White van man ( for the day)

I was asked to cover another standby shift at the end of the week and ended up in a van for the day.
It got me up close and personal with the real rouges of the road.
I found out a few truths.
The real reason that the road isn't a safe place to be.
The real reason that Lorry drivers get a bad name.
The real reason that the motorway should be policed properly.

There is a danger out there on the roads in this country and it's called" A Motorist ".
When I'm in a lorry, even a 7.5 tonner,I feel pretty detached from most. other  vehicles. I am still aware of them of course and I acknowledge them , but they generally do their thing and let me get on and do mine.
But being out in the van, in the fast lane of the motorway network in particular, is one very, very scary place to be.

It used to be BMW drivers that were the worst offenders and every one remembers  mondeo man , with his jacket on a hanger in the back window,driving like a right banker.

Well it's now Audi A5 man. Those slippery, svelte, machines of outstanding engineering now tell every other motorist on the road that your the biggest banker since Nick Leeson.

And its hard to argue. They come at you from all angles, mainly the white ones, but a few black and the odd electric blue one as well. They  harrang, harass and generally put your life in real danger, not daily, but on an hourly basis.

Being in a white van, I was not exactly welcomed with smiles and affectionate waves on my run down the M1 to St Albans, but I generally drive at a steady 68mph and only ever enter the fast lane to overtake slower traffic than myself and then get straight back into the left as soon as possible.
Every time I happened to be in the fast lane, I was being tailgated, undertook or even having my front bumper cleaned of dead flies when the car behind was pulling back in.
Motorists are definitely the real danger on the road with A5 drivers the worst culprits at the minute,but other motorists were just as guilty.
If they weren't threatening my life on the motorway they were testing my reflexes on roundabouts.

I am aware that most motor vehicles are fitted with a brilliant system that tells other motorists what direction you were going to move your vehicle in.
This amazing invention, paired with a road traffic act that instructs all cars to give way to traffic on the right,makes it a fairly simple procedure to navigate any sort of roundabout, but sadly the ability to read the minds of car drivers makes it a leap of faith at times to attempt to travel over or even around one without taking your life on your hands and crossing most of you're body parts.

I felt a bit of an outcast in the van, shunned by lorries and cars alike, I was on my own, the lorrys didn't want me getting in the way of their 50- 56 mph trundle and the motorists seemed intent on passing me at any cost.
I did have white van man of course ,but everybody knows that they are all mad!