Keep it clean…
Wondering what peoples experiences and opinions are on this? Ive been on this shift a while now and to be honest its up there with the worst job experience ive ever had.
Anyone have their tales and woes to tell of sharing a cabin 12-13 hours a shift?
I loved it…with the ex missus, we earned a shed load of money back in the day and enjoyed the lifestyle and time together. It meant we got weekends in the sun quite often too.
But with a fat smelly geezer snoring and ■■■■■■■ probably no fun at all.
I used to tramp in France with my best mate from school. We’ve known each other for years so was a good laugh most of the time. Probably up there with my best job experiences. Obviously there were times we would get wound up with one another. I’ve had a couple of nights out with guys I don’t know and that wasn’t too bad either. I’m still waiting for the day I can double man with a good looking lady trucker.
Did it a few times on agency, was pretty easy as I was only there is drive while the other guy actually did the job. He got to sleep on the way back too because I’m nice like that.
there can be an element of conflict if both drivers are on different pay schemes, ie: staff driver + agency driver.
The staff driver might be on job & knock (inc breaks), where as the agency driver might be on £/hr (less breaks), so if the agency driver wants to take a break & pull over. The other driver might want to crack on. Tbh you really need to be pretty chilled to do it, and have a mutual understanding that the jobs got to get done.
Ive only ever had one issue, but that was down to a particular guy whom we (agy) used to double up with, as he didnt like the driver / mate putting their seat back and catching some sleep while en route to the 1st drop, despite the 5am starts
Id never do it, I don’t like people
I did it for 12 years, some good, some bad, the job its self made all the difference, loved it, did most of western Europe, they were my good old days,
I did it home delivering for Argos, years ago in an 7.5tonner. It was one agency bloke (me) and a randomly assigned staff driver.
Only two issues I had was one driver who chain smoked cheap and nasty ■■■■ like a machine gun. No fun in a 12hrs+ day. I got on with him fine, it was just my lungs that objected. I often wonder now how he survives now youre not allowed to smoke in company vehicles.
The worst though is when I got stuck with some moaning git who did not stop griping about anything and everything all bloody day. He moaned about the company , the trucks, the job, my driving etc etc…
Its the only time in my whole working life I actualy considered punching a co worker.
When we got back to base I said to myself if I got paired with that idiot again Id just go home. I would have rather lost a days pay. I found out though I wasnt on my own. This guy had a reputation, and nobody wanted to work with him.
Pimpdaddy:
Id never do it, I don’t like people
I’m like that. Hell is other people as they say 
I get on with most people (or try to, some make it impossible) but you can’t beat your own space.
Wouldn’t tramp double manned but have done double manned runs and luckily the other driver was a good bloke. Quite talkative and not an ■■■■■■■■ in any way. On the other hand, I’ve been a driver’s mate for some right ■■■■ heads who I eventually refused to go out with and was once sent home.
Terry T:
you can’t beat your own space.
+1
Prefer to be on my own, but have had to double man a truck in the past. Sometimes it was good some times bad, a lot depends on the person you’re working with, sort of get into a routine sometimes you talk sometimes you don’t say word for hours.
I was working in motorsport so at least we didn’t have to share the cab for sleeping as well, stayed in hotels.
The biggest thing for me was being able to trust the other driver, so I was able to sleep while they were driving.
no way jose 
Who you are with will make it or break it! Nothing else matters and I have had the odd person who I would never work with again. Mostly good experiences though and me and a mate are still legends at Nisa several years after we left 
Hahahahahahahaha…dont blurt anything out mate but…
I hope i wasnt the odd one you wouldnt work with again. I thought we did alright together a few weeks back.
done it with my old man for about a year running over the water, was on the whole fun to be honest tested the father son relationship a few times too mind
nice when he gave me the keys in Athens and I think it was a compliment when he said I adapted to driving on the size wins/most use of horn attaitude.
I had to endure a cab based co-worker for a few days this summer - never again.
Apart from constant whinges about satnav and why wasn’t I driving through a 7.5 tonne limit with a 26 tonne truck?, it was the constant “I need a toilet” and “can we find a shop” dialogue, usually in the rush hours that I found most irritating. Was sooooo glad to be back in a contract where I was on my own again.
scanny77:
Who you are with will make it or break it! Nothing else matters and I have had the odd person who I would never work with again.
+1
I once was sent out with new agency bloke who’d moved down from Scotland. I’d already been warned he had a short temper. But as he was only really there as a drivers mate, albeit he was a driver. As I knew most of the drops that we where doing along the M65 corridor I let him sit and snooze most of time while I did the driving, only rousing him into action to open the curtains & handball until we’d got the last drop. Then I let him drive back to relieve the boredom via Bradford.
It was only when we where navigating through Bradford he decided to use his “initiative” and route us through some local side streets. This is when his true colours started to show, as he wasn’t nicknamed the mad Scotsman by my co-workers for nothing. He actually scared me with both his driving style and his road rage antics. Up to the point he actually was going to drag an Asian guy out of his car and fight him.
Some other (non driving) drivers mates, can be pretty new to the job, so as a non smoker I always ask them if they smoke, and if the answer is yes. I tell them to go have a smoke while I do up the curtains & do my checks before setting off. As I ain’t stopping for them to have a ■■■ en-route to the 1st drop. It’s also likely that until the 1st drop is off & I’m closing the curtains that’s it’s their next chance of a smoke. This is mainly down to timed deliveries. A point I struggled to put across with 1 guy, who behaved more like kid. Randomly asking, can we stop for a pish, can we stop at the butty van, can we stop for a ■■■, can we stop at that shop etc. Which I initially tolerated but when the stops where every 20-30 mins & putting us over 1hr behind schedule.
I could never do that, I like my own company too much, but apart from that I am a real arsey intolerant ■■■■■■■ ( yeh I know that’s hard to believe ) I can not stand any form of, and have low tolerance of knobheadery, and if I ended up with some prick (and knowing my luck I would 
) I would either dump him at the first available stop or chin him…or both. So no, I can’t think of anything worse.
However I could be persuaded if ever Holly Willoughby or Kim Wilde ever fancied the trucking experience. 
We all like to be left alone but sometimes the job dictates you need to take someone along for the ride, to either assist with loading/unloading, or the run is such that a single driver could do it in a 10, but with 2 drivers the bod in the office would be assured they wouldn’t have to wait back in case you needed them to come out to pick you up. Tbh many times I was doubled up was due to the excess of drivers available, so they’d send someone with you to make your day easier.