Fair play to the responses so far, having supplies etc bought to them or possible family members/friends who live over here is not something I thought off (not sure 2 Tvs & about 20 jars of coffee counts as supplies though!!)
So all of you that comment on the comradeship etc & good old days…why did you stop doing it & the ‘flip floppers’ carried on ■■
Don’t get me wrong by the way, I would much rather have some banter with fellow drivers when parked up for a night & not hide behind a set of curtains for 11hrs !!
I don’t like reading posts like the previous ones as it makes me yearn for those days again when over the water (even when driving for Richard Long or even Murfitts)
Stuff yer boring RDC jobs and shift work, give me an old truck and trailer and I’ll bugger off for a few weeks at a time and try to enjoy the craic
And if the wife don’t like it then … tough!!
Boo9729:
So all of you that comment on the comradeship etc & good old days…why did you stop doing it & the ‘flip floppers’ carried on ■■
I wasnt the drivers who stopped, but the companies when they found they could not compete any more. Leaving Italy on a Friday night, and travelling home over Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, you would be in the massed company of many varied British and Southern Irish hauliers. The Gendarmerie usually out in force at what seemed like every peage.
Now, apparently you dont see many according to a mate who still does the job.
lost:
I lost a potential job to flip flopper 24yrs me 47 1991 class 1 pass date, i did,nt get job cause flip flopper tested me what a kin joke. i bet one of his flip flopper mates got the gig [zb] joke.
Are you sure it wasnt at the attitude test where you lost it??
Na mate it was a Polish lover outfit owned by an indian i didn,t stand a chance, being english.
midlifetrucker:
If you notice they all shake hands like they know each other. They often dont. Its called comradeship and a like interest. When I started as a green driver 27 years ago if you stopped at a delivery and another trucker was there you would pass the time of day. You would flash lorries that passed you on the same route everyday. You would let cars out. You wouldnt ever dream of jumping a queue. You’d talk to another driver work out who was waiting for where and slot in. I know the yan brigade will hammer this as sentimental tosh but I can honestly say when I first passed my test I received nothing but help and encouragement. The yard I worked at I was a 7.5 ton driver and they put me through my class 2. I immediately got a drive on passing my test and everyone was helpful. I then went on to pay for my own class 1 and left the company two years later (I wouldnt have left earlier as I felt I owed them) They did offer me trunking from their Cornwall depot but I didnt want to be away. We left with a handshake and an offer of a job if I ever wanted to go back.
I returned to driving 18 months ago. Daily I get trucks on the motorway that I am a few miles an hour faster so you overtake. As soon as you draw level they put their foot down and strand you - why? People jumping queues and thinking they are clever. I did a beet run a while back (my First) I hadnt tipped it all to my horror so I asked another driver what do I do and his reply was to laugh and say " you got more left on than you tipped you ■■■■■■" Filling up at a fuel station and you are opposite someone and apart by about 3 ft and they dont even look in your eyes or communicate. ■■■■ anything up and there is always a “brother in arms” videoing you on his bloody phone. Just a quick look on Youtube and you can see they are all fellow drivers. Moaning about driving when most people are in fantastic trucks. All auto, most air conned some drivers could go to work in a suit and come home clean. And you think they are strange.
A post on here recently when the TM phoned and asked someone to change a shift because someone was ill. He said no. And you wonder why the TM then gets ar$ey. He has a job to0.
Progress - nah going backwards in my view. I await the usual assination of this post.
In the 8 months I have seen it like that.
Go for an overtake and then they put the foot down to make the overtake longer.
Clearly a queue for the bay and said muppet goes round and parks in front of a truck and forces his way in and get’s tipped! When challenged you get told to ■■■■ off.
Or like other posters have said, they take the ■■■■ with the parking in lay-bys, or better park on the entry to a layby when the rest of it is empty making it hard work to get by.
The list goes on but I tend to be the opposite.
When I did a run up to Scotland I had to fill up coming back. My first time filling up at a pump with a truck as Wisemens fill up at the yard. I wasn’t sure and asked another driver what I have to do to get the pump armed so I can fill up. He told me to go in and hand fuel card over and walk back. I did just that. Later on that night I made it to Carlisle Truckstop and guess what I meet that driver again and ask him another question, which made him laugh a bit. I asked if I should remove my card and he advised me. I also had a good old chat with another driver next to me who told me he has been driving for over 40 years. I offered him a bit of cake which he refused, but in all we had a good chat.
I say it’s still there, but it falls down to the bad apples who don’t give a ■■■■ about others
Boo9729:
So all of you that comment on the comradeship etc & good old days…why did you stop doing it & the ‘flip floppers’ carried on ■■
I wasnt the drivers who stopped, but the companies when they found they could not compete any more. Leaving Italy on a Friday night, and travelling home over Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, you would be in the massed company of many varied British and Southern Irish hauliers. The Gendarmerie usually out in force at what seemed like every peage.
Now, apparently you dont see many according to a mate who still does the job.
Just been speaking to my grandad about this as he did Europe all his life. He reckons the English drivers were their own worst enemy, he used to be able to ring the boss from a pay phone and find out where one of the others trucks were and they’d have a drink and meal etc.
