Bloody hell, I’ve almost made the full collection of newbie posts. From looking for tips on tests through to woo! I passed! Now I’m on the “Holy ■■■■, first shift on Monday!”
That only leaves “oops, I ■■■■■■ my hours” , “Is this safe?” and “What would you do if…” to go 
I’m going to be going out with an experienced driver to keep an eye on me and show me the ropes. I’m mainly yo-yoing between feeling excited and terrified.
Any tips appreciated as always! 
Nice one mate. I’ts good to be going out with someone else who’s been doing it a while as well, but be careful at the same time… some of the drivers I’ve got to know who have been at it longer than myself seem to be willing to pass on ‘advice’ which from my research and picking up info on here etc. isn’t exactly the right way to be doing some things so if you aren’t sure, just ask on here for some clarity. Better to get things right to start than picking up people’s bad habits.
Good for you.
Get your bag ready the night before (with items such as drivers Card, torch, pen etc, etc) so your not looking for things on the morning of your first day.
Also, sounds silly but have your clothes laid out ready and make your lunch up (if your taking one and not stopping somewhere),
All saves panicking on the day.
Good luck and enjoy it.
slowlane:
Any tips appreciated as always!
Relax, be comfortable about not really knowing anything, and having a free hand to ask all the dumb questions! 
Do it now, as it becomes harder down the road when you’re expected to know…
So embrace your Newbie naivety and enjoy it.
Best of luck!
Best of luck pal, it is good to have an experienced driver at hand to help. They can show you some good tips and tricks but just use common sense as to which you follow. I did find however that in this game you only really start learning when you are chucked out by yourself [emoji846] don’t know who else would agree. Relax and enjoy yourself [emoji846]
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Good luck, sure you will be fine, enjoy and listen and learn. Once you are out on your own it brings a new level of nervousness but also learning and confidence. Sure all will go well! My first day was useful just to learn the digi tacho!!!
andy_s:
I’ts good to be going out with someone else who’s been doing it a while as well, but be careful at the same time… some of the drivers I’ve got to know who have been at it longer than myself seem to be willing to pass on ‘advice’ which from my research and picking up info on here etc. isn’t exactly the right way to be doing some things so if you aren’t sure, just ask on here for some clarity. Better to get things right to start than picking up people’s bad habits.
You mean the ministry of misinformation! 
The wider the sample group, the more likely you are to find the arc to truth…
Wise words a mythical old trucker told me whilst explaining turning circles!
And you can’t hide behind the wrong answer on here, so prefix everything with “I’m told”, “I’m lead to believe”, “someone said”
It works for me! 
Thanks everyone. I’m getting my kit sorted, as I’m staying with a friend who lives a lot closer to the yard for the week. The commute from my house is about 1hr15 so not too much bother when I get out tramping (not ideal, but not terrible either), but for the first week or two whilst I’m on days, having a 20min commute will make life easier.
Casper - I’m with you on the getting clothes laid out and so on. I’ve always done that, as it makes a big difference to the anxiety!
What a week! I can’t remember the last time I sweated so much. Who knew that reversing quite literally makes you break out in a sweat?!?!
I’ve been hauling paper reels all week, using a couple of different types of trailer, each with their own different processes to learn and different procedures when it comes to tipping them. Trying to learn the routes too.
The thing I’ve found most stressful is what to do when you actually arrive somewhere to load/tip and have to figure out where you’re supposed to go and what you’re supposed to do.
Reversing onto bays isn’t hard… it’s being fast and accurate that’s hard!!! I didn’t manage any one-hits, but apart from one nasty tight one I only used 1-3 shunts each time so I’m happy that it will come with practice. If there is another lorry in front of you, keep an eye on how they do it for clues to use (or avoid!). I’ve found that visualising what you want the trailer to do before you position yourself is helpful, then again before you start going backwards. I think I frustrated the experienced driver looking out for me a few times by going so slowly, stopping to rethink my plan, being over-cautious and taking a shunt where he could have just corrected it, but at the same time he was good at pointing out that I could have corrected it… but also saying that if you aren’t sure whether you can make it, that’s the same as a no.
I nearly came unstuck in a shed. I needed to move into position to be loaded, but there was another lorry parked waiting on the wonk. I looked at the gap and thought I wouldn’t be able to screw it around. Just as I was about to hop out and ask the other drive to pull forwards and make some space a couple of old hands started telling me to get on with it. Hard lock. Go go go. and I wavered then followed their advice… and ran out of room exactly where I thought I would! The other driver noticed and shifted and I moved into place fine, but it was a valuable lesson - if that had been a wall, not another lorry, I’d have been royally ■■■■■■, because I’ve not got a clue how I’d get out of a situation where I’ve got the unit past the problem but can’t get the headboard past, and I’ve got the unit at near on 90 degrees to the trailer already! 
