You’re doing well so far!
Someone please what on earth is the magic roundabout you been on the mushroom tea again?!
google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h … BQ&dur=513
I dunno if that link will work, but if not it’s 5 mini roundabouts all together, which is fun in an artic…
just a little thought if you buy the truckers handbook its got different tail lifts in that so if you come across a new one that you aint used before can refer also has different gear boxs and lots of other useful info uncoupling etc , when i first started on lorries was used constantly also has different tacho units in it too came in handy if I couldnt get hold of someone on the phone to ask 
,
jen x
The joys of a 5pm start - here I am at 2.30 am and wide awake. Another variation on the introduction to your vehicle today - first find the transport office, tucked away somewhere at one end of the factory complex, then someone who knows where things are, then get the paperwork and told to go see the shunter he’s got the keys. Find the right truck just backed under the right trailer, so it’s up to me to put my card in the tacho and then connect it all up…it’s another curtainside so I’ve now gone from 7.5 tonnes to an artic curtainsider in 3 easy steps…
Faff about doing checks, making sure trailer engaged, kingpin in, put in number plate, wind up legs etc. Still checking everything twice (at least). Now carry a torch so I can nip under it and check the pin is locked in from behind.
Merc Axor, air con turned up to full so nice and cold, stereo on full blast. Turn the stereo down a bit and try and work out the gears. Eventually suss that the button on the left of the little lever is neutral, press the right hand button in and forward to go forward, back for reverse, and a seperate switch for manual. Lights and horn on the left of the wheel and cruise control and engine/exhaust brake on the right. Remote control unit for suspension, same as the volvo. Must look at that Truckers handbook as it might save me time and hassle.
Nightmare getting out of town - busy very narrow roads, tight single lane bridge with a sharp bend in it. Meet another truck on a blind hairpin, fortunately I’m crawling. Encounter the classic junction with a right turn on to another road where the angle means you can’t see to the left and almost fail to position the cab so I can… thank goodness for air con keeping me cool. Get another warning light, eventually work out it’s telling me the engine brake is on (just before I ring in to ask).
Then motorway all the way up to Stafford, big distribution center with long list of rules and regs. Have to hang out of window to press intercom, park in red bay and walk to office. Tell the “goods in” it’s my first time and they are helpful, back on to the allocated bay and miss completely but get it on second time with no shunts. Remember to open rear doors (first time I’ve done this) but forget to take off number plate. Fortunately can get at it with the trailer on the bay crawling underneath (must remember this next time!). Drop trailer then go pick up another one, find out more tips from helpful shunter, eventually escape intact with empty trailer.
Stop soon after leaving - after four hours driving, to eat, motorway food and so bang goes at least an hours pay! £3.16 for a coffee…Take just over 45 minutes then back on the M6 in to Birmingham. Roadworks blocking the M5 junction so go past it, have now missed the M5, fortunately get off at next roundabout and go back so no time lost. Then the main road down to Bath off the M4 is closed so have to detour. But roads empty so enjoying the drive and getting smoother and better (well at least I think so!). Get back to depot, factory open and all the lights on but not a soul to be seen. Back truck neatly in to a gap (fluke, miss kerb by inches) and wander round the empty fully lit and deserted factory for 10 minutes before finding a box with truck keys where I drop mine plus the paperwork and a detailed timesheet with milages breaks etc. I always take a print from the tacho and keep a sheet of paper with start and end milage, fuel guage, all the timings of start finish and drops and breaks, must be the lawyer in me collecting evidence - and making sure I cover my back.
Drive home and wake dogs wife and household then sit typing this as unable to relax for a bit. Sorry it’s a ramble but it’s good relaxation therapy for me!!
Have a message that I’ve got another artic run, deepest Wiltshire to Kempston, Bedford, friday afternoon. So views welcome on whether to go cross country on “A” roads (I think via Oxford and Buckingham), or M4 M25 M1… I’ll sleep on that one!
Ramble away mate love hearing your adventures lol , and fri afternoon i wouldnt wanna be anywhere near m25 or m1 !!
gonna be a nice day take the a roads and enjoy the drive as for number plate done that myself helps being little then you can get at still lol
enjoy your drive this evening
jen x
kvin:
Have a message that I’ve got another artic run, deepest Wiltshire to Kempston, Bedford, friday afternoon. So views welcome on whether to go cross country on “A” roads (I think via Oxford and Buckingham), or M4 M25 M1… I’ll sleep on that one!
