i start my C+E tomorrow with Zenith.
i have my licence (both parts) which i wont be letting out of my sight for the next 5 days until i have done (and hopefully passed) my test.
apart from the gloves and hi viz can you think of anything else i need to take with me?
will i need a notepad and pen? is it worth taking one just in case?
Take a note pad and pen if you think you might want it, but I didn’t feel the need. Take some cash as you’re bound to end up by a tea wagon / butty van at some point.
Other than that good luck.
i’ve already put my wallet in my bag and its full of £1 coins so should be ok there!
cheers 8 wheels
Good luck Giblsa,I might see you down there on friday,Im there 0900 for hiab.
Simon 
Best of luck Giblsa 
We all started somewhere, none of us were born doing it.
Things I take with me to work now are:
Butties, drinks, satnav, pens - ballpoint, felt and gel pen for different parts of tacho and envelope, ruler, ipod walkman, 2 bulldog clips and rubber bands (you will learn what for - trailer plate), beer towel, screwdriver with 6 bits, stanley knife, lock knife (you try undoing wet ropes and straps with gloves on, you will end up cutting the ■■■■ things) high vis coat and waistcoat, digi tacho paper (been told we have to carry 2 spares, not sure if true but easy enough to comply with), notepad, headache pills, wetwipes, tissues, 2 pairs of gloves - rubber and leather, book (at the moment I am reading the story of Hindley and Brady), newspaper, hat (MUFC!), sunglasses (yes I know I work nights but I drive home early morning!), money (change for coffee machines), wallet, paperwork folder containing 4 weeks tachos, timesheets weekly and daily, holiday form, some company paperwork like digi tacho instructions, fire regs, memos we are given and so on…
You’ll learn all this with experience, nobody actually teaches you these!
Well ladies and gentlemen…
I have just finished my first day (3 hours really but it feels like a full day, I’m drained now) training to become a C+E Driver.
I’m learning in a DAF CF85, its not the most modern of wagons but for what it is used for I found it to be quite good, sometimes you struggle to get it into 5th but adding things like this make it more realistic for when you do get on the road (I think!) gearbox is a four over four splitter. (Is this right? I hope so or I’ll look a plumb 
)
What a hard morning it has been. I knew it would not be too dissimilar to driving a rigid but what a difference that bendy bit and those couple of feet make. It is a whole new world. The gears were fine, with the exception of 5th doing impressions of lord lucan and trying to select seventh going up hill after being in fourth, the wagon didn’t like that much and neither did Stu the instructor but at least he laughed about it.
Anyway we haven’t gone over the trailer checks yet, we will do that tomorrow to let the traffic calm a bit plus Stu said that they had been done this morning as it had just come out of the workshop 30 mins ago. I got in and sorted my seat out for the journey ahead. He got in the passenger seat and said “right then off we go!” this is where the nerves kicked in and I went all sweaty. I pulled slowly forward as we were in quite a tight parking space and he talked me through it so we got out of there ok and off we went, round through Fareham and up to Eastleigh. It was quite an uneventful drive then we went to Eastleigh for a brew and a smoke. As we were parking up and trying to Parallel Park with the kerb I had trouble finding reverse, found it, got sorted and got a cup of tea.
After the break it went to rat poop and was a nightmare, it was as if I had my “driving head” removed and my “■■■■ everything up head” put back on.
Pulling out of the industrial estate there was numerous cars parked on the road opposite a mini roundabout, they shouldn’t have been there is my defence ma’ lord, but as I turned right Stu 
gently reminded me to watch the trailer swing behind the cab and as I looked there was a shiny new focus that looked like it just wanted to have a trailer smacked in to it. Luckily I missed it, I don’t know what Stu was worried about you could have got a ■■■ paper between the trailer and the focus! 
Not to worry back to the job in hand. I was pootling along the road and wanted to go into 8th on a 40mph limit, having a bit of a blonde moment (no offence to blondes intended here) but somehow I had f l i c k e d (that is not a swear word) the switch back to the lower gear range and selected 8th, in Lee’s ■■■■ everything up world it was 8th anyway, 4th gear at 35 isn’t very good driving and promptly nearly stood a 40 footer on its nose.
After that it was all quite sweet until we got back to yard and Stu said we’ll do a braking exercise, without going from 7th to 4th. No problem thought I. did the run up, into 5th, 20mph cones approaching hit the brake and the truck stops quite sharpish, sat feeling quite smug about it Stu reminds me you have the whole truck length to stop in. Look in the mirror and the cones are no where to be seen, lean out the window and there they are, sat giving the rear wheels of the cab a nice kiss and cuddle, I wonder how many more I will kill this week. I do it one more time and get it right this time.
