I have nothing against new drivers (I was one myself once 
) but why are the vast majority of them today such arrogant little sh…s.
After being in the job for more than 5 mins they suddenly think they know it all, not only that but that you know ■■■■ all. I have seen them come and I’ve helped them out with stuff, but after a few months they are trying to tell YOU stuff you learned 30 yrs ago… before some of them were born 
A good example is on the ‘worst drivers out there’ thread. A guy who came on here a few months ago asking questions from experienced drivers on the Newbie forum after he had just passed his test, comes on said thread slagging off older drivers because they say they don’t need sat navs, or have done roping and sheeting or whatever. (No doubt he will come back on, and back pedal saying ‘I was joking’ 
.) but I have seen this a lot with young new drivers.
Don’t get me wrong, in real terms I really couldn’t give a flying one, it’s just a thread, and I just wondered if others had noticed these guy’s attitudes.
In my day …(yeh I know) …we had a lot of respect for older drivers, listened and learned a lot. You had to because unlike today you had to have more than a qualification of being a car driver to be able to drive a truck 
and you had to learn actual skills to do the job unlike today. Right, I’m starting to talk with my old ■■■■■■■■ s hat on now 
, so I’ll quit while I’m ahead
Its confusion over the words respect and respec’ innit.
One has to or should be earned, the other is taken for granted and seldom reciprocated.
It’s confusing now for new drivers whatever their age, the job has been so deskilled that any bugger can point the average lorry up the average road, unless conditions deteriorate or things go wrong the modern lorry will drive itself…except backwards that when the billy bullshine crew come unstuck.
Unless in specialized work, there’s no graft or skill required to stack/ handball then waterproof and secure loads properly for most movements, chauffers now.
In comparison, in general haulage of yesteryear and is still the case in some specialised sectors (where prat nav isn’t worth a light and might well lead you to disaster), passing the test was the first tiny step to becoming a lorry driver, you then started years of learning and spent the rest of your life honing your game.
I’ve met new and young drivers in recent years who are old school in manner despite their tenders age, they get all the help and advice they want given freely and galdly, they have good futures ahead if they stay in the game as they become increasingly rare and sought, and then again i’ve worked with older long term drivers who will never be a driver as long as they have a hole in their arse.
Takes all sorts.
i have eperienced this in other jobs i just turned round and said we are all newbies in life as we never stop learning until we die
Juddian:
Its confusion over the words respect and respec’ innit.
One has to or should be earned, the other is taken for granted and seldom reciprocated.It’s confusing now for new drivers whatever their age, the job has been so deskilled that any bugger can point the average lorry up the average road, unless conditions deteriorate or things go wrong the modern lorry will drive itself.
Unless in specialized work, there’s no graft or skill required to stack/ handball then waterproof and secure loads properly for most movements, chauffers now.
In comparison, in general haulage of yesteryear and is still the case in some specialised sectors (where prat nav isn’t worth a light and might well lead you to disaster), passing the test was the first tiny step to becoming a lorry driver, you then started years of learning and spent the rest of your life honing your game.I’ve met new and young drivers in recent years who are old school in manner despite their tenders age, they get all the help and advice they want given freely and galdly, they have good futures ahead if they stay in the game as they become increasingly rare and sought, and then again i’ve worked with older long term drivers who will never be a driver as long as they have a hole in their arse.
Takes all sorts.
I suppose it’s a positive thing in a way that the job is far easier now with trucks that are just like driving a car compared to the older ones. However on the negative side (and apart from the actual trucks) the gradual ‘dumbing down’ process of the job over the years has had the effect of attracting the type of guy that would once over have been unable to do the job and fell at the first hurdle. I mean some of the then required skills that you point out (and many more) being left to your own devices (start Mon ‘‘ring me Fri when you are empty’’ ) and the fact that it was then unlike today largely down to thinking for yourself, using initiative, and making your own decisions, as opposed to now where a traffic planner watches your every move, and sits at a phone telling you everything apart from when to wipe your arse.
