truckman020:
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
You don’t fall into this job in this day and age. It costs too much just to do it on a whim.
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.
I’ll take your word for it about his response, although I’m not sure the thread was entirely sat nav related. I just thought it was a bit rich he was having a pop at the same guys that he had sought advice from a few weeks earlier.
As for new guys being better educated, well that is debatable and a matter of opinion, and also maybe a bit of a generalisation.
As for some of the guys on here that do not display good English, is that really a required qualification to drive a truck?
I’m not saying that education is not important but a lot of guys in a lot of professions are more hands on and are good at their job even though they may be a bit lacking in written English or whatever.
A good example is my lad, when he was at school he ■■■■■■ about from day to day came out with nothing in line of academic qualifications, and we fell out about it constantly as I knew he was a clever lad just wasting his chances.
He got a mechanic apprenticeship from a mate of mine at a local haulage firm who gave him a chance, he is now 27 and a service manager at the local Ford Dealership.
Just to clear up in case you think I am one of your ‘Near retirement neandrethals’ I’m only a (youthful fit and still got it 
) 57 yr old, still looking 39ish ( when I look in the mirror without my glasses on 
)
We have just had one start at our place and assumed his 3 years as a driver porter was the reason for him being given one of our STGO trucksand he will be doing the long and wide and heavy stuff . no ones had the hart to tell him it’s now taxed for 44t now
The arrogance is probably instilled in them by the establishment which they’ve been educated under.IE all you hear now is how grovelling and following the establishment line makes them supposedly superior than anyone who didn’t.
Followed by all the bs about how ‘difficult it is’ for ‘young people’ while older ones had/have everything.Until the selfish arrogant zb’s get older themselves when no surprise that will all suddenly conveniently change to suit themselves. 
Old timers or newbys you get arrogant people . No matter what job your in. Thats just how the World is these day’s… just take it as banter. And if someone is willing to help you then you should give them respect,
Thats what i think anyway .
Radar19:
truckman020:
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 anymoreYou don’t fall into this job in this day and age. It costs too much just to do it on a whim.
I did.
Radar19:
Top marks for that Radar!
i doesnt matter how much experience a driver has.if i think theyre a prick(usually takes me 10 seconds to work out)then were not going to get on. and im certainly not going to be giving them respect
tango boy:
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 [zb] what the other 19 trucks in our company are doing.
oooooops im one of them 30+years moaners 
I don’t offer advice to anyone unless asked, young or old, new or experienced. I don’t need or expect any respect from anyone, why would you need it from people you don’t particularly know very well or care about? I tend to avoid the bell ends in the yard but I will give new starters a short length of rope to see which way they will swing.
As I was told very early in my army career, “I don’t need you to like me or respect me, we aren’t friends we are work colleagues at best, I just need you to do as I tell you, no more no less”. Works for me.
Whilst I’ve come across 1 or 2 arrogant newbies over the years, the most arrogance I’ve seen, has been displayed by the older generation of drivers. What some of them don’t realise, is that experience doesn’t always mean competence
Never found this myself, when I first started on tippers I learned on the job from the older lads about tipping in paving machines, getting axle weights SOMEWHERE near ( 
) or we were not allowed out of the quarry and watching out for overhead cables etc before shooting your load! 
Also I quickly learned the best way to tip an eight legger across a slope, to tell the truth I was bricking it the first time but a chap who is now in his nineties put me right. When I became an ‘old hand’ I offered advice when asked, every poster on here will learn new something every day as we never stop learning.
Pete.
im the youngest in our place out of about 150 drivers and I listen to anyone that has a licence and always ask questions. its use old 1’s that have the experience who are making us look like amateurs. the amount of drivers I see hooking right up with checking parking break is on and adjusting the height for coupling is unreal. all us newbies are mostly doing it the right way because we are terrified of making a ■■■ of ourselves.
windrush:
I quickly learned the best way to tip an eight legger across a slope, to tell the truth I was bricking it the first time but a chap who is now in his nineties put me right.
What is the best way to do it?
The first time I ever did it I got the box half way up and felt the whole unit sway and I almost followed through. Fell out with the site foreman when I said I wanted somewhere else to tip it.
The-Snowman:
windrush:
I quickly learned the best way to tip an eight legger across a slope, to tell the truth I was bricking it the first time but a chap who is now in his nineties put me right.What is the best way to do it?
The first time I ever did it I got the box half way up and felt the whole unit sway and I almost followed through. Fell out with the site foreman when I said I wanted somewhere else to tip it.
