Matron puts my hi-viz on in a morning and I never take it off until I am back at the Home.
One day I thought I would be naughty and took it off whilst I was driving. Then I got out the truck and forgot to put it on. Lots of nasty men at a RDC shouted at me and made me cry so I never take it off now.
Time for my Complan now and hopefully a dry night.
Les zizis des routiers sont sympas
scaniaman:
having read comments on here today about people refusing to take a trailer without a number plate!! and co’s sacking people for split coupling!! it got me thinking about the industry we work in.all this training is fine if you’re a newbie but seriously if you are an experienced driver(14 yrs myself) do you not find it degrading?? i read that reed boardall send you out with another driver to see how to do paperwork???is this even if you’re experienced because surely paperwork is paperwork regardless.all i can say is no wonder this job is going to hell in a handcart.and as a side issue for anyone who gets on a ferry out of this country with a hi viz on PLEASE stay on uk work we really don’t want you embarassing the rest of us!! rant over
Driving without a numberplate on the trailer is illegal. You get a £30 FPN if the Police stop you. As a professional driver, you of course know this and wouldn’t take out an illegal vehicle would you?
Judging by the amount of useless morons I’ve come across over the years, some who have been driving longer than I’ve been alive, yes they do need training. Our industry is staffed by illiterate halfwits (see quote above) and people who have been doing the job for years yet still don’t know what the proper drivers hours rules are or how to drive a wagon, still ragging the nuts off them like they’re driving some gutless 1960’s Bedford TK. That’s even before we get to written tests that some companies do which loads of so called “professional drivers” who have been doing the jobs for years still can’t pass with high or full marks despite it being questions to which they should know the answers. I won’t even get into reversing or being able to apply common sense because that’s just a hiding to nowhere.
This job isn’t going to hell in a handcart, it was already there, brought down by an endless stream of people who drive lorries because they can’t do anything else. Companies like RB, Stobarts, NYK and the like are merely trying to drag knuckle draggers into the 20th Century. I say 20th because even they know that the 21st is pushing it a bit.
The reason RB send new employees out with a driver for 3 weeks is because they’ve had years of experience of so called competent drivers who can’t manage to do it.
As for embarrasing the rest of us, I’m sick of illiterate moron truck drivers embarrassing me. Is it really so difficult to use proper punctuation or don’t you have a clue? Still, you’re in good company on this forum.
scaniaman:
aaah the voice of reason,it just seems to me that MODERN trucker is treated like a window licking idiot,and i for 1 really wouldn’t want to work for such co’s that treat you this way
When you display all the educational standards of a Jeremy Kyle guest is it a surprise? You’re treated like a [zb] because you display all the signs. Someone who can’t even use basic grammar doesn’t deserve to be thought of as having any intelligence.
( derogatory comment removed ) jd
scaniaman:
2.why do you need to put trailer brake(not break,just to be picky) on it’s not really required on ferries??
It is on the HSS on the Stranraer - Belfast run these days, the one that truck was hanging out the back of the other week. If you are immediately in front of the doors they ask you to put the trailer brake on, I’ve had to do it a few times including this morning.
acceptme:
youd fit in grand mate take it from me… theres nothing better then getting looks of other drivers and seeing them think wtf is he doin in here shouldnt he be in the normal area. its great to then get all the questions about where uv been and can brag about it
Last time I went out with Adam, I turned round to him in full truck park and said to him “you can drive now Son” 
Adam_Mc:
What’s wrong with wearing a high viz?
I don’t believe there’s anything wrong ‘per se’ with wearing a high viz, but the compulsory wearing of them is a downright nusiance. And they create as many problems as they are meant to cure.
If you hit me whilst manoevering (and i’m on foot) the be all and end all of who is at fault will rest on if i am wearing my high viz,and in no way figures out if you are paying attention or not, or indeed if i am paying attention.
There has been numerous (one just again mentioned this week) cases of people who prune the shrubbery in their local neighbourhoods being forced to stop doing it as unless they have road cones, high viz’s etc…they are a danger, passing motorists might hit them apparently. I thought there was a concept that a motorist should be able to stop within a distance he can see (or some such blurb). But it looks like the default is to penalise pedestrians, and make them wear a high viz. And that is what the big problem is with a high viz, namely you are at fault if you don’t wear one.
Conor:
scaniaman:
aaah the voice of reason,it just seems to me that MODERN trucker is treated like a [zb],and i for 1 really wouldn’t want to work for such co’s that treat you this wayWhen you display all the educational standards of a Jeremy Kyle guest is it a surprise? You’re treated like a [zb] because you display all the signs. Someone who can’t even use basic grammar doesn’t deserve to be thought of as having any intelligence.
Had a bad day, Conor ?
( quote edited ) jd
I do hope that you are not over- generalising, Conor. I have been playing this game for 20 years, and I am neither illiterate or incompetent.
