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Sunday 7th October: Breaker 1-9, is anyone there, drop the violence, we don't care!

Blog: Frustrated Businessman
Posted by: knightrider45 Sunday 7th October 2007, 8:45am
Last edited 07/10/2007 8:45am by knightrider45

I think our lorry drivers are the salt of the earth. Virtually every single one I've "met" over the years - and that's hundreds, if not thousands, has been an hard working family man,earning a living to look after his family.

And it's still true today. And I have a secret respect for some of the Polish drivers too, even if it does go against the grain in some quarters these days. These men, often with young families, leave home and stay in this country for up to 4 weeks at a time, living in their lorries.

They must be really strong men. I couldn't leave my family for weeks at a time and live out of a lorry in a foreign country. No way.

So, I have met a lot of lorry drivers, and am honoured to be able to count some of them as friends, including a few Polish drivers too.

Enter, from stage left, a Polish driver. Thursday last, 6.45pm. I was just pulling into my works car park when I caught sight of this man. I couldn't hear what was being said, but I could tell something was wrong.

This driver carried on shouting at my colleague, as I stood next to my car, deciding as to whether to go into work normally, or through the front entrance, passing this driver. Eventually, as I made my way across the car park, the driver left my colleague and started walking back to his lorry.

Changing direction, I walked into work the normal way, and as I entered the office, I passed my line manager who told me both him and my colleague thought they were going to get thumped by this driver.

As I met up with my colleague, I glanced across the car park to see the driver heading towards my manager, who was making his way to his car to go home.

I went back outside, intending to talk to the driver, but again, after saying some words, he went back to his lorry. My manager, with me still in the car park, then showed the Polish driver where to park up.

Fair does to the manager. He is not used to conflict, and he did an admirable job in calming the Polish man down, and parking him up.

The problem? Well, first off, the Polish man couldn't speak English. Secondly, he was late for a delivery, so he had to either go away, or wait until the morning. He wasn't pleased.

Now, part of our job is to pull up lorry drivers and check their papers are in order. I and my colleagues have the power to make any drivers life pure Hell. If we wanted to. But we've never had reason to yet. Englands transport laws are so tight and strict nowadays that all lorries have to be routinely checked, and some, because of their loads, are subject to further checks.

Some faults, driver records,and paperwork errors, are reportable.

Justice was served - naturally. You see, the mans tantrums, threats and agression the previous night didn't help him. At least, we didn't bend over backwards to help him.

The driver started his day - one day late - at 7am Friday. Problem was, you see, that some paperwork was missing for his load, and this paperwork contained important reference numbers.

The Polish driver was held up for 6 hours until his transport office in Poland could locate the necessary paperwork and fax it across to us, so the man could be allowed to carry on his journey.

So, he still isn't home yet. If he hadn't threatened my work colleagues, or been so agressive, putting every one's back up, we would have sorted him out in ten minutes. As it was, we left the driver to sort things out with his office. When they opened. At about 11am our time.

There's just no need for the agression, is there? And what gives anyone the right to threaten to smack another man up because he just can't happen to get his own act into order?

I don't know........it's just not a nice job, sometimes. Revenge always is, though - especially when it's natural.

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