‘People are gobsmacked to see a 51-year-old woman driving an HGV’
In a new series, Telegraph Money speaks to those who have gambled on a mid-life career change to find out if it has paid off.
Long days on the motorway, reversing an 18-wheeler into a tight entryway, and rest breaks at service stations: the life of an HGV driver isn’t for everyone.
But for Julia Jones, 51 from Milton Keynes, being a lorry driver was a childhood dream.
She discovered a passion for trucks when she was 10-years-old, when her father, who worked as a chef, took her along for food deliveries in the Caribbean. But it wasn’t until much later in her life that she would get the chance to drive them for herself.
“Part of [my father’s] role was to drive the trucks to the airport to replenish the aircraft with food for people once they’re on their holidays and what have you. Once or twice I went along with him, and that’s when I fell in love with driving trucks,” Ms Jones explains.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, these things are amazing. I’ve got to drive one of these’.”
But the dream fell by the wayside as Ms Jones grew up, and once she’d finished school she took on retail jobs in supermarkets.
She says life got in the way of her pursuing lorry driving, even after passing her driving test on the first attempt aged 17. Instead, she settled down and had children, and forgot all about trucks.
“I started on the shop floor, then the tills, and I went around different departments. A bit of food service, but mainly retail, where you replenish shelves – but I progressed into management,” she says, explaining that she did a year of night shifts as a manager.
“That’s really hard work. That’s 12 hours. It’s a proper hard slog. I am not going to lie, that was a bit of a struggle. As you get older you get aches and pains in your bones.”
In 2017, when her marriage broke down, she decided to switch from being an assistant team manager at Waitrose in Norfolk to pursue her dream of lorry driving, having spotted the opportunity on internal job boards.
“I didn’t think I had a hope in hell of getting it, to be fair, because I know there would be a huge number of applicants – in my cohort, 80 people applied. So imagine my surprise when I actually got the job.”
Having won a John Lewis apprenticeship and gained the support of the Department of Education’s Skills for Life scheme, Ms Jones got behind the wheel for the first time, for a thirteen-month training course.
“I started one week before the first Covid lockdown, on March 16, 2020, and because of that there were certain delays, because the whole country was shut down.”
But Ms Jones persevered through the pandemic, despite six cancelled tests and practical courses, doing much of her learning from home.
“I had numerous tests cancelled, and it’s taken me three years and four months. I passed with a distinction, so I was well chuffed with that. My dad was so proud, as was my son.”
The new job came with a pay increase – Waitrose offered lorry drivers salaries of up to £53,000 during the shortage in 2021 – although Ms Jones said she hadn’t even looked at the pay offer before starting, as she was so excited.
She now works long days and is frequently held up on the M25, and sometimes has to reverse into “notoriously” difficult car parks.
“Day-to-day with HGV you’re doing a ten-and-a-half hour minimum, that’s your basic day and then generally it goes into overtime.
“What that entails is, you’ll be given something that’s called a run sheet, and you might just go to one place that’s far away – three or four hours away. Or it might be that you go to three or four different places,” she explains.
Despite being relatively new to the job, even more experienced drivers find some manoeuvres tricky, she says: “Some of the other drivers, who have been doing it for many many years, said that sometimes you just get a blip and you just can’t park for love nor money.”
The road isn’t lonely, Ms Jones explains, because Greg James from Radio 1 keeps her company, and one of her favourite things to do in the cab is have a sing-a-long.
“Ever since I passed my driving test [at 17] I have loved driving, so I knew this wouldn’t be a chore, knew it was something I would always enjoy. I’ve never got bored of driving my whole life.”
Female HGV drivers remain a rarity, something that is borne out by the reactions of some male truckers when they see Ms Jones on the road – although it doesn’t bother her in the slightest.
“So many men, when they happen to look in the cab, and see who is driving, they do a double take,” she says.
“I literally had it last week. This bloke, he looked in at me, and he almost looked gobsmacked, with his mouth open, as if to say: ‘That’s a woman!’
“I just found it hilarious. I’ve not suffered from that side of it, I quite enjoy it!”
Did you make a mid-life career swap of your own? We’d love to hear about it – get in touch by emailing money@telegraph.co.uk.
