Back in 1985 I stopped for this really ■■■■ young lass, she only wanted a lift 5 miles in to Windsor.
I still cant get rid if her ! and yes she is still fit
Many moons ago I had a few months driving a mini cab in Ipswich and one of my fares was a young single mum with two of the most unruly kids imaginable and on the way to her house about 10 mile away I heard how difficult she found it to manage financially etc etc. To cut a long story short she invited me in for a cup of tea which I accepted but ended up having more than just tea & biscuits. I left her house (pigsty) three days later but before I went out of there I asked her why she took a cab home if the bus was cheaper. Her reply was class … ‘If I come home by bus I have to pay the fare but if I get a cab it’s usually free in the end’
Too bloody right it was and I took them all out for a trip and paid everything 
Cest La Vie 
raymundo:
Many moons ago I had a few months driving a mini cab in Ipswich and one of my fares was a young single mum with two of the most unruly kids imaginable and on the way to her house about 10 mile away I heard how difficult she found it to manage financially etc etc. To cut a long story short she invited me in for a cup of tea which I accepted but ended up having more than just tea & biscuits. I left her house (pigsty) three days later but before I went out of there I asked her why she took a cab home if the bus was cheaper. Her reply was class … ‘If I come home by bus I have to pay the fare but if I get a cab it’s usually free in the end’
Too bloody right it was and I took them all out for a trip and paid everything
teatime:
Back in 1985 I stopped for this really ■■■■ young lass, she only wanted a lift 5 miles in to Windsor.
I still cant get rid if her ! and yes she is still fit
Don’t believe you, no pictures !
Well, after reading a couple of previous essays (sorry, posts) I’ve decided that I will slow down for a hitchhiker.
Then drive off as they approach. 
What a prick’s trick.
Great post “use a name”. Was at Luniloads myself 2 years before you. I was a relatively new licence holder at the time and the experience of different makes, gear boxes, axle layouts and body types it gave me was invaluable.
Back in 1997 I went on holiday with two friends to Brittany. On the overnight Newhaven Dieppe ferry, as we were making our way back to the car a well dressed, well spoken 50something gent asked if we were going anywhere near Rouen. All he had was a small sportsbag/holdall, so we agreed to take him there.
He was decent enough company, chatty but not inquisitive. Turned out that his daughter lived just outside Rouen, and he was on his way to see his granddaughter for the first time. We got to Rouen, and asked if he knew how to get to his daughter’s. After best part of an hour driving around and him not recognisning any roads, nor seeing any signs for the village, he tells us to pull up alongside a phone box. He comes back to the car and says his daughter is on the way to pick him up, and thanks for the lift. We said we’re not leaving you alone in a French town at 05:00, and told him to sit in the car. 30 minutes later his daughter arrives and gives her father an almighty rollicking for travelling alone overnight with no idea where he’s going, unable to speak French etc.
She then thanked us, insisted we come back for breakfast and offered us 500francs as a gratuity. We accepted breakfast, but declined the money. We all still get a Christmas card from her every year.
emmerson2:
I picked up a young lad in my car once. Tidy fella, been married to my daughter for 28 years now!
Have you still got the shotgun?
Michael Douglas:
I heard a story by a driver a while ago. He was at a services and picked up a fella that was apparently dressed well. Turns out this chap got in the cab, pulled his trousers down and 5hat all over the dashboard. He jumped out and ran off in to the woods.
Would you be seen dead in a Hino?
rob22888:
I wouldn’t pick up a hitchhiker because, quite frankly, I don’t want anybody in the cab with me.One of the joys of this job is the peace, just me and the radio trundling down the road. I will happily chat away with staff at my drops and back at the yard etc., but once I shut that cab door and start the engine its me time. Sorry!
I take no exception to trade platers either. Your choice to sign up to a job that has ‘being left up [zb] creek’ in the job description, there is no need to be doing it.
That just nails it. And I thought it was just me. Trucking is not a nice job, but one of the few saving graces is the privacy and sanctuary of your cab. Just you, you alone, no ■■■■■■■■ trying to impress you (or depress you). Just your own company. Bliss.
Driveroneuk:
Why do they expect a lift?They do not expect.
Unfortunately, some of them do. I have been approached on many occasions with “where are you headed?” and then “great, you can give me a lift then” oh can I?
Driveroneuk:
Some of those people might be driving a brand new truck and do not think it got from the port to the distributor, from the distrubutor to the dealer and from the dealer to the customer’s premises by magic.