I’m local to the Bedfordshire end of that run.
M1 J13 to Kempston is now via the new A421 - if you don’t have up to date maps, satnav or recent local knowledge, look on Google Maps so that you understand the new configuration of the junction.
If you go via Buckingham, the A421 is a single carriageway between Buckingham and Milton Keynes. Once you reach MK, the A421 becomes a dual carriageway with a lot of roundabouts (don’t know if that bothers you with your limited CE experience). There’s a short single carriageway stretch as you leave MK until you reach M1 J13, then dual carriageway all the way from M1 J13 to Kempston.
There are roadworks from just north of M1 J10 to M1 J13 - contraflow, SPECS average speed cameras at 50mph and quite a lot of crashes.
I don’t know whether this helps you choose one of your proposed routes.
All the best with your ongoing journey into LGV driving - I’m enjoying reading it, not least as I’m and LLB undergraduate (with what is, I hope, a very realistic view of the current state of the legal professions) and feel some sort of connection to you.
I google mapped the A421 only to find they took the pics before the road was finished! But fortunately had the map so could see which junction and that I needed to keep going right!
Pitched up at the yard today and got keys to a new Merc, fortunately the controls were in the same place as in the previous truck. And the aircon was cold… Trailer was a really rusty knackered box, very big and tall which made it fun as it was surprisingly windy. Suspect it was quite light as full of beds! Fought my way through the village by the Industrial estate - parked cars, blind bends, buses etc, then had to do it all again as got an ABS warning light that didn’t respond to reconnecting the susies, so went back to check it out. Told “they always do that. It’s because you’ve got a new truck and an old trailer. Ignore it…”
Got one of those classics where there’s a line of parked cars on your side of the road, then a blind bend, so you have to commit to pass them and then an old lady comes round the corner towards me (in a Honda Jazz of course) and keeps going. So we meet in the middle and there’s no way I’m going backwards and half a dozen more cars come round and they keep going too. Could have still been there now, but they sensibly took to the pavement when I slowly drove at them.
Decided to stick to motorways despite very long traffic reports about jams everywhere… and only got stuck once, on the M1 before the roadworks, but pootled along very slowly for half an hour or so in a queue which at least moved most of the time. Got to the depot which was easy to see from the road and checked in at 4 hours 15 driving time on the tacho, with it counting down to 4.30! Backed it on to bay 21, remembered to open the doors and take off the number plate. Had a panic about crushing the structure around the warehouse door, but the neighbouring ones were crushed too! Went and picked up my replacement trailer (which was shiny and new like the truck…but still got a warning light after a couple of miles…) Getting quicker at dropping and picking up trailers, even managed to click on to the pin instead of ramming it and clunking in to place… but still getting out and checking lots of times to make absolutely sure it’s all ok.
Tacho still counting down driving time, so had five minutes to get an exit code, find the exit and get out and go to the ■■■■■■■■■■■■ I’d seen on the way in for the mandatory break - I’d had 15 minutes break earlier to get a bite to eat so had 30 minutes enjoying the view of the newly covered landfill around the old brickworks at Kempston… then back to wiltshire. Nice quiet run, sitting at 56 and listening to the radio, watching what was going on and generally enjoying driving (sad I know). Fuel just reaching reserve - there was a fuel card but Esso and no Esso garages to be seen so ploughed on to the depot. Dropped trailer as requested at the start of the shift and drop keys and paperwork through the letter box of the dark deserted factory! Another late finish - 11pm. Over 1200 kilometres in the three days I’ve driven this week, and introduced to merc trucks, loading pallets, analogue tachos, Argos warehouses, opening rear doors, and nearly running out of hours… now I know that you do get a bit of warning of the latter.
Bought one of those daft looking bluetooth earpieces this morning, so could talk to agencies about the next job while driving, apparently I’m driving a removals truck on Monday (!) Just need to explain that I’m getting the hang of sitting in a cab with nice cold air con and not actually touching the load let alone lugging it in and out of someones house. In this heat?
