I’ve just seen a driver lose his cool and start shouting and swearing. This went from a calm situation to really irate in a matter of moments.
What caused this? - a foreign lorry turned into a yard he was waiting to get into. Yep, that’s all. The foreign lorry had been waiting outside before the other driver arrived. He picked up two pallets and left. The other driver then pulled into the yard knowing he’s not going to be loaded for at least 30 minutes (the same as every other day)
Knowing this it just makes me wonder why would you work yourself up so much over something so silly.
Straw that broke the camels back maybe? I don’t tend to get wound up easily, I did however get very frustrated at iceland Enfield for refusing to open the bay doors when a quite a few boxes fell out the back of my reefer. I’d been there 2 weeks previously when the same happened and they opened up and took them inside. This time they claimed they couldn’t and made me stack them all up out the way before lifting a finger.
It’s a very fragile back, he’d only started work and this was his first collection!
funny you’ve started this thread, today in birmingham i saw a chap cut up another car up and the guy he cut up started flashing his lights tailgating. aggressive but to be expected in todays society. anyway i come to a junction and they’re both behind me, the guy who cut the other up jumps out as does the other and they end up rolling on the floor grappling trying to lamp each other!
i thought about intervening but then, if 2 grown blokes want to act like cavemen at 11am in the morning, who am i to stop them 
can’t say anything stresses me out tbh, friday traffic can get me hot under the collar but nothing a ■■■ doesn’t sort.
Think that driver needs help, but
I used to be so laid back I was horizontal but since starting driving my tolerance has slipped and I’m much less likely to let things go. I don’t go off on one, I just say it as it is. Used to get really stressed when I started driving but I’ve noticed recently I’m much more immune to the niggles we get in the job, maybe because I really wouldn’t be heartbroken if I never drove another truck again. As long as I’ve done the job as best I can under the circumstances the planners &etc., can go do one. TBH I haven’t had a word with them for a few months.
chicane:
I used to be so laid back I was horizontal but since starting driving my tolerance has slipped and I’m much less likely to let things go. I don’t go off on one, I just say it as it is. As long as I’ve done the job as best I can under the circumstances the planners &etc., can go do one. TBH I haven’t had a word with them for a few months.
+1, I don’t get too stressed by driving & everything else around, it’s tesco & the odd jobsworth that wind me up big time, luckily I can count to 10 (for now)…
Used to get stressed quite easily, best thing I did though was get on the supermarkets.
DJC:
Straw that broke the camels back maybe? I don’t tend to get wound up easily, I did however get very frustrated at iceland Enfield for refusing to open the bay doors when a quite a few boxes fell out the back of my reefer. I’d been there 2 weeks previously when the same happened and they opened up and took them inside. This time they claimed they couldn’t and made me stack them all up out the way before lifting a finger.
so what your saying is that you regularly drive about with an insecure load and then don’t understand why they don’t want to unload you 
Traffic jams, long queues, inept clerks etc used to stress me out, then I figured that every delay puts money in my pocket and suddenly everything was simpler. Oh, slowing down by 4 or 5 kph from the limiter had a profound effect on my stress levels too.
I get lots of dirty looks when I call at RDC’s 
I park up, go to the window a chap comes out and shows me where he wants my wagon…At this point I am being glared at and can feel it in the back of my head
Then the realisation I am not wanting a bay but delivering Fork Lift Trucks or Batteries
I like this que jumping 
the maoster:
Traffic jams, long queues, inept clerks etc used to stress me out, then I figured that every delay puts money in my pocket and suddenly everything was simpler. Oh, slowing down by 4 or 5 kph from the limiter had a profound effect on my stress levels too.
That’s the spirit!
There’s no point rushing about like an idiot, you don’t get there any quicker, you get stressed and increase the risk of an accident. If someone cuts you up, so what? It’s only a few feet of tarmac. If you get stuck in traffic, you get stuck in traffic and as you say, might even make a few extra quid out of it from overtime.
At the end of the day, it’s only . The worse that’ll happen is you get the other end and someone has a moan about you being late, the few that do are just getting the stress out of their system and they soon appreciate it isn’t your fault (not that they’ll let you know, mind).
There are very few things worth getting stressed about, sitting on your backside all day, driving a truck around certainly isn’t one of them. If you start getting wound up or the red mist starts coming down, best thing to do is stop and stretch your legs/have a ■■■ break for a few minutes to clear your head.
andi_cardiff:
Used to get stressed quite easily, best thing I did though was get on the supermarkets.
