World’s smallest lorry driver Hayley Hume is just 4ft 9in - and she quit her job as a dog trainer to do it
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Standing at well under 5ft, Hayley Hume drives 14ft high, 16.5m long, 44 tonne, 16 wheeled tipper trucks along Britain’s motorways 60 hours a week. She delivers sand and gravel to building sites and quarries.
The 40 year-old became a qualified HGV driver in 2016 after passing her qualifications. Hayley told Derbyshire News that trucking runs in her family, saying: “I love lorry driving, there’s something addictive about it. My Dad was a lorry driver, my uncle’s a lorry driver, my cousin’s a lorry driver and my grandad was a lorry driver.”
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Hide AdHayley explained the reason she became a lorry driver was because she was actually hit by one while driving in 2008. She said: “So the reason I became a lorry driver in the first place is because I got hit by a lorry.
Adding: “It spun me in the motorway, so then it put me off driving on motorways for a while and going near a lorry.”
Hayley said that it was her cousin Kyle, who is a lorry driver, who said she should come out with him to help her overcome her fear. She said: “So I did, and I enjoyed it, I loved it.” So she ditched her role as a dog trainer to become a pro trucker.
Hayley realised she was the shortest driver in the world after Googling the record and has now put her application forward for the Guinness World Record, saying: “I’m 4ft 8in and I’m going for the Guinness World Record for the world’s smallest lorry driver. The record at the minute is 155cm, I’m 140cm.”
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Hide AdSpeaking about the response she received while working, she said: “I get a lot of criticisms, getting asked ‘where’s your dad’ when I come out of the lorry. People stare, people want photos all the time, they don’t believe that I’m driving it. I’ve had people taking photos of me before and going all over the internet saying these drivers are getting younger. I’m probably old enough to be half of their mothers.”
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