I aint saying all older drivers are perfect either, far from it in many cases, and I agree with you that a lot of new starters and young drivers are spot on, and good lads, but we all see the ones that would not have once got through the net. Some of the more arrogant and know it all types I am on about in the o/p usually come under this category I have found.
I’m 35 and been driving HGV’S now for 10 year. When I started out I took on board everything experienced drivers used to tell me, I still do now as you never stop learning and found that by listening to these blokes who had been there, done that and got the t-shirt made my job a lot easier and kept me on the right side of laws and regs as you don’t learn any of that whilst going through your class 1 and 2 courses.
Yes there was always the odd ■■■■■■■■■■ coming out with the story’s you here in RDC’s where they were the best trucker out there etc but a lot of good information could be found by just listening to those who didn’t ■■■■■■■■ for just 5 mins.
I don’t know if my 10 years of driving just on General Haulage gives me the right to try and give newbies bits of advice and some help when needed but I do it because at the end of the day we’re all the same and have been in their shoes.
If they don’t want to take on board what I’ve got to say then fair enough that’s their choice but I won’t help them again when they need any help and if anything goes ■■■■ up they have no one else to blame apart from themselves. However you do get the old boys who can ■■■■ you right off because they think they’re the best thing since sliced bread, they know it all, slate lads who have just started out coming on here asking questions etc. I guess it works both ways, there’s newbies that can ■■■■ you off and a few of the old boys network too.
It gets tedious. Especially that eagerbellend who has done exactly what you described in the first post. Started on agency and now knows it all and constanly slags them off in every post. Most have probably forgot more types of truck than hes driven.
It’s a strange one this,they say respect has to be earned so to a newbie regardless of how long Mr oldbie has been driving and what he has done Mr Newbie will have absolutely no idea of what this was so should he immediately drop to the floor and worship the ground your walking on in respect?
I think some of those “oldbies” expect way too much and like to place themselves as much superior to those below them,then get angry when Mr newbie does not appreciate this demand for respect,but yet Mr newbie has no clue what Mr oldbie has done in his driving career.
I’ve been driving 10 years now and I’m 33,there are those on here that would still class me as a newbie ,personally I wouldn’t yet I wouldn’t command respect from a newbie either,No offence to all the oldies but we drive hgvs for a living and although I appreciate some have had it tough in the days of roping and sheeting and before tail lifts were around ect there are many more proffesions that to this day get no respect from your general Joe Bloggs ie Police,Armed forces,Fire service ect so if we are on here demanding respect we should be joining the queue behind the proffesions stated above.
I will have older chaps coming to me at work asking for help because they know I’ve been on there for 10 years so know most drops/routes,also I will have those nervous newbies(you can see it in their eyes)come to me and ask for help/advice and I’m always happy to help if I can,but do I expect to be shown the upmost respect from them because I’m a “veteran” of the company? No,we’re all just HGV drivers after all.
Its down to personallity in the end. You will get these billy big ■■■■■■■■ types in all professions. The new guy in the office that thinks he runs the show etc. I, myself will always ask for help in a situation and more often than not along with the advice and guidence, a little story of the past from the older driver who has done it all. I found those the best. Its like listening to my Grandad telling me stories about the times he used to drive 7.5tonners in and around London.
Respect has to be earned and nobody knows everything sometimes a newbie might know something and oldie might not, it works both ways as should respect, the newbs have come through a bloody sight harder series of ‘tests’ than us old gits but then they’ve not got the little bits of experience and tricks the more experienced guys have, who also know all the peculiar 'rules of the company and every bloody depot/customer seems to have their own way of doing things.
There’s also right/wrong ways of helping/advising folk. I’m quite happy to help/advise other drivers but not afraid to ask for help/advice if I’m not sure on something new.
