Non HGV Drivers - drive a mile in our shoes!!!
And watch a few videos from here and you’ll see we don’t give a ■■■■ for slowing down at multi lane roundabouts, and if you change lane in front of us we’ll ram you off the road !!! 
They’re the videos posted here.
You have to remember that apart from truck drivers nobody cares about trucks or drivers if you want to start at 4am that’s what you get well paid for all they want is you off the road while they get to work, maybe you should try there jobs if driving is getting to you.
Welcome to our world Neil, take as much room & time as you need, if you have to block off another lane to make the turn, so be it, I’d rather make an impatient BMW/Audi driver wait for a few seconds, than have to deal with all the paperwork & accusations in the aftermath of wiping out an inconsiderate cyclist or a pushy biker.
I use as much roundabout as I need, you’ll never be able to stop the Mad Biker from undertaking/overtaking you, so just do it all at a steady pace & always be prepared for the Numpty who comes out of nowhere.
I don’t worry about being stuck behind a cyclist, you’ll eventually get past, then all the little Impatient Car drivers will be happy. (after they’ve given you grief & coffee beans. Lol)
Sounds like truck driving may not be the job for you, those things you’ve described happen on the road regardless of the vehicle you are driving.
Nobody outside the industry cares about your job, start time or daily tasks, much as you probably don’t care about their’s. The job is easy, doesn’t take much in the way of qualifications to do it and drivers really aren’t super heroes saving lives and preventing accidents on a daily basis anymore than anyone else on the road is.
Perhaps my post does sound a touch dramatic 
The point I suppose I was trying to make was that there is more to driving a truck than meets the eye and people wrongly think we’re all muppets!!
I’m not suggesting we’re all superheroes although I hear it pays over £10 an hour and double bubble Sunday’s so I might start putting my pants on the outside of my trousers!!
NewbieNeil:
The point I suppose I was trying to make was that there is more to driving a truck than meets the eye…
There really isn’t, what meets the eye is pretty much it.
Generally my thought processes are devoted to wondering what I shall have for tea. Me and Coffee I know feel the same way about this, driving isn’t a hard job and certainly not mentally taxing. Personally I couldn’t care less what others think of me or what I do for a living, same as I don’t care about them.
I take it as you post as newbieneil you haven’t been driving trucks for long and your name is Neil.
As others have said, nobody really cares about your job, you’re just in their way or you’re late. You can let this eat into you for years and get more stressed and end up on here or in an RDC waiting room ranting and raving about drivers, bosses, goods in staff etc, or you can ignore them and let the insults and bad driving go and enjoy the good parts of the job.
i have to admit nothing boils my ■■■■ more than some prick in lycra riding on the road when a cycle path is next to them.
they should be fined for being pricks.
LGV driving isn’t really that taxing or involved mentally. You’re making it harder for yourself if you think it is. I can’t see driving as life saving unless you’re driving an ambulance/fire engine. Trying not to have an accident or affect lives by cocking up -yes but you’re not saving lives. Same for a car user or cyclist.
It needs a little forward planning granted but it’s not crushing pressure. There’s jobs out there with gazillion times more pressure and risk than LGV driving and equally unappreciated, but that’s life. Everyone has their cross to bare.
Freight Dog:
There’s jobs out there with gazillion times more pressure and risk than LGV driving and equally unappreciated, but that’s life. Everyone has their cross to bare.
Yeah like your job which I think you’re very lucky & privileged to have
Coffeeholic:
Sounds like truck driving may not be the job for you, those things you’ve described happen on the road regardless of the vehicle you are driving.Nobody outside the industry cares about your job, start time or daily tasks, much as you probably don’t care about their’s. The job is easy, doesn’t take much in the way of qualifications to do it and drivers really aren’t super heroes saving lives and preventing accidents on a daily basis anymore than anyone else on the road is.
44 tonnes of potential weapon apparently 
Not hard correct but don’t put it in the same bracket of responsibility as a car or van driver - it simply isn’t close.
