YES!! My favourite was the nuclear fallout one 
You’re right though robroy, bring 'em back I say!
tuffty use to be on telly til i ran the twonk over 
Sounds to me OP, that the only thing you did wrong in those two scenarios was worry/care about what anybody behind you thought about you. You did what was safe, if they are too stunted to see/care about that, tough ■■■■ for them.
Good luck with the driving
I agree with the OP to an extent.
I have the same frustrations etc, but you need to learn to let it go over your head or you will soon find your job becoming a nightmare. All jobs have their frustrations regardless of what your doing, these are ours and they will never change.
There’s little respect or awareness in the uk towards trucks and how they manoeuvre,but that doesn’t bother me, I’m not looking for respect, I earn decent money and that’s why I do it.
You have to earn respect. The larger percentage of road users you see, cars, buses and lorries are driven in a way that does not deserve respect.
Of all of them fast motorbikes seem to be the worse offenders I’ve seen.
Face:
It is skilled, passing your test is the easy bit, then you go out in the real world…
But there is no requirement to prove further skills have been achieved, you can do the job with only the basic level of competence used to pass the test. Sure, you learn some new things and you might get better at others but that doesn’t make it a skilled job, at best it is semi-skilled, no more than that.
I agree. Every motor action in life requires “skill” if not instinct based and learned such as making a cup of tea. Where do you draw the line in the workplace?
This was discussed in a recent thread. For pure devil’s advocate sake, would you say a pizza delivery driver is skilled? He drives for a living. His skills are no more than any car licence holder. It’s arguable that passing an LGV test is a far shallower gradient and less challenging than an 18 year old who has no idea of what driving is, passing the car licence.
Most of what you need to do to make it through LGV driving is on the job knowledge as any job on the globe requires. It’s not high science to know when to pull over for a break or slow down in snow, or use a diff lock or how to strap a vehicle, yet these things do get picked up, albeit slower without being willing and having guidance/training/(trucknet!)
The truly skilled side of driving died out with rope and sheeting. To me that’s a skill,having tried and failed at it . It’s not a criticism of driving. I drove for years. My old man did too and I thought he was the bees knees when I was small. Who cares anyway. Enjoy your job and be proud.
Some of the so called “skilled” jobs or “proper” professions carry excruciating pressure and stress, are full of collapsed mental health through years of burning the brain with 100 octane demands of constant top achievement topped off with ill health and marriage failures. Who wants to be in those shoes? Who cares what others think? Enjoy your lot. Be proud of what you do and laugh off donkeys on scramblers.
Essay over!
To be fair to the OP I can see where he is coming from. While I wouldnt go so far as to say it’s a skilled job,it definitely is a job that not everyone can do. Lots of people could never handle a vehicle of class 1 size. And that’s fine. As long as they can drive the vehicle they have to then there is no need for them to worry about anything bigger.
I think what the OP was trying to say is that other road users need to appreciate that just because they CAN fit their fiat punto between the wall and the artic trailer,maybe they should put some thought into it and realise its not such a good idea. The same goes for stopping distance. Most motorists forget or dont realise that a fully loaded artic takes a lot longer to stop than a car. They manouvre into your stopping distance then apply the brakes leaving you with the heart stopping moment of seeing the brake lights come on and having to jump on the brakes. Happened to me a few weeks ago in slow moving queuing traffic. Rather than move in behind me,guy in a golf flew up the outside and almost took the paint off my bumper to get in the space I had left. I was fully loaded with wood and was off my seat to get the brakes on hard. He got a flash of the lights and my thanks for not ramming 44 ton of Daf up his arse was hand gestures from the window and him stop/starting to try and wind me up all the way through to the lights. It’s people like this the OP is meaning.
As professional drivers it’s part of our job to deal with other road users bad driving but that does not mean they have free rein to do what they want and to hell with the consequences. Its the responsibility of everyone on the road to deal with other vehicles whether you like them being there or not. Be it cycles,buses or trucks.
When we go to the shops do we have to do an hour on the till at tesco or stack the bog rolls to see what they put up with. I have no interest in there job so why should they have an interest in mine
kr79:
When we go to the shops do we have to do an hour on the till at tesco or stack the bog rolls to see what they put up with. I have no interest in there job so why should they have an interest in mine
A good point but there is a difference between not caring about how the bog rolls are stacked and not caring that driving into the nearside lane when an artic has pulled out and indicating to turn left is not a good idea. Nobody is asking them to appreciate how to properly strap a load or how to fill in an ops13 sheet. It is,however,the motorists responsibility as well as the hgv driver to deal with road and traffic situations. Nothing to do with “his job,not mine”
Moaning about other motorists making you late is one thing. Your right,that’s not their problem.
Face:
It is skilled, passing your test is the easy bit, then you go out in the real world…
No it isn’t. The fact that there are so many hopelessly incompetent idiots out there doing it proves that.
I appreciate reading through this thread that the majority of you are all well experienced guys who breeze through the job not having to worry. I look forward to being that chilled out about it but at the minute everday is a new learning experience whether it’s something small like…remember to check the side locker for palm couplings before you take the unit dockside to get a trailer (25 mins of my life I won’t get back 
)…or watch out for the mad biker with a deathwish. Everyday is new to me and so I suppose naively I assumed this is how it is for everyone.
My enthusiasm will disappear soon enough I’m sure but in the mean time, I worked hard to save enough money to get qualified to do a job i always wanted to do and I’m rightly or wrongly quite proud of being a wagon driver. However, I’m sure I’ll post something similar again in a few years and I’m sure I’ll have a different take on things
Good to read everybody’s opinions though.
Cheers
Neil.
I’ve been driving now for 11 years and the title of this thread made me chuckle,do drivers really think we have it “that” bad?
No disrespect but I’d certainly do our job over the likes off doctors,police officers,firefighters ect who have to deal with accidents/deaths ect on an almost daily basis…sure we may have the odd moment of hassle but in the real world it ain’t all that!
its got to a point now when car/van drivers or cyclists give me abuse all I do is thumbs up and smile,or if they are within hearing range and I get verbal I usually agree with them with a thumbs up and a smile,winds them up even more
NewbieNeil:
My enthusiasm will disappear soon enough I’m sure.
Only if you let it. I started my first driving job 17 years ago this week and I still love driving for a living. I’d hate to have to give it up, I might have to start working for a living then! I’m paid to listen to the radio watching the scenery roll by, what could be better.
switchlogic:
Only if you let it. I started my first driving job 17 years ago this week and I still love driving for a living. I’d hate to have to give it up, I might have to start working for a living then! I’m paid to listen to the radio watching the scenery roll by, what could be better.
Amen +1 all day. Don’t become as miserable as some on here.
Becoming cynical is fine by the way
switchlogic:
Only if you let it. I started my first driving job 17 years ago this week and I still love driving for a living. I’d hate to have to give it up, I might have to start working for a living then! I’m paid to listen to the radio watching the scenery roll by, what could be better.
Hear hear!! 