I’d say 80% of them insist on telling me how they used to be a driver, the other 20% treat me as a total inconvenience and to be treated like ■■■■. Had one the other day went into far too much detail about his wife swapping parties… anyone else find they are generally an odd bunch?
Always get on with the majority of them myself, perhaps I am weird too.
Yeah because us drivers are completely normal 
some forkies are sound, when we had the heatwave they let me leave the engine running for the ac.
but yes some are tossers, you arrive early and they make you wait even though nothing is happening but they just want you to wait
Always loved forkies. Saved me handballing or pump truck and tail lift.
Just be nice to them as their job is as miserable as ours
peirre:
Just be nice to them as their job is as miserable as ours
This all day, there job is even more boring than ours.
Largeperm:
I’d say 80% of them insist on telling me how they used to be a driver, the other 20% treat me as a total inconvenience and to be treated like [zb]. Had one the other day went into far too much detail about his wife swapping parties… anyone else find they are generally an odd bunch?
Some of them probably were drivers and there are oddballs everywhere. Be polite and courteous to them and generally they are the same back. I’ve heard some fascinating stories from truck drivers over the years.
TruckDriverBen:
some forkies are sound, when we had the heatwave they let me leave the engine running for the ac.but yes some are tossers, you arrive early and they make you wait even though nothing is happening but they just want you to wait
Could be they are waiting for space to be cleared on the deck or in the warehouse,try having a cuppa and chill out for awhile if your early.
I started out as a forklift driver - in fact, it was sitting watching wagons queue up that made me want to get my licence. There was me, out in the ■■■■■■■ rain, tipping trailer after trailer, while they were all tucked up in the warm watching telly. What I didn’t know then, of course, was that I’d be going home after 8 or 12 hours, while they’d still be working. But I never went back to forklifts once I started on the wagons, so…
Now I can only speak from my own experience, and this was back in the 90s, but I worked in several places, all of which considered forklift drivers to be “trouble”. In fact, one factory induction involved the guy running it asking if any of us were forklift drivers, then explicitly telling the rest: “watch out for them, forklift drivers are trouble”.
Things will have changed now with improved Elf and Safety, but I think a lot of it was down to people not appreciating the space the things needed, the concentration required to work quickly but without hitting anything in narrow aisles - which is what defines a forkie as being any good (I wasn’t… 
), nor the amount of pressure we were under. Skipping tea breaks and dinner breaks was the norm, so if a forkie says “I’m on my break” and ■■■■■ off, bear in mind that may well be because if he doesn’t grab the chance NOW, he won’t get one at all - there are no tachos on forklifts, nor driver hours rules to through back at pushy gaffers. Pretty grim, on a 12 hour shift.
Some of that may sound familiar to us as lorry drivers, so think on before dismissing the poor sods. But also think on about this: when a car or pedestrian does something stupid, ultimately we swear, shout, hit the horn or whatever, then drive off. The forklift driver, however, doesn’t get to do that. He’s shut in a building with the idiots hour after hour, day after day, week after week. And those idiots quite often complain to management when nearly flattened thanks to their own stupidity, and management back them up. Because management don’t get it either, and “all forklift drivers are trouble”.
All in all, it was a hideous existence, though at least there was cameraderie among forkies, so we did have a laugh as well. But do spare a thought and be patient with these guys - you don’t know what they got blamed for five minutes earlier, nor when they last actually got to take that tea break.
lolipop:
TruckDriverBen:
some forkies are sound, when we had the heatwave they let me leave the engine running for the ac.but yes some are tossers, you arrive early and they make you wait even though nothing is happening but they just want you to wait
Could be they are waiting for space to be cleared on the deck or in the warehouse,try having a cuppa and chill out for awhile if your early.
This.
Lets be clear about this, many of the forkies in the smaller yards are drivers and helping out other drivers when a forkie is needed is just something we do.
I was a driver (Long since retired) but when I was in any of the regular yards I loaded from and was waiting for my load I would often jump on the fork-lift to load another driver rather than sit around doing nothing. (Yes I did have a fork-lift licence!)
There were a few places I loaded from where the manager knew I had a licence and would happily let me load/unload my own truck which often saved me lots of time and helped others that didn’t have to wait behind me.
OK, so I am not a regular forkie, but neither am I weird…