Feeling quite chuffed with myself for being out on the road and leaving all buildings tree’s and signposts standing until Stu says “right then, put it back where you got it!” Males round hairy things think I! 
How the ■■■■■ do I do that. He talks me through it as I am doing it, with him sometimes standing on the step and hanging on the mirror to guide me, I think he was on the step because it was safer than standing at the side of me and after ten minutes he says “jump out and I will show you how to do it.” Bearing in mind I have been trying to do it with about 5 shunts and 10 minutes of valuable time eating into the next students lesson and he just pulls it forward, sticks it in reverse and about 5 seconds later its parked. No one likes a smart arse you know!
What a thoroughly enjoyable 3 hours (where did they go, I’m sure I was only driving for about 2 minutes).
I have to admit it has been very enjoyable and I am so glad I took the leap and started it. Let’s just hope tomorrow goes better than the second half of today.
I’ll keep you posted but I’m off for a nap now. Sweet dreams!
gearbox is a four over four splitter. (Is this right? I hope so or I’ll look a plumb
Nearly - it’s a 4 over 4 range change 
A splitter is where each individual gear can be split.
I like the bit where he says “off you go then” - just like me
Great read and looking forward to tomorrows installment. Do I really want to put myself through this though■■?
videoman:
Great read and looking forward to tomorrows installment. Do I really want to put myself through this though■■?
Of course you do - it’s FUN
ROG:
gearbox is a four over four splitter. (Is this right? I hope so or I’ll look a plumb
Nearly - it’s a 4 over 4 range change
A splitter is where each individual gear can be split.
is the splitter the nobbly bit on the side of the gear stick, used for “half gears”?
was told wont be using that as we werent carrying anything!
or do i look even more of a plumb now ?
if you dont ask you will never find out!
Giblsa:
ROG:
gearbox is a four over four splitter. (Is this right? I hope so or I’ll look a plumb
Nearly - it’s a 4 over 4 range change
A splitter is where each individual gear can be split.
is the splitter the nobbly bit on the side of the gear stick, used for “half gears”?
YES
was told wont be using that as we werent carrying anything!
CORRECT ADVICE - and one less thing to worry about at this stage
or do i look even more of a plumb now
NO - as you put belowif you dont ask you will never find out!
AND it allows others to benefit from your sensible questions
But it does not stop someone like me from giving you daft answers… 
dieseldave:
you’ve hit exactly the right priciple, but when you get to the heavier type of artics (generally) you’ll possibly find that there are 16 gears.
(But for exactly the reason you gave.The 16 speed gearbox works like either of the two types at the very start of this post, but there’s an extra switch on the gearstick (called a ‘splitter’) which also has a ‘high’ and ‘low’ position. This ‘splitter’ has the effect of doubling the available number of gears in the gearbox, but you can leave the splitter switch where it is, and just use the gearstick to shift as normal. Theoretically, you’re going up/down the gearbox a ‘whole’ gear at a time.
Let’s imagine you’re carrying a fairly heavy load and pulling up a hill. If you changed up to the next gear with an 8-speed gearbox, you’d find that the gap in in the climbing capabilities of each gear to be too big, so you’d lose speed and almost stall. On the other hand, if you keep to the gear you’re using, the engine is revving uneconomically. That’s the time to use the ‘splitter.’
To use the splitter, you usually pre-select the split using the splitter switch, but nothing will happen until you next operate the clutch. After you’ve got used to doing this, it’s no different to any other gearchange.Another way to think of this is to imagine that you only need to use the gearstick for every other gearchange, because you’re going up/down the gearbox 'half 'a gear at a time.
i knew it was some where but i just couldnt remember where.
diesel dave saves the day again with his very helpful thread about different gear types
trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24700
now i dont feel such a plumb asking daft questions
ROG:
Giblsa:
ROG:
gearbox is a four over four splitter. (Is this right? I hope so or I’ll look a plumb
Nearly - it’s a 4 over 4 range change
A splitter is where each individual gear can be split.
is the splitter the nobbly bit on the side of the gear stick, used for “half gears”?
YES
was told wont be using that as we werent carrying anything!
CORRECT ADVICE - and one less thing to worry about at this stage
or do i look even more of a plumb now
NO - as you put belowif you dont ask you will never find out!
AND it allows others to benefit from your sensible questions
cheers Rog.
Giblsa:
I have just finished my first day (3 hours really but it feels like a full day, I’m drained now) training to become a C+E Driver.I’m learning in a DAF CF85, its not the most modern of wagons but for what it is used for I found it to be quite good, sometimes you struggle to get it into 5th but adding things like this make it more realistic for when you do get on the road (I think!) gearbox is a four over four splitter. (Is this right? I hope so or I’ll look a plumb
Hi Giblsa As ROG said, that’s a range change mate.
