Having got my C then C+E recently, I’m lucky enough to have been offered work with a local company. I have to do an assessment run soon and am bricking it - haha! I learned in a bit of an old bag-of-spanners manual truck and now have to get to grips with a lovely new semi-automatic one with gadgets coming out of its ears… anyway I’m sure I’ll cope BUT, how have you newbies done with reversing into tight bays and such when you’re thrown out in the real world? What’s been your biggest ‘sweaty moment’ so far?
Good evening,we’ve all been there…I used to absolutely dread going this place in the picture.
You’d come into the village at 8:30/9am and the road you see would be full of cars both ways and our job was to back on where the green car is parked(note the bollards opposite too).
All the way in you’d got to keep your trailer about an inch away from the corner of the white building to get in,if you were too far away from the building you’d smash your unit on the bollards.
Couple that with pedestrians and inpatient motorists who really didn’t wanna stop for you it was a nightmare!!!
Nowadays it’s easy because I know how to get lined up ect,but I literally used to dread going,and many drivers fail and take out the bollards…well the unit as the bollards are cast iron!
One thing to remember
Before you move any truck, insert your taco . Place it on other work and do your vehicle checks… and don’t take any guff that its already been done… your licence… be sure to check everything including whats in or on ya trailer… complete the defects book then off you go…familiarise yourself with all vehicle controls and when your ready off you go…
Take your time…its not a race…remember mirror, mirrors,mirrors and lost of patience for the other idiots on the road 
Slowly take your time stop get out & look if necessary take a shunt or 3 if you need to oh & left to bend right to mend
Dont over steer small turns at a time
Yes I have lernt the hard way btw still get out & look now if I think I need to
I had to get in there with this.
Getting in was easy. Getting out was a PITA! Idiots had parked their cars along the right side meaning I couldn’t get round without taking a post out. I ended up doing about 30 shunts to get that barge out. Luckily I had help from members of the public.
Radar
Shouldn’t be down to a member of public to help… if you was delivering to a Coop store they should have had someone at store who is a qualified banks man…
Swampey2418:
RadarShouldn’t be down to a member of public to help… if you was delivering to a Coop store they should have had someone at store who is a qualified banks man…
I’ve delivered to that store - it’s a tt of a drop - Joe public park all over the narrow lane, and it really does take many shunts to get back out if some plonker leaves their eurobox and buers off for an hour
Rader19 - tip that helps a little - while waiting for the place to clear of cars, obviously some muppet will try and get into one of the spaces in the car park by the road, or even on the road itself… Tell them you are going to leave, that they are making it difficult… They will probably shrug their shoulders, and carry on. Winning move is to tell them you’re a new driver, and that you hope you won’t damage their car too much getting out! After a short think, they usually move 
Doesn’t matter if you’re new or not, they usually move
Best of luck,
Steeps
Haha Steeps, I like that one 
Hmm, some of those pics are a bit ‘brown trouser’ !!
So, I passed my assessment with no problem at all, which I was chuffed to bits about obviously 
I haven’t got a problem with the driving forwards, lol… I’m making a million notes so I don’t forget anything, esp stuff like timings of routes so I don’t get stuck over my hours, setting the height in the cab, changing my tacho options, and seeing what I’m doing backwards, as I’ve opted for night work. The company I’ll be driving for have been brilliant and I don’t want to let them down, fingers crossed I won’t!
The picture he posted doesn’t show what this drop is like…
That view up the road by the side of the store looks innocent enough, but the drop is up that lane, then turn left into the co-op (small) car park. The buggers park all the way down that lane making getting in and out tricky…
I would say that picture might just have been taken early morning before it got interesting?
Radar - another one to be aware of is Old Leake, near Boston - opposite a Church. You’re similarly screwed if you get there and there is a Wedding or Christening etc… Go early to that one if you can!
Steeps
Although nothing compared to the screw-ups we saw videos of on the CPC course today… holy s*** - some needed sympathy, some needed shooting, lol!