i don`t mind chatting for 10 mins,especially in rdcs.
Maybe it was different for us tipper driver’s but I used to enjoy having a laugh etc with the tarmac surfacing gangs and having a brew with them, also if I had a delivery to a private house etc I used to ask them what they wanted the material for and just have a general chat. We had an active social club at one time and had annual darts competitions, whist drives and the Xmas dinner dance among other social events and most of the drivers , fitters and quarry staff would attend with their wives. It seem very sad (to me) that all that has gone and nowadays, reading these posts, drivers just want to get the job done and go home as though going to work is a chore, we used to enjoy our work and still found time to have a social life as well. 
The only time now that we meet up alas is at funerals. 
Pete.
I don’t have trouble with socialising and have met quite a few good lads through the job but I won’t socialise with the ■■■■ that come with the job, I speak my mind and will openly disagree with some1 if I think they are wrong, other than that am all for having a bit of banter and a laugh and am well laid back
Re-Windrushs’ post; I felt I was more sociable when on the tippers. If stopped in quarrys’ lorry park and the weather was ok then we’d congregate around someones’ motor. The subbies we use are very sociable and I found many were more interesting to talk too!
I had regular customers, normally small local builders who’d chat and drink tea whilst their Dinky Toy (mini digger) loaded you. Some of these builders come into the pit for materials but I don’t get many chances to speak to them. When I do, some would rather I was on the road because they now get “some useless canute that wont wait…”
… Altitude will have a good idea who they mean.
Winseer:
I’m not racist, homophobic or even classist BUT it has to be said the last type of establishment to mop up and cater for disenfranchised people like me were the Nazis - even though I don’t share their ideology either.
Are you quite sure the Nazis did anything for “people like you”? The Nazis simply attempted to impose the costs of their internal tensions, onto the citizens of the surrounding nations. They were rightly punished for the attempt, although it is by no means the case that everybody in Germany supported the Nazis - the concentration camps were set up first to deal with socialists and communists, essentially anybody with the intent to challenge the German ruling class.
Winseer:
The only other connection with near-on a century back is that the time is coming again where more and more people feel abused by their peers in life - the BIG antisocial event of our time IMO.
The time has come again, as in the 30s, when the rich are at their richest and the poor at their poorest. Most people are not abused by their peers. They are abused by the rich and the powerful, whether that be bosses, financiers, or lawmakers.
Winseer:
Natural law suggests that the less strong, clever, or adventurous should not be in a permenent position of power over those better suited to run everything. I want my superiors in life to be doctors, engineers, and other people who had a real long hard time learning their trades, rather than those same superiors that “went to Eton” or “went to the same synagogue” or “lives in the right part of town” etc etc.
Indeed. I routinely observe unnecessary or incompetent management.
I’m often condemned as “arrogant” when I merely reserve the right to organise my own labour or force managers to account for themselves. Management has become so efficient at serving the interests of profit and assaulting the interests of both workers and consumers, that you can be almost certain that any sort of self-organisation would be better for your own interests than subordination to professional managers.
Winseer:
It’s even worse when it comes down to actual religious faith, as anyone can take a public plaform being anti-God - but not anti Jewish establishment alas.
For some disconcerting reason, I’ve heard this Jewish argument quite a few times lately. Does anyone really believe that the problematic group of people in society are Jews, rather than merely the rich (of any faith)?
In the 20s and 30s it may have been true, that the most conspicuous international bankers and financiers happened to be Jewish - the Rothschilds and such. And since the majority of German people were Christians, it was convenient for the Nazis to demonise and scapegoat the Jewish faith, whilst suppressing of those who put forth a more realistic class explanation - that is, whilst suppressing those who blamed the rich and powerful regardless of their faith.
We see this today with Muslims, who are by and large a poor and oppressed people, but who are demonised in order to deflect attention away from oppression in the Middle East (and with whom Muslims in this country, whose communities tend to have migrated from Middle Eastern countries - and themselves usually poor, abused, and discriminated against in Britain - have a particular sympathy). The same was true just a decades or two ago with Irish Catholics - again, demonisation in order to deflect attention away from the behaviour and policies of the British and the relatively wealthy Irish class (who tended to be, and still are, Protestant).
But in this day and age, when the vast majority of people practice no particular religion, nor justify their conduct with reference to religious tradition, and when those who hold wealth and occupy power are on the whole quite clearly not Jewish, it really does beggar belief that people are resorting to religious explanations instead of just calling a spade a spade, and calling the rich, rich.
