White man van and early mornings

[Chefpig]

Hello, there's a neighbour with a van and he starts it up anytime between 6am and 7am each day. Slams doors on the van and then keeps it running for a good five minutes before leaving. It's noisy and wakes me up. He's a nice man to say hello to, etc. Aibu to think he could be more considerate of his neighbours, especially me who is trying to get as much sleep in the mornings as possible before the dreaded very early mornings for work start again next week?

Ah yes, I’ve a grey van man like that. Also, my immediate neighbours who feel the need to run their (3) cars with the windscreen wipers at full pelt for 5 or so minutes when the car is iced over. Unlike me who chucks some water over and drives off.
Luckily the milkman with a diesel van has gone electric.

Its a normal time to head for work. He can hardly push his van onto a main road before starting the engine.

Just go and speak to him about it. He may not realise.

He may not change but you say he's a nice man to say hello to etc. so he may do.

Depending on the van age though the doors may need slamming :/

Keeping a car running for a short while in cold weather and letting the engine warm up and windscreen defrost is what we all should be doing - it’s better for the car and safer for the driver. You could ask him not to slam the doors but this all sounds quite normal to me. I empathise - we have a (not hugely pleasant) tradie with a van over the road and his van is parked badly immediately outside his block of flats. I can’t imagine they love him.

I see all the idiots that just get in and drive off, they are squinting through a tiny clear space on the screen.

Some vehicles need time to demist, road safety is more important - buy ear plugs.

Annoying but I don’t think 5 minutes to let the engine warm up and windows defrost is unreasonable. There aren’t many quiet ways to close a van door especially if it’s a sliding one so not sure what the guy is meant to do he needs to go to work. Maybe try ear plugs

Sorry OP, but my recommendation would be ear plugs.

My son gets a bus to his special needs class at approx 7.30ish every morning. The doors are heavy and in the quiet morning they make noise when you slide them open and then slam them shut. It’s not something that can be avoided . I’m guessing his van is similar.

Dh leaves our house at 7:30am. Gets in his van. Starts up, waits five mins for the screen to clear or scrapes ice off. No one has ever complained. Probably because he’s just trying to get out and do his job. I don’t see how he could reduce the noise or any solution to him needing to do this tbh

I leave 6.15am car on for 5 mins or more to defrost my windscreen can’t do much about it. Just needs to not slam the doors

Van doors are slightly different to car doors. You have mechanisms that keep them open while you load/unload things. There isn’t really a way to close the doors without slamming them. I think engines running to demist the windscreen is also unavoidable. My old van would take forever to demist, a cloth would really help either as it must would just comeback.

This is only bothering because you aren’t at work and you’re trying to get some lie-ins before your own early mornings start. So you know people head out to work at this time, if not earlier. You’re probably louder than you think when going to work and there’ll be times that he isn’t at work and your early mornings have disturbed him. It’s part of having neighbours. Get ear plugs.

Between 6 and 7 is quite a normal time to be leaving for work I thought you were going to say 4 or 5 am. Do you want him to work less hours? Will you pay him the difference? Do you know if you keep him awake by being up late when he is trying to sleep to get out early? A bit of give and take between neighbours surely. And as said closing van doors is always loud, nothing he can do about that and I assume if he's an engineer he keeps his tools indoors at night to prevent them being stolen, so has to load the van every morning. Sounds like a nice hard working man.

He has to work. Buy earplugs.

How else is he supposed to defrost the windows and demist the car?

I'm curious about, White man van.
What does that mean?

Yabu, this is normal going to work behaviour. I leave at 6am and run the engine to clear the windows cos its better fir the car than chucking water on (so im.informed) - i dont go out of my way to make noise but thats just me going to work each day. Get earplugs or play white noise. If soneone spoke to me i would emphasise but not sure what i could actually do about it tbh. What do you want him to acrually do?

Those sliding doors on a van are unbelievably noisy when you are having a nice sleep!

it’s annoying when it’s everyday. When I was little I lived in a semis detached and I could hear the neighbours kettle every morning. So annoying!! Unfeasibly loud.

Annoying, yes. But also normal sounds of the world.

She means white van man

That's a fairly normal time to go to work,OP, especially if in the trades. He needs to get in the van, start the engine and dedefrost. Our neighbour is a plumber and does the same.

Ear plugs if you are that bothered. I just make an early coffee and take it back to bed with me. It's quite nice to have a leisurely few minutes before I have to get up. 😊

Yes, me too. When I read the title I assumed the thread was about creepy behaviour and fears of kidnapping. Glad to know I was wrong.

Normally a self employed tradesperson. White vans, ie those without signage or special colours, are the least expensive so are the most commonly chosen..

Completely unavoidable and nothing to complain about. If it was 4am maybe but that’s a very normal work time.

Thank you! I figured this was a particularly British or regional generalization of some sort.
Here, I think I/we would just say, Neighbour's work van and that would conjure up an image of a white van. 😂
🇨🇦

It was definite click bait! 😂