Not haulage related but we just bought a new round baler with all the bells and whistles which the lads had to wire the control box into the tractor, they love that sort of thing and are very good at it so I just let them get on with it, came to the first field to be baled and they were standing around scratching their heads after producing a pyramid and a barrel rather than the ‘oil drum’ that should have come out of the baler, so I patiently (after a bit of gentle ■■■■-taking) explained where they were going wrong and the best way to deal with the kind of crop and swath in front of them finished with ‘ye see the old git still knows one or two things you don’t’. The pair of them have just gone through their class 2 with flying colours so could be coming to a depot near you (on agency) once the silage/harvest seasons are by.
As Radar says, Billy Big ■■■■■■■■ exists everywhere. I’ve worked in warehouse before and you get the biggest of Billy there! It’s like HGV’s I guess. You get a job and it’s what you make it. There is always gonna be a [zb] that does your suede in that’s done this and that. They’re everywhere!
Iv’e been in Transport since 94 (in the cab with my dad before that) as a loader and drivers mate.
Passed my Class 2 in 03 and Class 1 in 06 don’t think im a newbie no more.
I class everyday as a school day, don’t have a big head and if i can help anybody out i will!!!
I think the DCPC is a good idea and it makes me laugh when the iv’e been doing the job 30+ years drivers get a moan on lol
I do the job my way, i only have one set of keys and couldn’t give a flying ■■■■ what the other 19 trucks in our company are doing.
robroy:
A good example is on the ‘worst drivers out there’ thread. A guy who came on here a few months ago asking questions from experienced drivers on the Newbie forum after he had just passed his test, comes on said thread slagging off older drivers because they say they don’t need sat navs,
I think you’ll find that was a response to being told by knuckle draggers that anyone who uses a satnav is an idiot.
One thing I do know is that new younger drivers are certainly better educated than a lot of the knocking on retirement neanderthals I come across on a regular basis. One merely only needs to look at posts on here to get all the proof they need, drivers who can’t even form a simple sentence or spell simple four or fewer letter words properly.
Conor:
robroy:
A good example is on the ‘worst drivers out there’ thread. A guy who came on here a few months ago asking questions from experienced drivers on the Newbie forum after he had just passed his test, comes on said thread slagging off older drivers because they say they don’t need sat navs,I think you’ll find that was a response to being told by knuckle draggers that anyone who uses a satnav is an idiot.
One thing I do know is that new younger drivers are certainly better educated than a lot of the knocking on retirement neanderthals I come across on a regular basis. One merely only needs to look at posts on here to get all the proof they need, drivers who can’t even form a simple sentence or spell simple four or fewer letter words properly.
And here we go.gif
Just to clarify my o/p and get back on track.
I ain’t saying truck driving is micro surgery, I know we can’t be compared to the Forces, I don’t demand respect from anybody, and know it’s a two way thing. I do not pre judge new drivers, and keep an open mind on meeting one (but can usually suss them out in about 10 mins) I do not lord it over new lads as some suggest, but offer help, and have helped new lads out over the years numerous times, and in most cases have been in return, helped by them when I next meet them to strip out a tilt, fold a sheet, handball etc etc … or any other scenario.
It’s the clever ones that either don’t listen to a warning, then come unstuck, or make out they know more than you after being in the job for as many weeks in number as some of us have done in years in number, that do my nut in.
Morning all. Eagerbellend is here.
Where do I start with you m_att? Firstly, I would invite you to show us all any comment that I have made purporting to be a know it all. Experience’s shared may be beneficial to some, so what’s the problem with sharing any observation one can make, regardless of length of service?
In view of the fact that you wont be able to back up your claim’s, I will make one of my own.
You are in dire need of oversize red shiny shoe’s, and a squirty flower pinned to your collar. Because you are one of the biggest clown’s I have ever experienced.
It’s no wonder you cannot get a permanent job.
I took my lad the cinema yesterday to see Jurassic world,I should have bought more popcorn…
Yawn! Odd that many on here have the same opinion of you!
Once again as you missed it last time, I have a perm job.
At which circus?
if I meet new drivers I just say one sentence and that is what on earth made you decide to become an hgv driver, could you not find something better,i have been driving hgvs 26 yrs now and I detest it,but I know no other way to make a living,if I could find another way I would give it up tomorrow,no joy in it anymore