robbo99.:
with all the responsibility, the laws the stress and all the other hassles that go with the job
Never quite understood this.
Don’t crash
Don’t spill the load
Don’t get lost
Don’t break the law.
Everything else is someone else’s problem.
This. I too have never understood this at all. How easy it is is partly why I never followed the owner driver dream as giving up having a cab phone and office there to deal with problems that come up and replacing it with a mountain of self inflicted worry wasn’t a good deal imo. I love how little responsibility this job has, don’t want or need more. Met so many drivers who are stressing about everything
I do agree that the industry has it’s fair share of braindead drivers. They carve up the job, show no respect for other drivers and can’t grasp the basic drivers hours regs…
However, these are the same things my dad was moaning about in the 1970’s and 80’s. He had a good number where they could only do a certain amount of miles a day max then park up (or feel the wrath of the Union). The job was then infiltrated by the hero brigade who would run bent to get home for another job, run at weekends for mon-fri pay rates or run off Sunday gratis to get a ‘head start’ and generally brown nose to be considered top dog by the office.
You talk of poor driving standards these days but the continental drivers of the 70’s and 80’s are held up as legends for driving across the Middle-East and Europe as bent as a nine bob notes. As for the manual box argument…drivers in the golden age weren’t super heroes. Put any driver from any generation in a manual truck…he’ll get there in the end. Same with roping & sheeting… it’s a dying skill for a reason but if it were still required, we would all be able to do it (to varying degrees admittedly).
For instance I am no good at archery because the King hasn’t asked us to defend our villages from marauding Vikings for many centuries… it’s just skill fade
I know I’m going to get a lot of flak for saying this but…I blame auto boxes.
I drive an FE Volvo auto 3 axle plant truck part time and share the vehicle with a girl of 29 or so.
Good driver, knows her plant (she loads and unloads everything) but…she drives the truck like a go-cart, only two throttle positions on or off, lives on the brakes.
I know I’m from a different era (like a good few on here) but with manuals everything was a more measured progress somehow.
I don’t know what happened first - haulage companies saying to manufacturers we can’t find drivers that don’t trash clutches and gearboxes or the makers saying look we can make the product dumbed down and de-skilled and of course you’ll xyz fuel economy too.
Socketset:
I know I’m going to get a lot of flak for saying this but…I blame auto boxes.
I drive an FE Volvo auto 3 axle plant truck part time and share the vehicle with a girl of 29 or so.
Good driver, knows her plant (she loads and unloads everything) but…she drives the truck like a go-cart, only two throttle positions on or off, lives on the brakes.
I know I’m from a different era (like a good few on here) but with manuals everything was a more measured progress somehow.
I don’t know what happened first - haulage companies saying to manufacturers we can’t find drivers that don’t trash clutches and gearboxes or the makers saying look we can make the product dumbed down and de-skilled and of course you’ll xyz fuel economy too.
No flak from me mate, you are spot on.
My o/p was more having a go at the arse holes in the job we have to contend with, more than aptitude, but I’ve got to agree with you.
I know of a few who jacked in their courses as they could not hack constant mesh or crash boxes, but those boxes are long gone now, I prefer the ease of autos and would hate to go back to them…even though I got to the stage of playing a tune on them,.as many others on here did no doubt.
The only thing you could say comes anywhere near a ‘‘skill’’ today needed to drive an artic is reversing, everything else has gone…, learning to tone revs when changing up and down, map reading, and thank Christ…roping and sheeting, to name a few.
It has never been so easy to drive a truck today, they are more like cars, so the inept are getting through the net, where as in other times they would not…we see them every day.
I think more needs to be taught in driving school courses, rather than teaching them to drive proficiently around a test route, then followed by a probationary period,.with the threat of a re.test…bit wtf do I know.
I concur with Robroy on this thread but one thing which is as clear today as it was in mine(1968 onwards) is that on their first day in a job drivers are given a key and left to get on with it.It is assumed that someone else has given any training required.
It has always been a job that when there is any kind of a recession everyone and anyone can get into it, the buses were the same, I have met, pipe fitters, plumbers, engineers, electricians, police officers, it attracts all walks of life, a lot stay and a lot move back
There is nothing what’s so ever about comradeship or anything that even comes close to it, like sticking together
Unfortunately 75% of the work is long hours so some look at it as a fairly good wedge and the hours don’t matter or there family and social life don’t matter.
As someone said you should work to live not live to work, if that makes sense
Do you do your test now in a automatic truck,
As the saying goes just keep on kicking the can up the Road, the problem with this is there is no end to the Road
robbo99.:
with all the responsibility, the laws the stress and all the other hassles that go with the job
Never quite understood this.
Don’t crash
Don’t spill the load
Don’t get lost
Don’t break the law.
Everything else is someone else’s problem.
This. I too have never understood this at all. How easy it is is partly why I never followed the owner driver dream as giving up having a cab phone and office there to deal with problems that come up and replacing it with a mountain of self inflicted worry wasn’t a good deal imo. I love how little responsibility this job has, don’t want or need more. Met so many drivers who are stressing about everything
Maybe being involved in a no fault fatal highlighted the responsibility, the law, the stress and the hassles.
Messed up when I got back this morning, left wrong trailer on my truck for my mate who takes my motor Mon and Tues, so had to go back to yard this afternoon to drop it off.
Was met by the usual group of ■■■■ circus clowns getting ready to kip in their motors this Sunday afternoon/evening, to start at midnight. …their choice btw.
Why would anybody with a brain do that ffs, when they could have left this afternoon on premium rate, and a night out paid.
Just can not figure out this type of knob head.
robroy:
Messed up when I got back this morning, left wrong trailer on my truck for my mate who takes my motor Mon and Tues, so had to go back to yard this afternoon to drop it off.
Was met by the usual group of [zb] circus clowns getting ready to kip in their motors this Sunday afternoon/evening, to start at midnight. …their choice btw.
Why would anybody with a brain do that ffs, when they could have left this afternoon on premium rate, and a night out paid.
Just can not figure out this type of knob head.
