Always ring ahead at least 30 minutes before. It means they will be ready and waiting for you and you can ask them the best route in and whether they can accommodate an artic in their farm yard.
A Phillips truckers atlas also names lots of farms so is handy.
When you get there if it looks ■■■■ and you don’t think it’s suitable to go in, then don’t. Farmers of crap little farms always say they’ve had bigger than you in before. They may have done, but still doesn’t mean it’s suitable.
Get some wellies and put them in a cat litter tray on the passenger side, then whip off your driving shoes and climb out the passenger side in your wellies.
Your spray suppression will get caked in mud. If dvsa see it it’s a problem. So when you get the opportunity clean it off.
If it’s half tonne bags you’re better off having it loaded so you can get shot of the top rows first, once that’s off you haven’t really gotta worry about it shifting.
If your curtains bulge a bit, and it’s not too bad, you’re better off taking your time and getting to the next farm to sort it than opening your curtains in a layby because there’s not a lot you’ll be able to do about it apart from making it worse.
Take a shovel. You’ll be going down country lanes. One day you’ll be fully loaded and can’t get up a steep hill when the roads wet and muddy. On such hills there’s often a grit bin and you’ll need the shovel to grit two tracks up it. Make sure you know how to operate your diff lock and how to put the weight on your drive wheels.
Take your time. You might have a run with 10 drops on it, with each farm 1 hour apart. Just worry about 1 farm at a time.
And don’t be daunted, it’s interesting work where you get to drive on interesting roads and see places. I can’t see the attraction of being a driver because you enjoy driving and then spending every day going from RDC to RDC on a boring motorway. With this work you’ve gotta use your brain a bit, and if you do, plan your routes properly, and take your time you’ll get around.
One more thing don’t go into a farm you don’t know in the dark. I’m sure your boss won’t expect you to, but if he does just refuse. It’s a recipe for disaster. Farmyards are littered with obstacles you’ll not see including low power cables.
And one final thing, if you’ve got two or more drops close to each other think yourself here’s a chance of offloading a couple or three farms at once. I was delivering pea sea around the Norfolk broads the other week and managed to offload four farms at one farm - result, but even if that’s not possible the farmer you’re with will be able to direct you to the next farm so pick his brain.