This issue of OTT training is part of the reason I left the country. All the time it was something else, and you had to learn something different which, half the time, was plain stupid.
I know how to hook up a trailer, and I know how to do most aspects of this job. I am not a neandarthal, and will happily learn something new, but to be “trained” on something I already know is a waste of everyones time.
tofer:
A chap who started with me spent years as a fork truck instructor and holds all relevent licences. DHL wouldn’t let him drive a fork truck without him going on their training course and being signed off. Madness.
As he won’t be covered for insurrance purposes m8.I have mine as well,but coz i ain’t done their refresher course etc they don’t allow me to operate a flt.Not that i want to either.And yes it is madness but they like to cover their own arses.
kitkat:
tofer:
A chap who started with me spent years as a fork truck instructor and holds all relevent licences. DHL wouldn’t let him drive a fork truck without him going on their training course and being signed off. Madness.As he won’t be covered for insurrance purposes m8.I have mine as well,but coz i ain’t done their refresher course etc they don’t allow me to operate a flt.Not that i want to either.And yes it is madness but they like to cover their own arses.
I understand that but they didn’t say he would need to be assessed and signed off, which would make sense, but that he would have to be trained. We all thought it highly amusing especially in winter when they needed someone to take a CB out in the yard to grit.
Conor, what’s your problem with scaniaman’s punctuation, or lack thereof? I understood perfectly what he was saying so why the need to have a pop at him?
If i forgot to take my HI-VIS to work one day, and the rules dictated i wore one, would i be able to rip a bit of card up, colour it with a lumi marker. thread it with a bit of string and hang it round me neck
apparently you can do it with number plates
only jesting guys dont get hung up on it.
Adam_Mc:
Nowadays it is just a “cover-your-arse” exercise. For sainsbury’s there’s a 2 day assessment, about 3-4 hours is driving and the rest is teaching you how to couple and uncouple and stuff like that. In fact, you can’t even drive a different type of tractor unit until you’ve been trained on it and signed off.
Maybe the hi-viz at basingstoke is so they can find the driver when the shunter drops another one on its knees!! How many in that depot in the last year? 
Conor:
scaniaman:
aaah the voice of reason,it just seems to me that MODERN trucker is treated like a [zb],and i for 1 really wouldn’t want to work for such co’s that treat you this wayWhen you display all the educational standards of a Jeremy Kyle guest is it a surprise? You’re treated like a [zb] because you display all the signs. Someone who can’t even use basic grammar doesn’t deserve to be thought of as having any intelligence.
Excuse me conor but what right do you have to speak to someone like that, do you know this person or are you judging him on a couple of sentences with errors on them. Sounds to me like you need a good slap to knock some sense into you , every single person on this earth has faults scaniamans is grammar yours is being a [zb] 
.
So scaniaman ignore the naive little person as he seems to think this is a wordsmith forum and not a trucking forum. 
( derogatory comment removed ) jd
( quote edited ) jd
Here Here merc0447 
all i can really say to professor conor is if you couldn’t understand what i was saying then i apologise,everybody else seemed to manage.as for the personal attack,everyone seems a lot braver sat behind a pc screen…
anyway back to the original point,i just think that todays job seems to be overloaded with stupid and meaningless training.
im going against the grain here and posting about one company that is precisely the opposite to the usual stuff.
i wont mention who i am talking about but it aint tesco
scanny77:
4. they have security people who drive unmarked cars and have the power to stop and search any company vehicle but they dont tell their agency staff about them. does anyone here think i would stop for them? not only that but these security people will pursue any company driver who fails to stop and will try to get in front of them to stop them. that kind of behaviour is likely to result in them getting rammed off the road if i happen to be driving the artic and i have warned them that i will ram first and ask questions lateri wont mention who i am talking about but it aint tesco
didnt know that
neither did i until i mentioned that there was someone stopping all our vehicles just outside the gate. apparently it wasnt really necessary to tell me about this guy who tests company security all over the uk as he carries a company ID card
boots have security doing random checks too although i dont think they will pull a truck over. they observe from a distance and i know a few of boots own drivers from coatbridge have reported them to the police when they have noticed a car following them
I always enjoy Conor’s posts.
He seems to be an angry pedantic little man who gets annoyed at the slightest little thing. He must have a bad day every day. Always cheers me up.
Yet again a saddo starts a rant about when to wear or not to wear a HI-VIZ jacket, who cares?, have you really nothing better to do on a ferry than sit there eyeing up who’s wearing what?, you are lorry drivers not bloody fashion critics for God’s sake, and you could try minding your own business as well.
The same numpty object’s to training because he has done it 14 years and he knows everything, I have done it over 20 and I don’t.
If you came with that attitude to me you would be swiftly shown the door [zb].
( derogatory comment removed ) jd