Does anyone else have an off/bad day every now and then?
For the last week and a bit i’ve been on this route, which has some of the tightest blind side reverses you can imagine. I’ve managed to get in them without too much bother all week, maybe having a shunt or 2, but today i could not for the life of me get the trailer to go where i wanted it to.
One of them is a blind side reverse off between a brick wall and a barn, it’s not much wider then the width of the trailer, and the road is a main road through a village, and no wider than a 2 lane country road, so you have no room to manouver. I thought i had it sorted, but today everything just went wrong. I ballsed it up first time, pulled it out and couldn’t get the unit and trailer straight, so couldn’t take the rear steer off, so i had to go half way up the road and try again. Then i cocked up again, then ran out of air trying to shunt it in, blocking the road. Tried again, and again, and again, i just couldn’t get it in.
I ended up parking up on the road for 15 minutes to chill out as i was getting so wound up by myself.
Maybe i was getting over confident, it’s only my 5th week driving artics, but it’s certainly made me question myself
99 % of the time i can reverse it in easily, the other 1% i could go round the block 10 times and still struggle like hell. we all have these days if were truthfull , it does get easier with time, but youll still have that reverse where you think,what the hell am i doing , and its normally on a fairly straight forward reverse
Off days and knowing you are having one, is a vital part of life IMO
Some days every thing you touch turns to you know what becoming aware of it will save at worst a set of steps or back lights suzies etc, and at best may save someone’s life.
This is all my personal opinion mind, but there are certain days, normally before 10 0’clock I realise the world and everything in it is against me, and take extreme care for the rest of the day. Others when I ignore it I have often regretted it.
Same thing with blind corners brows etc on narrow roads, the number of times I’ve thought ‘Whoa there’s something coming slow down’ and met an idiot on the wrong side of the road going too fast, is more than 10 I’m sure.
Could just be me like, but I always say ‘Trust your instincts’
Also bad days can occasionally turn into weeks and months.
as I’m sure one or two trucknet members will attest
C-Kay:
Does anyone else have an off/bad day every now and then?
For the last week and a bit i’ve been on this route, which has some of the tightest blind side reverses you can imagine. I’ve managed to get in them without too much bother all week, maybe having a shunt or 2, but today i could not for the life of me get the trailer to go where i wanted it to.
One of them is a blind side reverse off between a brick wall and a barn, it’s not much wider then the width of the trailer, and the road is a main road through a village, and no wider than a 2 lane country road, so you have no room to manouver. I thought i had it sorted, but today everything just went wrong. I ballsed it up first time, pulled it out and couldn’t get the unit and trailer straight, so couldn’t take the rear steer off, so i had to go half way up the road and try again. Then i cocked up again, then ran out of air trying to shunt it in, blocking the road. Tried again, and again, and again, i just couldn’t get it in.
I ended up parking up on the road for 15 minutes to chill out as i was getting so wound up by myself.
Maybe i was getting over confident, it’s only my 5th week driving artics, but it’s certainly made me question myself
Here mate don’t let it get you down. We all have days like this. You done the right thing by taking some chill time. I usually find the moment you think to yourself ah this it easy, doddle, skoosh, is the moment you end up making a balls up. When you get to a farm, never just fly in thinking your top man, always drive in calmly and pull up and take a moment or two to compose yourself, assess the situation and do the reverse in your mind before attempting it.
I’m having a right old time of it just now. Was away from trucks for about 5 months and now I can’t reverse to save myself lol. Hit another trailer in the yard the other night ripping the curtain, I also took ages to do a blindside that had a space two bays wide.
Remember the golden rule G.O.A.L. Even if you feel a fanny getting out and looking about when cars are waiting to get past etc
Yeh i hate those days when things dont go smoothly, especially on Fridays.
One Friday i was picking up a load of bricks from Harwich docks to take to Chalfont St Peter, shouldve been an easy run and early finish but when i arrived at 10:30am to pick them up the loader dithered for an hour as he wasnt sure whether the bricks he was putting on were the right colour (no labels on side), he called the brick manufacturer who passed him round the houses til he reached a dead end (answerphone) so he decided to put em on anyway, leaving for Chalfont about mid-day
When i get to the address (about 1:30-2pm) it was a house on a private estate and no one was in, got permission to offload (customer on phone wants me to put em round the back of his house, yeh right do i have one of those big tower cranes? NO I HAVE A HIAB YOU ■■■■ theyre going on the drive) had to drop trailer on a steep hill and back into this small gateway where i kept kissing the gatepost and trimming the tree overhead, finally got in, gingerly lifted the first two pallets off (pallets are just crap, bricks loosely packed so they fall out when you try to pick em up) third one breaks but luckily its only just off the floor so doesnt make a mess
After that i darent risk grabbing em so i get the rest of the pallets off by using slings, takes forever because i have one of those sit on cranes and as im the only one there i have to keep getting off to unhook/hookup slings, then i have to transfer the load off the trailer, getting out gateway is near impossible but do it after 2 billion shunts, start to transfer load and the crane packs up!! Call up our mechanic who looks after the trucks and give him an ear bashing, turns out the solenoid that operates the controls has given up and i have to jam in the override switch with a piece of wood.
