of course train him up , if every firm did this then there would be no need for this stupid illthought out driver cpc being forced on us !!
and yes i started by passing test on friday, keys thrown at me monday morning, theres your motor , luckily loaded with waste paper , sheeted and roped for me (how lucky was i ?) get it there and undo it then back for another load !!
its just the same as every other industry just because we were given pooie end of the stick no need to do it to youngsters coming into the game
STEVECB1300:
This is from a thread about how I got started recently…Full thread here… viewtopic.php?f=5&t=52790
Well thats it…
Two week trial now over, got my own wagon and officially start work on Monday morning at 6.30…!!
Taking a 32x10ft slice (part of a pre-fab building) down to Southend. Its 1 of 6 going down at 1 hour intervals (TM said I could follow second wagon and go down together to give me a bit more confidence).
The first weeks trail I was originally to be on tipper work but got put on transport double manned, mainly cabins, plant and machinery. I got a crash course in securing the above with chains and straps and was driving for 2 1/2 days, tight reverses, loads of rear swing out, and tricky parking.The second week I was out with another driver also doing transport but on a bigger beaver tail wagon, although I didn’t get to drive I learnt a hell of a lot by talking, questioning and watching.
I used the hiab most days and couldn’t have wished for two better drivers to be with during the trial.
Have to say that all the lads I spoke to were very helpfull and had lots of time, not turning their noses up at the newbie. The [zb]s won’t tell me my nick name though…!Got back to the yard about 2 this afternoon and TM told be to put my gear in a wagon and go and load the slice and bring it back ready for Monday morning…
So my first solo trip was with loads of overhang, 10ft wide , loads of bunting and flashing ambers front and rear…!
Spent most of the time looking in my mirrors.! Pedestrians, sign posts, lights, parked cars… My heart was beating double time…My oh my what a great feeling, people flashing you through, kids pointing etc…
Really looking forward to Monday and got my fingers crossed it all goes well…Do I get to post in the profess ional drivers forum come Monday night…■■?
i think by monday you’ll be above talking to the likes of us!!!
good luck driver
of course ride with someone else for training , the jobs not what it was 20 years ago , i passed my HGV on a monday , made loads of calls to haulage firms on tuesday & was given a B reg scania r cab 112 360 on a thursday , hauling parsnips in tonne boxes to langdons @ exeter for processing , then to a farm to collect 22t of potatoes for home ,so excited i even got photo’s somewhere! not looked back since 
But today i be scared to death to try all that without at least someone for an inital round trip as employers want the work done before you leave the yard.
not just newbies either , even more experienced drivers have difficulties , as soon as they hopped in my cab & i ask why they want the job if the answer was *‘it’s fair money & the rota gives you lots of time off’*i knew they would last maybe a week maybe two, trouble was they’d spend two days with a driver , learn the controls for that particular lorry, then he’d be rota’d as a spare driver driving lots of different controled lorries & a workload that even some of the regulars would find a bit too exciteable,
no please train them , if you train them well , you’ll have a good driver that understands the lorry, the loads & the way you want your bussiness run.
the worst i’ve ever seen is a new green agency driver turn up at a milk depot to be handed a numberplate & keys to be told ‘there you go drive Oakthorpe 2130 tip’ he’d never been near tank before , so i offered him to follow me up insted of a 3.5 hour trip it took us nearly 4.5 it was going fine till he got to countess services roundabout on the A303, he tried stopping too quick & the slop pushed him into oncoming traffic , he was fine , but he should never have been sent to do it without training
The modern problem is caused by modern logistics, just in time, booking times and H&S. Companies started to segregate the drivers from the warehouse staff with the scourge of containers and pallets, each think they are better than the other, but in the days where you both got experience by carrying 800 sacks to the front of a trailer with all the banter that went with it, then both or all of you would muck in with ropes and sheets. I could sheet and rope a load and drive a forklift before I was 16, by then I was expected to change trailer wheels on my own and load outside hauliers like Ernest Thorpe with imported steel. With the onset of the just in time or express deliveries the urgent loads went by overnight parcel carrier which C&D was another good tool to learn the ropes, time pressure, multi-drop and route planning.
I mentioned in the United Carriers thread about Micky Robinson & “little Kev Bowling” he was my ■■■■■ for about 2 years and he knew Hull centre like the back of his hand, he then worked in the warehouse till he was 21 when the company sent him for his class three. It wasn’t long after that that I saw him in Hull with a DAF 2100 with a full size drawbar trailer and no worries about putting it anywhere.
