My boss put me on the young drivers scheme so I had a weeks intensive training for Class 3 and a test at the end of it. Narrow cab Bedford TM flat with a crap steering lock and the test was in Swindon, which included the Magic Roundabout on the test route…
My regular steed then was a Ford D-series 16 tonner with a fold flat body. General haulage out and bulk grain back was the norm. Brilliant days and such a variety of work…
2 years later, another weeks course and an artic TM with a 30ft tandem and back playing with the Magic Roundabout again…
I got back to the yard and got handed the keys to a Seddon 400 (with the backwards Fuller gearbox…) with a bulker on and told to go and load milling wheat at Lechlade…
Then got given an ERF with an M&G bulker and off we went for the next year… I was 20!!
I’ve been lucky and had some cracking jobs and employers but the first was the best, by far…