We’ve all been there. A mate says they will drive and before anyone can get to the front passenger seat someone shouts “shotgun!” Under some kind of unwritten ancient rule, the person who shouts this immediately gets the seat. However, have you ever wondered where it comes from and why saying it gets you the coveted front seat? If the rules for riding shotgun were the same today it’s unlikely that you’d be so quick to jump at the chance of doing it.
The shotgun position was indeed a seat taken to the side of the driver. However, this was the driver of a stagecoach taking goods, post, and passengers across the country from town to town. The shotgun seat was not in a nice warm car but on an open to the elements vehicle that was pulled by anywhere between 2 and 6 skittish horses that could have you over the side of a ravine in a second if they really felt like it.
There was no suspension on the stagecoach and it was your job to get off and pick up anything that fell off. It was also your job to carry the shotgun. For the entire trip, you would have to have been on a high alert looking out for highwaymen, angry Native Americans, bad weather, etc all with a view to protecting everyone. It’s not as if the driver can help you either, he’s too busy looking after the skittish horses that we mentioned earlier.
They all would have been much better getting a Same Day Courier Reading-based company to deliver the package. Same Day Courier UKTDL has yet to have been waylaid by Mexican banditos.