Winseer:
Employers, Media, Banking, Legal, or even PC policies. I don’t see the UK so much as having “turned into a foreign land”, but actually discriminating against those already here. Multiculturlism for example, masks such discrimination with PC practices designed to “fog out” just how much our society is controlled by so few people. People of an alien mindset that still sees themselves hard-done-by for the events of the 20th century, and constantly using that excuse to be left to run-ragged over natural values that we should all hold dear above a massive financial, political, and ultimately national manipulation that’ll turn us into a mere vassel of those that annex a country once master of the world. This process is of course even more advanced on the other side of the pond…
Other than in terms of class, there is not now, nor has there ever been, discrimination against white British men. Those at the bottom of British society are not being disfavoured because they are white or British. They have merely fell further into the mire, in some cases as far down as the same level as that traditionally occupied by disadvantaged minorities.
As in South Africa, whites often complain about discrimination. The reality is that whites are not discriminated against in South Africa. All that has happened, is that as racial divides break down, they are progressively getting a stronger taste of the conditions that the majority of blacks have been experiencing for generations, and continue to do so. The white man in Britain is not discriminated against. Some are merely getting a taste for themselves, of the conditions that have previously been faced only by disadvantaged minorities. And at the same time, as the gap between rich and poor gets ever greater, and as power is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands, the bottom of society becomes an increasingly miserable (and crowded) place to live.
Winseer:
How much longer before our voting system gets changed so the millionaires get to decide everything, because they get millions of votes to the general pulic’s few - as is the case with FINANCIAL voting already?Ultimately, ask yourself this question to judge if you think like me with regards to life and wider society;
“If there was a cataclysm that destroyed society, and left less than 10% alive around the world, YOU among them, - would you see yourself as being better off?”
If you can answer “Yes”, then I rest my case!
Then get out and destroy. Just don’t support the Nazis, because I can assure you the German working class did not benefit - what little benefits they saw before having to fight WW2, where due to standard socialist policies offered also by those on the left. In Britain also, extensive nationalisation of the economy, appropriation of private property, and government policies designed to foster social solidarity, all contributed to the British working class actually having a better standard of living during the war, than they had had during the 30s, and those gains were consolidated by the election of an (old) Labour government after the war was won.
The reason I like driving, especially nights, is that I am antisocial. Trouble is I don’t have much choice as I have aspergers which limits my ability to respond in social situations. Outside of that it doesn’t affect me in a negative way although my responses to people tend to be logical and lacking in social courtesy. The positive side is that the condition makes me perfect for my job, and yes, it has to be declared on your medical 
I know some folk think autistic spectrum disorders mean you’re ‘retarded’, but the opposite is 90% the case. Most are high IQ, I have 3 degrees, one in engineering, another two in medicine, but no social grace or awareness of political correctness makes it hard for me to function around people if I think they are idiots. 
Ive got to the stage now where I want to shoot nearly everyone I meet…
Im an anti social git and yes im quite happy about it
i was changed on to a different contract job because i could fall out with delivery point staff very quickwley
now i just do my own little job my boss dosent even speak to me he just texted me my work and were are all happy 
Muckaway:
I hate working as a team. One of the reasons I can’t wait to go back to tipper driving and come off quarry plant. I’ve recently started having separate breaks to everyone else so I don’t have to listen to discussions about motorbike racing, shooting, getting ■■■■■■ at the weekend and why certain staff members are canutes (behind their backs) etc.
Even having a 2-way radio gets on my nerves now. Hearing fascinating discussions
about the quarrys’ water levels and the shooting fans drivel about Canada geese does my head in. I’ve removed my cb now, too much negative talk and ■■■■■■■■ was just depressing me at an alarming rate (some of my posts in recent weeks reflect this). Since making these changes, my job’s become a lot better in less than a week, but I’ll still be glad to see the back of it.
I just look on the bright side it’s office hours", 15 minute max cycle ride away and £450summat for a 5 day week.
A
“A word in your ear”
Have you tried the SAMARITANS?
Its good to Talk…
Wow, some seriously miserable and anti-social people out there driving trucks it seems. No wonder so many close the curtains as soon as they park up.
Humans are normally social by nature.
To me, being alone all the time has always been one of the down sides of the truck driving I’ve done. Would love to have someone with me all the time be it a wife, gf, friend, member of the public getting a trucks eye view, etc.
OP I’m sure there will be courses available for social anxiety. Speak to your GP.
