Apologies to start off with, this might be in the wrong forum section but I wanted to offer my experiences with newbies that I have had after 3 months of working on Class 2’s.
Sure, 3 months isn’t a massive amount of time potentially to offer my thoughts, especially with the old skool types that have being doing it for 300 odd years and know the ins and outs of a truck more than their specific type of partner in life, but I just thought it would be a glimpse into what one may expect in the run up to passing their test and looking for work afterwards.
I worked in retail for many a year, security wise, before venturing into office work, sat at a desk, looking at the same faces day in and day out, answering phones and generally getting peed off with the command and control management style, bullying, target driven office monkeys that were other people in positions they must have shagged their way to. It came to ahead when I got to work last year, sat there looking at my ‘chained to the desk neighbour with an attitude problem that even a Nun would want to slap’ and thought ‘I’ve ruddy had enough of this, I’m off’.
I then went to HR and told them ‘I’m off’, they asked ‘Where to?’ I replied, ‘Anywhere but here’, got up and walked out. The feeling of relief after 13 years of sitting on my now lardy arse was epic. The weight lifted off my shoulders. I drove home listening to ‘Gonna Fly Now’ from Rocky, turned up to 12 (11 is so yesterday). It then set in about a mile from home ‘Oh what the hell have I just done? Mortgage, bills, car etc. How will I manage?’
In an extreme turn of luck, HR phoned and said they would pay me to the end of the month due to services rendered, great I have a months worth of wages. Now what?? I happened to contact a mate and chatted about what I had done and he said ‘Why not try getting your HGV license, plenty of work, decent money and the view from the office changes all the time’.
Ok, why the hell not. And so started my journey into the wonderful world of Professional Driving or in other terms, getting a large vehicle into places you didn’t think a car would go…
For a few weeks I spent my time walking the pooch with the truckers bible in hand, learning about the modules I needed to take and what was required, taking in all the info I could while picking up dog poop (with a bag of course). Course booked and the day loomed closer, ‘Gonna fly now’ was changed to ‘Gonna fail now’ as I set off to the test centre, sharting myself. Got there, did the modules and surprised myself when I was told I had passed.
For some reason, I still recall the chap in the wheelchair that just wheeled into the road on my hazard perception test. I hope he is ok still.
With this passed it was now time to get some proper lessons. The internet is a wonderful place but also one that has unscrupulous websites offering you all sorts of goodness and opportunites in learning to drive an HGV. I got a call from one, they talked the talk and asked me how £35k a year sounded. Well, that sounds great. Good we can get you a job once passed. Hmm I thought. Sounds too good to be true, I’ll think about it. The calls kept coming ‘Have you decided, we can reduce the payment to entice you’, ‘No, I have actually changed my mind and decided on working in ■■■■’…silence and click.
Ahh, a forum for truckers, trucknet. Lets sign up and see what’s what. Spent a good while trawling the forum, reading everything I could. Sure enough, there are places that offer you loads, training wise, but don’t deliver, over priced and full of promises that even a virgin on their first night of passion couldn’t keep. Thanks trucknet, good advice for us noobs.
Finally found a place local to me, wnet for an assessment and away we went, trucking…or actually learning to truck. Reversing, taking corners, speed, mirrors, signal, manoeuvre, hill starts both up and down, positioning on the road, distance from other vehicles and all other wonderful things, loved it.
Test time…oh budgie hell. Nerves set in (of course). My tutor told me ‘Hey you know how to drive, all you are doing is showing the test person that you can do it in a larger vehicle’. We arrive, I view the scene for reversing. For some reason it reminded me of Krypton Factor. Nerves set in even more. We walked into the waiting area. I walked into the toilets and unloaded, literally. I hadn’t been this nervous since I went on a date with an ex Miss Italia. It wasn’t a date, but felt like one, but wasn’t.
The test chap walked in and called my name, I showed him my license. He was a grizzled old bugger, face that had never smiled in centuries, short, chubby and grey haired. Like a wizened version of Johnny Vegas, just not as fun.
‘Right, let’s go to the vehicle and I will ask you some questions’ So we did. ‘Show me, tell me’ ‘Can you show me how to put the wipers on and check they are working’ Done, ‘Can you tell me how to check the tyres’ 1mm, 3/4 across all around the tyre, checking for rips, tears or cording (I am missing some parts, I know…shut up).
Right now can you bring the truck up to this point (points to where he wants me to go) and stop. Time for reversing. I potter up slowly towards the starting point, my right leg shaking like a parkinsons victim. I stop, he says ‘You could have gone quicker’ Me thinking 'Yes, I could have gone quicker but I didn’t because my leg is doing a really bad impression of shakin stevens.
‘Now I want you to reverse into…’ Yep I got it, one and half turns of the wheel and away we go’ I do that, I reverse and knock over a cone.
‘Right, stop’ he shouts. WTF■■? Did I knock it over? Did I turn the wheel correctly? Wait, 5 mins in the vehicle and game over■■? Nooooo, surely he hadn’t set the flags up correctly, I have never hit any of them in training. Arsebiscuits. Game over.
I return to the waiting room, and reluctantly tell my tutor I failed. We drive back, I say it wasn’t set up correctly, I definitely did a turn and a half of the wheel. I am confused, disappointed and annoyed.
C’est la vie’, dude.
I get home and drown my sorrows into a bottle of whiskey, helped along by a friend who also helps themselves to said whiskey.
A month later, I have a morning of driving and then go for my test again still nervous but not as bad as before. A different chap this time, still greying and miserable as sin, but less Johnny Vegas, more Jabba the Hutt. We go straight out and do the driving test part. All seems well until I clip a kerb, gently. Arses, failed. Ok, well lets just drive. I do. We get back and time for reversing, I pull it off perfectly.
Ok, well I have to say you failed this time, clipped three kerbs and didn’t see a car to the left when we came up to a roundabout. Noooooooooo. Also, you are slow when going round roundabouts so just pick it up a little.
■■■■ it.
3 weeks later Test 3, I go out with a different chap for the morning just to get some practice, he is chilled out, not an Army Sarge type. I relax more. Time for the test. Same chap as my 2nd attempt. He doesn’t recognise me… Off we go.
Sometime in he asks me to take the 4th exit on a roundabout, I indicate and take the third, he shouts ‘No, that way’ but it is too late, I indicated and committed myself. He isn’t happy. ■■■■ it, failed I think.
He tells me that I have now added 8 miles to the journey. Sorry, pal, but if I had changed you would have failed me, I think to myself.
Later, we arrive back, do the reversing and he says he is happy to say I have passed. Aces, I feel so chuffed. But…he says, you were a bit too quick around the roundabouts. I look at him and tell him the last time he said I was too slow, make your mind up. He also tells me he is annoyed with me for taking a wrong turn. I again explain that if I had followed his command when I was taking the 3rd exit and went to the 4th he would have failed me. He doesn’t reply. No matter, I have passed.
Onwards to finding a job…I’ll add to this if folk want to but right now the dog is pestering me to take her out…(job has been found and 3 months in)
don’t worry about having an accident, most of us do when we start out! I know of one lad, a new class two, who was doing an 83 point turn in a street in Markfield. He was doing the reverse part, and he let the clutch out, and the wagon didn’t move. So he gave it some wellie, and the truck jolted back!!!