Finally i get load off trailer and repeat the same nightmare as before, am tipped and ready to go at approx 4:30pm with just over an hour left to get to the Celcon plant at Borough Green in Kent to be in with a chance of loading for monday, get onto the M25 and hit a wall of traffic, barely move for the next hour so no chance of loading. Boss calls up around 5:30pm, says if im not gonna make it just run back to the yard at Purfleet, ok says i, and am just starting to launch into a rant about those ■■■■ bricks when the Boss says"er ok i’ll call you back" and cuts me off, leaving me to stew as i finally make it back to the yard at 7:30pm
Only last week i had a nightmare of a job trying to reverse onto a bay between 2 other trucks, to say the air turned blue was an understatment, i called myself all sorts of names, the two drivers sitting in there cabs really thought i had lost the plot, after finale getting it on the bay i got out and was laughing me nuts off, one of the other drivers said dont worry mate we all had problems like that when we started out, yes i know but i started out 30 years ago says i, and then he started laughing his nuts of which started me of again, turned out a good night in the end.
C-Kay:
Does anyone else have an off/bad day every now and then?
For the last week and a bit i’ve been on this route, which has some of the tightest blind side reverses you can imagine. I’ve managed to get in them without too much bother all week, maybe having a shunt or 2, but today i could not for the life of me get the trailer to go where i wanted it to.
One of them is a blind side reverse off between a brick wall and a barn, it’s not much wider then the width of the trailer, and the road is a main road through a village, and no wider than a 2 lane country road, so you have no room to manouver. I thought i had it sorted, but today everything just went wrong. I ballsed it up first time, pulled it out and couldn’t get the unit and trailer straight, so couldn’t take the rear steer off, so i had to go half way up the road and try again. Then i cocked up again, then ran out of air trying to shunt it in, blocking the road. Tried again, and again, and again, i just couldn’t get it in.
I ended up parking up on the road for 15 minutes to chill out as i was getting so wound up by myself.
Maybe i was getting over confident, it’s only my 5th week driving artics, but it’s certainly made me question myself
We all get those days, especially when we’re new it. You definately did the right thing driving up the road and parking up for 15 mins, quite apart from the positive effect on your nerves, it also gives your ‘audience’ time to disperse…
Every day’s a bad day when that alarm goes off
Just the thought of going out to see what numpty is going to do something downright stupid .
I’d love to just stay in bed and think sod it but hell bills have to be paid.
never mind
same sh17 diff day
Lets see what tonight brings I’m getting board with the same old thing like who’s gone up / down the bank cant these numptys do something really artistic for once
i always find that the difficult reverse is the one that goes without a hitch. give me an empty yard and i couldn’t hit a cows arse with a banjo!
bad days always seem to creep up on you unexpectedly, so i always make sure that there’s at least one can of beer in the fridge for me when i get home.
timmo:
i always find that the difficult reverse is the one that goes without a hitch. give me an empty yard and i couldn’t hit a cows arse with a banjo!
bad days always seem to creep up on you unexpectedly, so i always make sure that there’s at least one can of beer in the fridge for me when i get home.
C-Kay:
Cheers guys, i’m glad it’s not only me, i just could not work out what i was doing wrong/different to the last few times. It really bugged me
everyone has the occasional off day. you could have a loading bay or tight gate that you get perfect 100 times then one day it will take you 20 minutes of shunting. its frustrating and it usually falls on a day where there are other drivers watching you make an arse of it which adds to your misery. of course when you get a tricky one spot on first time and you are feeling rather chuffed with yourself, there is NEVER another driver in sight. they are always there on your off day
C-Kay:
Cheers guys, i’m glad it’s not only me, i just could not work out what i was doing wrong/different to the last few times. It really bugged me
everyone has the occasional off day. you could have a loading bay or tight gate that you get perfect 100 times then one day it will take you 20 minutes of shunting. its frustrating and it usually falls on a day where there are other drivers watching you make an arse of it which adds to your misery. of course when you get a tricky one spot on first time and you are feeling rather chuffed with yourself, there is NEVER another driver in sight. they are always there on your off day
Scanny if you take 20 minutes of shunting to get through a gate then you best hang the keys up now, bud
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