Driveroneuk:
Wow, some seriously miserable and anti-social people out there driving trucks it seems. No wonder do many close the curtains as soon as they park up. Humans are social by nature.To me, being alone all the time has always been one of the down sides of the truck driving I’ve done. Would love to have someone with me all the time be it a wife, gf, friend, member of the public getting a trucks eye view, etc.
OP I’m sure there will be courses available for social anxiety. Speak to your GP.
My post didn’t say that. I said I don’t like people I work with. I choose my own friends. This meant getting out of the cab when I parked up, finding a pub where I could get away from how good or bad it was to drive a lorry. I would rather read a newspaper while I am eating my bacon buttie than listen to someone try to remember which cafe used to serve the best toast when they were 10 
windrush:
Maybe it was different for us tipper driver’s but I used to enjoy having a laugh etc with the tarmac surfacing gangs and having a brew with them, also if I had a delivery to a private house etc I used to ask them what they wanted the material for and just have a general chat. We had an active social club at one time and had annual darts competitions, whist drives and the Xmas dinner dance among other social events and most of the drivers , fitters and quarry staff would attend with their wives. It seem very sad (to me) that all that has gone and nowadays, reading these posts, drivers just want to get the job done and go home as though going to work is a chore, we used to enjoy our work and still found time to have a social life as well.Pete.
I think perhaps people in general are more insular these days in general. I think there’s lots of factors involved in this.
I personally don’t mind a few minutes chatting to strangers at a job or work mates but wouldn’t like to be stuck with them all day.
Il happily talk to mates and family members I like all day. I’ve made some real good mates at places I work who I’m still friends with and I’ve become friends with a few people where I work now.
I’m happy with been on my own for long periods of time but enjoy interacting with people I like. My big problem is I struggle with people I don’t like. Small talk and pretending to be nice aint a strong point.
Only time strangers wind me up is they always seem to want to share there life story whenever I want to eat my dinner or read my book.
Wheel Nut:
Driveroneuk:
Wow, some seriously miserable and anti-social people out there driving trucks it seems. No wonder do many close the curtains as soon as they park up. Humans are social by nature.To me, being alone all the time has always been one of the down sides of the truck driving I’ve done. Would love to have someone with me all the time be it a wife, gf, friend, member of the public getting a trucks eye view, etc.
OP I’m sure there will be courses available for social anxiety. Speak to your GP.
My post didn’t say that. I said I don’t like people I work with. I choose my own friends. This meant getting out of the cab when I parked up, finding a pub where I could get away from how good or bad it was to drive a lorry. I would rather read a newspaper while I am eating my bacon buttie than listen to someone try to remember which cafe used to serve the best toast when they were 10
I had that the other day just sat down my lovley thanksgiving roast dinner turned up and I was sitting at the counter. Next thing I’ve got a wannabe kris kristofoson bending my ear about his paperwork for the border crossing been wrong.
I’ve learnt my lesson now though. I sit in a booth in the corner
rambo19:
Ive got to the stage now where I want to shoot nearly everyone I meet…
+1 mostly the bs artist,s in rdc waitng room
kr79:
I’ve learnt my lesson now though. I sit in a booth in the corner
It is much better in my own room, soft padding, high windows and no one can hear me scream
Il have to look for one lol
I prefer not to interact with anybody, as I keep myself to myself and that’s the way I like it.
I have a deep mistrust of people, partly because of bullying at school and early teens, so if anybody tries to get close or even strike up a conversation, I prefer not to interact with them.
So driving and it’s inevitable solitude, suits me just fine.
swampygist:
rambo19:
Ive got to the stage now where I want to shoot nearly everyone I meet…+1 mostly the bs artist,s in rdc waitng room
I must admit I used to glaze over when I saw super trucker you know the type dream catcher in the window curtains to the mirrors Bluetooth headset in at all times scania Volvo daf etc drivers jacket. Or super blue chip employee Bluetooth headset at all times high viz on at all times.
You know it will be chalk lines 10 quid a turn on the landing legs handle. Only driving this iveco stralis while my r730 is in for service etc
metrorider:
What I want to know is are there any other drivers who find the dealing with co-workers/customers difficult…
I don’t find it difficult, I find it pretty easy; like talking to a dog.
However, I do my best to avoid contact with other drivers wherever possible. If I wanted to talk to monkeys and apes, I’d go to the zoo where they’re kept behind toughened glass, or come to TNUK, where strangely, they’re also kept behind the toughened glass of my iPhone 4.
Good old toughened glass.
I hope this helps.