A firm I know has just bought 2 new Actros MP4s and are in the process of getting them ready for the road, some of the drivers are getting excited about the prospect of a new motor. One of them was so excited he decided to do 7 “straight” cards (Mon to Sun) to show the company how keen he was to driver the new “wunderwagens”, the company was so impressed they sent him home for 48 hours to cool his ardour!
What would you do?..
I’d do nothing, it’s a truck. End of.
Lol, all well & good till he loses them their O licence then no one gets to drive them…
You can do whatever you want…surely the bosses will have ‘earmarked’ or pencilled in the drivers’ for these trucks long ago. Of course that doesn’t stop them ‘dangling the carrot’ to see what reaction comes about & gauge the drivers’ reponse. It’s all a game!!!
Wouldn’t so anything to drive a new truck…
We don’t get the choice what we drive, we just get the keys and off we go unless you’re certain people and you pick and choose what you drive and where you go… 
Thereal-john:
I’d do nothing, it’s a truck. End of.
this
Also me. New Mercs? They’re just tools to do a job.
The only answers you’re going to get will be similar to those above. Nobody will come along and say “I’d work a week for free” or “I’d ■■■■ the boss off”… even though some on here probably would.
Cash on the hip. the kit is secondary.
I’d probably say to the boss… “Cancel the order for the flashy Mercs, not interested, get some bog standard DAF CF’s instead and give us all an extra few grand a year”.
If a motor is clean, i’m happy.
Not keen on new Mercs. Drove one for the first time in ages last week and to be honest, it felt cheap and nasty compared to many other trucks. No guts either, bottle holder in front of important controls such as hazard lights button, right next to hand brake… kept trying to put the hand brake on with a bottle of Evian… in the dark. Cab light switches are hard to see in the dark. Kept putting it in neutral when wanting to put the windscreen wipers on. Overhead storage small, MPH on speedo to small and not easy to read in dark… although it took me a couple of days to work out how to brighten the dash lights. Not enough 12v sockets. Axle lift more complicated than anything should ever be, took me about 20 mins to work out how it works. Steps up to gantry fold away in a crappy way that will definitely fail with wear and weather. Far too complicated - not user friendly. Would wager it was designed in China… not Germany.
Good points: Nice bed. Attractive cab from outside. Would avoid like the plague in future.
Fridge Man:
Not keen on new Mercs. Drove one for the first time in ages last week and to be honest, it felt cheap and nasty compared to many other trucks. No guts either, bottle holder in front of important controls such as hazard lights button, right next to hand brake… kept trying to put the hand brake on with a bottle of Evian… in the dark. Cab light switches are hard to see in the dark. Kept putting it in neutral when wanting to put the windscreen wipers on. Overhead storage small, MPH on speedo to small and not easy to read in dark… although it took me a couple of days to work out how to brighten the dash lights. Not enough 12v sockets. Axle lift more complicated than anything should ever be, took me about 20 mins to work out how it works. Steps up to gantry fold away in a crappy way that will definitely fail with wear and weather. Far too complicated - not user friendly. Would wager it was designed in China… not Germany.Good points: Nice bed. Attractive cab from outside. Would avoid like the plague in future.
We had a new Merc in as a hire unit for a day or two, and I drove it one night. I found much the same as you did. The points I’ve put in bold are those which I found especially annoying. My summing up was that it was as if it had been designed by someone who didn’t realise the end user would be using it while driving. All the dash buttons were too small, none were in a logical place and none of them seemed to work in a straightforward way, requiring the drive to peer at the dashboard while trying to work out how they worked. I’d hang on like grim death to my elderly DAF if there was any prospect of me being given one of these things to drive.
mmmmmmmmmmmmm the company must have approved his 7 cards by giving him the work.
I wouldn’t have to do anything apart from my normal days work and I would still be one of the drivers who gets one, as they won’t want all the old boys smashing it up 
Yeah, what’s with the Jeremy beadle ladder to get on the catwalk, I mean seriously.
But on the other angle on it, I would be interested to see if he got a 24 in and if I had I wouldn’t have gone home.
Isn’t it the norm that everytime a firm gets a new truck they will have already hand picked the driver they want to drive it if they operate a policy of each driver getting their own truck to drive & look after? Unless it’s a company like Downtons or Asda with day shift drivers who just get handed a different truck each day.
Silver_Surfer:
Lol, all well & good till he loses them their O licence then no one gets to drive them…
No, you’re allowed to do seven cards nowadays, have been able to since around 2007, so long as you finish work earlier on the seventh card than you started on the first. (e.g. start Sunday 1200, finish Saturday 1150, that would be legal).
SH-07:
Isn’t it the norm that everytime a firm gets a new truck they will have already hand picked the driver they want to drive it if they operate a policy of each driver getting their own truck to drive & look after? Unless it’s a company like Downtons or Asda with day shift drivers who just get handed a different truck each day.
We get our own at downtons all the lads at other depots do to my knowledge…
If I didn’t I wouldn’t work there could not share a truck with some of the dirty sods at our yard
yorkshire terrier:
SH-07:
Isn’t it the norm that everytime a firm gets a new truck they will have already hand picked the driver they want to drive it if they operate a policy of each driver getting their own truck to drive & look after? Unless it’s a company like Downtons or Asda with day shift drivers who just get handed a different truck each day.We get our own at downtons all the lads at other depots do to my knowledge…
If I didn’t I wouldn’t work there could not share a truck with some of the dirty sods at our yard
I was referring in general companies wasn’t saying Downtons don’t assign own truck to each driver, as Stobarts obviously have day shift drivers who are given a different each time.