Regulars may remember my recent rant about foreign lorry drivers.
Maybe it's just me, but today at work I was nearly taken out by yet another one (Portugese this time), pulling out of my company car park. He was overtaking a bin lorry on the wrong side of the road way in excess of the 30 limit. I followed him and was quite pleased he was delivering to my company, as I was able to report him officially rather than contacting a transport company.
The irony was he had a very prominent 70km/h sticker on his window, which was so close to me I could read the publisher's name and address.
Incidentally, the Irish company I complained to never got back to me, so I've reported them to Shropshire Police. Who probably won't get back to me either.
I know I shouldn't get so wound up about it, but WHY is it getting worse?
Can't we put these idiot lorry drivers and chavs in Saxos into their own republic and let them burn off their excess testosterone without endangering everyone else?
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I work with the polish, First as they say to me there cheap labour if they get sacked they can get another job with another company for every 100 they earn over here its worth 300 over there. To them its just a joy ride although speaking to a company who's tractor units i deliver. their on threat of been shut down because their on there 6th insurance company struggling to get insurance it will get worse before it gets better unfortunately untill they find it hard to get jobs like we do they don't care. It's the whole neglegence of employers trying to cut corners.
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From Little Britain's slimming club.....
"Not a word"
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Taking the Flygbuss airport coach from Linkoping to Nykoping in Sweden last week I lost count of the number of cruise-controlled juggernauts (usually rigid unit plus drawbar trailer as is the norm in Sweden) being driven up the E4 motorway with a driver steering with feet on the spokes plus one or more of:
Reading a newspaper
Attempting sudoku or crossword
Texting
Eating dinner with both hands from plate or box on lap
Shaving
Construcing roll up ciggy
Filling in paperwork
Admittedly at peak time on the E4 there is as much traffic as the Western Avenue at 02:00am on a Sunday, with attendant boredom, but not exactly sensible none-the-less.
On the subject of blind spot mirrors, the best friend of a colleague is on life support in hospital after a Slovakian truck joining from a slip road squeezed him in to the UK artic that was overtaking him at the time. No, I don't know why he didn't or couldn't slow down, but the fact is he is currently lying on a bed, in a coma, with a hole cut in his skull to relieve pressure from swelling thanks to a driver who had not a clue he was there.
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Danny, are you telling me that the people you work with genuinely care less about human life than we do? If so, that's depressing, and a terrible reflection on their morals and standards or lack thereof. I do realise Polish driving standards are abysmal, I've been there.... but they are working HERE not THERE..... surely some of them must have been pulled over for driving like morons? And referring to Adam P's thread, WHY AREN'T THESE LORRIES RESTRICTED?!!
Do the police actually DO anything these days?
I am SO annoyed by this: yet another erosion of quality of life for those in authority to gloss over.
A spot on Grumpy Old Men is beckoning...
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> I do realise Polish driving standards are abysmal, I've been there....
They might have conditional left turns and a lot of rubbish cars on the road but actually both written and practical driving exams are much, much tougher in Poland than in UK and the equivalent of "highway code" rules is much stricter. How does 3 points on your license for not switching headlamps on when entering rail way undepass of any length sound to you? Or 3 points for driving around a queue at a junction in attempt to filter in at last minute? The stuff so many drivers understand as standard driving practice in UK...
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[Nissan dCi are NOT Renault engines. Grrr...]
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Mmm... good points v0n. Would still like to understand their devil-may-care attitude to overtaking though..... I gave up worrying after a while as Physics doesn't seem to apply when overtaking in Poland.
Also still don't understand the lack of ethics/morals with lorry drivers as discussed by the other chap above. I realise they're chasing the dollar/pound/zloty but surely they must occasionally think "I am in a different country I am lucky to have this job maybe I won't drive like a prat"?
Or am I being idealistic?
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> I gave up worrying after a while as Physics doesn't seem to apply when overtaking in Poland.
I know what you mean, the kamikaze style overtaking on single lane country roads against visible traffic from opposite direction and without any space to filter back into the queue without pushing someone off the road. I think in a country withotu a single proper motorway and most roads clogged by 40mph buses dating back to 1970ies it's more of a neccessity than showcase of driving skills.
My general impression is that all lorry drivers at some point become completely oblivious to other road users by default. On one hand it must have to do with the efford put into moving those odd 20 tons from stand still - lower gear, upper gear, second lower, second upper, third lower, third upper, not even 30 mph yet - and so once moving the jaggernaut will do almost anything to keep in motion and not to go through the whole process again. Then there is the feeling of indestructability and overwhelming halo of mythical experience, you often observe around bus drivers as well - he's a pro driver, he does that for living, travelled 1000s miles, been through battles with customs and broke through French tractorist blockades, torn off bridges from foundations with high payloads, drove through routes to hell and escaped vampires in Transilvanian road houses by paths that aren't even on maps.
So, that little germ in a pity Fiesta will wait. Or else.
April last year I was pushed off the road on Dartford Tunnel approach by 18 ton HGV driven by a yobbish prick from Stanford Le Hope in his fifties. He saw traffic filtering in from ramp ahead and decided to change lanes to the outside lane, despite highway code rules, without indicating or looking. He nudged my car off the road at 50 miles per hour with its massive side bars, nearly loosing trailer with payload in the process. He didn't stop, he didn't slow down, and I had to chase him, with passenger side of my car practically sheered off, all the way down to toll booths. Once I cought up with him the lorry driver first tried to bully me out of his way and then, when pressed, left me with fake address and non existant details.
The lesson is - certain jobs attract certain type of people. Regardless of nationality and driving training.
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[Nissan dCi are NOT Renault engines. Grrr...]
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There are a few hundred miles of proper motorway in Poland and in general they are better and faster than any in the UK. They are also toll roads too which means the are usually pretty empty which is good for me.
I do 95% of my driving at weekends when lorries are forbidden to travel but I did have to cross Poland a few Monday?s ago and I found them to be far more switched on than car drivers, they always knew I was there, pulled in as far as possible to the kerb to let me through and also flashed brake lights at me when they saw police radar traps.
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It appears that once the Poles run out of lorry driving jobs they become bus drivers. More than once lately I have had to give the driver directions/tell him where the stop is - though it was hard to get a word in past his girlfriend standing next to the cab yammering away in Polish.
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1. The police have simply given up 'policing' the roads now. No wonga in it for them so they're not interested. If you fail to renew your car tax disk by one day and your properly registered you'll get an automatic penalty by post. If you stick false plates or even foreign plates on no one will bother you. So its now rule of the jungle on the roads and lorries are just bigger.
2. I recently found out their is a bonus scheme for lorry drivers saving fuel so braking can cost lorry drivers money. I find this fact absolutely terrifying.
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