People pulling in late for junctions
Idiots coming up on your side when you pulled out wide to make a turn
Iveco gearboxes (Stiffness incarnate)
My nightheater
Small cabs (Double bunks in that? )
Stupid and pointless speed and weight limits.
Householders in big expensive houses on main roads who donât like âdirty, smelly, dangerous trucksâ going past at all⌠(Earlham road Norwich, in this case)
My limiter (Which seems to have an entirely non-euclidian idea of 90kph)
Slap-over gearboxes, especially when made by Iveco
Iveco trucks in general (Iâm an Iveco driver, you can tellâŚ)
The lack of social life in truckstops these days⌠sorry, I meant MSAâs
But mainly:
The complete lack of recognition from the general public about how resposible, skilled, poorly paid and vital this job is to Britain as a whole.
Did I hear someone say roundabouts ? Ah yes I did ! Well, Speedy introduced a new rule to the Highway Code a few weeks ago. Itâs called, âif the vehicle coming round the roundabout isnât indicating you MUST assume itâs going straight across therefore meaning there is no need for you to stop your truck, lose all momentum and go down through 10 gearsâ. And you know what? It works a treat!
Only today I was along the A1 south and just about to hit the Stamford roundabout. The traffic was piling round as usual, both lanes, the majority going straight on up the northbound side. No-one was indicating right so I pulled out. Then I heard someoneâs horn and saw an Astra slam on at the side of me. Already in a fairly poor mood after earlier events today Iâd had enough. I stopped the wagon where it was, jumped down and asked him what the problem was. âYouâve just pulled out in front of me!â⌠âNo I havenât. You were going straight onâ⌠âNo I wasnât, Iâm turning rightâ⌠âWhereâs your indicator then ?â⌠âI dontâ have to indicate if I choose not toâ⌠âWell what were you beeping at then?â⌠âYOU! Coz you pulled out in front of me!â⌠âYou werenât indicating so therefore you should be going straight on. No indicator, no argument. Iâll show you how to operate them if youâve forgotten?â. That pretty much resulted in a âget out of the x wayâ and a double thumbs up from the artic driver sat waiting behind me.
Traffic lights -
especially when there are 15 of those on a 1 mile stretch and they are not switched in sync⌠I really hate to just reach 30 and have to hit the brakes because the next light turns red⌠even better if they do that at nightâŚ
Why canât they adopt the continental scheme? Turn the lights in phase - so you have green most of the way if you stick to the speed limit. And at night, use the American system and switch the darn things to blinking amberâŚ
What amazes me is seeing so called professional drivers dropping an empty trailer; winding the legs down to the bottom! This really infuriates me as it tends to leave the fifth wheel in a level and upright position causing damage to the headboard of the next trailer the unit is coupling up to.
At TNT Express we carry very little weight so there is really no need to wind down the landing legs to the very bottom even when dropping a loaded trailer, yet I see guys every day of the week dropping empties in this manner.
Procedure:
Leave a couple of inches and let the trailer slide slowly down the âhelpers.â
Result:
Everyoneâs happy.
I tried explaining this to my boss who looked at me with a blank look on his face!
You can tell when a trailerâs been dropped by an ERF, it sits up and begs winding down with a full load is no fun at all especially when itâs ing it down
I was trained to wind it to the floor, then wind it back 2 full turns which usually gives about 1/2 inch clearance.
Donât know whether this applies to all makes but Iâve got a CF with mid lift, the handbook recommends to have all wheels on the floor when dropping a trailer as it rides slightly higher in four wheels.
Donât like to whinge but you leave your safe gap, a car fills it, you slow down to get your gap again adinfinitum
Pulling over to let fellow professional drivers join the motorway or dual carriage way and then them not having the intelligence or manners to let you back in especially when there is a stream of vehicles joining behind the so called professional driver making it harder to manouvre your truck to get back into the inside lane. Some car drivers you would expect it but professional driversâŚcome onâŚthen we wonder why motorists think trucks are a â â â â nuisance!
)
which is as hard as driving a big [ZB] van 
