Trev_H:
Muckaway:
There seems to be an increase in drivers who wont listen to advice; Do they think it’s a sign of weakness if another driver says “back in from the other direction or you’ll hit the gatepost…”?
I don’t understand the attitude of some, if a new driver turns up from an agency I’ll give them the keys , paperwork etc. and offer directions to their delivery or the easiest way to go (low bridges , narrow roads etc), usually I get "I’ll find it myself thanks I’ve got a sat-nav "
fine carry on !
I’ve had several ‘old timers’ reel off a comprehensive list of directions, from yard to destination, unprompted. In one case (near the end of a tiring day), I tried to explain that I wasn’t sufficiently familiar with any of the landmarks to which he was referring (and at least part of the route was already familiar to me and didn’t need to be described, but he was also describing that in unfamiliar ways too), and that the number of steps he was describing were simply too many for me to memorise, but it had no effect on him - he was a like a doll that had had its string (self-)pulled.
I ended up having to use the sat-nav anyway, and what I could remember of his labyrinthine directions was negligible. Perhaps in the past either he or I would have had a map and a highlighter to hand, but we didn’t. And when I got to the yard at the destination (dark by this time), which had also been described in painful, meaningless detail to me, I had to get out and speak to somebody on site anyway to find the appropriate bay.
My experience is that intimate knowledge of the route to a drop is really only of value if it contradicts the sat-nav in an important way, or if it describes some important difficulty about the actual yard, and in each case the advice is really only of use if it is brief and clear.
Trev_H:
Last week I offered to give a driver a hand to fold up a 40’ fly sheet, his answer "I’d prefer to do it myself thankyou "
I haven’t got a problem with any of this but it’s a very different world to when I started 40years ago.
Perhaps it’s because people have their own routines with its own subtleties. I’ve had ‘help’ in the past with ordinary tasks, and it often takes longer and consumes more mental effort than if I had simply done it myself. A common one is where people bring your numberplate to you when you’re dropping a trailer. I have already tried to design my drop routine to be as easy, efficient, and reliable as possible for one man to perform (and 99% of the time I will be on my own), so all their unprompted help does is disrupt the rhythm of that routine and distract my concentration - and often necessitates redundant checks or introduces additional steps.
Another common ‘helping’ task is that of the impromptu banksman. I never ask for help reversing, but occasionally someone gives it - it’s almost invariably worthless and distracting. It is uncommon to find reversing tasks that can’t be done on driver judgment alone.
I’m quite sure the world is different to when you started 40 years ago. Perhaps those were the days when drivers helped each other with more substantial endeavours, like protecting pay and conditions, rather than romanticising the days when maps were paper or when it took two men to drop a trailer or fold a sheet. I’ve met many friendly and helpful drivers, but none of them would say boo to a goose, let alone help fight a boss.
