thinking that it might have been wise to do this.
The average graduated salary of literature in the UK is just over £ 24,000, while the average HGV and the spring spring can start around £ 30,000 a year and earn a maximum of £ 60,000.
There are countless reasons why young people do not clamber in the hut. The number under 25s with driving licenses in the UK is the lowest on record.
As a generation, my colleagues are less inclined to drive. They are more environmentally conscious, the majority still lives with their parents and they want to be able to work from home-no natural truck drivers makes them.
MR McINTYRE takes me on the road – and I realize that I still have a long way to go before I could ever endure my class 1 truck driver.
The average graduate salary of literature in the UK is just over £ 24,000, while the average HGV driver can start at around £ 30,000 a year (file image)
While he maneuvers skillfully around Croydon, constantly flooding the road, he calls potential dangers: “Lights, pedestrian warning, turn right.”
There is a taxi, then an electric delivery bike and a tram. He gives a wide berth on a pram at a small roundabout. Every moment, he says, an engine could come on its inside, or a parked driver could open their door.
He drives a murder machine and surrounded by pedestrians. It is a huge responsibility. He juggles between the main mirror, the curb mirror and the proximity mirror.
He clearly loves his work, but it is clear that it requires enormous concentration, agility and judgment. Truck drivers can legally be on the roads about nine and a half hours a day. It is easy to see why older drivers can become exhausted.
The RHA predicts that around 20,000 drivers older than 60 will retire in the following year, followed by around 21,000 in 2026.
AI technology has also changed the job. Cameras now check drivers in their huts, assess behavior and even check 'tilt head' to ensure that they do not destroy away.
As we return to basics, Mr Bolton wants to see how I went for it. I tell him that I found it exciting and exciting, once I got the hang of the acceleration.
“It's incredibly satisfactory,” he says. 'People now see truck driving like a job – while it used to be more a career. They keep the country delivered. Without the truck drivers everything cuts to a stop. '
I agree. We in Gen Z are not hunter collectors; We expect everything to be delivered to us.
So maybe it's time for young people to travel less, to take responsibility for those deliveries – and to get our HGV licenses. I know I want mine now.
