That sounds like an agency driver’s licence to print money.
Older under maintained motor, at least an hour getting it ship shape for the trip, take it steady lots of rest stops, more excuses than you could ever dream to milk the job.
Last agency job i did where the run old tackle it took me two hours before the thing was roadworthy, kerbloodyching.
The rush to autos hasn’t helped I still think the auto shouldn’t be an option for the HGV test it should be manual. I’ve seen first hand a driver refuse to take a manual out so they hired him a auto then he asked them to reverse it out of there yard as he thought it was too tight it wasn’t and they still sent him out id have sent him home and refused to pay
dieseldog999:
1.to the o/p…its a daf,so itl be prone to head probs as their a bag of crap being the remmnants of british Leyland,and if its legal,then your a limper,take what you get or get a job and laugh when someone else get the scrapheap,and 2 to priest…you have to be taking the pee…the sad thing is,you might not be.
I’m not sure how legal they are under the cab; the lights work and the wheelnuts are all done up, but if it overheats a quarter of the way up Birdlip then it’s for scrap. Not sure how legal it really is; they’ve been lucky, perhaps, that whoever is pulling over trucks at the moment (I know VOSA became DVSA but I’ve not seen one of their vans for months) is mostly targeting foreign ones.
Carryfast:
New generation trucks that can’t handle the miles meet new generation drivers that can’t drive.
Says the man who hasn’t looked at a road sign in 20 years! 
I like old motors; they generally romp on a bit 
alix776:
The rush to autos hasn’t helped I still think the auto shouldn’t be an option for the HGV test it should be manual. I’ve seen first hand a driver refuse to take a manual out so they hired him a auto then he asked them to reverse it out of there yard as he thought it was too tight it wasn’t and they still sent him out id have sent him home and refused to pay
My agency didn’t tell me it was a manual (they should do given that a lot of new passers have never touched a four over four, let alone a splitter). As I said I’m OK with manuals even though this was the first manual artic I’ve driven since I was a learner. And as for not being able to reverse, all they teach you is that contrived parallel-park manoeuvre. They should teach you about reversing round a corner and into a parking bay at a service station.
IndigoJo:
They should teach you about reversing round a corner and into a parking bay at a service station.
+1
My Mack has 2 gearsticks and is a crash box The 16 speed on the Daf is a sweet box.
No new drivers anylonger, place is well chucked…Nanny, mummy have taken their toll, big time.
There will be tears before bedtime
Priest:
IndigoJo:
They should teach you about reversing round a corner and into a parking bay at a service station.+1
+2
But only because I’ve got my licences! 
Eh when i were a lad.
Seriously though, when i took my test the training was a ten day course which was pretty standard of the time, now thats been reduced to a matter of a few days so no way on this earth have they got time to teach you about lorry driving, they are there to get you through the test and that they do well.
The rest is up to you, you either learn on the job or pay the training company to teach you how to drive a lorry after the test has been passed, but its going to cost you.
In the timeline we start our lorry lives we have to quickly back learn what the previous generation have been doing all their lives, it’s always been a baptism of fire the first few years in the game.
They didn’t teach roping and sheeting or about back-scotches on the training course either, you picked it up as you went along, just as the new drivers now are doing when they come across the odd manual box.
My lad took his test about 10 years ago, one of his first agency motors was a Scammell Constructor with of all things a good old Eaton Twin Splitter box, got a phone call from him peppered with ffff’s how do you drive this thing? told him the rudiments and suggested he played a tune on it and enjoy it, now all those years later he knows he was lucky to have had it because no gearbox he ever finds gives him the slightest issue after that baptism.
By the way its the same just slightly different for us older drivers and these new crap semi self driving lorries you young blokes come over all unecessary about, i hate the bloody things, every time you get a new one its learning more electronic interfering ■■■■■■■■ we don’t need and never asked for…you young blokes will be old sods one day and the cycle of unprogress will ■■■■ you lot off too then, next big thing daresay the lorry will ■■■■■■ the steering from you when the all seeing eye reckons something is imminent, just like the bloody brakes take over when they feel like on the latest rubbish…mind you check the drivers handbook for the small print where it says you are still responsible 
Priest:
whats a crash box?
Not to be confused with constant mesh which is easier and faster but still needs the same skills. Some say even girls like the young Queen Elizabeth had no problem driving them unlike the example of the muppet in the second example here. 
