This 3-30 this afternoon I was driving to a friends home in the country, I was passing alongside the M2 services on a country road and to my utter amazement a truck was turning of the services access road onto the country lane I was travelling along.
Well thats the end of my journey I thought, this rigs going to get well and truly stuck along this road, Of went the truck and lot faster than I would have done even in my car.
Being a decent old school driver I knew I had to stop and help him, I flashed my lights and honked my horn, as luck would have it a car came in the opposite direction, that stopped him out I jumped and ran up to the truck a right hand drive Scania, The driver seemed suprised, He didnt look to be British well I asked “Polish” yes he replied, but in very good english.
Now all of us at one time or another has taken a wrong turning, driven up a one way street to load or unload, driven over the speed limit even driven to many hours, but this is where the difference between a British driver and an Eastern European end.
Firstly the truck pulling a fridge could not have gone more than another 500yds down the road before he would have stuffed the front top of the trailer due to large overhead branches, the road then goes down to about 2.5 mtrs wide and more bends in it than a slithering snake, he would have been, STUCK FAST, and would have needed a wrecker to pull him out backwards.
The Polish driver then argued with me saying the "Tom Tom " (Polish version) must be correct as he was following the directions given, ( Ok we all know that they do not give truck routes over car routes , mistakes happen!!! )
This driver was on his first trip to the UK, he works for, OK he relied on his sat nav, I asked him for his map to help him get to his drop,he did not have a UK map , but was very proud to tell me he gets £440 a week, and will tip and load at the same place tonight, where did you come from , loaded yesterday in the South of France he said and will tip then reload tonight for Asda Bristol tomorrow AM.
Point I am making is, no wonder our industry is shot if someone can load Monday South of France, deliver Tuesday early evening, reload same time then shoot off to Bristol same evening for delivery Wednesday morning .
He had no UK map, no clue of motorways v country roads, and worse still did not seem to care as he stated that Polish drivers worked harder than British ones, Thats why we get the British jobs.
Now remember that I stopped to help him, not to hear insults about my fellow countymen, I like any decent Englishman helped him out, drew a map to his delivery point, helped him turn round in the only possible place in the lane at a civil engineers yard, and baid him farewell.
I remember in the 70s/80s most drivers stopped and helped out when we were over the pond, in the latter years it became less and less.
The lesson learned today, is Would I stop to help another Polish driver. I will leave it to you to work that out.
Company name removed…Colingl
If TOMTOM told him 
