Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Lorry Driver? Facebook, apparently.

Autos & TrucksTrucks

  • Author Luke Humble
  • Published January 30, 2008
  • Word count 606

I, like pretty much every man, woman, child, cat, dog and mouse in the country, am something of a Facebook addict. Sure, I can deny it – and always claim that time spent on it in the office is invaluable networking time (even when networking involves playing a rip off of Scrabble with old friends) – but there’s something of a compulsive delight in spying on old acquaintances and seeing what they’re up to. Then of course, there’s the communities… so many improbably named Facebook groups with even more improbable numbers of members. Everything from ‘The Drunken Text Message Appreciation Society’ to ‘A Cup of Tea Solves Everything’is represented, and more are springing up every day.

Naturally my career at a freight exchange means I have an above average interest in lorries and lorry drivers, so it stands to reason that one day this would collide with my other life-sapping obsessive interest – Facebook. I began looking through the various pages, and was more than a little surprised by the sheer quantity of groups devoted to expressing dislike and mockery towards trucking society. There are a few groups which particularly attracted my attention, including:

‘Nothing angers me more than lorry drivers hogging the motorway!

Personally, I can think of quite a few things that anger me more than lorry drivers hogging the motorway: famine, genocide, pizza menus through my door – and that’s just off the top of my head! Regardless, 54 people have independently thought "Yes, lorries on the motorway is Number One in my list of annoyances," and fair play to them.

"Lorry Baiting" appreciation society

This one’s just plain mean, and easily tops the ‘lesser evil’ of haulage vehicles hogging the motorway. For those not in the know, this involves cars travelling in front of lorries on the motorway a mile per hour slower than the lorry behind them, only to speed up a little when the lorry tries to overtake, forcing the lorry back behind. Cruel, unnecessary and ultimately dangerous – it currently has a membership of 54 but ultimately the danger involved in the ‘sport’ could see this number dropping.

  1. Let’s face it, this is a very dangerous "sport" and, personally I would prefer them to abandon their game rather than needing another kind of driver to take them to hospital.

Lorry Drivers Suck

Finally, there’s the plain ol’ "Lorry Drivers Suck’ group. A title both simple and to the point, exactly like the group’s membership of 29.

Amongst all the hateful anti-trucker groups (trust me, there are a few – some of which won’t pass the editorial standards of article distribution websites (thanks to the liberal use of ‘f’, ‘c’ and ‘b’ words) there are occasionally touching groups – a personal favourite of mine (and with a massive 1381 members) expresses the disappointment that lorries consistently fail to live up to the expectation that they will transform into Optimus Prime from Transformers. Elsewhere is "Lorry Drivers have Rights Too" – a heart-warming call for equality diminished only by the sorry looking single member currently keeping the group warm.

I don’t know what traumatic event happened in these Facebook group creators’ childhoods to make them so vehemently anti-trucker – perhaps they had a nasty accident with a hub cap, or they were beaten up by an HGV – but I instantly felt a need to redress the balance somewhat. I created a Facebook group in praise of truckers, defending against a tirade of stereotypes. Join it if you want – "Just because I’m a Lorry Driver Doesn’t Mean…" - I can’t speak for everyone else, but I for one won’t bite.

Luke Humble is the Website manager for The Transport Exchange Group. Haulage Exchange, their freight exchange for the 7.5tonne and above market offers a independent environment for its members to swap haulage loads.

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