Juddian:
back-scotches
WTF?
You should work with Conor he can “Demand” what truck he drives 
einstein:
Priest:
whats a crash box?The best way to describe this is a gearbox with no synchromesh between the cogs. Pretty much all modern gearboxes have it.
Ironically pretty much all ( manual ) heavy truck gearboxes in the rest of the English speaking world outside of the EU’s meddling still ( rightly ) fit the definition of constant mesh.'But ‘crash’ means sliding not constant which is another level of matching road speed engine speed and timing and protesting if it’s wrong.
Carryfast:
Priest:
whats a crash box?Not to be confused with constant mesh which is easier and faster but still needs the same skills.
I think most people are referring to constant-mesh gearboxes nowadays when they say “crash box”. And yes, I’m sure the Queen has used them, as she drives Land Rovers round her vast estates (and has even driven the king of Saudi Arabia, who was not used to female drivers) and Land Rovers until recently (although less recently than ERF I think) had crash boxes.
IndigoJo:
alix776:
The rush to autos hasn’t helped I still think the auto shouldn’t be an option for the HGV test it should be manual. I’ve seen first hand a driver refuse to take a manual out so they hired him a auto then he asked them to reverse it out of there yard as he thought it was too tight it wasn’t and they still sent him out id have sent him home and refused to payMy agency didn’t tell me it was a manual (they should do given that a lot of new passers have never touched a four over four, let alone a splitter). As I said I’m OK with manuals even though this was the first manual artic I’ve driven since I was a learner. And as for not being able to reverse, all they teach you is that contrived parallel-park manoeuvre. They should teach you about reversing round a corner and into a parking bay at a service station.
Why should the agency tell you it’s a manual, you have a licence for the truck so drive it, if it’s not a gearbox you’re familiar with ask what gearbox it is and how to use it. It’s what most of us did when we started. And I don’t think Auto’s have much to do with it, I learned in a truck with a 6 speed box, the first truck I drove after passing my test was a 16 speed with a 4 over 4 and splitter on each gear, I used to do a bit of part time work for a haulier with a mixed fleet of trucks, if it wasn’t something I’d seen before I’d ask one of the drivers.
Maybe the reversing could be updated, but I doubt whatever they did, most drivers wouldn’t feel ready for real World reverses, but refusing to it is not the way to get better, I’d have far more respect for the newbie who asked for help and gave it a go, even if it took them a while to get there.
Evil8Beezle:
Juddian:
back-scotchesWTF?
Basically an 8ft long wooden wedge, which usually had a hole drilled in either end and a short rope set in to secure it tightly in place to the rope hooks, it was put behind the last roll of paper (newsprint typically) which might be two or three high depending on size.
Then you double sheeted them, roped between the rolls and fly sheeted over the top.
There font of bugger all thats me…
well the first 16-speed gearbox was driven by me after reading the very useful guide on this forum so thanks for that
the bad thing about it is that it felt like a pudding: have i pushed it far enough to engage the gear? if yes, what gear has actually engaged?
that’s probably the specifics of that vehicle as on other one it was spot on, or maybe the experience helped
.
Juddian:
Eh when i were a lad.Seriously though, when i took my test the training was a ten day course which was pretty standard of the time, now thats been reduced to a matter of a few days so no way on this earth have they got time to teach you about lorry driving, they are there to get you through the test and that they do well.
The rest is up to you, you either learn on the job or pay the training company to teach you how to drive a lorry after the test has been passed, but its going to cost you.
I did a 10 day course as well, but in those days many of us went from car licence straight to artics. I assume now you send a week getting a licence for a rigid and then about the same time getting a licence for an artic, so I reckon the training time will be the same, just not in the same type of vehicle.
In the timeline we start our lorry lives we have to quickly back learn what the previous generation have been doing all their lives, it’s always been a baptism of fire the first few years in the game.
They didn’t teach roping and sheeting or about back-scotches on the training course either, you picked it up as you went along, just as the new drivers now are doing when they come across the odd manual box.
[/quote]
I know it’s not always possible for a new driver to avoid the agency route, but I think in an ideal World, being able to work directly for a company when newly qualified would be better for learning on the job and agencies should be for experienced drivers who aren’t having to learn the basics of driving a truck, while getting to grips with different truck, jobs and companies everyday.