My own entry into the heavy stuff came about as I pulled into the old Blue Star at Blyth for a 15 minute snooze.
I pulled alongside a bloke who I knew from the local pub, we chatted for a few minutes and he asked when I passed my class one. I told him about 3 weeks earlier, he said come and see me on Saturday morning 
I actually saw him on the Friday evening in the pub and he said If I went into the yard at 6am I could meet Chris who was nipping up to Yarm with a box. Did I want to go with him?
Excited I went to the dark yard and met Chris. I knew him from the pub too and he let me drive his F7 with an empty skelly. We went over the bridge to Immingham, put on a loaded 30 foot powder tanker and set off up towards the A19. Chris told me then that I would be offered a job when I got back and this would probably be my truck as he was getting a 142 
Sure enough that is what happened but in one day that I wasn’t paid for. I had driven an empty skelly, negotiated the Humber bridge and done the paperwork at Immingham. I learned how to blow a bulk pressure tanker, although I had already worked with bulk “bag in a box” systems and rotary seals. We returned to the yard and went to the pub. On Monday morning I put my weeks notice in with United Carriers 
The rest is history, just don’t mention the war 
throw them in the deep end, ive always prefered companies that ive worked for that do that. none of this pussyfooting around etc
We have a weeks training… but tbh it’s all paperwork and H&S. 2 days out on the road with another driver (not driving (just to see the job)) then in at the deep end… much better!
In at the deep-end is the best way in my opinion.
They are either going to do it or not, and if they are in at the deepend they have to use nouse, nouse is invaluable, it cannot be taught.
Mind you, saying that you can shove yer minimum wage mullarky, thats a urine extraction scheme.
williemac:
A driver comes with a new licence no experience of the industry at all. For experience would it be fair to place him with another driver on multidrop on rigids and artics, to do some of the driving and assisting with deliveries for minimum wage.They would be driving
Seems like a long winded way to do it. Why not send him on some easy short routes with detailed instructions of how to get there and what he has to do when he’s there. He’s already passed a test so he can drive. The more he does it the more experience he gets, simples !!
Why when a perfectly reasonably debating post is entered, do certain individuals fire straight back with bile driven negativity? “Throw them the keys and let them get on with it”! what a stupid comment.
I sounds as if that came from a disgruntled agency driver who struggles to find a ‘proper’ job. We should perhaps do that with surgeons also,“throw them the scalpel and let them get on with it.”
The longer and more training an individual has with experienced drivers, the more chance they have finding meaningful work without having to depend on agencies because they don’t have experience or cannot get insurance.
Do these magic keys have info on them regarding tacho operation and downloading, Hazchem info, basic maintenance and checks, weight distribution, ad infinitum. If so, mr Gogzy, I’d buy a set off you for good money tomorrow.
John Hart
Compared to say, 20 years ago, I have the greatest sympathy for todays newbies.
The trend seems to be that everything can be learnt from THEORY.
20 years ago there was virtually no theory - pass the test and then go for a job.
When you got to start that job there was, in most cases, a senior or experienced driver there to show a newbie the ropes (pardon the pun)
The company would also do their best to give the newbie perhaps a week of easy runs to settle them in which does not seem to be the case these days.
IMO there is too much theory and not enough practical on job training
Were we any more or less dangerous 20 years ago because we did not know the contents of todays theory books and the ability or not of doing a HPT ■■ …
theory books can only teach so much, it is much better if its hands on experiance, it sticks in the brain better and if you make a mess of it you know not to do it that way again. i was lucky when i started i had worked in the yard loading trucks and shunting them about
scotstrucker:
i was lucky when i started i had worked in the yard loading trucks and shunting them about
Me too… started by unloading and loading trucks/trailers either by handball or forklift.
If it was not loaded correctly then the driver would soon point out what was wrong and, in having to totally reload it, I soon learned how to do it properly first time !!!
Spent some time booking in, sorting & routing loads for multidrop drivers.
Did 1 year of night yard shunting… all that before I was 20.
Passed first driving test in 7.5 tonner for (car) licence and did multidrops for 10 years
HGV Class 1 in 1988 (now C+E)
Great, At last people are begining to see where the originator of the ‘Being fair to new drivers’ post is coming from.
