i’ve only recently passed my class 1 and i’ve been wondering if i think i need a banksman to guide me into a yard. Are companies under any obligation to provide one under health and safety laws?
Health & safety 
This is a grown ups world
Banksman 
Why don’t you just use your mirrors 
If you’re backing in from a road then it may be useful to have someone stop the traffic, but why do you want someone to guide you in You start trusting peoples judgement & you’ll be filling insurance forms out for the rest of your career 
Just go slowly & look all around you, if in doubt get out & have a look, you don’t have to get it in on one everytime so if you’re not happy pull out & start again.
The art of reversing is all about positioning, get it as straight as you can so that you can see where you’re going & you’ll be fine
I dont mean to sound unfelpful but I would have thought that after passing your class 1 you should be fairly confident and comfortable in driving and reversing an artic. If you go by what newmercman has said then I think you should be fine. Not that I have my class 1 yet. 
. I remeber the sheer excitement on my first day on my first class 2 job LOL. If ever you feel a drop in confidence just remember you passed your C+E practical test on merit. Hope that hepls.
thanks for comments. As a rule i do all the above very slowly. i try to keep calm if i mess it up and have to start again!
i was merely wondering about the legal side of it, many places have signs saying “no reversing without a banksman”.
I do get a thrill when i’ve successfully reversed into a tight spot unaided.
As for being told how easy it is from a class 2 driver? You can be patronizing when you’ve passed your class 1.
You’re learning well Dave, nice response to movin_on, although he was trying to be helpful 
As for making a balls up & starting again, that happens to the best of em mate, a wise old sage told me 'don’t be a [zb] take a shunt BTW before the [zb] that did rhyme
Practice makes perfect as they say, although over the 20 odd years I’ve been doing it I’ve had plenty of practice, yet I still balls it up now & again, normally when there’s a big crowd watching 
If a sign says don’t reverse without a banksman, I would ask first, it’s probably just a load of H&S testicles but if it does go wrong then you could be in the ■■■■
davedb67:
As for being told how easy it is from a class 2 driver? You can be patronizing when you’ve passed your class 1.
And they say theres no division between the classes, what a ■■■■■■ attitude
PaulJC79:
davedb67:
As for being told how easy it is from a class 2 driver? You can be patronizing when you’ve passed your class 1.And they say theres no division between the classes, what a [zb] attitude
The lad’s just passed his class 1, gotta let him have that one surely 
i’ve reread what i wrote and yes i was a bit of an arse. for that i apologise i’ll get myself severely whipped when i get home .
I’ve only ever asked for assistance when i’ve been at the limit of my abilities and its never been refused but if it was would i just have to struggle on best i could or would i be justified to take the keys out and go for a cuppa
If you think it’s unsafe, then stop, phone your TM & see what they say, if you’re told to carry on & there is no danger to YOU, then go for it, that way you ain’t in the ■■■■ when/if it all goes ■■■■ up 
Do NOT listen to people at the place where you’re having the problem, unless the place is already full of lorries
You will hear ‘we get bigger than that here every day mate’ then the next thing you know you’re stuck or you’ve bent your motor, guess who gets the blame
i’ve already had the “we get bigger in everyday” also if you do ask for a banksman its normally the little numbty who they don’t trust to do anything really important anyway lol.
Thanks for the advice i hate to admit i can’t do a job but sometimes it pays to pass the buck in advance.
Good luck with it, you’ll have a lot of fun if you do it the right way 
my dad used to know a driver on the continent many years ago who, as he told me, was fine going forwards, but could NOT go backwards with a trailer, and every drop he went to all over europe, he had to find someone else to put it on a bay for him.
nice if you can get away with it eh?
moving_on:
that after passing your class 1 you should be fairly confident and comfortable in driving and reversing an artic.
Nope don’t remember feeling that all In fact that’s when I realised how hard it was to do the job.
The question about banksman is actually a good one. Many building sites etc have signs that say no reversing without a banksman and the banksman isn’t just some bod they find standing around, he has to have a banksman ticket.
Newmercman advice was spot on, take your time, if in doubt have a look.
Take care and keep an eye for people crossing round the back of the truck, especially if you’re reversing off the road. You wouldn’t believe how many people will play chicken with a reversing artic.
PaulJC79:
davedb67:
As for being told how easy it is from a class 2 driver? You can be patronizing when you’ve passed your class 1.And they say theres no division between the classes, what a [zb] attitude
No I think that’s a fair point, I’d never tell someone how easy something was unless I was able to do it myself. I’ve only recently passed class 1 and only been out a couple of times, it’s not easy and only practice will improve things. I’d take a dim view of someone telling me how easy it was if they couldn’t do it themselves.
many places have signs saying “no reversing without a banksman”.
Try and find the banksman, they are usually invisible. Nothing ever happens if you ignore the sign and reverse on your own anyway.
8wheels:
Try and find the banksman, they are usually invisible. Nothing ever happens if you ignore the sign and reverse on your own anyway.
i’m fairly confident i can put my truck anywhere i want it given enough time. What worries me is the longer it takes, pedestrians get impatient and do suicidal things!
MADBAZ:
8wheels:
Try and find the banksman, they are usually invisible. Nothing ever happens if you ignore the sign and reverse on your own anyway.
OK fair enough, but that wasn’t quite what I was driving at. What I mean is that with reversing lights and beeper and a good luck to see what’s there in the first place you’re generally OK if you keep it slow and keep your eyes in the mirrors. Added bonus if you’ve got a rear camera too, as you can scan it in betwen the mirrors.
If I had no reversing lights, beeper or camera I would be very dubious about reversing anywhere.
Just to add…
If in doubt…
STOP - GOAL (Get Out And Look)
8wheels:
MADBAZ:
8wheels:
Try and find the banksman, they are usually invisible. Nothing ever happens if you ignore the sign and reverse on your own anyway.OK fair enough, but that wasn’t quite what I was driving at. What I mean is that with reversing lights and beeper and a good luck to see what’s there in the first place you’re generally OK if you keep it slow and keep your eyes in the mirrors. Added bonus if you’ve got a rear camera too, as you can scan it in betwen the mirrors.
If I had no reversing lights, beeper or camera I would be very dubious about reversing anywhere.
■■■■■■■ good job you ain’t been at it long then mate, cos we’d all be living in mud huts & eating raw veg if we were all too scared of reversing without a beeper or camera
I’ve got beepers and I can see out of back windows, and despite all precautions (other than a decent banksman, more chance of finding rocking horse doo-dah) you still get peeps determined to be bumper ornaments, delivering to Tesco/Sainsbury’s front door on fri/sat is akin to mass attempted manslaughter.
The best solution i’ve found is plenty of right foot , not aggressivley but enough to divert peeps attention to what I’m doing!
I think that is the problem, a tractor unit almost on idle reversing isn’t that loud 50+ feet away, muffled by the trailer and ambient sound, and their attention diverted (rolling a ■■■/texting/talking/watching out for their gaffer etc) thats when they end up as a stain on the tarmac/loading bay wall 
Bleepers don’t always work, if people hear them all the time they bcome desensitized to them, our vans beep for bloody everything but peeps still leave lights on, keys in ignition etc, the same is true in the yard many a time someone has had to co-erced out of the way of forktrucks or reversing vans esp when they’ve been engrossed in putting the world to rights.
No firm will employ a full time banksman, whoever is nominated usually has another more urgent role, firms will only pay lip service to all things H+S and ISO, cos they have to, for the insurance (covering their arse) and for major contracts.