Come on give the lad a break, he’s new to it, a few years will have worn off the sharp edges, and he’ll be as cynical as the rest off us 
The fact that most off the replies seem to suggest that its not a hard job, just shows that you are all very competent, as you can do this without thinking, thus leaving your head clear to worry about tea, or when the next bit off skirt will drive past. 
Once after backing blind side in one go onto a bay, which just happened, I wasn’t trying to wear my pants on the outside off my trousers, I got asked by another driver to tell him how I did it(a newbie, whom I allowed to buy me a cuppa), but I just couldn’t tell him, I just do. I don’t feel like I’m spending lots off mental energy on driving, hence I’m not tired at the end off the day. Hence its an easy job
But think to when you see someone who just cant grasp what it is to move a truck, some people don’t have the special awareness to see a route forwards or reverse and get on and do it, then they get flustered, then some ■■■ says today will do nicely(sorry I just cant help myself), and then you realise that the job isn’t brain surgery, but it does take a certain skill to do well, and that’s when it looks and feels easy, and it was shepherds pie
Ps, I’m not have a dig at you Neil, but do your self a favour, get cynical quick, Remember only the muppets with a blue light matter more than you, and a BMW will polish out
pps Muckles got le mans on planner for Boxing day,
I agree with OP though, I think all car lessons should involve going out in a truck for half a day, and driving them where appropriate - and another half a day on the back of a motorbike. Not sure how you’d get cyclists to get the truckers’ perspective!
For those of you who’ve been trucking since god’s dog was a pup - you perhaps forget just how much is involved in the job because you do it without having to consciously think about it. When my other half came out with me when I first passed, and I was asking questions about everything, he did comment that it made him realise just how much there was to the job. D’you know what I mean? It is a very skilled job IMO, so remember how good you are!
Driving can be stressful, but it all depends on your job
and your attitude and your T Os take on things
ajt:
Not hard correct but don’t put it in the same bracket of responsibility as a car or van driver - it simply isn’t close.
No, the responsibilies are the same for every road user regardless of the size of vehicle; obey the rules of the road and don’t be a danger to yourself or other road users. A car can cause as much carnage when those responsibilities are not met as a truck. The incident on the M25 last week being a prime example.
Face:
It is a very skilled job IMO
If it was that skilled it wouldn’t be possible to be qualified to do it with just a few days training. I’m not counting the DCPC training time as that does nothing to add skill to the job. Admittedly it takes a few days longer these days having to do rigid then add the trailer entitlement but when I qualified I went from just having a car licence to a Class 1 with 4.5 days training. Not much skilled about that.
It is skilled, passing your test is the easy bit, then you go out in the real world…
ajt:
Coffeeholic:
Sounds like truck driving may not be the job for you, those things you’ve described happen on the road regardless of the vehicle you are driving.Nobody outside the industry cares about your job, start time or daily tasks, much as you probably don’t care about their’s. The job is easy, doesn’t take much in the way of qualifications to do it and drivers really aren’t super heroes saving lives and preventing accidents on a daily basis anymore than anyone else on the road is.
44 tonnes of potential weapon apparently
Not hard correct but don’t put it in the same bracket of responsibility as a car or van driver - it simply isn’t close.
It’s only a weapon if the driver uses it as such. A newspaper can be a weapon, a kitchen knife can be a weapon, words can be a weapon. All of these things have safe uses which require the user to be competent so if you see a fully freighted truck as a weapon then, I contend, it is your mindset which is the greater danger to people we share the roads with.
It is in exactly the same bracket as a car or van driver if the person driving the vehicle does so thinking his vehicle is a weapon then serious harm or death is both possible and IMHO probable.
Does anybody remember the old public information short films that were shown with the adverts on tv in the 70s. If they made a couple of them on a theme of concentrating on public awareness of sharing the road safely with trucks, such as middle lane hogging, undertaking when truck is turning left, leaving extra space on a round about etc. I reckon it would be a start.
These used to work as they were designed to, and did, stick in your mind.
If they saved only a few lives and accidents they would be worth it.