Lorry drivers the best road users, cyclists the worst, says haulage firm boss

[classic33]

What have they to do with Hocking's lies? Hocking claimed lorry drivers are "the best" road user. He's a criminal, his employees are criminals and the industry he represents is infested with a rampant criminality unmatched by any other road user.

Generalisation by type of vehicle in use. By both of us.
One lot hits the headlines for such practices, the other doesn't. On here which is the greater complained/moaned about?

 

[glenn forger]

Start a thread on bus drivers if you like, they have nothing to do with the thread.

 

[Origamist]

"HGV drivers are the best users of the road – cyclists are the worst."

That's a nuanced observation; almost on par with:

You smell!
No, you smell!
Whoever smelt it, dealt it...
Whoever denied it, supplied it.

Crappy click-bait for a local rag...Although, given his previous infractions, you'd thought he would have kept his gob shut..

 

[glenn forger]

He's kind of made himself a hostage to fortune. The next time one of the criminals he employs makes a mistake by accidentally scribbling on the tacho to falsify records his smug complacency will rebound on him.

 

[spen666]

What have they to do with Hocking's lies? Hocking claimed lorry drivers are "the best" road user. He's a criminal, his employees are criminals and the industry he represents is infested with a rampant criminality unmatched by any other road user.

Is this mentality of yours any different from those who say all blacks are drug dealers or all travellers are thieving scum?

 

[Brandane]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3966743.ece

You dispute these findings? It is not a generalisation to state that criminality is rife among lorry drivers when most of them break the law.

I'm trying hard not to bite, but WTF.....
According to the linked article "two thirds of lorries were defective OR illegal". Now you are obviously one who takes statistics at face value. Me on the other hand, I take them with a pinch of salt. Perhaps because I spent 20 years in public service and got used to seeing "statistics" being massaged to suit the occasion. So yes, I DO dispute the figures.
There are motoring offences, and there are crimes. For instance, I drove a lorry which strictly speaking was not legally compliant last week. The height indicator in the cab was set at 15'05", yet I knew fine well that the trailer I was pulling was only 15'02" high. Hands up; I couldn't be bothered changing it for the short distance I was driving because I knew there were no low bridges on my route and I knew the height without needing a wee sign in the cab to tell me.
Technically illegal and no doubt would count as such in any statistics; but does that make me a criminal?

I can assure you that as an agency driver and working with various different companies, I see none of the rife criminality among drivers which you seem to believe is the norm. You really need to get a grip on reality.

 

[glenn forger]

There are motoring offences, and there are crimes. .

Speeding is a criminal offence.

Most company drivers admit speeding.

Try again.

 

[PK99]

A friend was a cycle trainer with one of the big London Cyle Training cooperative groups - and said very positive things about most HGV drivers and was VERY critical of the general standard of cycling and cyclist behaviour in London

 

[glenn forger]

I see none of the rife criminality among drivers which you seem to believe is the norm.

Nope, the results of police investigations demonstrate the rife criminality.

What were the results of your investigations into the medical history of the drivers you mention, their driving convictions, fiddled tachos, insurance cover?

 

[Brandane]

He's kind of made himself a hostage to fortune. The next time one of the criminals he employs makes a mistake by accidentally scribbling on the tacho to falsify records his smug complacency will rebound on him.

You're a bit behind the times with your knowledge of tachographs, as well as your attitudes! I haven't driven a lorry with paper tachograph charts for years. Digital tachographs have been in use for a long time now, with each individual driver having a card issued by the DVLA. Much harder to get away with any naughtiness now - and who would want to? Legal hours are long enough (up to 90 hours duty time per week) without adding to them.

 

[glenn forger]

A friend was a cycle trainer with one of the big London Cyle Training cooperative groups

What are they?

 

[glenn forger]

Much harder to get away with any naughtiness now

Then what's your explanation for the four thousand convictions for fiddled tachos last year alone?

 

[Globalti]

On the whole I would agree with PK99 above - I see very few cyclists actually obeying the rules of the road and I don't ride with a club for the reason that some cyclists' aggression towards drivers embarrasses me.

 

[Dan B]

i do love the sweeping generalistations you come out with.

All of them?

 

[Brandane]

Then what's your explanation for the four thousand convictions for fiddled tachos last year alone?

Fiddled? Or infringements? Infringements are easy to acquire, for instance trying to find safe parking when you have run out of time thanks to some fork lift driver keeping you waiting past your legal time. If it's 4000 infringements, I would say that's a very good record for an industry with so many vehicles on the road.