Yorkshire Tramper:
Out of genuine interest, what was their definition of the two types? I know it as a certain meaning but mine may be the wrong definition.
In the briefest terms it was to do with “where we feed”. That is, where do we get our energy from? Introverts get it from their own company, extroverts feed on the energy derived from a group.
I found this reference online which supports the explanation given at that time, there’s no abstract available on PubMed and I doubt the text is available online (it’s a little bit older than I am!) but I’d imagine it features in standard psychology textbooks.
Carrigan, P. M. (1960). Extraversion-introversion as a dimension of personality: A reappraisal. Psychological bulletin, 57(5), 329.
If I were to classify myself I’d definitely say I was an introvert, if I don’t get a decent amount of time to myself every day, it drains me. But, in my youth I spent years playing in various bands, and I’ve done lots of teaching at university, and done a fair few Public Awareness of Science presentations to the general public, so I’m definitely not “shy” about standing up in front of a large group of people . No one who has sat through my ADR courses would say I was an introvert.
Interesting answer, well my own interpretation of the types were correct assuming that the text book Psychology framework is correct and that in itself is actually debatable. Thanks for the reply I appreciate it as it is quite refreshing to read something that thought has been put into.
I think to be a tour driver you need to be a bit of a del boy, able to put up with a lot of crap and turn it to your advantage, always smiling, always been courteous, always going out of your way, coning people that you like them, having a speal to entertain them, and all for a tip which is ok you do what you have to do but it must be very draining having to be del boy every day
Just my opinion as they say never work with kids or the public
At the end of the day if you’re getting a good wedge and you like dealing with the public then you are the perfect del boy
joe royal:
In my experience it depends where you are.
In a routiers you sit with strangers and have a conversation, usually the only person with a phone out is me, and that’s just to use google translate.
The rest of Europe seems similar to here, usually one to a table and not much talking going on.
I never did Euro work myself in a truck, always had the impression that this work was a different ball game to over here. Sad to hear that mate.
I’d say your a bit new to the coach game to be thinking theres no one there that dosen’t talk crap or tell stories the same way some truckers do . Might take you a bit of time to figure who’s who but I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon enough .
beefy4605:
I’d say your a bit new to the coach game to be thinking theres no one there that dosen’t talk crap or tell stories the same way some truckers do . Might take you a bit of time to figure who’s who but I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon enough .
Absolutely, I agree totally there. I am saying from the limited experience that I have had as a coach driver. As a HGV driver I have had a long time to know the difference, I am sure that there will be some coach drivers that will be a tad difficult to tolerate but as I stated in my opening post, the experience I have so far witnessed has been totally different.
Pretty much sums up my point, an opinion starting off with that phrase insinuates you know better or somehow that you are clever. You are most certainly not. You can have an opinion but choose an attempt to belittle my findings instead of putting accross your opinion in a civil way. I wouldn’t normally answer such a self righteous idiot but I recall a post that you made about Zac_A and how he made you look silly, perhaps you thought you might try your luck with me but once again you have failed.
No, that’s is my opinion but if you have been a driver for any length of time I would have hoped you would have known there are good and bad drivers in all categories. Most I think would certainly agree that’s a fact.
Regarding Zac A . I found the way he spoke about someone he did not know appalling. Sorry but that’s how I saw it. If that made me look silly, I don’t really care.
You sound like you have lost your cool. Well you academics stick together but got to say I’ve never met one who can’t write in paragraphs before.
Pretty much sums up my point, an opinion starting off with that phrase insinuates you know better or somehow that you are clever. You are most certainly not. You can have an opinion but choose an attempt to belittle my findings instead of putting accross your opinion in a civil way. I wouldn’t normally answer such a self righteous idiot but I recall a post that you made about Zac_A and how he made you look silly, perhaps you thought you might try your luck with me but once again you have failed.
No, that’s is my opinion but if you have been a driver for any length of time I would have hoped you would have known there are good and bad drivers in all categories. Most I think would certainly agree that’s a fact.
Regarding Zac A . I found the way he spoke about someone he did not know appalling. Sorry but that’s how I saw it. If that made me look silly, I don’t really care.
You sound like you have lost your cool. Well you academics stick together but got to say I’ve never met one who can’t write in paragraphs before.
Enjoy your night.
No I haven’t lost my cool? I do not appreciate your ignorant and patronising post, nothing more than that. If you think that is losing my cool then you are more of a fool than I first suspected. Also if you don’t care, why say it?
Never thought about this before but you are absolutely right. Go to any coach park with several coaches from same company, and sometimes not, you’ll find them all empty most of time as they are on one coach socialising with each other. People often ask me which is the better job, truck driving or coach driving and I always answer looking at it dispassionately it’s coach driving, by quite a way. I drove trucks because it was my childhood dream.
