They dont speak in Rdc waiting rooms or at cafes or truckstops, years ago, you would have old school " Good ole boy " , who would have you in tears of laughter .
These characters have sadly died, replaced with brain dead yes men, who drive wearing a stupid hi viz .
As said in another thread, if you eat at the French Rouitiers, you muck in, the French will speak to any foreigners.
The conversation is loud and buzzing.
Pass the wine , Comrades.
Is it just you they don’t talk to?
Always manage to strike up a conversation in the truck stop, rarely end up in RDC’s as most of what I do is farm work.
O dear, you’ve broken the new hi-viz hold there hand snowflake rule…
Sit down,get phone or tablet out and go straight to farcebook, mustn’t talk to strangers,and if you do just moan about the job.
Their always playing Candy Crush or something on their phones.
You ever tried to spark up a chat with a Russian whilst waitin to tip or a Bulgarian in the cafe, it’s ok when in France or Germany, Spain your expecting it at least your gonna try and ask for breakfast in some sort of broken language.
Sadly it’s become a culture of “I’m alright Jack now naff off and leave me alone”
Drivers on whole are or were 2 things
1 sociable but a solitary person who spends most of his time on his or her own and likes it that way.
2 A giving person who would think nothing of helping someone out in time of great need or danger, hence the old term “ THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD” because in times past a knight would help anyone in distress .
Even are dozy comes under that flag 
Because the majority of them are the same as they are on here. Grumpy old men who hate the job, hate the decisions they’ve made in life and are just going through the motions till they die.
I’m blame the fact that most drivers seem to only ask what money you get paid even if your company is know where near where they live so they ain’t asking about jobs, just being nosey.
I even had that at the F1 in Monza, the sun is out, the cars are practicing and an Eddie Stobart drivers first remark after hello was “how much do you guys get?”.
Are jobs we’re not even similar, he moves tyres and parks up compared to when I arrive spending a day with a crane and two days in total building something, so surely he can assume I’m getting more then him and talk about getting sun burnt and waiting for the first beer instead.
Been in the game for 10 months now and i can honestly say i have never met a grumpier group of people, honestly i don’t understand it, i try to spark up conversations and get the glare most of the time, i mean if you don’t like the job do something else, that’s assuming they are grumpy due to the work.
Too many knuckle draggers driving lorry’s, you only have to read some of the posts from people on here… Very rarely do I drive now (weekends only) and even rarer I say a word to anyone when I do.
I suppose I’m a bit guilty of keeping a low profile.
If I’m sat in a waiting room or something I’ll read the paper while sussing out the guys in there.
If there are a couple of gobby types among them, …the ‘‘And I told him this, and I told him that’’ types, I’ll avoid them like herpes, but if a couple of ‘normal’ driver guys are sat, I’ll maybe start a conversation with ‘‘Have you been waiting long’’ or something.
Same in a Truckstop I never go in wearing my co. polo shirt in case there are drivers from other depots for the same reason,…avoiding the gob ■■■■ s .
I learned that lesson after I had one guy one night from the main depot boring the arse off me for about 1 hour, telling me how brilliant the firm and the boss was, 
Could not be arsed with that, it was in a driver’s pub, I left telling him I was going to bed, but went to next pub… but didn’t he walk in after me 10 mins later.
I don’t seek out people’s company in my spare time, and don’t see why I should at work. If a half decent bloke, like Rob for example, engages in a half sensible conversation, I’m not the rude type that tells him to naff off, but I prefer my own thoughts and company. I can count the number of colleagues that I cared to have a drink with on one hand. And one of those I regretted almost instantly. (If you don’t have any money, don’t go to the pub…).
It is as Rob says, most conversations amongst drivers are about how crap they think the job is, how ■■■■ their company is, or bordering on the offensively racist. I have no time for these people.
