For me it depends totally on how I feel, if I fancy company I’ll sometimes stop & see where they’re going but if solitude is required I’ll drive straight past without the slightest feeling of anything approaching guilt.
I once picked an American guy up from Hartshead services on the M62 late afternoon, he almost instantly put both feet on the dashboard so I told hime to remove them, he replied “hell, it’s only a truck man”, I stopped on the hard shoulder & told him to clear off!!!
Ross.
Driveroneuk:
For those of you who will drive past platers spare a thought for how that nice new lorry your boss bought you to drive actually got to your yard. Without platers, it wouldn’t have arrived. It will likely have moved 3 times by trade plate drivers. 1. From docks (assuming an import) to main distributer. 2. From there to dealer. 3. From dealer to customer.
Well, if the platters had troubles with being lifted, the company would have to pay him enough to do not hitchhike…
My friend used to do similar job in Poland - he was always paid for his journey back, or if the job was bigger, they were send 5 guys in company car and then four were driving trucks and the fifth was taking car back… So hithchiking is not necessary the only option…
I also had an agency job in Scotland delivering Land and Range Rovers for some arab sheik to Kyle of Lochalsh - there was two of us, the other guy was driving a big car transporter with 3 on it and one on the trailer and I was following him in one of the 4x4s, then on the destination we were dropping Rovers, putting the trailer on the back of empty transporter and I was driving the empty truck back…
I think trade platters are just another proof how low the drivers are seen by the big companies… Some are still good, as waynedl’s example proves, but I think the cheaper ones will drive them off the market or force to lower their standards…
I was offered job once by one of the big players from this market, and I was told, that I am paid only for when I am driving, minimum wage for cars, slightly more for trucks, no waiting is paid and for travelling I am expected to hichtchike and I am paid some silly few pennies per mile, so after hithciking through half of the Britain I could afford a burger in a burger van…
Don’t need to say that I turned job down and stayed with the agency and was much better of.
As for the original question: I sometimes pick up hithhikers, platters of not and I decide it on the mood and if I have a good impression of them…
I used to hitchike a lot myself, so I know who looks to be a decent hitchiker and who is not…
Some nice people I met that way - once I gave a lift from Inverness to Edinburgh to some nice girl with dog - she turned out to be Czech, so I spoke Czech with her… We are still friends, I just missed her when in Brno (as she was working in England in this time) but we are still in touch on facebook etc…
Trade platters are usually OK, usually I have fun when they are confused because of music I listen - its usually mix of various music in various languages and they, being British, can’t get how one can listen to music without understand the words… This seems to be the most common topic of conversation… 
orys:
Driveroneuk:
For those of you who will drive past platers spare a thought for how that nice new lorry your boss bought you to drive actually got to your yard. Without platers, it wouldn’t have arrived. It will likely have moved 3 times by trade plate drivers. 1. From docks (assuming an import) to main distributer. 2. From there to dealer. 3. From dealer to customer.Well, if the platters had troubles with being lifted, the company would have to pay him enough to do not hitchhike…
My friend used to do similar job in Poland - he was always paid for his journey back, or if the job was bigger, they were send 5 guys in company car and then four were driving trucks and the fifth was taking car back… So hithchiking is not necessary the only option…
I also had an agency job in Scotland delivering Land and Range Rovers for some arab sheik to Kyle of Lochalsh - there was two of us, the other guy was driving a big car transporter with 3 on it and one on the trailer and I was following him in one of the 4x4s, then on the destination we were dropping Rovers, putting the trailer on the back of empty transporter and I was driving the empty truck back…
I think trade platters are just another proof how low the drivers are seen by the big companies… Some are still good, as waynedl’s example proves, but I think the cheaper ones will drive them off the market or force to lower their standards…
I was offered job once by one of the big players from this market, and I was told, that I am paid only for when I am driving, minimum wage for cars, slightly more for trucks, no waiting is paid and for travelling I am expected to hichtchike and I am paid some silly few pennies per mile, so after hithciking through half of the Britain I could afford a burger in a burger van…
Don’t need to say that I turned job down and stayed with the agency and was much better of.