Djw I’m not sure my experience is a good guide, I don’t know that I’d recommend being a lawyer or a driver at the moment! I’m enjoying the driving but just got a payslip for one of my runs last week - £52 for the day. Now if I could get my old hourly rate of £205 for driving I’d be very happy.
Hah, had my Monday job cancelled then got a call minutes ago while on here, 8.30 pm saturday night, to ask if I can do a milk tanker run up to london tomorrow at 4 am. Force smile, say yes, and think more experience and some (but not much) money. Best pack my bag and go off to bed then!!!
Okey-Didley-Dokely:
Your a foil to take up driving for a living, it as turned into the worst job out there. Toilet cleaners get treat better.
…I’ll give you a year till your on here complaining about all the [zb] you have to endure on a dailly basis.
^^ What he said
+1
aw, you’re just trying to cheer me up. 7 months to go then. Today’s run wasn’t up to london, but over the mendips to a dairy, drop 18500l of milk then back to the depot to collect another load and back again then home. 61 plate volvo 500 with cold air con - tick the first box. Narrow hilly a road with high hedges trees and walls and single carriageways through pretty villages - fine at 5 am but hells bells when the traffic got going. And a cycle event on the last return journey, impossible to overtake them so lots of crawling with a long queue behind me, and the ever present prospect of a numpty overtaking a bike on a blind bend coming the other way…
Suitable job for a small tanker, not for a bulker, but now I know how wide it is and how close I can get the mirrors to those cottage walls…plus not a full load so moved a lot, making the truck change up on uphills then almost stop when the load went backwards.
Encountered some crap - the nice folk “in the office” took two hours to allow me to tip the first load so the whole schedule went out of the window, with no real explanation. But the guys on the pipes were fine, the canteen did a full breakfast with coffee and toast for £1.25, got it done albeit in 11 hours and stayed cool and enjoyed the drive and the scenery.
I don’t think drivers get treated with respect, and they are often ignored - but then I don’t think many people get treated with respect nowadays. As a new driver with the little I’ve learned so far I’ve got a lot of respect for good professional drivers and still hope to become one!
kvin:
I don’t think drivers get treated with respect, and they are often ignored
…and so it begins.
Welcome to being a commercial driver, where everything is your fault (even if it isn’t)
Anyway, nice account, was fun to read. Well done on keeping your cool and proceeding with it methodically and calmly. Those are the key things in this job. It’s all too easy to let your patience slip and just lose it after a certain point, and once you lose your composure it’s all downhill from that point…
All the best
Not much work this week, saving it for the weekend. Went in to the first agency I signed up with which has only given me 7.5 ton and rigid work, told them I’d been doing artic work…“but you’ve not got 2 years experience”. Well I’ve been doing it so please ask your clients whether I can drive for them! And yes I have driven a 3 axle tanker and enjoyed it (not saying I’m any good at it but they haven’t told me not to come back - yet).
The agency that gives me the artic work then rang with another run up to Stafford, 5 pm today, same place as last week. This time a new Man truck, so another game of find the gear selector, cruise control, engine brake, etc… Gear selector a round knob with D on the left and R on the right, well fairly straightforward if nothing like a gear lever.
Then play hunt the trailer, I’ve got a number so it must be here somewhere. Had the pleasure of explaining to another agency driver new to the place where to find his run sheet and truck keys and no there isn’t anyone who wants to talk to you or tell you anything and when you get back yes really you just drop the keys in and leave…
Tried to work out air con, radio, seat controls etc before driving off to avoid near death experiences as I fumbled with them on windy roads. Still couldn’t fathom the engine brake which was savage, changed down several gears as soon as I thought of touching the brake pedal. Needed a quiet bit of road to work that one out and there wasn’t one.
Straightforward run up to Stafford, even a simple drop as I’d been there once before so knew the drill. Got told this time to back straight on to a bay before taking in the paperwork, sorted it out quickly and then picked up my empty trailer and remembered to avoid demolishing the gatehouse on the way out. Dinner at 9 pm, but brought my own and avoided the expensive and unpleasant pies at Hilton Park services. Salad in a box - come autumn I’m going to have to work out how to do hot food in different cabs.