Supermarket back door men are 10 times worse than any rdc staff,they get paid a pittence and most dont want to help one bit 
thats when they have come to the gate you have peering thru or the bell you have been ringing for half hour,then all you get is a grunt ,or you get the manager who expects his shelves stacked and every thing he claps his eyes on in his yard as got to go empty trailer
seth 70:
andi_cardiff:
Used to get stressed quite easily, best thing I did though was get on the supermarkets.Supermarket back door men are 10 times worse than any rdc staff,they get paid a pittence and most dont want to help one bit
Ah I’m quite fortunate, I drive for Morrisons, I don’t touch the load at all…back door staff completely unload, on the rare occasion that I help to reload salvage I’m only allowed to move it around on the back of the trailer.
Quite honestly the easiest and least stressful job I’ve ever done…plenty of time to catch up on Breaking Bad!
DJC:
Straw that broke the camels back maybe? I don’t tend to get wound up easily, I did however get very frustrated at iceland Enfield for refusing to open the bay doors when a quite a few boxes fell out the back of my reefer. I’d been there 2 weeks previously when the same happened and they opened up and took them inside. This time they claimed they couldn’t and made me stack them all up out the way before lifting a finger.
Are you still a box jockey for Roadways? If you are, it’s not your problem if something falls out of the back, give them a choice to come and collect the boxes before you continue your reverse, if they don’t, reverse over them.
You’re only taking a sealed container to and from them, anything else is their problem.
I’m not saying be like that all the time, but if they have an attitude with you, return the favor. We are only there because the ship won’t take the container straight to the bay for them.
Driving i’m cool as a cucumber, when I start unloading, thats when tempers flair lol badly stacked cages and pallets do my head in, boxes falling off cages generally get slam dunked into other cages, cages that tip over coming off the tail lift tend to get dragged in on there side. Had a pallet last Friday, stacked about 5 foot high, paper towels on the bottom, boxed full of hand cleaner/soap at the top, over most of it went, Bent it like Beckham into the stores area. Very poor attitude I know, wish I could calmly pick it all up and stack it up nicely and bring it in the stores. Sometimes I walk away, leave it all over the place, calm down then go back and stack it up.
If I’m being paid then pretty much anything goes. Liberal doses of the educational horn and massive doses of sarcasm get me through the day.
It’s a different matter in my own time. I am the least patient man alive, poor driving angers me (not to the point of violence) old people frustrate me (on the road and in shops)
On the whole I’m all good for bothering to get wound up tbh
I don’t stress doing my shift got used to it, paid by the hour on agency couldn’t care how long it took to tip/load me.
Love it when goods in say “drive go park in waiting area, will shout you on a bay when ready”.
They don’t like it when you say its time an half in few hours time take as long as you like the (my) traffic office know exactly where I am on a tracker.
T J Morris are the best you can be there for hours, full load couple of hours gone.
If you look at most people who fly off the handle over nothing, it’s because of the fustration… You can’t swear in their language at the other guy, so you take it out on others about instead. You are less fit than the other guy, so you take it out on those others about instead. You have low self-esteem, either because it’s endemic within the industry, or perhaps you genuinely have a small ■■■■■…so you take it out on the others standing about. try not to get arrested.
Planners stress me out. Nothing is ever straight forword with them and everything is left to last minute. At least the ones that I’ve worked with.
mazza:
I don’t stress doing my shift got used to it, paid by the hour on agency couldn’t care how long it took to tip/load me.Love it when goods in say “drive go park in waiting area, will shout you on a bay when ready”.
They don’t like it when you say its time an half in few hours time take as long as you like the (my) traffic office know exactly where I am on a tracker.
T J Morris are the best you can be there for hours, full load couple of hours gone.
This is how I feel about it. I’ve got a book, I’ve got a little machine that makes really good coffee, why am I going to kick off at being asked to wait around? If I was at home, chances are I’d be sitting on the sofa reading a book and drinking coffee, the only difference would be that no one pays me for sitting at home!
I very rarely get stressed, even nowadays where I never get to wait around for a few hours. I’ve found that you can kick off all you like, but after you’ve wound down you still have to do whatever it is that set you off in the first place, and all you’ve done is wind yourself up for no reason.