An unanswered comment?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

albion1971 wrote:

Hombre wrote:Eaton Twin Spillter I loved mine in a brand new ERF EC10. They would certainly sort out the men from the boys nowadays.

Brilliant gearbox if you knew how to use it.Problem was a lot were never shown how.
I know so many that never knew about the upshift brake.
Certainly confuse a few these days!

And it confused more than a few in it’s day as well, the newer generation of lorry drivers don’t half get some stick, but, to put it into perspective, they can always thank the older generation for the way the transport industry is governed today!

Why is that some on here make a statement but then cannot or will not back it up?
pete-b came away with this last week and mazzer gave it a +1 and when I asked for them to explain there thoughts…NOTHING.

2

Anybody else have pete-b or mazzers view?

3

albion1971:
albion1971 wrote:

Hombre wrote:Eaton Twin Spillter I loved mine in a brand new ERF EC10. They would certainly sort out the men from the boys nowadays.

Brilliant gearbox if you knew how to use it.Problem was a lot were never shown how.
I know so many that never knew about the upshift brake.
Certainly confuse a few these days!

And it confused more than a few in it’s day as well, the newer generation of lorry drivers don’t half get some stick, but, to put it into perspective, they can always thank the older generation for the way the transport industry is governed today!

Why is that some on here make a statement but then cannot or will not back it up?
pete-b came away with this last week and mazzer gave it a +1 and when I asked for them to explain there thoughts…NOTHING.

+1 :laughing:

4

The reason I didn’t reply is twofold.

1, I really couldn’t be arsed getting involved in a ■■■-for-tat.

2, I wanted to leave my response as long as possible to see if it would annoy you. :unamused:

IF SOME old hands hadn’t been so keen to run bent for extra wonga, do you honestly think that drivers would be so vigorously pursued by the gestapo today? Now before I get bombarded by all and sundry, i’m not suggesting for one minute that EVERY driver was up to no good, and to be totally honest, I don’t care either way, what’s done is done. And yes, I know SOME modern day drivers run hooky too, but no doubt the tricks of the trade were passed on by a wily old fox.

It gets a bit tiresome hearing the old brigade berate and belittle anybody who hasn’t been driving trucks for at least 50 years.

So there you have it. Some good old fashioned generalisation.

5

albion1971:
Anybody else have pete-b or mazzers view?

Ok to back up my statement (sorry didn’t realise I had to explain myself to the headmaster)
A lot of the current rules and regulations have evolved over time as a means of stopping drivers from either being exploited or willingly breaking the law. Now this was happening long before I started driving one of the reasons log books were replaced by tachographs was due to the widespread fiddling of them it wasn’t my generation who were doing this it was yours, your generation who lead the authorities to believe that the haulage industry could not be trusted.
It was people from your generation who were doing the stupid runs to Italy and Spain which meant that when the likes of me started if you didn’t do the same you didn’t keep your job especially in this part of the world.

6

pete-b:
The reason I didn’t reply is twofold.

1, I really couldn’t be arsed getting involved in a ■■■-for-tat.

2, I wanted to leave my response as long as possible to see if it would annoy you. :unamused:

IF SOME old hands hadn’t been so keen to run bent for extra wonga, do you honestly think that drivers would be so vigorously pursued by the gestapo today? Now before I get bombarded by all and sundry, i’m not suggesting for one minute that EVERY driver was up to no good, and to be totally honest, I don’t care either way, what’s done is done. And yes, I know SOME modern day drivers run hooky too, but no doubt the tricks of the trade were passed on by a wily old fox.

It gets a bit tiresome hearing the old brigade berate and belittle anybody who hasn’t been driving trucks for at least 50 years.

So there you have it. Some good old fashioned generalisation.

First of all thanks for replying but surely forums are for discussion so why make such a strong statement if you cannot be bothered to discuss it.
You wanted to annoy me by leaving you response as long as possible.I somehow doubt you would have not replied if I had not posted tonight.