The only comment which concens me is “if you make the mistake once, you learn not to do it again”. Unfortunately, if a 44 tonne vehicle slams into a motorway bridge pillar the driver would be lucky to ever have the chance of doing anything again.
How rude of me 
. 
Welcome John Hart .
Forum with some useful stuff and Forum for questions on drivers hours
John Hart:
Great, At last people are begining to see where the originator of the ‘Being fair to new drivers’ post is coming from.
The only comment which concens me is “if you make the mistake once, you learn not to do it again”. Unfortunately, if a 44 tonne vehicle slams into a motorway bridge pillar the driver would be lucky to ever have the chance of doing anything again.
Where’s the connection??.There’ no more reason why a newly qualified driver should slam a truck into a motorway bridge pillar than a driver with 20 years + experience.We’ve all got to start somewhere and if you take that argument to it’s logical conclusion there would be no new drivers.
This is going to go one of two ways for a new driver,if he is left to his own devices and has to teach himself ,then the company expects him to work off his own initiative at some point in the future ,and he does something to their dissatisfaction ,then they have only themselves to blame.Otherwise,if they train the driver properly they can put the onus back on the driver for getting something wrong.Swings and roundabouts.
The better the training, the better the outcome. As I said before, would anyone throw a scalpel at a trainee surgeon and say,“get on with this nephrectomy.” Of course not. He’d need the correct training. The better the training, the better the outcome.
And thanks for the welcome from Rog.
Considering that being a ‘truck driver’ is one of the most regulated and costly (when it goes Pete Tongue) jobs around, the initial ‘training’ is pants.
I’d been driving 7.5t since a kid, put in for my classes and got my C+E with basically two weeks tuition (inc C). No digi traing etc and my first day on the job was simply ‘here you are, band new Daf XF s/s auto with Triaxle; off you go and see you in three days’ Bearing in mind I’d learnt in an old Scanny with a single axle trailer.
Touch wood I’ve never had an accident mostly because I resort to asking whoevers around if I’m not sure, even three years on 
In that time I’ve learnt everything from the courtesy of fellow drivers and in return I pass on whatever I can to other newbies if they ask.
John Hart:
The better the training, the better the outcome. As I said before, would anyone throw a scalpel at a trainee surgeon and say,“get on with this nephrectomy.” Of course not. He’d need the correct training. The better the training, the better the outcome.And thanks for the welcome from Rog.
But in the case of a truck running off the road into a motorway bridge pillar the driver would have already been trained not to do that (hopefully) during the training to actually drive the thing.They don’t just throw a truck at anyone since the HGV licencing came into effect.A new driver with a licence is (should be) just as competent to drive it as anyone else assuming that new driver passed the LGV test.However it would be much better if that driver was also trained before holding the LGV licence in all the other issues concerned with driving a truck in the years before an LGV can legally be driven on the road.If the driver left school at 16 that gives at least 2 to 5 years to learn most of what’s needed before even driving the truck on the road.However in my experience try tellling that to the school careers advisors and the industry as a whole.How many 16 year olds actually get the opportunity in this industry to learn loading,the CPC,and yard shunting all before getting the on road driver training?..But as for driving a truck into a motorway bridge pillar that’s more likely to be caused by knackered drivers new or old trying to get the job done at 90 kmh.
Carryfast wrote
But in the case of a truck running off the road into a motorway bridge pillar the driver would have already been trained not to do that (hopefully) during the training to actually drive the thing.They don’t just throw a truck at anyone since the HGV licencing came into effect.A new driver with a licence is (should be) just as competent to drive it as anyone else assuming that new driver passed the LGV test.However it would be much better if that driver was also trained before holding the LGV licence in all the other issues concerned with driving a truck in the years before an LGV can legally be driven on the road.If the driver left school at 16 that gives at least 2 to 5 years to learn most of what’s needed before even driving the truck on the road.However in my experience try tellling that to the school careers advisors and the industry as a whole.How many 16 year olds actually get the opportunity in this industry to learn loading,the CPC,and yard shunting all before getting the on road driver training?..But as for driving a truck into a motorway bridge pillar that’s more likely to be caused by knackered drivers new or old trying to get the job done at 90 kmh
Trained in a classroom for 26 weeks and then sent for their test, “Well done son you’ve passed your test, thanks for the money that’ll go nicely toward a deposit on my new S Class Merc…goodbye!”…next please!"
The schools will have nothing to do with it, but I will. And, they will be trained not to drive when they are knackered, ‘Tiredness Can Kill’.