I have never had a brand new truck myself - but have collected many on a rolfo truck transporter or stepframe from the docks, to dealers, and to company premises. They are not all transported by platers…
I have no problem with platers as long as they don’t try to involve me in their days work - I don’t stop and ask them to help me with my job.
And again - I also like my own company, and don’t want to have to faff about moving my fridge to accommodate someone else.
back in the old days when I was doing continental work (1994 that was) I gave 2 lifts to hitch-hikers
one of them was an australian woman in her 30s, she approached me at the petrol station in Switzerland (can’t remember where in Switzerland), she wanted a lift to Paris area, I explained to her my route which was not so ‘straightforward’ (as I was not going straight back to UK) so perhaps she did not want to waste her time…
she said ‘if you don’t mind me sticking around I don’t mind a diversion’
so she stayed in the cab with me for 2 days.
I only had one bunk-bed so she slept on the seat, I think I would not have allowed someone with me for that long if it was not a woman (being a woman myself). I also was much younger… as these days I would be too worried to give anyone a lift. When you are young you think you are untouchable 
During the day she was great company, as she has travelled extensively around the world she had many stories to tell…, wish I remembered her name and where in Australia she was from.
The other person I gave a lift to was a young man about 20 (again in 1994), american (he showed me his passport but of course I would not have the ability to check if it was legit ), but this was a very short lift, he just needed a free ride on the ferry to UK and I took him over with me. I think these days I’d be too scared to take anyone on the ferry with me, no way I would do it
When I was a new driver I stopped once in a lay by for a break. Before I had left my passenger door unlocked for some daft reason and yes someone opened it and asked where I was headed, I told him Milton Keynes I was near Oxford )
he said oh asked for a lift to which I agreed, then to my horror he climbed in … and so did his mate who was with him and who I had not seen!
Within minutes they where popping sweets and ■■■■ off me…cheeky chav wipes.
From that day on I always lock the doors and NEVER even think about taking a hitch hiker.
Why take a risk.
nobodysdriving:
he just needed a free ride on the ferry to UK and I took him over with me. I think these days I’d be too scared to take anyone on the ferry with me, no way I would do it
The Turks at my old local kebab shop where I used to live in England were always asking me to give them a “lift” in the truck so they could go to Germany. Assuming they were in the UK illegally I obviously turned them down. They were decent lads but the one thing more galling than getting done bringing illegals in to the country would be getting fined/prosecuted for trying to take them out!
Saw the classic hitchiker trick work on some daft sod near Banbury today. Dishevelled lone female managed to stop some gullible dufus, and hiding around the corner were her three scruffbag male friends. I would guess the driver also buys those commemorative plates and silver coins from Mongbus Mint, and has given his bank details to a nice African chap over the telephone…
I’d pick up tradeplaters if I ever saw any. Probably nobody else.
About 20 years ago i picked up 2 young women in their early 20’s dressed up as St. Trinians school girls from South Mimms & dropped them of at Clacket lane services…
Apparently it was for charity. I’d never picked up hitchhikers before this.
Geoffo:
About 20 years ago i picked up 2 young women in their early 20’s dressed up as St. Trinians school girls from South Mimms & dropped them of at Clacket lane services…
Apparently it was for charity. I’d never picked up hitchhikers before this.
Those charidee ones are annoying. They do a lot of “get as far as possible for charidee” hitchhikes from Oxford; We were on a Park and Ride bus where a group of around 10 expected a free lift to Pear Tree. They held us up in the name of “fund our gap year building mud huts” and for posh Oxford college birds they knew a few plebian phrases when the bus driver told them to get off.
My advice to hitchikers when I’m about is “keep waiting.”
Many years ago i stopped for some beer at the pidou at calais , as i was about to drive to the ferry Some guy asked me if i was going to the ferry, and could i get him on the ferry , he had an English accent and produced his passport, Gave me some story about him getting mugged whilst he was staying in Italy and having no money to get home, So i gave him a lift , got through the check-in( UKBA where not in calais then) as i was waiting for the ferry the cheeky bar steward helped himself to a bottle of my beer that was in an already open case, We got on the boat and i said that from this point you are on your own mate, you ain’t getting back in my truck
Had he not assumed it would be alright to help himself to my booze and generally be a cheeky tawt he could gotten a lift outside the port
Another time i gave a hitcher a lift was when i was on my way up to Scotland i stopped for fuel at south waite ss and this young guy who was loitering under the canopy near the shop doorway, asked if i was going to Scotland and if i could give him a lift, i agreed, as it turned out he was going to somewhere near to my delivery address and when i dropped him at a roundabout he gave me directions to the place ,he wasn’t a cheeky zb either