They took the ■■■■ a bit when I got stuck (of course ), and when we were chatting outside later said that they waved me on because they knew they could get around… and expected me to have pulled forward about 15 feet, which is what I realised I should have done. 
Another lesson learned!
Phew! I can’t think of much more right now. About to head off to my temporary home for the week, ready for Monday. Have a good week everyone!
So in summary a good week as it was damage free!
If a Newbie can tick that box, not an awful lot else matters…
Best of luck this week mate.
Don;t let anyone push you into doing something you yourself are uncomfortable with. It may be possible for them, but you with your limited newbie toolbag of tricks might not be able to manage. Listen to your instincts, and ask for help instead of bowing to pressure. As you gain experience your instincts will be honed and you’ll gain skills and confidence. Until then, asking for help and being thought of as a fool is preferable to cocking something up and removing all doubt.
In practice, any decent professional driver will not think you’re a fool. They will respect you for doing the sensible thing and be willing to help a fellow trucker out. Only the fools laugh at others.
Also, I suggest that ‘fast and accurate’ should not be your goal. Accurate, yes, but fast…no. It takes as long as it takes, and ‘slow & steady’ is a wiser approach. There are no prizes for speed, nor for accuracy in fact. However, there are severe penalties for causing damage.
Sounds like you had a successful first week, anyway. Good luck with it all! 
Well done so far.
As above, don’t aim for speed when manoeuvring, just keep it safe’n’steady and you will get the job quicker after a while.
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Right, well this past week I’ve been out on my own.
Everything gets harder when you don’t have someone watching your back!
I enjoyed it overall, but ■■■■ me I’m exhausted like I’ve never been exhausted before. Mon and Tue I did almost the full 15h as I was just slow at everything. I said to the office on Wed morning that I was cream crackered and they managed to get me back to the yard early so that was a 0600-1630h day and that top-up of sleep was much needed!
My reversing got slightly better as each day passed, I still need a few shunts but I’ve got better at working out when you need to take a small one or a big one, so that’s progress. I ■■■■■■ up last night though, once I got loaded I rang in and the office asked me if I had enough time to tip and make it back to the yard ok… I was really tired by this point and completely forgot to take into account the time it would take me to tip. So I literally looked at the two driving legs of the trip and said “sure thing, I can make it no problem!”. Arse. I got down there, after heavy traffic, and had to queue to tip then I realised I didn’t have the drive time left to make it back to the yard and I was really hanging out by now as it was now pretty much the time in my shoddy planning that I expected to be dropping the trailer in the yard. I struggled to get it on the bay, I just couldn’t make it work in my head. It was like I was trying to reverse jelly 
I took a break and plodded back to the yard arriving with only 30mins until my 15h.
This was not good.
The yard was rammed with abandoned trailers all over the show, it was dark and I haven’t yet learned which puddles are ok to drive through and which will damage your unit. I was ■■■■■■■ stressing. Tried getting it in one space and couldn’t do it, went to take a lap of the yard and someone had parked a trailer in where there should be a space. I tried backing out, couldn’t do it in the dark with the useless lighting. At one point I was hanging out of the window shining my torch back to try and see. In and out and in and out of the cab, but each time I got back in, it was like reversing jelly again, and I couldn’t make it work. I couldn’t spin it around because I could see it wouldn’t fit and after 15 mins of fannying I was stranded and the dash was screaming at me for straining the clutch. I went looking for help and found a guy finishing his shift. I had to admit defeat at that point or I was going to damage something and I asked him to sort it out for me. I could have cried with relief when he jumped in, backed it out of the gap, spun it round and backed it into the space I’d driven into and got stuck in.
I feel like a right muppet for giving up like that. I just didn’t have any more to give, and especially watching how easily he just backed out, turned and backed right back into place. Bam. Just like that! Then I had to drive an hour and a half home. When I got back in and told my sob story to my parter, they asked what I would have done if nobody had been there to help, and honestly, I was at the point where I would have abandoned the lorry where it was and gone in early doors this morning to sort it out in daylight. Literally the only saving grace was that I didn’t hit anything and when I dropped the trailer, I didn’t ■■■■ that up.
So, all in all, that was a really tough week and I expect next week is going to be very tough too! I need to be smarter with my time keeping and I need to be more careful with how tired I’m getting.
Your dignity may have taken a bit of a knock, but at least none of the equipment did. That sounds like the correct choice to me.
As you develop more experience you will get better, and this will become just another anecdote to tell the noobs in the future. “I remember when I first started…what a chump…” etc etc.
For now, you survive to drive another week. Well done!