Even saw the M5 junction this time - which I missed last time. Bloody great big signs and several of them so how I missed them is a bit worrying. Must be age. Then many signs to tell me that there was no access from M5 to M4. Great. So a detour down the 417 and 419 to Cirencester and Swindon, which made a change and got the chance to go up Birdlip Hill which is fairly steep and interesting at the top. Back to the deserted but fully lit factory to drop off truck and keys. Wrote a fairly detailed note with milages times and warning lights - how is it that brand new trucks come up with “Malfunction - emissions” and other warnings which then go out leaving me on the edge of my seat wondering whether to stop and phone someone… I wasn’t sure that “emissions” warranted a call so long as it went out, and the trailer abs warning seems to be standard on the trailers this firm uses.
Phone call while on this trip to give me another tanker run tomorrow, but another cross country one and not up to London so somewhere else new, 2 pm start so I get an 11 hour break, just need to relax now I’m home and go to bed…
It’s great you have lots of work coming in. Looks like you are enjoying it too.
You can now see the big advantage of working agency. Within a few weeks you have driven many different trucks with different gears and body types.
Shame the other agency is not willing to take you on artic work. Their loss though.
Well done. Keep on plugging away and maybe something full time will come up soon 
I reckon I want three days work a week - it would have to be the artic work so £80 to £90 a day, to pay most of the bills and get by (so long as the missus works part time too and the kids pay rent). I’ve been really lucky to get an agency that will give me work, and agree that the variety is a good thing though it’s sometimes a bit daunting. There’s a local firm which has drivers doing 30 hour weeks, three ten hour runs would suit me fine with plenty of time at home to go cycling and canoing…but again its a case of “two years experience”.
Today’s run got cancelled about ten minutes before I left the house, a real disappointment, apparently “not enough cream” to justify the bigger tanker. ■■■■, all dressed up complete with boots and hi viz and flask, and nowhere to go. So nothing booked until next wednesday which is a run down to Devon… I remember a really good switchback road from the m5 which could be fun. Fingers crossed I get something over this weekend as I’m still new enough to want to get out there and drive something big.
It’s another of those 1 in the morning jobs - just back from another enthralling 14 hour day. Got a call last night, can I do a tanker run sunday for 8 am. Turn up and get allocated a Scania with a stoneridge tacho, two new experiences for me. Suss the tacho first… but can’t work out why this truck has a clutch and no gear lever. Give up and look stupid and ask, ah so they put the gear selector on the steering column and you only use the clutch to start off and when you stop, who’d have thought it? Don’t drivers unfamiliar with this forget when they arrive at junctions? They do?
Pootle 25 k’s or so to the dairy to pick up a load of cream (the drive is 30 minutes, the paperwork and the wait is hours). Spend some time working out which valves to open on the trailer, though by now I know there’s a vent and a CIP valve and a footvalve for each of the two tanks and to open the vents and the CIP to load. Once loaded it’s back to base to fuel up and drop the unit for a lucky chap to take on, sooner him than me as the truck really struggles with the load and as the tanks are only half full it sloshes backwards and forwards enough to make the truck change gear…
Pick up a volvo fh500 instead - even with 27000 litres of milk in the tanker this is much easier to drive. This load is back to the same dairy, so back again to join the queue dropping milk. Arrive at 3, to be told that I won’t tip until 7 - 8 pm. So get out book and catch up with my reading, occasionally moving a hundred yards with the queue.
Eventually get on the bay, realise the drivers here are connecting up their own pipework and operating the system to tip, so a quick lesson from another driver who tells me he’s in his seventies…will I be doing this in my seventies…Open valves, connect up, press buttons, get told horror story of the driver who didn’t open his vent valves and the tanker inner tank was sucked in wrecking the tanker, check valves three times, hope it isn’t me next time. Move tanker with ladders down, remember in time being told that they foul the unit wheels which rips off the mudguards and lights, breath sigh of relief at not doing so. Disaster seems a hairs breadth away…
Tip, move, then connect up the cleaning pipes and again ask someone to confirm they are in the right place…eventually clean and drive back to base. Refuel, then told to back trailer in to very narrow space in pitch dark and rain between two trailers, fortunately there is another driver in a dark green uniform to see me in, hope he can see me as I can’t see him, or the units, or the gap… fortunately can see one side so stay a foot from that one even though I’m several feet from the one I can’t see. Manage to get the unit and trailer straight before backing so the only problem is the usual over correction I put in (so it’s left lock, ■■■■, right lock, ■■■■, left lock. I weave backwards). Long day and all of 98 kilometres driven…
Finally a new feature, the driver debrief. Lots of info on a detailed checklist here, but now a small room has been prepared with camera and digital TV screen and mic, yes it’s a video conference room. A friendly lady on screen - where is she? - interrogates me. She asks me for every detail - unit numbers, trailer numbers, all times, breaks taken by time and totals in minutes (takes me a while to add them up). POA. Other work. Litres collected and unloaded. Seal numbers. You name it. I stumble ashen and exhausted from the room, 13 plus hours at work and now this. At last I’m released, 14 hour shift plus two hours travel.
