Some people think they’re above the rules, and when you meet someone like that, it can be really tempting to prove to them that they need to follow the rules just like everyone else.

The gate guard worker in this story knew how to shut down truckers who didn’t play by the rules whether they did it deliberately or on accident.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Wanna skip the line? You’re going to wait.

I worked at a guard shack for a distribution center.

My job was to direct and process all incoming and outbound traffic and paperwork.

Most semi truck drivers are paid by the mile, so I had some empathy for their time and tried to do my job as efficiently and pleasantly as possible.

That being said, when it’s busy, it is busy.

It took me roughly 2 minutes to process the paperwork and check the information of each truck.

Which I don’t think is too bad.

Here’s how it works for container haulers.

Container haulers are a bit of a different story.

They pick up shipping containers at the rail yard, drop them off at the distribution center, and most of the time grab an empty to take back to the yard.

Rinse and repeat.

So I saw these same guys several times a day, roughly every hour or so while they are fulfilling their quota for the day.

They get paid by the hour and know the drill.

It’s important not to block emergency lanes.

On each side of the guard shack there are two lanes.

Two lanes for inbound and two lanes for outbound.

The outmost lane on both sides is usually blocked with a traffic cone, because those are emergency lanes.

We keep them clear in case there is an emergency on the lot and we need to give quick access to ambulances and fire trucks.

Which in my 7 years of working there, had happened on my shift alone more times than you’d think.

If the cones were moved, it was a problem.

Every once in a while a maintenance man or guard would move those cones for some reason or another and like bees to honey truckers would try to use those lanes.

And monkey see, monkey do.

Now there is a whole line of truckers I’ve got to sort and back up lol

If I saw it happening, I would stop what I was doing and politely direct them to the correct lane and put the cone back in place.

If it was an accident because they didn’t know any better, no harm no foul.

Truckers who know better really should behave like it!

Back to the shipping container guys. They know better and like I said they get paid by the hour.

Every now and then I would be super busy, with a long line of trucks to process, and a shipping container hauler who was bobtail (that means no trailer attached to his truck) would pull into the emergency lane and expect me to open the gate for them so they could cut the line like it was their own personal express lane.

Absolutely not.

It really makes everything inefficient.

Not only will allowing that put my job at risk, it will become a fully active lane as all the other truckers will follow suit.

Which means I can’t get and give the paperwork I need to handle over there, I have no access to my computer and printer out there, and if there is an accident, emergency services can’t respond in a timely manner.

And like I said, I’m already slammed.

Running back and forth to the outlanes makes everything take double the amount of time.

Breaking the rules was not faster.

So when truckers would purposefully pull up there. I would ignore them.

If I saw it in time, I would jump out and place and cone behind them to stop other people from doing the same thing and then I would prioritize the truckers playing by the rules, all the while ignoring the container guy who is honking, waving his arm, pointing at the gate to get my attention.

And only after clearing the lines would I walk over and explain that they are going to have to back up and get in the proper lane.

Everyone needs to play by the rules.

And if I hadn’t caught it in time, I would proceed to direct everyone who was foolish enough to get behind the bozo to back up and get into the proper lane.

I’d put the cone back in place and meet everyone back at the guard shack with a friendly smile 😄 even if they are a bit cantankerous after that.

Guess it wasn’t an express lane after all and you just wasted a good chunk of time and some of your pride for acting entitled.

How annoying!

Those truckers really need to learn to play by the rules.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

I was thinking a sign would be a good idea too.

Yes, they need to indicate that it’s an emergency lane.

These truckers were bullies.

Here’s another way of handling truckers like the ones in this story.

He handled that well!

Someone needed to put him in his place.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.