Anyway you blame older lorry drivers for the state of the industry today.I think you will find lorry drivers old and young have done this together.
Sure there were bent lorry drivers years ago but there are just as many these days if not more.The one big thing that has changed over the years is attitudes and not for the better.
There was also far less aggression on the roads and lorry drivers were far more courteous.
So tell me why some new lorry drivers are like this when the previous generation were not?
Lorry drivers are lorry drivers…good and bad…always the same…always will be.

7

People are greedy, always have been always will be. If the rules and regs are not enforced then you have either greedy bosses or greedy drivers out to make as much money as possible. It’s not one generation or the others fault.

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I have no idea why some “new drivers” act the way they do, probably the same reason why some “old” drivers behave the way they do.

How can the new generation be responsible for things which happened before they came into the industry?

I did say SOME of the current crop are just as bad!

There have always been people with ■■■■■■ attitudes, so let’s not kid ourselves that this is a new phenomenon.

There was a lot less traffic, whilst I agree that there appears to be a lot of inpatience and incompetence on the roads nowadays, the problem with overcrowding on the roads and motorway network amplifies the problem. (It doesn’t make it right) Everybody wants to be somewhere 20 minutes ago.

Agreed, lorry drivers are lorry drivers, new and old, and likewise, there are some who go out of their way to help, and some who are just obnoxious, new AND old.

But, that’s life.

9

albion1971:
Anyway you blame older lorry drivers for the state of the industry today.I think you will find lorry drivers old and young have done this together.
Sure there were bent lorry drivers years ago but there are just as many these days if not more.The one big thing that has changed over the years is attitudes and not for the better.
There was also far less aggression on the roads and lorry drivers were far more courteous.

The thing is, Albion, I can virtually guarantee that the guys who had been driving for years when you were a fresh faced youngster barely able to see over the steering wheel of your Guy “Big J” were saying exactly the same things. :wink:

10

Camaradie is long gone now.
If you saw a fellow driver with a tyre blow out,about 3 or 4 would stop and help change a tyre.
Now it is health and safety and a fitter will come out.
Flat battery in the docks.Just ask.Now firms ban jump starting due to power surges damaging the computer on the truck.

11

Rhythm Thief:

albion1971:
Anyway you blame older lorry drivers for the state of the industry today.I think you will find lorry drivers old and young have done this together.
Sure there were bent lorry drivers years ago but there are just as many these days if not more.The one big thing that has changed over the years is attitudes and not for the better.
There was also far less aggression on the roads and lorry drivers were far more courteous.

The thing is, Albion, I can virtually guarantee that the guys who had been driving for years when you were a fresh faced youngster barely able to see over the steering wheel of your Guy “Big J” were saying exactly the same things. :wink:

Yes I agree totally.Of course they were.As I said lorry drivers are lorry drivers but I thought pete-b was being a little unfair to blame the older drivers for the state of the industry today.If it had been today’s generation driving then they would have done exactly the same.
It is nobodys fault.It is life and progress or in a lot of ways lack of progress.I just do not like when posters make bold statements without backing them up! It seems to happen a fair bit on here.

12

jay0:
People are greedy, always have been always will be. If the rules and regs are not enforced then you have either greedy bosses or greedy drivers out to make as much money as possible. It’s not one generation or the others fault.