New knowledge? Stoneridge tacho in real life. Scania semi auto box (the word “why” springs to mind). Operating the unload and CIP computer at the dairy. And spent ages reading a book and listening to the radio in a warm comfy cab in the rain which is better than working, and possibly better than listening to sycophantic and ill informed pro monarchist drivel coming from the tv coverage of the river pageant (the highlights were more than enough, where do they get those commentators).
Day off tomorrow! (later today in fact).
Another great run with no damage done and some experiences gained.
Well done. Great job.
kvin:
It’s another of those 1 in the morning jobs - just back from another enthralling 14 hour day. Got a call last night, can I do a tanker run sunday for 8 am. Turn up and get allocated a Scania with a stoneridge tacho, two new experiences for me. Suss the tacho first… but can’t work out why this truck has a clutch and no gear lever. Give up and look stupid and ask, ah so they put the gear selector on the steering column and you only use the clutch to start off and when you stop, who’d have thought it? Don’t drivers unfamiliar with this forget when they arrive at junctions? They do?Pootle 25 k’s or so to the dairy to pick up a load of cream (the drive is 30 minutes, the paperwork and the wait is hours). Spend some time working out which valves to open on the trailer, though by now I know there’s a vent and a CIP valve and a footvalve for each of the two tanks and to open the vents and the CIP to load. Once loaded it’s back to base to fuel up and drop the unit for a lucky chap to take on, sooner him than me as the truck really struggles with the load and as the tanks are only half full it sloshes backwards and forwards enough to make the truck change gear…You could use the manual option to prevent this.
Pick up a volvo fh500 instead - even with 27000 litres of milk in the tanker this is much easier to drive. This load is back to the same dairy, so back again to join the queue dropping milk. Arrive at 3, to be told that I won’t tip until 7 - 8 pm. So get out book and catch up with my reading, occasionally moving a hundred yards with the queue.
Eventually get on the bay, realise the drivers here are connecting up their own pipework and operating the system to tip, so a quick lesson from another driver who tells me he’s in his seventies…will I be doing this in my seventies…Open valves, connect up, press buttons, get told horror story of the driver who didn’t open his vent valves and the tanker inner tank was sucked in wrecking the tanker, check valves three times, hope it isn’t me next time. Move tanker with ladders down, remember in time being told that they foul the unit wheels which rips off the mudguards and lights, breath sigh of relief at not doing so. Disaster seems a hairs breadth away…
Tip, move, then connect up the cleaning pipes and again ask someone to confirm they are in the right place…eventually clean and drive back to base. Refuel, then told to back trailer in to very narrow space in pitch dark and rain between two trailers, fortunately there is another driver in a dark green uniform to see me in, hope he can see me as I can’t see him, or the units, or the gap… fortunately can see one side so stay a foot from that one even though I’m several feet from the one I can’t see. Manage to get the unit and trailer straight before backing so the only problem is the usual over correction I put in (so it’s left lock, ■■■■, right lock, ■■■■, left lock. I weave backwards). Long day and all of 98 kilometres driven…
Finally a new feature, the driver debrief. Lots of info on a detailed checklist here, but now a small room has been prepared with camera and digital TV screen and mic, yes it’s a video conference room. A friendly lady on screen - where is she? -Arla, Hoddesdon? interrogates me. She asks me for every detail - unit numbers, trailer numbers, all times, breaks taken by time and totals in minutes (takes me a while to add them up). POA. Other work. Litres collected and unloaded. Seal numbers. You name it. I stumble ashen and exhausted from the room, 13 plus hours at work and now this. At last I’m released, 14 hour shift plus two hours travel.
