Eshin Direct

I was sitting having breakfast at Cafe Le Bleu when I observed a nice helping of road rage. Some truck driver needed to lower the loading platform for his truck, so he asked this Mercedes to reverse a little to make space. The car obliged but the truck driver decided he needed more space for clearance to the back access. I say he decided he needed, he didn’t really but it was just an inconvenience in his eyes to sideload it onto the platform. His solution to get the Mercedes to back up further?

Start shouting.

The guy shouted for a good ten minutes at the Mercedes. The Mercedes couldn’t really reverse much further, but it could have a little. The funny thing is when you shout at people, they tend to be less accomodating than you think. The Mercedes didn’t move.

Now, I find most Mercedes drivers in Hong Kong to be a little absent minded, if not a little arrogant and plain rude. But I wouldn’t have moved. And I admire the bravery of the middle-aged woman who actually got out of the car to confront the nutcase that was having a nice old rant.

Anyway, the Mercedes eventually did drive off when the people she was waiting for came back. On the one hand, I understand the mentality. Road rage is definitely a part of growing up and driving in London these days. But the truck driver was stupid thinking that he would get a result to his problem by shouting. And losing his cool at the woman when he’s twice the size of her just isn’t dignified. I almost felt like applauding his macho display of manliness when I got out of the cafe.

And unfortunately for him, I know exactly which company he works for. Translink. I know this because the stuff he was shipping was stuff that was being shipped for a company I work with. Perhaps when you have the anonymity of not wearing a uniform or having clear livery on your truck, you can behave like asshole. But this incident has cost his company, maybe not in the short term or even in the long run, the opportunity to win over a customer. I won’t be using them if I have a choice. I would recommend my readers not to either if they have that same choice.