My first fortnight

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hello everybody, hope Im doing this correctly! Well having passed my class c on 4th November Ive just finished my first fortnight working for a freight company on local drops around Norfolk and Suffolk. Problems so far include, crunching gears, wrong turnings, nervous reversing and poor map reading resulting in a 30 minute rest break (with head in hands!) in a shopping car park in Thetford :blush: but hey Im getting better everyday and enjoying it more as each challenge is put before me!! What I need now is some of you experienced boys to tell me that this is all perfectly normal and is called gaining experience. Im fairly new to this site but have picked up valuable tips already. Oh well a couple more months and I will hopefully start artic training. Happy days!!

2

rufus firefly:
What I need now is some of you experienced boys to tell me that this is all perfectly normal and is called gaining experience. !

No problem.

Its all perfectly normal. Ive been doing this for 17 years, and I still do all of that stuff every day.

Welcome to TruckNet!

Vince

3

Yep all you said seems normal to me, its a big learning curve from passing your test to doing the job for real, only been driving for a short while myself so I know how you feel. It does get easier, hang in there.

Wayne.

4

resulting in a 30 minute rest break (with head in hands!)

Trust meā€¦ 23 years down the lineā€¦ and this is still part and parcel of my working week :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

5

Just to make you feel better, everybody makes the same mistakes as you, even after 30 years. As long as you learn from them, you`ll be ok
:laughing:
Trevor

6

Well done Rufus. And yes, itā€™s the way you gain experience.
Which company is it youā€™re working for? (says the woman in need of a new job).

My tip for the day: Buy the philips county maps, they can be a lifesaver.

7

Firstly, Welcome to TrucknetUK.

Like everyone says, thats the way you gain experience. Tell us a few of the more colourful experiences, weā€™ve all been there (or are about to go there) and enjoy a laugh at other peoples expense :slight_smile:. Stories bring back memories of the mistakes weā€™ve all made. :blush:

8

Your post reminds me of getting stuck in a field and bringing Ragdale Hall to a standstill for an hour or so untill the MD turned up, uttered a few choice words in my direction and dragged me out with a tractor :smiling_imp: .

We all have them sort of days :unamused: :wink: . Havnā€™t got one stuck since (oh no kiss of death :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:) .

9

Thanks everyone I feel better already and you are all reinforcing what I have found in my short time on the road, that we are all in this together, a band of brothers (and sisters!) shall we say.
My only other major disaster was pulling away from some traffic lights in Bury St Edmunds in reverse instead of 2nd! The car driver behinds face must have been a picture :open_mouth: . Anyway keep up the good work making newbies like me feel really welcome.
Cheers

Rufus T Firefly

PS Allikat - FreightForce, Norwich

10

rufus firefly:
My only other major disaster was pulling away from some traffic lights in Bury St Edmunds in reverse instead of 2nd!

Well you have several major disasters to come.

Doing a tight screw-around then driving off, only to realise later that you caught a brand-new BMW on your rear under-run bar and have just dragged it several hundred yards up the road after ripping its side outā€¦

Going to Shotton, near Newcastle, when you should have gone to Shotton in North Wales.

Putting your tacho card in back-to-frontā€¦

Or is it just me?

The bottom line is this. If they arent prepared to train you properly, then they cant moan when you do your learning ā€œon the jobā€. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Vince

11

just wait till you drop a trailer and leave the air lines behind :blush:

or is that just me

jon

12

It does get better rufus. youā€™ll still get it wrong, but it just happens less.
I work with a driver who is an exsperienced HGV driver, but who has never worked as a driver before, HGV driving being only part of his work before & he is gaining confidence by the day.
We deliver rental vehicles & often travel in convoy & he is detaching himself at times so I can do it on my own now.
Good luck.

13

Iā€™m just into my ninth week driving cat c doing multidrop, a lot of them in Norfolk/Suffolk. So far gone through 2 rear light lenses, one either side, not at the same time. wrong place, bogged down to the axles in a field that the customer said was ā€œok to drive onā€ gone back to the yard, not realising that gates needed hinges to hang em on, and taken them back with me, and various other minor calamaties.Luckily none resulting in Human injury (Although Iā€™ve wanted to injure a couple for all the ā€œhelpā€ they have been) Iā€™m sure there will be more of it to come,but hoping the instances will be less.HGV driving isnā€™t all driving, its all hell! and with very little thanks.Apart from thatā€¦I enjoy it enormouslyā€¦

14

Its all good fun, one wet damp morning I was anti clock wise heading towards the A10.
I look in my mirrors and my sheet is hanging over the back and flaping around :confused:
This is my impersonation of ā€œBatmanā€,using a lorry :smiley:

15

Only a few days ago I was on a run when the Office phoned me and asked me if I could phone back with the invoice numbers before I handed them in.

Approaching the drop, there is a roundabout with a road off to the right, then a right hand bend, and another four way roundabout. The logical assumption is that, if you go right at the first roundabout, and then left, you will finish up at the second roundabout. Simple. :slight_smile:

So I did. I turned right at the first roundabout, came to another, 7.5 limit straight ahead, so turned left towardsā€¦a prestige office block, with NOWHERE to turn around. In the dark, blindside reversing back onto the roundabout with an island and bollard on my offside.

Fortunately, it was Sunday, with no other vehicles about. :smiley:

I wonā€™t THAT again! :smiling_imp: But the reallity is, I WILL, because we ALL do it. We just have to learn HOW to deal with it. :slight_smile:

There is no point in getting embarrassed, there is no point in getting angry or flustered, it happens to all of us, and when it does, we just have to get on and deal with it. Remember GOAL, if in doubt, Get Out And Look. To hell with the impatient motoring public. :laughing:

16

Krankee:
To hell with the impatient motoring public. :laughing:

Best advise any hardend trucker could give to a newbie! :slight_smile:

17

It sounds like your doing great, Iā€™d been driving class1ā€™s from coventry to penrith on domestic rule a month before I had the confidence to pull off at the services for a wee, I was worried I wouldnā€™t get parked and if I did I wouldnā€™t get out. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

18

rufus firefly:
30 minute rest break (with head in hands!)

Just wait till your more confident and taking an hour rest break asleep at the services at 3.30 in the morning then the next thing that happens is the phone goes and its your boss saying where the [zb] are you is 9am and the truck shoould of been back 2 hours ago!!! Argh Ooops.

simon

19

jonboy:
just wait till you drop a trailer and leave the air lines behind :blush:

or is that just me

jon

You donā€™t realise how long they are until you see them all stretched out straight do you Jon? :blush: :blush: :blush:

20

Or how about dropping the trailer and forgetting to wind down the legs :blush:

Sure takes a long time winding them back up again on low ratchet :smiley:

Andy