That was until drivers were ringing up and moaning how come so and so gets all the spain runs or something thing like that, so big boss thought fine I won’t tell them anything anymore. From that day he could never meet up with a mate or whatever because the boss refused to tell them!
I remember in the late 90’s when I was on for p&o gbe and we would be parked up nr the paris depot and each driver would supply something for the evening , a driver had the barbie in his side locker, another the meat another the booze etc etc…a good time was had by all…
raymundo:
I don’t like reading posts like the previous ones as it makes me yearn for those days again when over the water (even when driving for Richard Long or even Murfitts)
Stuff yer boring RDC jobs and shift work, give me an old truck and trailer and I’ll bugger off for a few weeks at a time and try to enjoy the craic
And if the wife don’t like it then … tough!!
It’s no wonder there’s so many single parent families around
raymundo:
I don’t like reading posts like the previous ones as it makes me yearn for those days again when over the water (even when driving for Richard Long or even Murfitts)
Stuff yer boring RDC jobs and shift work, give me an old truck and trailer and I’ll bugger off for a few weeks at a time and try to enjoy the craic
And if the wife don’t like it then … tough!!
It’s no wonder there’s so many single parent families around
Learn the full story before commenting… My ‘uva arf’ reckons being away in a truck for just a few weeks is better than me being away on a ship for possibly two months or even longer (and has said the same for the last 17 years)
lost:
I lost a potential job to flip flopper 24yrs me 47 1991 class 1 pass date, i did,nt get job cause flip flopper tested me what a kin joke. i bet one of his flip flopper mates got the gig [zb] joke.
Are you sure it wasnt at the attitude test where you lost it??
More likely command of the English language test he failed.
Boo9729:
…all seem to know each other, park how they feel in msa’s & then every flip flop in a car comes to see them & then start either cooking, wheeler dealing out the car or all crawl around each others trailers !!! Funny bunch.
What you don’t see is all the stuff there giving them to put in the truck to bring back to there country, like stuff they don’t own if you know what I mean. There are big markets over there for the likes of mobile phones and stuff.
Boo9729:
…all seem to know each other, park how they feel in msa’s & then every flip flop in a car comes to see them & then start either cooking, wheeler dealing out the car or all crawl around each others trailers !!! Funny bunch.
What you don’t see is all the stuff there giving them to put in the truck to bring back to there country, like stuff they don’t own if you know what I mean. There are big markets over there for the likes of mobile phones and stuff.
Oh yes definitely, because before the Eastern Europeans arrived nobody ever stole anything in Great Britain did they
Boo9729:
…all seem to know each other, park how they feel in msa’s & then every flip flop in a car comes to see them & then start either cooking, wheeler dealing out the car or all crawl around each others trailers !!! Funny bunch.
What you don’t see is all the stuff there giving them to put in the truck to bring back to there country, like stuff they don’t own if you know what I mean. There are big markets over there for the likes of mobile phones and stuff.
Oh yes definitely, because before the Eastern Europeans arrived nobody ever stole anything in Great Britain did they
Boo9729:
…all seem to know each other, park how they feel in msa’s & then every flip flop in a car comes to see them & then start either cooking, wheeler dealing out the car or all crawl around each others trailers !!! Funny bunch.
What you don’t see is all the stuff there giving them to put in the truck to bring back to there country, like stuff they don’t own if you know what I mean. There are big markets over there for the likes of mobile phones and stuff.
Oh yes definitely, because before the Eastern Europeans arrived nobody ever stole anything in Great Britain did they
If you read the thread he was talking about the bags, where the hell did you get from me that there is no robbers in the UK, talk about a dumb ■■■.
Parked at Sunbury monday night one Polish truck there, later 2 more turn up, later still an Audi estate turns up with envelopes and what looked like takeaways for all three. Suppose i should have PM’d Orys for instructions to order something for myself!
You might not know this but mobile phone theft is huge in the UK now, what with all these I phones and new high tech stuff, they fly over from other countries for the weekend do all there thieving in night clubs and on the street at night and fly back after two days, big money in it. They can’t bring the phones back on the plane in bulk, so tell me how they get them back (in the trucks that’s how)
It happens in a lot of different countries.
ashbyspannerman:
Parked at Sunbury monday night one Polish truck there, later 2 more turn up, later still an Audi estate turns up with envelopes and what looked like takeaways for all three. Suppose i should have PM’d Orys for instructions to order something for myself!
FFS, don’t get him started or we will be here all week … You OK Orys, me ole mucker
nightline:
You might not know this but mobile phone theft is huge in the UK now, what with all these I phones and new high tech stuff, they fly over from other countries for the weekend do all there thieving in night clubs and on the street at night and fly back after two days, big money in it. They can’t bring the phones back on the plane in bulk, so tell me how they get them back (in the trucks that’s how)
It happens in a lot of different countries.
So because a foreign driver is being handed a bag, it obviously contains stolen goods?
The drivers are just trying to earn a living like the rest of us ffs!
I don’t doubt that a few of them are scallies, but a generalisation that all of them are thieves is like saying that all Brit lorry drivers are xenophobic neanderthals, sure, some of them are, but not every one of them.
You OK Orys, me ole mucker