Is it just me that finds polishing wheels and fuel tanks very therapeutic? Spent a good couple of hours yesterday polishing just to go over to Immingham in the morning.
Do any of you like the appearance of your wagon or do you not bother because it’s ‘not in your job description’
Nicely polished drive!! Yes I do care about the appearance of my lorry, I may be part of the ‘frilly curtain brigade’ and I also have light bars. At the end of the day I spend more time in my lorry than at home so I like to spend some of my wages on cleaning products and lights, curtains, mats etc. The people who will slate you for it drive ■■■■ wagons and don’t give a ■■■■…
In my current job the units are gutless, soulless, passionless, cheapest of the cheap DAF CF’s, I can go out in the morning with one truck and come back and switch to another. No point what so ever in spending a penny on cleaning products or a second on polishing the truck. How ever if I was tramping in a half decent truck (Scania), or I was a OD, then yes I would spend a bit of time and money on it
If I had my own unit then it would be kept clean, as it is I’m agency so different units every shift, the units are out with 2 maybe 3 driver per day. By the time you’ve done your shift, fuelled up, done the paperwork and removed your gear the next driver is waiting on the keys, so best you can do is maybe give the unit a quick hose down.
I have better things to do with my time, than polishing someones elses metal, if a steam cleaner gets the dirt off, thats good enough, so long as someone else is operating itw as for polishing, well with the weather we have, its a complete waste of time. I would spend time on the inside though, as thats my living area.
A long time ago a T/M told me my lorry was dirty, so i asked him if it bothered him, to which he replied Yes, so i said, well clean it then. 
Can I ask a question and I’m not taking the ■■■■ either.
Should your tacho be in and on work when doing this sort of thing? I would expect to be paid for cleaning my truck too, I wouldn’t have a problem doing it, just I do enough hours as it is and if the gaffer wants it polished it’s coming out of his time.
Edit - I saw one of Icelands driver of the year trucks in Kent the other week, driver was polishing away like no tomorrow, I didn’t want to upset him as he looked so happy but ffs it’s a Renault Premium has he not heard the term “you can’t polish a turd”?
I never put my card in, just have to be weary of the DVSA harassing you about it. Not sure about the pay part cause I usually give the old girl a right good clean on a Saturday morning, on top of that my dad would kill me for driving a shabby wagon with his name on the headboard. I suppose you either have to be a company man or own the wagon to look after it in this day and age.
FH Hammy:
I never put my card in, just have to be weary of the DVSA harassing you about it. Not sure about the pay part cause I usually give the old girl a right good clean on a Saturday morning, on top of that my dad would kill me for driving a shabby wagon with his name on the headboard. I suppose you either have to be a company man or own the wagon to look after it in this day and age.
I used to wash my wagon (different one each day) on the way out the yard but don’t bother anymore as no one else does, it was like I was cleaning the whole fleet.
If I had my own motor then I’d take a lot more pride in it, usually when I get back I’m on 12-15hrs so just want to go home, never run in early on last card and when I do get an early finish (8hrs) it to get my WTD down do can’t clean it then either.
I do care but the owner doesn’t so I keep my bit clean.
Lorry in the OP looks good, well done that man.
Look after my regular lorry well, others use it when i’m not on shift, they don’t clean it but they do tend to look after mine and others decent tackle better than the uncared for stuff.
I take a pride in me job, i like me job and the company pay me very well for short hours and the easiest regular job i’ve ever had, i have my standards and i’m going to see me time out doing it my way, what others do is down to them.
If i have to take a sub standard lorry out, i will wash it before i leave.
NewLad:
I used to wash my wagon (different one each day) on the way out the yard but don’t bother anymore as no one else does, it was like I was cleaning the whole fleet.If I had my own motor then I’d take a lot more pride in it, usually when I get back I’m on 12-15hrs so just want to go home, never run in early on last card and when I do get an early finish (8hrs) it to get my WTD down do can’t clean it then either.
+1 But I’ll wash the windows and mirrors down most nights and depending how the nights gone I’ll often shove truck and trailer through the wash just to kill 20 mins
For such a big company I was shocked we didn’t have a propper wash on site, just a jet wash.
I had to take Monday as a rest day, to keep my WTD down. As much as I appreciate the guy that went out in my motor texting me to say what a lovely motor I keep,
The numpty could have waited until after 7am on my day off.
Knob!
Cheers Juddian, I keep it as clean as I can. I just hope I don’t have to go on the dirty side of the M62 (no offence you eastern lads). I’d like to go on the continent where I can keep it a bit cleaner but I’m quite a new driver so the firm me and the pops are subbed out to keep me running maidenheads and silvertowns on the pressure tanks, but the wagon gets really dirty when I’m running bags in cans so I try to keep on tank work where I get my own trailer (which also gets the polish treatment).
spent 5 hours clay baring my personal car then another 2 waxing it yesterday.
company van is 63 plate and has had one wash in 35,000 mile because my boss my moaning it looked scruffy. couldn’t give a monkeys about company vehicles tbh as long as they’re undamaged and roadworthy.
We can go in on Saturdays to wash the lorries. Quite a few do it, I can’t be bothered as I get a good wage for 5 days anyway…My lorry gets really well cleaned by those that do go in so everybody’s happy.
I gave up on polishing lorries or personalizing them in any way quite a few years ago when a tm we had would ship it off to another depot the same day it was cleaned or personal touches added. On returning the next day you were landed with a filthy heap in the hope you would get fed up with it and start cleaning it up. Guess that’s the drawback of working for a larger firm !
I used to polish the black grease marks off the paint (white) but could never be arsed to do the lot and to be fair when i had my “own” truck i use to be so shattered polishing it was the last thing id have done.
I was told a long time ago that a truck is meant to be worked, not polished. Its a machine at the end of the day, and you don’t see many people cleaning their stamping press or road planer do you. Don’t get me wrong tho, i like the look of some of the wagons on the roads, so long as they aint over the top (more lights than blackpool and more chrome than a 50’s yank tank), and would of loved my firm to of replaced my old truck with something i would’ve taken care of and looked after, but instead they replaced it with a piece of second hand crap from another depot, so I most certainly aint gonna spend my precious time polising any part of it. I do however keep the inside clean and tidy as thats my office for 8-10 hours a day.
I used to clean my print machines.