jbaz73:
I’ve had my class 2 for 17 years, so plenty of experience in that. I’ve had my class 1 a couple of years, but zero experience in that. I was offered a job working at a company in Swadlincote doing class 1 this week, so I have a grand total of 2 days experience. I’m not dishing out advice, I don’t have the experience for that, more a sort of 'what to expect '.I started on night shift on Tuesday night, they put me with a guy who was supposed to train me, don’t get me wrong, he is a really nice guy and an experienced driver, unfortunately he is Romanian and really really struggles with English, I mean struggles to the point communication is near impossible. He drove the curtainsider to Walsall (curtainsiders are a new bit for me too, but I managed to blag it), where we opened to tip and I found out we had just transported 39t of bottled water without a single strap. Anyway, it was my turn to drive Walsall to stobarts at bardon. I was a bit dodgy to begin with, but I settled into it and when I released my death grip on the wheel it was just like driving a big rigid, no major problems.
At bardoni had to back onto a bay between two trailers. This is where the problem began. My reversing was a problem to say the least. And the language barrier only compounded the problem. 45 minutes and a lot of frustration later it was on the bay. Then we had to drop the trailer and pick up a box. I remembered black and swapping trailers was not too much of an issue. So off we go to nestle at tutbury, I like driving the night shift, you have the road to yourself, and considering how much of it I was using, that’s a good thing. But I will admit my driving was fairly confident and good.
We got to tutbury and had to put it on a bay between bananas guides. Over an hour later and a lot of stress for all concerned I got it on. It was at this point that I pointed out he was supposed to be teaching me the paperwork as I would have no idea of how to go on with it by myself, his English is much better than my Romanian but sadly not good enough to explain what I needed to know. I decided to forget about the paperwork for now and sort that out somehow later. So we swap trailers and drive back to bardon. Many problems reversing on the bay again and we picked up another trailer for hamsall. The drive to hamsall was uneventful, I’m getting quite used to the wagon by now. We get there and the shunter tells me to park up between 2 trailers, after a lot of swearing under my breath, the other guy decided that given my track record with reversing and considering that there was a lot of traffic coming and going, he was going to park it up. To my relief that’s what happened. So we picked up a full trailer and drove back to the yard, but he insisted the load didn’t need straps, I disagreed but because he was more experienced, I went along with it.
Yesterday: got to the yard for 7 and I was informed that we were going to Walsall and I wouldn’t be driving there because we had a full load of unstrapped water, so he drove to Walsall and we were tipped in no time. Then it was my turn to drive to hamsall. I had to reverse onto a bay and believe it or not I had actually got worse overnight. Long story short I got it on the bay eventually and we were loaded with a full load of cat food double stacked. It was at this point I asked if we were going to strap the load as it seemed dodgy at best and it was giving me paranoia about vosa and even shedding the load through the curtains but I was informed that we were not going to be strapping it at all, it will be fine. So one long, paranoid trip back from brum, we got back to the yard and parked up. He didn’t feel like waiting for me to park up, so he parked it and that was that for the night.
I’ve come to the decision that at this present moment in time artic driving is not for me. I didn’t enjoy the experience and driving with unsecured loads is stupidity at best and down right dangerous at worst. Maybe we couldn’t have put ratchet straps on with it being double stacked to the roof, but we could have at least used the internals. I feel I would be happier sticking with driving rigids for the time being, I know the job and what I am doing with a rigid, maybe I will choose to try the artics again at some time in the future, but if I’m honest the whole experience has left me with a sour taste. You are only about a pound an hour better off for driving class 1, and is it truly worth all the stress and the potential big fine for driving with an unsecured load? And I guess what people say about class 1 not having the handball that class 2 has is true, but trust me the truth is you work just as hard. It’s knackering doing trailer swaps, dragging a curtain that’s twice the size of an 18t curtain and is usually half seized and the runners are bent. Then you have about 6 billion buckles to do up. The whole experience has been a harsh wake up call, I can’t wait to get back to a rigid, you can keep the artics. Maybe as time passes I will want to try again, but I think that will be a few years down the track.
Doesn’t read to me like the problem is driving an artic but the cow boy you were given to train you. Feel like if you’d been given someone who speaks English and who took your concerns over unsecured loads seriously then you’d have written about a much more positive experience.
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