Just thought id share my first experience of driving in a 18t rigid job.
My first job for 4 weeks and I just quit. The truth is I absolutely HATED it. It was multi drop pallet work and most days I was leaving the house before 5am and not getting home till 8-9pm. Absolute joke. Felt like I was pushed to the limit constantly on drivers hours.
Im not going to name the company as I know that at the end of the day its just the job. But the truth is that type of work is not for me. Im not ruling out driving completely but im just glad that I tried it and now have it as an option. Also now I know what I dont want out of it and what I do want in it.
I respect all you lorry drivers out there to the max especially on multi drop pallet work now. As that is what I know of now.
I was once told you will either love it or hate it and for me it was hate.
Just a little description about my job for people thinking about doing that kind of work. It is long long hours. Felt like my life was just flashing before my eyes. Even though I had weekends off it still didn’t feel like enough to recover. The drops most of the time were ridiculous to get access too. Getting there was not the problem it was where to go when you get there that was the problem. Do I go straight in? Do I reverse in? Plus I got a fair bit of abuse of people at times. Sometimes having to wrestle with a tonne pallet on the edge of a tail lift. Even worse on a slope up or down.
The icing on the cake for me was my last day when I went out with a second load in a different lorry. They were in a rush so went straight out with 8 pallets. Two drops. Both tail lift drops. Got to first drop and the tail lift didn’t work (yes I know I should of checked but I felt rushed to get out). Anyway I rang office and they said “oh yea it dont work”. Well what goods that. So couldn’t do that drop but then they made me go to screwfix distribution center in Stafford still for second drop. They refused me as couldn’t move my pallet truck out the way due to insurance purposes. Rang office and they made me wait still. In the end I was coming up to 15 hours shift so just told them im coming back. I went home after and had a mini breakdown thinking it was 10 pm nearly and they want me back in at 6 am to do it all again. So I went straight back and just said I quit. Couldn’t bare the thought of going in and doing it all again.
Anyway that all I have to say really. My advice would be to proper look into a job before you take it and make sure you know what it entails. I dont regret it because your always learning in life. Plus dont just rely on a sat nav. They liked me to use maps as sometimes my sat nav was sending me longer ways to get to places. And my sat nav was top of the range apparently. Thing with maps though I never really used one so found them hard to read
Like I said im not completely ruling out driving completely, but its not all im going to look at from now on.
Good luck to all you newbies out there and also to the long time drivers too. It was definitely an eye opener experience.