The first 2 weeks of my new job has gone well.
Week 1, was only Mon to Thurs; and was about learning to do paperwork, how to check trucks over and how to collect/deliver to customers - company policy and all that jazz. Basically, monday was a ‘meet and greet’ where the trainer told us what was going to happen - trade plates issued and some paperwork, then off to the B&B; tues and weds we drove trucks round collecting/delivering with Bob the trainer (a person not a nike) following us round in the minibus to collect us and take us to the next b&b / truckstop. thurs we drove in the minibus from the last truckstop back to warrington, where we were issued with XDAs (phones with pc on for the jobs to be sent thru on). that week i drove a tractor unit, a 17 tonne rigid, and a 10 tonne tipper. surprisingly, most of the other guys on the course hold class 2 licences, and apparantly there only a handful of class 1 licences in the firm so if a class 1 job does come up its a high possibility i’ll get it.
it did seem a bit odd at first driving around without a trailer, and i did make a bit of a fool of myself in the 17 tonner turning into a petrol station where i got he line really wrong and ended up havin to reverse to get round the bush 
week 2, when i was on my own was great - Bob had said not to worry abuot the hitchhiking as that isn’t too hard, rather finding all damage at collection to report on the colection sheet so that you dont get blamed for that scuffed mirror/chipped screen is harder. He was right.
Monday, started off at MAN scunthorpe taking a 17 tonner to Melton Mowbray; then dropped that there and took a rigid chassis from the same place to Beeches in Stoke On Trent, and then swappin it for a tractor unit there to take to MAN on Trafford Park. MAN there kindly agreed to let me sleep in the truck in their yard.
Tuesday, a mechanic kindly drove me out of trafford park to the M620 (I think) roundabout so try and hitch to liverpool. Just 20 mins later i got a lift quite a way towards liverpool, then a guy in a tipper picked me up and took me to the outskirts - then as i was stood at a busstop waiting for a lift to the city centre and got chatting to a bus driver who was waiting for his bus and he said if his bus came b4 someone stopped he’d take me into liverpool for free! the only rubbish thing was that when he dropped me he told me it was a 5 min walk to MHS on Derby road - more like 2 miles! took that to london, but by the time i got there i couldn’t get across to the next collection b4 they closed, by 30 mins i calculated and they wouldn’t wait for me to get there so the firm paid for b&b on romford road. this meant i had to do it the next morning as well as Weds jobs too, so it made for a long day. That was london to aylesbury, hitched back to london, then took a V6 VW Sharan to birmingham airport, then got a train to dudley port, which was a terrible error as instead of savin me time hitching the line was shut for a while cus of a train fire or something on the coventry line so it took 2 hours to get there. Then drove a 17 tonner at 52mph from tipton to brighouse J25 M62, and overnighted in another B&B in brighouse… work phoned me the next morning and commented it had been a long day so they only gave me halifax to maidstone in a 7 1/2 tonner. apparantly there was enough diesel in to get there but i put £5 in at QE2 bridge cus i weren’t so sure… got there fine and again got lucky cus I was told to overnight in Sittingbourne, and someeone gave me a lift to the sittingbourne road roundabout off the m20 and then as soon as i wrote sittingbourne on the board and held it out someeone beeped and flashed and pulled over…problem was the laybye they pulled into was 1/4 mile down the road so i naturally ran it there full belt with the rucksack on (22lb) and i aint fit - by gum i didn’t know the old lungs burned when u push em!
friday was great - a merc actros quarry tipper (big thing! proper big boys toy)over to cirencester (well a quarry in the outback thereabouts lol), and a lad gave me a lift in his concrete mixer (well in the cab…) out to wooton basset, and i easily got a lift to MAN Swindon - cus their valeter saw me hitching while he was returning to there and picked me up 
from swindon a nice easy (but takes ages!) run up the Fosse way to the m69 then m1/m180 back to MAN scunthorpe to round the week off!
tomorrow its grimsby - brighouse - derby then who knows from there!
back up from the office has been good too, so all in all looking positive, lets hope it stays this way!
