Years ago many companies had social clubs where drivers and fitters etc could meet at a pub after work, our firm (Tilcon) had three social clubs (transport, quarry workers and office staff) at their Derbyshire quarry and we had darts and domino evenings, bingo, beetle and whist drives for the ladies plus dinner/dances at Christmas but seemingly those days are long gone? I still keep in touch with a few drivers 20 years after finishing driving myself but many have sadly passed away now. 
Pete.
My first driving job the driver who I went out with for 2 days to learn the job gave me his number to ring him if any issues once on my own but that’s about it. I left a week later (sacked to be more precise) 3 years later I signed up to do a few days of agency work while waiting on another job and ended up working there again. I saw him in the transport office but he didn’t recognize him and I felt awkward chatting him up and reintroducing myself esp. since the room was full of other drivers so that’s that.
I’ve got a handful of friends who have been work colleagues, from 40+ years of driving.
But I also have the phone numbers of all 6 of my present work colleagues on my phone.
When on a European trip, we arrange to stop at the same routier/autohof, if we’re likely to be in the right area at the right time.
It’s also useful for checking on a drop or collection you haven’t done before, or not for a long time.
Our UK man, who now does the occasional EU trip, is frequently on the phone for a chat.
Yes, I’ve got close friends to this day from my class 1 driving days dating back to the early 1970’s whom I’ve kept in contact with on a weekly basis to the extent of meeting up for weekends away in the caravans to classic car shows & music festivals. They were magic times when Camaraderie seemed to be more of a thing back then !!!. Maybe it was because I used to make tow bars to fit all manner of classic cars & made a bob or two for petrol money 
robroy:
I can count on one hand (and have some fingers leftI have two lads on my phone that I have known from school who are both drivers, who I speak with once or twice a week, we meet up for nights out now and again whilst away.
I have a lad I met when I worked with him in 96, and we kept in touch since, .and still knock about with each other at weekends in the boozer watching footbal.
I also have 2 lads who I actually met on here , (who will remain nameless
) , that I keep in touch with…One I have to buy his [zb] breakfast every time I meet him, and the other I have to keep in pints of lager, and the odd dinner, being that I’m far too [zb] generous, so they both take advantage of me.
Not only that but they ring each other up and talk about me.
I feel a solicitors letter coming on 
. To answer the question the yes I have loads of drivers numbers in my book, only a couple from where I work fit the “going out of my way to meet up with” criteria. Most of the others date back to when I was in my twenties and this job was 80% about the social life (I know, radical thought innit?) I do talk regularly to the keen rodent and Punchy Dan and I’ve been known to go out of my way to have a pint with a grumpy ■■■■■■■■ sod even though we’ve been accused of being the same person with different accounts!
I had a lot of so called friends who ghosted me once I left the company
Yes, me.
I used to deliver for a well known bottom end of market retail company, and had a regular run in 2013/14. I ended up not only as a personal friend of one of the staff, I ended up marrying her.
Ken.
No. Never. That way it doesn’t bother me when people moan and I can’t get mad when the inevitable back stabbing starts because you’re not part of the groovy gang.
The vast majority of my colleagues over the years… put it this way if I needed a wee and they were on fire I’d walk the other way and keep looking for a loo.
My colleagues do not pay mu bills, or for my holidays and what not, therefore zero interest.
However I’ve gone to work with friends that have been mates since before I started work with them.
toonsy:
My colleagues do not pay mu bills, or for my holidays and what not, therefore zero interest.
Where as your friends…do?? No wonder robroy is so sour all the time
ETS:
toonsy:
My colleagues do not pay mu bills, or for my holidays and what not, therefore zero interest.Where as your friends…do?? No wonder robroy is so sour all the time
Eh? 
Nah…right over my head.
You’ll need to explain, John Smith is preventing me from working that one out.
ETS:
toonsy:
My colleagues do not pay mu bills, or for my holidays and what not, therefore zero interest.Where as your friends…do?? No wonder robroy is so sour all the time
They have done before, as I have for them when they’ve needed help.
Look its not like I sit alone and talk to nobody. I’ll have a chatter, have a laugh in passing, but it ends there and I’ve not come across any reason to change that
toonsy:
ETS:
toonsy:
My colleagues do not pay mu bills, or for my holidays and what not, therefore zero interest.Where as your friends…do?? No wonder robroy is so sour all the time
They have done before, as I have for them when they’ve needed help.
Look its not like I sit alone and talk to nobody. I’ll have a chatter, have a laugh in passing, but it ends there and I’ve not come across any reason to change that
Yep same here,.I’ll pass the time of day to a few of them (that I actually know) and that’s it., socialise? not a chance.
