What is it with Londoners?

[uckna]

Probably been covered before, but - Had a tip in Southall this morning (which usually goes in at about 6am -( but they planned for me to be there at 9am )

Blind side reverse off a dual c’way - I tried to time it as best as i could, but i knew i only had about 30 seconds of clear road, got myself in best position i could, waited for gap, then went for it, needed to do one shunt, just to sort myself out, but would any of the misery’s let me do it, even the bus drivers were bolshy - Horns sounded after about 30 seconds.

Eventually, and only because i had to force the issue, traffic stopped, i got it sorted, and out the way, but a little patience, and i would have been out the way so much quicker

I have had the same sort of thing in other cities, Leeds springs to mind, and had no problem, or hassles

Pah - rant over

[rog]

Seems like they all knew what you were trying to do well before they reached you so {ZB} em - needs must for a short time.

[gonzothejaffa1]

a wouldn’t worry about it i used to do a drop in barnsley blind side in take your time if they beep there horns take that extra shunt

you’ve got a job to do if possible get someone to watch you back/stop traffic an extra pair of eyes always helps just let them know where you want them to stand and

[nick2008]

Had that in London too, Had to pull all the way cross the road to get the angle horns started going so i stopped got out and had a look round, Bloke in car asked if I was blind cause I got out !! told him No but thought you saw something I didnt ,so what were you blowing your horn for, his answer I’m trying to get to work, I answered well I’m trying to do mine and would you be so rude to walkin a room and start talking to some one on the phone to your boss !! no so shut the F*"£ up and just wait .
Funny not another sound

[englishtrucker]

The dicks have no patience that’s why mate.

I used to do M&S in Bath Road, Slough and then Woking every Sunday. I was supposed to go back to Bath Road for their empties after tipping Woking but used to collect them at the store so I wouldn’t have to go back knowing what it’s like. One day one of the managers complained to my company that I was collecting the empties first thing instead of going back later (he wanted to use the blokes tipping me to stack the shelves.) So I was called into the office about it. I told the Transport Manager what the score was but he wouldn’t listen. “Do as the trip sheet says” was his reply. So I did. The next Sunday I did Bath Road Slough, then Woking and then back to Bath Road Slough, the time was now about midday. I came in as if I was heading to Slough on the Bath Road so that I was on my good side to reverse in. This road is double lane single carriageway. I had to wait 10 minutes before there was a gap. As I was reversing cars were still driving past my rear end. When I got in the car park I blocked half the cars from leaving as they couldn’t get out of their spaces because of the truck being there.

The store manager was on this Sunday and asked what the hell I was doing going in at that time of day. Told her the score and she was straight on the phone. Had a right go at Transport. I made sure I needed three store guys to watch me back and to stop the traffic in their car park.

It never happened like this again. It’s one thing driving a desk, but out there doing the job is a totally different experience.

[smee]

I always remember the old guy who I did my LGV training with said…If ever you have to block a road block it as quick as you can and then no one is going anywhere and gives you a bit of time…So I always have,

[paul_midway]

I hated the people that used to drive right upto the cab and carry on driving towards you as you moved…How bloody ignorant.I always stopped and even if I didn’t need a shunt , made sure I pulled forward to have another go and make the ignorant driver(s) back up

Used to be a regular occurence on multidrop…

One of the best ones I ever had was reversing to park up to tip and even with the bright white lights and bleepers going a car drove up behind me and parked to use the shop, I reversed right into it, didn’t even see it or know it was there til I hit it.
Driver comes over , what are you doing you have reveresed into my car ?
Couldn’t beleive it , he had driven right up behind me
Told him to do one and he did when the store workers who had seen what had happened backed me up.

Tip into coventry market was good , even with bleepers hazards and white lights horders of people still walked round the back of you.
Used to shout a warning when I was getting into the cab get it in reverse hand on the horn and scatter them out the way.It was the only way you could get out and get there attention.

[kr79]

Dont take it personal mate its just the joys of motoring

[joedwyer1]

so its not just londoners then. leicester, barnsly and slough. to name but a few!
any way southall is a different country. like monaco. its more of a princepality. if you know what i mean

[gogzy]

londons bad for it, really bad, the bus drivers are worse. i had to do a drop off a red route in canary wharf (east india dock road) into a gap inbetween 2 buildings, only had jst enough room to get the motor in

anyway as im sitting there waiting to get in, hazards going etc etc and also 2 guys trying to stop traffic i still had a bus come right up the backside of me and wasnt willing to drive around me even though the road was clear on this side so i had to abort that attempt (that was my 3rd attempt at getting in their, drove away, had to turn round in the local housing estate and try get back over the road to where i was going, took ten mins, eventually got back and just immediatly took it 45 degrees over both sides of the road and took my time getting it in and i was only in a puddle jumper aswell, bloody automatics.