The ‘splitter’ is the other switch, which ‘splits’ each gear if needed.
Memory tip::
The range change gives you a ‘range’ of gears- either 1-4 OR 5-8 and the ‘splitter’ splits them, 
Giblsa:
After the break it went to rat poop and was a nightmare, it was as if I had my “driving head” removed and my “[zb] everything up head” put back on.
Don’t worry mate, that happens to lots of trainees at the stage you’re at- trust me.
Giblsa:
I have to admit it has been very enjoyable and I am so glad I took the leap and started it. Let’s just hope tomorrow goes better than the second half of today.
I’d say you’re doing just fine mate, and from the way you wrote your post, it looks like you’re the sort who doesn’t mind a bit of banter…
…says he hopefully…
Would you mind if I suggest a new avatar?
BTW, you’re NOT a plumb, because a plumb is the guy who doesn’t ask.
videoman:
Great read and looking forward to tomorrows installment. Do I really want to put myself through this though■■?
yes you do. there is no better feeling than working hard and achieving something like a licence of this sort. do you remember the feeling of achievement you had when you passed your car driving test, times that by about 1,000,000.
i have only had my class 2 since November and it is a very worthwhile experience. one thing that i keep reminding myself is this:- how many of your mates are able to basically jump in a wagon and drive it? not many of mine can, but fingers crossed, in 4 days time i will be able to do it in a artic!
do it man, you know you want to! you wont know until you try it!
also you have come to the right place being here. there are loads of helpful and very knowledgeable people.
good luck anyway
Giblsa, Im glad your enojoying yourself and i really enjoyed the read but your making me soooooo jealous
Keep up the good work and humour mate
Nice post Gibsla, hope it comes together for you today. I´ll be reading with interest.
I´m off to the airport 2am tomorrow morning to come over to UK for my C training and test next Thursday (just missed out on Fri 13th ).
Todays instalment of the intrepid adventures of Giblsa.
Got to the yard at about 0725, parked the car and needed to get hold of a snorkel and flippers to get to the office, it was raining very heavily and I thought this isn’t going to go too well today. You know when you get that feeling….well, I had it!
Get given the keys and told to go and get the wagon started, got it started and my new instructor (sorry I can’t remember your name) pulled the rigid out of the front and I pulled the artic out. Waited for him to return the keys of the rigid to the office and then off we go. It was better than yesterday apart from when we were pulling out of the site. For those that don’t know, Zenith do their training from the old HMS Daedalus site which is an old airfield, the South East coast guard helicopter flies from this site.
On the way out of the gate I went into rigid driving mode and nearly took out the security barriers and gate until the instructor said “look in this mirror” “oops” were the words that passed my lips! Got to the junction and nearly took out an audi A4 that was turning in to the road we were coming out of. I have no idea how but I just hadn’t seen him. I won’t tell you what I called myself for such a stupid and possibly dangerous mistake. Good job it wasn’t on my test, instant fail springs to mind!
Apart from that it went quite well, he decided to take me off the test route along some “tighter” routes as this would improve my concentration and ability on the road in the real world, when you’re not wrapped up in cotton wool and L plates. The traffic was horrendous because of the rain so he said we would have a short lesson as he didn’t want me just sat in traffic for 2 hours and only 1 hour driving, which is fair enough really.
The only time I had a bit of a problem was coming out of Botley towards Swanick(sp) (not wing mirror alley, the other road, past Silverdale scrappy) when you get to the end you have to turn right to get back to Fareham/M27 and the kerb on the nearside kicks out a little just before the junction so you have to hug the white line and basically nearly touch the bollard then swing it right a touch so you are ready to turn but can see what is coming from the left. Got round that ok but driving back down Newgate lane, by ■■■■ farm, I caught the kerb with my front nearside wheel and then again further along. I have no idea how or why I just did.
I have got a four hour lesson tomorrow and will be doing the reversing and coupling/uncoupling as we didn’t do it today because the instructor would have drowned in a matter of minutes out in the rain. I guess tomorrow is another day and all I can say is “Bring it on”
Below are some pictures of the instructor parking the wagon. They are not very clear as they were taken with my phone.
I feel a bit more confident now towards the test but I’m not getting to confident as that will just blow up in my face. We will have to see how the reversing and the coupling/uncoupling goes tomorrow.
At least it didn’t go to rat poop again today which I believe is a good sign, as long as I have another rat poop day I should be ok, please don’t let it happen on the test day.
<---------- is that better DD?
dieseldave: