Coffeeholic:
Anything is good first time experience, if you get offered something take it and try it out.
I agree.
Coffeeholic:
You know your limitations so work within them at whatever you get and you will be fine.
I kind of disagree… You’re new to the industry, whatever you get will involve working outside of your comfort zone. I, personally, would stay away from trunking and opt for multi-drop or general haulage instead. Both these areas will give you a lot of experience very quickly.
Coffeeholic:
Take it steady, ask questions and good luck.
I totally agree. This is probably the best piece of advice anyone could give, take it steady and ask questions!
Coffeeholic:
You know your limitations so work within them at whatever you get and you will be fine.
I kind of disagree… You’re new to the industry, whatever you get will involve working outside of your comfort zone. I, personally, would stay away from trunking and opt for multi-drop or general haulage instead. Both these areas will give you a lot of experience very quickly.
Bob
I think you may have misunderstood me, or more likely I didn’t make myself clear on what I was trying to say. I agree he should step outside his comfort zone but once he has done that he should not get too ambitious too quickly and remember his lack of experience and limitations while learning. In other words don’t necessarily try to do and achieve in the same time frame what the drivers who have been doing that work for years do.
Hell, I know what I mean even if I can’t explain it.
DAF95XF:
If he does go trunking, the double deck trailers arent as scary as they first look, though their a handful when lightly loaded and in a strong wind
… and may soon be outlawed, though i can’t see it myself.
DAF95XF:
If he does go trunking, the double deck trailers arent as scary as they first look, though their a handful when lightly loaded and in a strong wind
… and may soon be outlawed, though i can’t see it myself.
Where did you hear that? One of the top guys at my company has a hard on for floating deckers, ive noises we might be getting 1 or 2 on trial.
DAF95XF:
If he does go trunking, the double deck trailers arent as scary as they first look, though their a handful when lightly loaded and in a strong wind
… and may soon be outlawed, though i can’t see it myself.
Where did you hear that? One of the top guys at my company has a hard on for floating deckers, ive noises we might be getting 1 or 2 on trial.
The scary thing about that is that it would outlaw the UK’s entire skeletal trailer fleet - or at least make it unusable - in one fell swoop. Terrifying.
Lucy:
The scary thing about that is that it would outlaw the UK’s entire skeletal trailer fleet - or at least make it unusable - in one fell swoop. Terrifying.
and almost every hire trailer in the UK, the advantage we have is that France still run above 4.0m and they would just say “non”
grumpybum:
Jeez, some folks just can’t win on here! They get shot down in flames if they go for something beyond their capabilities, and shot down again if they ask for advice about where to start! Are there no ‘reasonable questions’ allowed?
Good on you for asking! I think you make it quite clear that you’re prepared to work, but would like advice on the ‘sensible’ way to proceed.
My advice would be to apply for anything you are qualified to do. You can ask questions at interview/assessment about what is required and make a decision based on that info. I make the mistake of being too picky when I’m looking for work, but it’s always easier to move around in the industry and find out what’s likely to suit you whilst working in it, rather than looking in from the outside. The first HGV job you get may just suit you perfectly, if not, keep gaining the experience while you look for something else.
So, if a trunking job is advertised, and you have the appropriate licence, then go for it and see if it’s for you.
Good luck - and don’t let people put you off asking perfectly reasonable questions!
Good post.
There are too many ‘know it alls’ and ‘bullies’ on here imho.
What’s up with doing something ‘easy’ for a while until you gain confidence/experience of Commercial Driving?
Going ‘in’ at the deep end isn’t ‘big’ and it certainly isn’t ‘clever’, these are potential killing machines and they can do a lot of damage to property and peeps.
I went ‘in’ at the deep end, didn’t do any damage to anything but my pride, but on hindsight I’d have waited at least a year before trying for this job.
You have an idea of your limitations, don’t let anybody make you do something you ain’t comfortable doing, it’ll end in tears or worse.
Stonehouse69:
Just a quick question, I know what trunking entails and will soon be looking for work. Just wondering if anybody thinks that trunking would be good, first time experience?
I literally passed my CAT C last week (with interest to taking C+E abit l8r in the year) and when i finally get a job, i dont wanna throw myself in to deep. I read about multi-drops and general haulage and to be fair, i aint afraid of hard work whether it be driving everywhere -to- handballin` the contents of my entire trailer/box at an RDC
Any words of wisdom?