New knowledge? Stoneridge tacho in real life. Scania semi auto box (the word “why” springs to mind). Operating the unload and CIP computer at the dairy. And spent ages reading a book and listening to the radio in a warm comfy cab in the rain which is better than working, and possibly better than listening to sycophantic and ill informed pro monarchist drivel coming from the tv coverage of the river pageant (the highlights were more than enough, where do they get those commentators).
Day off tomorrow! (later today in fact).
I’m impressed! Keep up the good work!
Sitting typing at 6 in the morning this time - started a tanker run at 8 last night. Somerset down to deepest Devon. Was given a choice at the yard, a 58 plate Scania 420 semi auto with a stonegate tacho, a clutch, 500000k on the clock and a knackered seat or a 61 plate volvo FH500 with a siemens tacho, super comfortable leather seat with armrests (and no clutch). Hesitated for .0000001 seconds.
Found my trailer and dropped the one that was on the (volvo) unit and picked up the right one - did the paperwork and checks, then set off with 17500l of milk in to the Somerset villages across to the M5 with no dramas, M5 and A30 all good so far, then hit the smaller devon “a” roads. Very pleased it was dark, late at night and so I could see from miles away if anyone was coming in either direction and drive down the middle of the road where necessary, keep the mirrors out of the hedges and the trailer away from walls and cottages etc. Got fairly bogged down on a couple of steep hills, crawling up at not much more than 10mph just keeping the throttle at the point before the wheels started to spin and just before the box changed up - took your advice Mr T and used the manual option just to keep it at the right level to keep up speed on very wet and slippery roads…when I got a car behind me I got on a straight and slowed to let them past which made them happy and kept the pressure off me so I could drive sensibly.
Minor navigation nightmare, but fortunately found signs to “the Cheese Factory”. Not brilliantly signed but worked out the one way system and found the weighbridge, office unmanned. Several signs telling drivers to pick up key fobs and weigh in but no fob for my firm… the guy behind me said he didn’t know which one I needed so rang many extensions before finding a reluctant employee who walked down clearly not happy to be brought out in the rain, gave me a fob marked with another firm and was unimpressed by my ignorance. Bloody agency drivers eh… I followed him to the bay where he connected me up to the pipework while I opened the valves. Fortunately I’d had this trailer before, so knew that there was one extra valve on it that said pull to open but which had to be pushed to open…trivial bits of information make a big difference! Several of the tankers have valves incorrectly signed, some with marker pen written over the signs, so you have to be careful and double check.
Tipped in about 20 minutes while I put the tacho on rest and had a cup of coffee - then connected up the cleaning pipes. Hadn’t got the “CIP” form, so a call to the office for it to be faxed. Cleaning took another 30 minutes so I got in my full 45 minutes break. My new happy friend definitely wasn’t talking to me by now, but I did manage to extract that there was a one way system, that I had to go back on the weighbridge and in to the office and weigh out by myself, but that all I had to do was follow the instructions on screen and I could turn round and leave without coming back through the one way system. Don’t think he wanted to see me again. Turned out that yes the weighbridge instructions were nice and clear and that I’d weighed in at about 34000 kilos (hells bells that’s 34 tonnes, no wonder it doesn’t want to stop on those steep downhills in to z bends) and delivered about 20 more litres than I started with. Even left the fob on the rack as instructed though tempted to keep it (as a souvenir?).
The big benefit of being down a quiet country road after midnight was that working out the way back to the A30 could include stopping at one junction to check the map, ■■■■ good thing too as I nearly went the wrong way and could have gone miles before finding somewhere to turn round! Much easier run back despite the pouring rain, hardly any traffic so just enjoyed the driving. Goes and stops a lot better when empty. I’d deliberately gone to bed late and got up late for a couple of days to make sure I could stay awake and it paid off as I wasn’t tired. Back at yard fueled the truck, backed it straight in to a bay without any shunts (another fluke), filled in lots of info on the forms and had the slightly surreal video link conversation with a polite man (presumably in Harpenden) to tell him all about it.
So will now have to sleep during the day, as have another tanker run tonight up to London and then apparently down to Southampton area, another new place to find and I guess different procedures to try and work out. It’s all experience!