[/quote]That’s what I did as well, until a fellow driver came on site and showed me to shoot the body up with the throttle flat to the floor and keep going even when the body sways across and material comes over the taildoor. Once the load has moved from the front the centre of gravity shifts and it will straighten up again, though I wouldn’t risk it with anything sticky like clay or wet sand only stone or gravel! Never had one fall over, though I have had some sticky moments when tipping tarmac into wheelbarrows etc with all the wheels on one side in a trench which we had to do occasionally. Whenever the load shifted I used to draw out, shut the taildoor and tip the stuff to the rear then drop back into the trench again. Better than having to get the truck back off of its side!
Pete.
windrush:
shoot the body up with the throttle flat to the floor and keep going even when the body sways across and material comes over the taildoor. Once the load has moved from the front the centre of gravity shifts and it will straighten up again
That sounds great and fine fromthe safety of my living room but if I ever go back to tipper work I dont know if Id have the balls to try it!
OVLOV JAY:
Whilst I’ve come across 1 or 2 arrogant newbies over the years, the most arrogance I’ve seen, has been displayed by the older generation of drivers. What some of them don’t realise, is that experience doesn’t always mean competence
I think Ovlov Jay has a point.Having passed my class 1 in 97 it took me a fair while to be confident regarding my reversing safe to say now a days I am not phased by much and am confident in my abilities.
I had not been driving long and was in Tesco’s at South Mimms when an equally inexperienced new driver came in and was really struggling to get his motor onto the bay. The ignorance of the so called old hands in the yard really surprised me as to a man they just all stood around and generally took the ■■■■. The fella was at his wits end but with the little knowledge I had I managed to talk him onto the bay for which he was eternally grateful.
Having been an apprentice when I was younger I was used to older fellas imparting their wisdom onto us youngsters as that was how we learned however the attitude of the so called experienced fellas in this instance just plain stunk I guess thats why the industry can never unite together for the common cause.
robroy:
I have nothing against new drivers (I was one myself once
After being in the job for more than 5 mins they suddenly think they know it all, not only that but that you know [zb] 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 dayand you had to learn actual skills to do the job unlike today. Right, I’m starting to talk with my old [zb]’ s hat on now
You have a valid point here ,and while iam no newbie there are some old boys around who still refuse point blank to use the mode switch full stop ,now it’s not about doing as some Dcpc man says or even doing things correctly but more like keeping your money in your pocket for the sake of moving the switch over for a while .
amamdada:
OVLOV JAY:
Whilst I’ve come across 1 or 2 arrogant newbies over the years, the most arrogance I’ve seen, has been displayed by the older generation of drivers. What some of them don’t realise, is that experience doesn’t always mean competenceI think Ovlov Jay has a point.Having passed my class 1 in 97 it took me a fair while to be confident regarding my reversing safe to say now a days I am not phased by much and am confident in my abilities.
I had not been driving long and was in Tesco’s at South Mimms when an equally inexperienced new driver came in and was really struggling to get his motor onto the bay. The ignorance of the so called old hands in the yard really surprised me as to a man they just all stood around and generally took the ■■■■. The fella was at his wits end but with the little knowledge I had I managed to talk him onto the bay for which he was eternally grateful.
Having been an apprentice when I was younger I was used to older fellas imparting their wisdom onto us youngsters as that was how we learned however the attitude of the so called experienced fellas in this instance just plain stunk I guess thats why the industry can never unite together for the common cause.
They sound like a bunch o’ knuckle draggers, and how soon they forget what it was like, or were they born knowing it all i wonder.
I had a moment in my mispent youth when i competely cocked a right turn up, couldn’t make it, traffic building up and i’m starting to panic…over strides old school lorry driver who happened to be passing as a pedestrian, completely ignored the rest of the traffic, put my mind at ease and directed me to another way out of the junction i was stuck at…that calm understanding bloke had a profound effect on me and i try to help out any poor bugger struggling the same calm take no notice of the buggers way that he showed me.
Half the problem with new drivers and reversing is that they try to avoid doing it unless absolutely necessary and this is so short sighted, you see them in the services eternally grateful for a drive in/out space, when in practice a reasonably quiet MSA is an ideal place to get some practice in, bloody sight better learning there every day of the week than having to do a blind sider into a depots worst bay between two lorries.
In my day you started as a trailer boy and worked your way down to driver .
Knocked the cockiness out of me after 1 trip from Truro to Glasgow with out stopping , curled up under the sheet in january