You want to get yourself signed up with the agencies, that’s the road to getting experience at a bit of everything. Trunking is just basic driving - there’s no involvement as such except from opening the curtains/doors at each end. It will improve your driving of course, but not as quickly as doing agency work which will be a variety of whatever they throw at you.
My 1st artic job was ‘trunking’, BUT, what he actually meant was ‘night multi drop class 1 driver’.
I was on an airfreight ‘trunk’ between Manchester and Birmingham Mon and Tues, then between Manchester and London Heathrow area Wed, Thu and Fri.
Now, the Birmingham 1 was from our depot, to Manchester Airport, load up at a few of the sheds, then down to Birmingham for trailer swap or unload / reload, then back to Manchester to deliver to whichever sheds I had on - sometimes all of them.
The London Heathrow area 1 was from our depot straight down to Heathrow area… upto 13 drops / collections, then back to Manchester airport or depot.
The reason I say Heathrow area is because I would start at say Colnbrook, go down as far as Staines, and out as far as Cranford, then I also had the lovely Horseshoe. maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en& … 3&t=h&z=12 those were my drops around Heathrow.
Sometimes ‘trunk’ doesn’t mean 1 base, 1 drop. Oh, and some places like Swissport 1 were built when trailers were tiny, so with a modern Q7 trailer, were a little tight to say the least.
Fallmonk:
Sorry to go off post but could someone post or pm me the story on DD trailers won’t let me log on via the phone ! Cheers
Trailer height limit on the horizon
Transport News Brief has learned that bureaucrats in Brussels may limit heights to four metres. The idea comes from the European Commission and would include a four metre height limit in the European Whole Vehicle Type Approval parameters for trailers and semi-trailers. It could affect all vehicles built and sold across the EU. Detailed plans are expected to be published before September. “If this makes its way onto the statute book it will limit high cubic capacity double-deck and hump-backed trailers,” said Robin Dickeson, manager, commercial vehicle affairs at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. This could push up costs, as some operators would need more trailers to for a job than they use today. “Expect anguish.”
More from Robin Dickeson on +44 (0)2 073 449 222 or rdickeson@smmt.co.uk
Rob K:
Can’t copy and paste a PDF, that’s the whole point of them.
No, the point of them is to produce a document that looks the same regardless of what hardware/software you use to view it. Since it became an open standard 2 years ago, there’s nothing you can’t do with them
waynedl:
Sometimes ‘trunk’ doesn’t mean 1 base, 1 drop.
Then that would technically be multi drop
Technically I agree, doesn’t stop them advertising the jobs as trunks though.
As I said, I’d call it night multi drop myself. Managed it for a few months before I started having really long blinks, thought it was time for a change.
Santa:
I wonder if the OP meant “tramping” when he said “trunking”?
Nah, i did mean “trunking” Santa m8
I know what tramping is and i also know that sometimes in my working life, its gonna be one of those things i`m gonna have to do. Especially if it brings in extra money.
Thanks for your comments peoples, Im gonna apply to agencies and just pick up what i can get. I agree with some of you that trunking is "easy" first time experience and to be fair, if its easy, ill get too into it and that`ll be me for the next 5 years, I wanna try all types of driving work just so i have a clearer picture on what i like most.
Too be fair, (i know some people here dont like it) i wouldnt mind doing abit of multidrop work with NISA or something. I dont ming lugging huge cages around and keeping fit at the same time.
I currenlty weigh just under 19stone and am 6ft-1 and in the past 2 months, i put on 2 stone…They need a WII fit style game for the PS3 i think
I`ve always had an active job thats kept me thinner and multi-drop cage work looks ideal.
It will only get you thinner if you stop eating crap to I never got really fit from doing co-op which was pulling between 60 and 100 cages a day and looking some of the fat sods there it is proof that even a manual job wont keep you fit or slim.
Trying out everything on agency will be good for you, I have just done a day on containers and a flat bed today. Easy day, new to containers and I learnt for near enough the whole day yet again and would be happy to do more of them to be fair especially if a container job came my way(I wish) Back on royal mail tomorrow, its sooo boring but easy as I and others have said its boring work but I dont mind now and then.
I’m counting myself lucky that my first run in an artic (tomorow) is a trunk run, that’s how I wanted it though; I want to build up to the more stressful jobs and give myself time to settle in to driving them rather than have a nightmare first day and dread the next!
Being agency though, it could be anything- a different agency rang after I agreed to do this one asking me to go to a place that I know runs nothing but double deckers! I’d still have done it though as it’s a simple enough job.
Back on royal mail tomorrow, its sooo boring but easy as I and others have said its boring work but I dont mind now and then.