What was no hard about N/S O/S
Discussion
I work in a job where it often requires the average person has to describe the damage to their car to me.
I ALWAYS clarify with them when they say O/S or N/S as at least 50% of the people I speak to think O/s means the passenger side and N/S being the driverside. O/S and N/S are completely useless if everyone doesnt know which side is which.
In summary just use driver side and passenger side. Unless you have a LHD car, in which case you are knacked either way.
I ALWAYS clarify with them when they say O/S or N/S as at least 50% of the people I speak to think O/s means the passenger side and N/S being the driverside. O/S and N/S are completely useless if everyone doesnt know which side is which.
In summary just use driver side and passenger side. Unless you have a LHD car, in which case you are knacked either way.
The old near side off side chestnut is one of those things that has caused issues for years.
I remember starting working one morning back in the mid 80's where we had a fleet of vans that I helped maintain.
We had a new supervisor starting that morning. He comes walking in and told me the off side lamp was broken on the rear of a van and could I fit a new one he had just picked up. (he started earlier than the rest of us for some reason non of us ever worked out).
Out I goes to the van with the lamp and the tools to find the o/s lamp perfect but the nearside one was smashed.
I looked in the box and yes it was a o/s lamp so I goes in to tell him & the argument that insured attracted most of the staff from the department.
Needless to say he had been working in the trade for many years and he couldn't be wrong.
Turns out he was. So the nearside offside argument and misunderstanding isn't anything new sadly.
We resorted to drivers side or passenger side too as all the fleet were right hand drive & was easier for him and the trainees to understand and less mistakes were made.
I remember starting working one morning back in the mid 80's where we had a fleet of vans that I helped maintain.
We had a new supervisor starting that morning. He comes walking in and told me the off side lamp was broken on the rear of a van and could I fit a new one he had just picked up. (he started earlier than the rest of us for some reason non of us ever worked out).
Out I goes to the van with the lamp and the tools to find the o/s lamp perfect but the nearside one was smashed.
I looked in the box and yes it was a o/s lamp so I goes in to tell him & the argument that insured attracted most of the staff from the department.
Needless to say he had been working in the trade for many years and he couldn't be wrong.
Turns out he was. So the nearside offside argument and misunderstanding isn't anything new sadly.
We resorted to drivers side or passenger side too as all the fleet were right hand drive & was easier for him and the trainees to understand and less mistakes were made.
Offside and nearside are utterly useless terms because they are dependent on the country you're in. In the UK, the offside of my (RHD) car is the driver's side; if I took my car to France the offside of the same car would be the passenger side.
What kind of idiot refers to "left" and "right" as looking backwards from the front of the vehicle anyway? I wonder if they apply the same to people and wonder why almost everyone else is left handed.
What kind of idiot refers to "left" and "right" as looking backwards from the front of the vehicle anyway? I wonder if they apply the same to people and wonder why almost everyone else is left handed.
Edited by kambites on Tuesday 8th September 18:12
I've never struggled with it. Mind you, when I did my job driving course we had to do commentary as part of it and the lad I trained with really struggled with nearside and offside. He was hopeless. He knew his signs and observational links well enough but he'd struggle to remember offside from nearside and he'd f
k it all up as a result and get terribly tongue-tied. I used to say to him 'just think about the mirror closest to you' and match the sign to that, but he just couldn't manage it.
k it all up as a result and get terribly tongue-tied. I used to say to him 'just think about the mirror closest to you' and match the sign to that, but he just couldn't manage it.kambites said:
Port and Starboard? 
Probably even fewer folk would get that right!Problem with off side and near side definitions is, it all goes to pot when you have a left hand drive car in the rest of Europe. Probably why 'left' and 'right' get used.
Just to make it more interesting, the cylinder numbering on old v twins alters depending on the manufacturer! (There may be a standard now, but there certainly wasn't before WW2).
doogz said:
Me.
Recently.
When a mate had what sounded like, from his description down the phone, a blown fuse, and was standing with his bonnet open trying to locate his fuse box.
Yes, it was on the nearside of the engine bay, but given that he knows approximately fk all about cars, I told him to look on the right, and he found it.
Actually that's a fair point, if talking someone through something under the bonnet I suppose it's natural to tell them the side from the place they're looking; although I'd explicitly say "on your left" not "on the left". Recently.
When a mate had what sounded like, from his description down the phone, a blown fuse, and was standing with his bonnet open trying to locate his fuse box.
Yes, it was on the nearside of the engine bay, but given that he knows approximately f
k all about cars, I told him to look on the right, and he found it.Always LH and RH from the driver's perspective in my opinion.
This is what we use at work, as we work on vehicles from other countries. So on a LHD vehicle in the UK, which is the near side? Or a RHD vehicle abroad.
Much less ambiguous to use LH and RH.
Apart from when some.fool uses it from a 'standing looking at the front of the car' perspective!
This is what we use at work, as we work on vehicles from other countries. So on a LHD vehicle in the UK, which is the near side? Or a RHD vehicle abroad.
Much less ambiguous to use LH and RH.
Apart from when some.fool uses it from a 'standing looking at the front of the car' perspective!
doogz said:
What?
If he was driving, the mirror nearest to him would be the offside one?
How was that supposed to help?!
Because all he had to do was look at the mirror nearest to him and think 'offside'. Then when he sees an advanced warning sign for an offside bend, he could look at the sign and see it pointing towards his nearest mirror, and know he needed to say 'advanced warning offside bend'. He knew his nearside and offside when he was sitting still but struggled to process signs and say which side the hazard was on. He got there eventually.If he was driving, the mirror nearest to him would be the offside one?
How was that supposed to help?!
TooMany2cvs said:
Matt UK said:
Yet some refer to Left/Right as if you were at the front of the car looking at it and some refer to it as if you were sitting in it.
I wonder how they cope when their insurer asks them if the car's RHD?
Promised Land said:
Easy enough to understand, near side, near the pavement.
So why not far side for the side far from the pavement? Offside is a funny word, wonder where it came from.Personally I know what nearside/offside means (my dad still refers to it) but I tend to use left and right.
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