GOG47:
Things may have changed but when I was on distance/Euro work, a lot of drivers you got stuck with talked the biggest load of bull.
You know the kind-one ‘it to Pakistan, wouldn’t get out of bed for less than 10grand a week,just missed the Herald, second man on the balcony types. That’s usually why my window stayed firmly shut. Unfortunately, there were always plenty of them in RDC waiting rooms/cafes/ferry restaurants where they really couldn’t be avoided
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Always wise to employ the book,the headphones or tablet in those scenarios l found.
Zac_A:
That’s too much of a sweeping generalization for me, but potentially it could be that it is the nature of the job which selects for a certain personality type.
I’d suggest that people who like the company of other people might be more attracted to a job involving people (PSV), those of us who prefer our own company may be more attracted to a job where it is the norm to spend a large amount of time without the company of other people - having lots of “my own personal space” was always a huge plus-side of HGV driving for me.
At the risk of going off on a tangent, those working in the field of psychology tend not to use introvert/extrovert in the same we we non-professionals might do in general conversation. A couple of years back I spent some time on a course during which a Briggs-Meyers personality test was conducted for all of us. The psychologist’s definition of introvert/extrovert was far different to what most people thought it meant.
Briggs-Meyers ? That the one to establish the…‘koala’ personalities,from the…‘polar bears’ ? What a crock of horse dung.
switchlogic:
Never thought about this before but you are absolutely right. Go to any coach park with several coaches from same company, and sometimes not, you’ll find them all empty most of time as they are on one coach socialising with each other. People often ask me which is the better job, truck driving or coach driving and I always answer looking at it dispassionately it’s coach driving, by quite a way. I drove trucks because it was my childhood dream.
Childhood dreams and ambitions sometimes can have a lot to answer for. However I suspect in your case that your reality turned out to suit you well. You certainly have put your all into lorry driving and I suspect that you have helped out future lorry drivers through both your passion and videos. In my opinion this is exactly what I have found so far in Coach driving, people like you that care about the job and are enthusiastic and go that extra step to help you out. I have not found a single coach driver yet who is as some have explained on here although I don’t doubt it. In my 7 weeks of coach driving I have rekindled my passion for driving again and can now truly feel the spirit of it all once again in the sense of freedom on the road. One real surprise here was I did not realise that you had driven coaches before but once again my suspicion is that you would have been a good one through your personality and driving skills.
manalishi:
Briggs-Meyers ? That the one to establish the…‘koala’ personalities,from the…‘polar bears’ ? What a crock of horse dung.
You CT guys are a hoot (in very small doses)
There’s nothing in that well known personality-type test about polar bears or koalas (which incidentally are not bears) in any half-sensible psychology reference source, it’s just about the intersection of four preference-pairs. extrovert/introvert; sensing/intuitive; thinking/feeling; judging/perceiving.
However, I already know you’re a dyed-in-the-wool, out-of-your-tiny-mind, anti-vax conspiracy-theorist, so I can well believe you’re read some nonsensical web-page which has entirely misunderstood and anthropomorphized a simple but useful psychological tool.
I dont think its possible to generalise that coach drivers are ‘this’ and hgv drivers are ‘that’. Everyone is different. Ive been on a couple of coach trips in the past (a holiday to Italy in the 80s) where both coach drivers were miserable ■■■■■■■■■ You will get good and bad in all walks of life. To say all HGV drivers are introverted miserable sods is a bit of a sweeping statement. I am happy to talk to anyone, but sometimes Im happy to sit on my own. Neither means Im unhappy in my job or line of work.
I’ve met plenty of decent lads driving HGVs (at my current collection a YODEL driver has started collecting from bay next to me every day and he is sound, and we’ve had some great conversations already) and I’ve met plenty of tw*ts who do start spouting drivel, or asking in the first sentence ‘how much are you on’. I tend to smile politely to these and then ignore.
Swordsy:
I dont think its possible to generalise that coach drivers are ‘this’ and hgv drivers are ‘that’. Everyone is different. Ive been on a couple of coach trips in the past (a holiday to Italy in the 80s) where both coach drivers were miserable [zb]! You will get good and bad in all walks of life. To say all HGV drivers are introverted miserable sods is a bit of a sweeping statement. I am happy to talk to anyone, but sometimes Im happy to sit on my own. Neither means Im unhappy in my job or line of work.
I’ve met plenty of decent lads driving HGVs (at my current collection a YODEL driver has started collecting from bay next to me every day and he is sound, and we’ve had some great conversations already) and I’ve met plenty of tw*ts who do start spouting drivel, or asking in the first sentence ‘how much are you on’. I tend to smile politely to these and then ignore.