As for the original question: I sometimes pick up hithhikers, platters of not and I decide it on the mood and if I have a good impression of them…
I used to hitchike a lot myself, so I know who looks to be a decent hitchiker and who is not…
Some nice people I met that way - once I gave a lift from Inverness to Edinburgh to some nice girl with dog - she turned out to be Czech, so I spoke Czech with her… We are still friends, I just missed her when in Brno (as she was working in England in this time) but we are still in touch on facebook etc…
Trade platters are usually OK, usually I have fun when they are confused because of music I listen - its usually mix of various music in various languages and they, being British, can’t get how one can listen to music without understand the words… This seems to be the most common topic of conversation…
I read your post with russian accent …laughs it makes me
rockape2620:
orys:
Driveroneuk:
For those of you who will drive past platers spare a thought for how that nice new lorry your boss bought you to drive actually got to your yard. Without platers, it wouldn’t have arrived. It will likely have moved 3 times by trade plate drivers. 1. From docks (assuming an import) to main distributer. 2. From there to dealer. 3. From dealer to customer.Well, if the platters had troubles with being lifted, the company would have to pay him enough to do not hitchhike…
My friend used to do similar job in Poland - he was always paid for his journey back, or if the job was bigger, they were send 5 guys in company car and then four were driving trucks and the fifth was taking car back… So hithchiking is not necessary the only option…
I also had an agency job in Scotland delivering Land and Range Rovers for some arab sheik to Kyle of Lochalsh - there was two of us, the other guy was driving a big car transporter with 3 on it and one on the trailer and I was following him in one of the 4x4s, then on the destination we were dropping Rovers, putting the trailer on the back of empty transporter and I was driving the empty truck back…
I think trade platters are just another proof how low the drivers are seen by the big companies… Some are still good, as waynedl’s example proves, but I think the cheaper ones will drive them off the market or force to lower their standards…
I was offered job once by one of the big players from this market, and I was told, that I am paid only for when I am driving, minimum wage for cars, slightly more for trucks, no waiting is paid and for travelling I am expected to hichtchike and I am paid some silly few pennies per mile, so after hithciking through half of the Britain I could afford a burger in a burger van…
Don’t need to say that I turned job down and stayed with the agency and was much better of.
As for the original question: I sometimes pick up hithhikers, platters of not and I decide it on the mood and if I have a good impression of them…
I used to hitchike a lot myself, so I know who looks to be a decent hitchiker and who is not…
Some nice people I met that way - once I gave a lift from Inverness to Edinburgh to some nice girl with dog - she turned out to be Czech, so I spoke Czech with her… We are still friends, I just missed her when in Brno (as she was working in England in this time) but we are still in touch on facebook etc…
Trade platters are usually OK, usually I have fun when they are confused because of music I listen - its usually mix of various music in various languages and they, being British, can’t get how one can listen to music without understand the words… This seems to be the most common topic of conversation…
I read your post with russian accent …laughs it makes me
Ive just read it in a russian accent aswell, its quite funny tbh!
Worked for a company that did plating work (amonst other things) for five years from 2003/8. Interesting stuff, all sorts of cars, vans and trucks.
And all sorts of places to take em. Farms and obscure body builders, sewage works and docks, just about anywhere. And not all brand new out of the box either. Quite interesting to turn up at a haulier with a secondhand unit and have the TM anxiously ask if the truck is OK! Sometimes the vehicles are damaged and you have to take them to a specialist repairer.
Anyway, when I first did a bit of plating back in the , er, seventies, plating was a doddle - never did you wait anywhere for more than ten minutes, you could usually choose your lifts ie knock one back and wait for another more convenient one.
Oh, how times have changed.
It is not an easy job - being stuck on a roundabout in the pouring rain for an hour and a half at 4.30. in the afternoon 200 miles from home is NOT fun, the chances of getting a lift after 5 is very muched reduced. We worked on mileage and pickup and dropoff payments, not hours. So if you hitched to a bodybuilders and the truck wasn’t ready you sat around unpaid.
Platers will usually give lifts to other platers (or did) it was an unwritten rule that you always helped each other out.
May I take this opportunity to thank all the truckers who’ve help a guy get home…
matizerSCANIAR480:
Ive just read it in a russian accent aswell, its quite funny tbh!
You have to do it once for me, as I don’t have russian accent, nor I know anyone who has, so I don’t know how funny it is
As company policy dictates we’re not allowed to pick up anyone.
I probably wouldn’t anyway even in the car. Just don’t feel like I can trust anyone these days.