Having only recently ventured back into RDC waiting rooms I can only echo Robs sentiment. My most recent was at tesco grocery Kilsby, where the usual mix of BS and aroma of the sweaty unwashed abounded. Overly vocal conversions ranged from the “I’m jacking this job to go on agency” down to “how much are your lot paying”. Only one guy actually asked politely how long I’d been waiting, but as soon as he though he’d got a bite and started waffling, I turned and headed for the coffee machine. Probably like many in the haulage game I like my own company. Also It’s as if there’s a drivers version of PMT (DPMT? ) where everyone gets hormonal and doesn’t seem to make sense.
peirre:
Only one guy actually asked politely how long I’d been waiting, but as soon as he though he’d got a bite and started waffling, I turned and headed for the coffee machine.
It wasn’t me… seriously !
Well I’ve never had anybody bale out on me like that anyway. 
and I never tend to either waffle or prolong a conversation in those places anyway.
It is as Rob says, most conversations amongst drivers are about how crap they think the job is, how [zb] their company is, or bordering on the offensively racist. I have no time for these people.
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we would get on really well being stuck in the same rdc waiting room assuming i ever end up in one again.
i think any job i do is basically ok otherwise i wouldnt be doing it.
theres good trips and disaster trips but the job is the job.
the job is great,everything associated to the job it the downside.
the companies i work for tend to be of the same persuasion and similar disregard for rules and regulatons as myself so not usually a problem there,and im never prone to have any conversations bordering on being offensive about racism.
im quite capable of crossing that border similar to hitler and the blitzkrieg into poland in the first sentence or two and if the recipient dont like it,then tough ■■■■■ for them.
theres gobsticks on the boat and everywhere else you go,its only a matter of degree as to your own interaction.
try wearing a pair of earphones unplugged.
ignore them the first couple of times they talk to you,look at them the 3rd time taking your earphone out and saying “what”? then plug your ear back in and turn away.
keep repeating till they take the hump and leave you alone.
i did that driving taxis for a while as i couldnt be bothered talking to the general pondslime of joe public taxi customers and it worked well enough. 
Over here in Holland, you can’t shut the buggers up. You walk into the waiting room at Tilburg at 11:30pm and it’s like walking into a wild west saloon. When I walk in, half a dozen drivers or more pause briefly to shout “hey English, how are you” before continuing their animated conversations about Ajax and Feyenoord, or swapping Dutch jokes etc. They all talk very loudly.
Unfortunately, I can only really stand there drinking my coffee and smiling politely as the conversations go on around me, these deep sounds coming from their throats as they pronounce these really long words in Dutch that would get you triple points in Scrabble, but it’s fine. Come 12:30am when the CMR’s get handed out, there’s a mad rush for the door and the engines start firing up !
Thank god. I thought it was just me that found a lot of people rude/ignorant. Was starting to get a complex
But as has been said I’ve tried to strike up conversations but in the end I gave up and just sit there unless someone talks to me kind of thing.
I avoid it now as 90% of the clowns I have spoke to I want to take a hammer to there face after 5 minuites
robroy:
It wasn’t me… seriously !
Well I was hoping it was EB, then he could’ve gone out and got the coffees
When I was doing subby work for Fowler Welch before Xmas there seemed to be plenty of drivers talking to each other. Ended up at Tesco Hinkley getting my ear bent for an hour by a Polish driver who was banging on about crypto currencies how much money he was making on Bitcoin. I hope he sold before the end of December or he would have had his pants pulled down.
My lad is a tramper and seems to find plenty of drivers to talk to at truckstops. He is building up quite a list of people to be able to have a natter on the phone with.
Seems to me from my experience that anyone who wants to be left alone simply sits on their phone or ipad etc. They may have low social skills to begin with, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are ignorant, they don’t want to converse with others or listen to the usual drivers drivel. I get on with all I work with and meet, I am a natural chirpy person that has a good laugh with others, someone who sits on a phone ignoring others is fine by me. What harm are they doing? In all walks of life there are people who you wouldn’t want to associate with. The amount of people that I have met who I would walk away from are many, but I have also had some surprises from those who are quieter.
Some times I wish they wouldn’t. I was at an Amazon last week and had a Stobfart driver talking to me non stop. He even subjected to me to his cops chalking his truck off and demanding the 2 bays either side were left unused story.
It was 3am and I was too tired and too polite to tell him what a moron I thought he was.
Most drivers have their heads buried in their phones anyway these days and on nights half the room will be trying to sleep.