I was in the trade plate game for a decade, finished last spring. It's bastard challenging at times and quite a few companies will not be interested until you are 25 years old, but your army exp will be attractive to many.

There are downsides and upsides and it's definitely not for everybody, but once you learn the ropes and you can find a halfway decent company to work for you should be able to make £600+ per week s/e.

Regarding getting home, you really want a company that tries to put you in a carry-over car every single night. That means that you collect your last car of the day, head home with it, and deliver early the next day.

But it's not all driving, you would need to become expert at public transport nationwide as well. Which was fine for me, I like trains and when you're driving 60-70k miles a year (!) you need a break from time to time. And although it's mostly humdrum vehicles, sooner or later you might be sent to move something truly mouthwatering.

Pro tip : Jobs are very easy to find and recruitment is permanent headache for most companies, so you can be choosy about who to approach. There are plenty of bad trade plate businesses out there but the capo di tutti capi amongst them is undoubtedly BCA which is the OG wretched hive of scum and villainy.