Agree 100% with you, I did say that this is generalisation and not applicable in all cases. It is my finding so far. I too have met some very decent HGV drivers in my time and did not mean this post to tar all with the same brush as it may have come accross. I am finding more help with the job from other coach drivers than I did with my HGV early days. Here is another example of friendliness between coach drivers however trivia it may seem, when you are driving on tours you get all other coach drivers flashing you and waving as a friendly gesture. Even the local service bus drivers wave at you too. Just a small thing but shows the sense of community and when parked how aproachable the other coach drivers are through this attitude.
Theory: Coach drivers have power, lorry drivers don’t. Coach drivers exercise their power over their passengers, not each other. Some will do this with positive energy, some will use their power to irritate passengers for their own amusement. Lorry drivers who feel inferior about not having any power, use what little power they do have to irritate other lorry drivers for their own amusement. There are plenty of threads on here attesting to that sort of behaviour out on the road.
Do coach drivers have a high likelihood of getting treated like ■■■■? Do pointy shoes work in coach company transport offices? I don’t know, but I’m guessing on the whole - yes, another generalisation - coach drivers get treated a whole lot better than lorry drivers, and are therefore not on high alert for ■■■■ treatment coming their way. Do coach drivers get blamed for everything? If they are of the positive energy variety, then they are going to have a ready-made bunch of cheerleaders all waiting to champion them. No cheerleaders for lorry drivers.
We don’t tend to think too much about the impact we have on others but maybe some lorry drivers will look like they avoid helping others out because some other lorry drivers give off a standoffish “I don’t need help” vibe. In my very limited experience I have found other lorry drivers I have met to be really nice and helpful. But I need all the help I can get and while I am bothered about feeling like an idiot asking for it, I still ask. It’s been worth it so far.
As for the friendliness on the road thing, sometimes there are just too many of your kind to acknowledge, but it definitely exists between sub-groups of lorry drivers. I have done some local driving for a builders merchant and it is etiquette to enthusiastically wave to all other builders merchant vehicle drivers. Hello to any Travis Perkins/Jewson/RGB drivers reading.
driveress:
Do coach drivers have a high likelihood of getting treated like [zb]? Do pointy shoes work in coach company transport offices? I don’t know, but I’m guessing on the whole - yes, another generalisation - coach drivers get treated a whole lot better than lorry drivers, and are therefore not on high alert
A fair assumption, I can only speak of my company and my experience so far, maybe I am lucky to work for such a great company but here is how it is for me.
On a Thursday eve I get a text with my next weeks tour, I get back to the yard on a Friday eve and pick up my drivers pack for the Monday. My itinerary along with the hotel bookings are all in there. I arrive at the yard Monday morning early, pick up my coach which is fuelled and cleaned ready for the tour. I don’t see any office staff as it is early, usually 5 or 5.30am. I then check my coach over and check my itinerary and head off to various locations to pickup my passengers. Once all on board I do my safety speech and introduce myself, we drive to our first destination, I give the times for the passengers to come back to the coach and continue onto the hotel. The whole week is spent following the written itinerary and organising the trip ourselves. Any additional tours etc is up to the driver to organise along with dealing with any problems with the passengers. I don’t hear anything from the office all week until my Thursday text and it all starts again the following week. So if there are any pointy shoe in the office then I have very little to do with them, I speak to the other tour drivers on my phone if I need any help with anything. It is how it all works. As far as getting treat better as a coach driver to a lorry driver then yes your assumption is correct, I have seen both sides and on the whole that is correct. The beauty of all of this is the fact that we deal with problems ourselves rather than an office bod interfering. Don’t get me wrong if we get a problem that only the office can deal with then we have that option too. The whole job is much better and suits me to work this way. Most coach company’s will work this way I have been told by other drivers. I love it and I am sure it would suit a lot of lorry drivers too, it gets rid of all the BS and stress. No PPE as we wear shirts and ties with polished shoes. Driving wise, we do drive more carefully and take things steady as we are carrying people and not goods.
Yorkshire Tramper:
Driving wise, we do drive more carefully and take things steady as we are carrying people and not goods.
You obviously don’t work for National Express then The Tuffnells of the coach world.
Joking aside, is your weekly itinerary broadly the same from week to week, or are you having to find new places every day?
New places everyday, sometimes we will obviously do the same run but because we have so many different tours, we may only do the same one a few times a year. The company usually plans this factor in when choosing drivers for each tour each week. I have stopped in the same hotel doing a similar area like Durham but the trips were to different places around that area.
. No one who has sat through my ADR courses would say I was an introvert.
