' Professional' Drivers

[derekpara]

One usually associates the word 'professional' with someone who is skilled  at their craft. I think that someone who is a professional driver should take a pride in their driving and set us all a good example in every aspect of their work. The roads would be a lot safer.

Professional drivers I admire ( and this is a personal view of course) are HGV artic drivers, but they don't come top because of their frightening habit of driving in my boot , especially when going downhill - and I am not a dawdler. Bottom of my list comes the 'White Van Man' brigade who seldom indicate at roundabouts and display all the aggressive characteristics of a Rotweiller. Perhaps controversially, I nominate London Black cab drivers as the best of the bunch. They cannot afford to be off the road through accident repairs, they don't tailgate and they keep moving. OK they do a lot of 'u' turns, but that is the nature of the job; if you were a passenger you wouldn't like it if your driver put on an extra mile in order to go in the opposite direction. Comments, guys ?

[ianess]

100% in agreement with paragraph one.
Unfortunately too much emphasis is placed on meeting tight deadlines in this day and age, stress builds up resulting in road rage and accidents.  Considering the mileage put in by professionals accident rates are very low, but stress related cardiac and other problems are high.  Long working hours, often dependant on overtime for a decent take-home pay, also take their toll.  By the age of 50 many professional drivers are burnt out.  It really is a young man's game nowadays, possibly with a less "mature" outlook, but true professionals still take a pride in their driving skills.
Perhaps the government or the unions should do more to improve their conditions. 

[landie]

I agree ianness, I think those who drive for a living must have the patience of a saint. I used to travel over 25,000 usiness miles per annum and, latterly, the joy was definitely not there.

[sddsddean]

I am a professional HGV owner/driver. Yes, I have the patience of a saint, but I am often amazed at how some people got through their test!! (but thats another subject). You mention the stress and I would say that only happens in this country. I used to travel to Austria every week and once you get out of France (the gendarmes are gits!) it is so much nicer to drive than the UK. On the whole there are no hold ups (I can count on one hand the number of times I got stuck on a motorway due to an accident), you are treated like a professional (not like something the cat dragged in as is common in the UK) and you even get priority for service at the motorway services (which are astronomically better than ours). I've cut down from about 120,000 miles to about 80,000 miles a year as I now drive an 8 wheel tipper, so hardly go out of the county (not country), but I still love the job!

[Jay70]

Any Volvo driver has got to be the biggest hazard on the road.  If there not pulling up at the side of a busy road without indicating the're pulling out in front of you.

[Biiltrac]

Black cab drivers may be ok but where I live the local Taxi co(apparently the driving force in the city) arew a bunch of complete t*****s. Speaking to a local copper this company cause a large percentage of the small knocks etc in the area. Just good luck not skill that it isn't something more serious. And now I see more Eastern European drivers are being employed by them. The y don't know the language let alone the roads!!

[gary2411]

hgv drivers are supposed to be professional drives but they are under so mutch pressure these days that bad habits come to the fore ,1 tailgating ,2pulling out and not indicating, trying to overtake when they havnt a dogs chance as they are restricted to56mph as is the truck they are trying to pass i am a coach driver and hope i drive with
respect to other road users the passengers would soon
inform my firm if i didnt

[derekpara]

Better late than never, Gary !

D(para)