.I stopped going to firm’s Christmas parties for instance a while ago…mainly because our lot expect you to pay for it yourselves would you believe 
so I’d rather take my lovely wife out for a meal , or an afternoon doing pub football with mates, than pay to spend time with the boss and those lot., …plus you would end up talking ■■■■ work most of night,.as it was all you had in common, and doing more tipping and loading than you did on the road ffs.
There are a couple of guys there that are ok, but there are lot of kiss arses and yes men, not to mention at least one grass at my firm, none of which type I care for anyway,.so I’ve got enough of my own (real)mates to socialise with away from work thanks…
Another thing with me is if I don’t like somebody I can not pretend that I do, my Mrs will say…‘You were a bit rude to him there Rob’’ …Aye cos I don’t ■■■■ like him.
So that and a few beers ain’t a good combo I have found in the past.
If that makes me ‘‘sour’’ Mr ETS, ok fair enough guilty as charged.
While we are on this subject,.I’ll use it as an opportunity…
Does anybody know a guy from Stoke on Trent/Newcastle under Lyme area called Paul Jackson?
I worked with Paul around 2002 to 2005 ,.we were good mates, and often used to meet up for a night out., in fact a couple of times he came up here with his Mrs with their caravan, and the 4 of us used to go out over the weekend.
He left the firm we worked for and went on Steven’s of Macclesfield doing Swiss trips, left there and went on a job servicing security alarms countrywide.
Last time I saw him he was working in Carlisle area where we met up, and he handed me a wad of cash to put down as a deposit for him and his Mrs to come up and stay near me in a hotel between Christmas and New year 2008.
He never turned up,.I never saw him again, his phone was dead and that was it.
Checked the Stoke paper ‘The Sentinel’ to see if there had bern any accidents…nothing, wife checked facebook, not on it., so all in all bit of a mystery for last …14 years. 
Maybe I’ve watched too many crime dramas but I m even thinking I.d change., witness protection, he just disappeared if that’s the case let it go.
I’ll get it in before somebody else does…I maybe ■■■■■■ him off/bored him to death/ and all the rest of it.
Anybody on here know him, must be about 60ish now, average build ginger hair.
A few from my coach driving days are still friends. We used to double man London to Glasgow. Where I am these days I only talk to a few drivers who are just the same as me. There is one I feel like thumping every time I see him. He is not a team player.
Bloody hell no! Socializing with workmates invariably boils down to either “talking shop” or spouting ■■■■■■■■ about ■■■■■■■ football, neither of which appears to involve any sort of original thought on the part of the person doing the spouting.
Roymondo:
Bloody hell no! Socializing with workmates invariably boils down to either “talking shop” or spouting ■■■■■■■■ about [zb] football, neither of which appears to involve any sort of original thought on the part of the person doing the spouting.
It’s funny you should say that… a couple of years ago I went into town on my own for a few beers one Wednesday evening. I went to a bar near the nightclubs around 10pm and bumped into a group of pointy-shoed planners and a couple of depot managers from my company. They were all in company uniform, and I personally knew two of them from my depot. We got chatting, and it was all about work. I made some joking comment about being planned for max hours all the time but he took it really seriously and got all defensive. To cut a long story short there I was, 11pm on a Wednesday, trying to mind my business, and I ended up in a rather tense and slightly confrontational discussion about how work is delegated to drivers, how planners are misunderstood, and how drivers are just lazy.
ezydriver:
and how drivers are just lazy.
I actually laugh right in their face when I hear this from someone who does an eight hour shift and has sixteen hours off between shifts!
the maoster:
ezydriver:
and how drivers are just lazy.I actually laugh right in their face when I hear this from someone who does an eight hour shift and has sixteen hours off between shifts!
I generally aim for that myself. Doesn’t always happen, of course - although to be fair, a good portion of a typical shift is spent doing not a great deal at all (other than Twitbook, YouChewb, Planet Rock etc) while I wait for a trailer to be loaded. I feel a sense of guilt if I don’t manage to stretch the day out to more than 8 or 9 hours. Doesn’t last very long, but I do feel it.
Yes but from when I was in engineering , still go out most w/ends but don’t drink much ( health ) , loads in lorry driving who ring , meet up with a few / go to 50 th party’s / weddings but not like engineering mates , who are my drinking mates
It’s not mates I struggle with , more family , not spoke to bil for 31 yrs , another one at a guess 6/7 yrs , sil 15 yrs , another sil 8 yrs , sister apparently 8 yrs , couldn’t even put a face to a lot of nephews , lad spoke to me in Morrison’s this week , I said hello but didn’t have a clue who it was , nephew who I’ve not seen since he was a couple of years old , must be in 20,s now , mrs had to tell me
Sad really as when I was younger I had a attitude about me , as you get older you just think what was I thinking , but it’s too late now to turn the clock back , can’t see many family attending my funeral !!, hopefully mates will