[starfighter]

I’ve come to accept these sort of things as part and parcel of driving, I try not to let it bother me. Although I am frequently amazed by the ignorance of some people. One of the pubs in Enfield is situated at a crossroads with traffic lights on it, you have to reverse into the car park, you approach from the opposite side, turn right at the lights, stick your nose into a side road and do a blind reverse out into the traffic then a 45 degree angle reverse across the road and straighten and into the car park. I always leave the back end sticking out from the side road to block traffic from the left but you have to reverse through the queue of traffic waiting at the lights. Last time I went someone in a Ka actually bumped up on the kerb to squeeze around the back of me as I was reversing in, just so she could sit at a red light!

[v8actros]

i’ve never reversed (especially blindside) into any building site/merchant without the supervision of the client,if they refuse to help or stop traffic,the magnum don’t go in,simple as that!!also instruct my driver to do likewise.

[buck_rogers]

i found driving in the centre of london is completley different from anywhere else in the uk.
i just adapted my driving style to suit,(drive like they do).
funny thing is ,i do suffer from road rage from time to time,but when in london,and people are blowing horns,and generally driving like lunatics,i just laugh along,and find i don"t get frustrated.
personally,i think london is ace
“we all going daaan the straaand…have a banana…”

[greg50]

nick2008:
Had that in London too, Had to pull all the way cross the road to get the angle horns started going so i stopped got out and had a look round, Bloke in car asked if I was blind cause I got out !! told him No but thought you saw something I didnt ,so what were you blowing your horn for, his answer I’m trying to get to work, I answered well I’m trying to do mine and would you be so rude to walkin a room and start talking to some one on the phone to your boss !! no so shut the F*"£ up and just wait .
Funny not another sound

i have done that a few times as well.
its comical looking at the faces when you get out of the truck,they are wondering who are you going to go over to.
best not to let driving make you bad humoured
forget about road rage and laugh at all the horn blowers.block the road if you need to and let them worry about the delay.
i have done plenty of london deliveries in my time.
their time is no more precious than mine.
let them wait.

[ragnarok]

joedwyer1:
so its not just londoners then. leicester, barnsly and slough. to name but a few!
any way southall is a different country. like monaco. its more of a princepality. if you know what i mean

Indeed, one will soon need a passport and a visa when dropping in off the M4 - That part of London is an area I detest, almost as much as Upton Park and Ilford. I have never liked west London in general, the area just feels ‘off key’.

People not wanting to be held up for a few minutes is endemic these days, the knobbers get really wound up if you interrupt whatever meaningless mission they are on, at that particular point in their pathetic little lives.

I had some stupid woman throwing her toys out of the pram yesterday. I had backed the dustcart into a little cul-de-sac whilst the loaders were working on the main road. There are only a few bins down that little turning so I empty them into the back myself as it saves a bit of time.

As I am busily engaged upon that task, I hear a strident female voice asking ‘how long am I going to be’, and I say ‘not long’. Then the next thing I know she is complaining about me being in her way. I say to her ‘I have a job to do’, to which she replies in a stroppy and loud way, ‘I don’t care about your job, I have to go somewhere’.

Then she gets in her car and starts blowing the horn. Right about this point I have had enough. She was about to get out of the car again to give me another earful but before she could, I said to her in a loud and hacked-off kind of way, ‘Get back in your bloody car, before you really wind me up!’ She did that, I think she realised I was less than happy

As I went to get back into the truck, I saw the two loaders looking down the cul-de-sac, they had heard the car horn. The woman was lucky it wasn’t one of the loaders she was harrassing, they are a lot less patient with tossers than me.

[greek]

Used to do a few drops to the rag Trade on Commercial rd & Its offshoots
about the time they started with the red route thing triaxle curtain sider didn`t fit the boxes & traffic wardens disapeared till the Twenty Mins was up then they seem to come out of every ■■■■ & cranny.Never very helpful when trying to get cars moved so I could get anywhere near.
Funny thing is I used to like London work

[greg50]

best thing in london is the m4/m1/m20/m11.
they get you out of the place.

[greg50]

i forgot the m3

[ragnarok]

greg50:
best thing in london is the m4/m1/m20/m11.
they get you out of the place.

There are worse places though, both Sunderland and Middlesbrough I found dismal to the point of depression, and Hull is about as much fun as a beach holiday in the Outer Hebrides.

[newmercman]

uckna:
Probably been covered before, but - Had a tip in Southall this morning (which usually goes in at about 6am -( but they planned for me to be there at 9am )

Blind side reverse off a dual c’way - I tried to time it as best as i could, but i knew i only had about 30 seconds of clear road, got myself in best position i could, waited for gap, then went for it, needed to do one shunt, just to sort myself out, but would any of the misery’s let me do it, even the bus drivers were bolshy - Horns sounded after about 30 seconds.

Eventually, and only because i had to force the issue, traffic stopped, i got it sorted, and out the way, but a little patience, and i would have been out the way so much quicker

I have had the same sort of thing in other cities, Leeds springs to mind, and had no problem, or hassles

Pah - rant over

Errr Southall is in Middlesex, it’s not London & it never will be, it has closer ties with Bombay than London