+1

13

So the post started about the Eaton twin Split, which would sort the men out from the boys, yeah right, so you got into that ERF with that gearbox for the first time, and drove it like you were born with it, lets be honest, most of us that drove that combination, had problems with it, we either learned as we went along, or asked fellow drivers for a bit of help, so a new driver today would ask the same questions, so no sorting out at all. look at some of the questions being asked here on T/net whether a newby or an oldie, we dont all know everything about every aspect of this industry, we dont all understand every truck on the market, where our experience does count, is we do not panic, and will certainly ask questions, but to some we look idiotic eg :Hey bill, that driver has been in the industry for 100 years, yet he just asked me how to use the gearbox on that Volvo i shift semi auto V16 over there, ha ha We were all newbys once, and had to learn.
I can agree to a certain extent with some of the stuff written, but times change, mordernisation kicks in, time moves on, we still have bent drivers, but today they do it with a magnet, we have mobile phones, but drivers bend the rules on those, they didnt control the speed of the vehicle, so we got limiters, the list goes on and on of what has changed, what needs to be changed, and not always the drivers fault, we are more heavily controlled than ever in the history of road haulage, and thats not gonna change. What i can say in defence of the older experienced trucker, is this, we drove a lot of ■■■■, we put up with a lot of ■■■■, the bosses were not as forgiving as they are today ( although we have more discipline, and more pushy planners ) we have a more controlled environment, we are policed more than ever, we have greater protection, and not backed into a corner and given a right hander cos you messed up, today i believe, looking back, we have more to gain, and are actually gaining a lot more respect, than we have in the past, and thats not a bad thing, but drivers have to make their own input, and not hide behind screens, afraid to step out of their home comforts, mix more we are all in it together ( the industry that is, not daves idea of bliss )

14

Good post truckyboy and I agree with almost all of it.The only bit I cannot get my head round is when you say we are gaining a lot more respect.
Much as I would like to think that is true I find exactly the opposite.Years ago truck drivers were respected(well most of them) and not so many had a bad word to say about them.These days if you ask the average person what they think the answer is usually impatient bullies or arrogant pigs.
I have asked many of my friends who are not lorry drivers and hardly any of them have a good word to say.
Maybe you hear different.Interested to know?

15

Albion, i was merely speaking about my own experiences, and we all felt long ago that we were not treated in the same manner we wished to, only difference was, if we got a Bollocking it was done face to face as mobiles were not available,i feel that i can in most instances handle the guy on the end of the phone, and believe they have all been trained with a Them and us attitude, but all in all i think we are treated a lot better than many years ago. On a few occasions i have been told when phoning up, leave the truck there and make your own way home, in fact another swift phone call was needed to sort it all out, they dont seem to have the same manner today, although on second thoughts, a driver today would say, fair enough
I remember on one occasion where the boss flew out to istanbul ( the Londra ) and sacked a driver on the spot, bosses were more like bosses then and knew what they were talking about, whereas today they dont show their face, get the office muppets to do their dirty work for them, but back then, we at least had more respect for them, than they had for us, so i suppose things havnt really changed that much, except for the fact a driver today is more likely to stick up for himself, and not put up with what we had to, but i still think things are a lot better in the industry today, regardless of the fact we have a lot to contend with, and more officials on our backs, trucks are well maintained, and we dont fear VOSA like the old Ministry of transport like we used to, that has to be an improvement on its own.

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I think we are talking about completely different things.You seem to be talking about the problems within companies and bosses where as I am talking about the views of the general public.

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well,lets think about this,back in the late 60s things were different with everything,if you were a new young driver as I was and you had kids to feed you worked your socks off,log books were great for me ,start at 1am up to Scotland no fancy roads then, so it was a long way that’s why 1am was good :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: because you could change it to 7 or 9 or 10 or 11 etc etc , I used to haul bottles out of redferns in Barnsley ( monk Bretton ), then I think it was about 1969/1970 Barbara castle made us professional lorry drivers so things had to change :imp: :imp: :imp: :imp: yeeeeeaaaa, they gave us all a little black hgv licence book yippee, that’s when more rules came in it, was silent checks in those days, but did it stop us :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: ,44 years later what can I say more motorways,less cafes, more traffic, better wagons, and worst of all the eu directives thousands and thousands of them, its gone crazy over the top, its time to tell the eu to get stuffed vote ukip and leave it all behind, its not a common market anymore its trying to be united states of Europe, I love Europe but don’t want to be European,does anybody in the so called eu stick to rules like us no, but we have got so many little hitlers running around we are idiots for putting up with it, back in 1976 we had a so called national drivers strike which turned out to be a right sham don’t even get me started on that one, :imp: :imp: :imp: :imp: rant over till next time bye bye :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: