MikeCunn:
I agree with both sides here. Everyone has bad days and sometimes I give myself a mental slap to concentrate harder and have another crack at it. The OP got it on a Bay without damage and did his job.
However, he’s been driving two years and should by now mostly be getting it right. It may have been an off day but if it’s happening regularly, maybe he should think of extra training or something.
The thing was i got the positioning wrong. I’ve done it before and I got it right. It’s just today that everything seems to be going ■■■■ up. It’s not like every time i take 100 shunts or take ages to get on a bay. If I’m honest it’s only 2nd or 3rd time in 2 yrs that it went so horribly wrong
In that case, there’s no problem. I wouldn’t bother worrying about it.
Wheel Nut:
As a tanker driver I have often got out and laid a glove on the floor next to the correct delivery point or under a loading arm, especially if there are a lot of pipes all coming out of the wall or the tankfarm.
Lol lol lol. That made me laugh as I remember pulling into Runcorn to load acid and put my glove on the floor for guidance. Unfortunately for me I parked on the fingertips, the operator was on the ball and got the arm straight in the lid and opened up, I pulled the glove that hard I pulled the fingers off and spent the next 20 minutes trying to hide my fingerless glove from the H&S Nazis!
For the first time ever I think I agree with Rob K! Surely after 2 years anyone should be able to reverse into a bay between 2 trucks.
One or 2 shunts if you are distracted or if it is dark or poorly lit but certainly no more.
My advice is practice on a A frame drawbar and after that an artic is a complete doddle.
Mate. Took me ages to crack it, and the only way i did to be honest, was to go shunting. The bays were incredibly tight and causing damage was so easy to do. The bloke who showed me the way it all worked advised me to stick the old bonce out of the window. It helped no end, and now most of the time i can do it no problem, but it is practice, and there are still times when you balls it up. Everybody ■■■■■ up at work, thats just human nature. Chin up, and just practice. Try just using your mirrors, if that causes you problems, try sticking ya head out and see how that goes. It will come, don’t beat yaself up
IMHO you know you have cracked driving one of these things when you don’t get stressed and don’t care how many people are watching, reversing blind side back out of a dead end onto a main road in heavy traffic is a walk in the park when you can keep cool, best of all when your not worried and stressed you also make less mistakes.
Everyone has their blonde days, OP should just relax and not worry about it
To the OP, it doesn’t matter if it takes one shunt or a 100, as long as you don’t damage anything then who cares
I was taught when I was learning “don’t be a ■■■■ take a shunt” and if I deem it necessary to, I will
I’m pretty good in an artic, most days, we all have a bad day here and there.
However today is the first time I’ve pulled a Super B. (2 trailers. The first has a 5th wheel over the last axle which the second trailer connects too) and I just parked for the night, it took me 8 shunts to get it backed in a ■■■■■■■■■■■■. I thought it would be easier ad I’ve driven A frame wagon and drags and the same principles apply, but it wasn’t.
I got it in dead straight on the last shunt and that’s with 28yrs experience of backing all kinds of trailers into all kinds of difficult places, 8 shunts and TBH it was only 8 shunts through luck not skill.
Rob K:
it’s what you were trained to do when you took your test. IIRC you’re only allowed 2 shunts on your test or it’s a fail so why you all making excuses for him?
Except its not. Perhaps when you learnt to drive you were actually trained to reverse in “real world situations” but I’m confident most of us were taught nothing more than the laughable dog leg reverse at the test centre which in no way prepares you for anything you’ll do in your job. Being allowed two shunts while going backwards in as near to a straight line as you can be without it actually being a straight line does not lends itself to backing on a tight door at an RDC between two trucks where by due to trailers or pallets placed opposite the bays its barely mathematically possible to get it in.
Perhaps if more emphasis was put on teaching new drivers how to actually drive, operate and maneuver their truck according to what they will have to do in real life once they have the licence, it would go a long way to ironing a lot of these problems out. At the end of the day though, its only something that comes with endless practice and even then its a case of good and bad days. It will also depend on the job as well, if you’re someone that started from day 1 on containers or fridges for example, everything is always coming out of the back so you’ll always be backing on to something, day in, day out. If however you started on curtainsiders/tilts/flat beds etc then much less of your time will be spent reversing on to bays.
I often used to struggle in the UK before moving to Canada reversing on to tight bays as it wasn’t something I did an awful lot as I was always pulling Euroliners or Tilts where 95% of the time it came out of the side, however after a few years in North America on fridges and box vans, and doing it with 53ft trailers with trucks with long bonnets and the like, when I now go back to the UK it seems much much easier as European trucks are so much more maneuverable and what felt difficult before now doesn’t.
newmercman:
I’m pretty good in an artic, most days, we all have a bad day here and there.
However today is the first time I’ve pulled a Super B. (2 trailers. The first has a 5th wheel over the last axle which the second trailer connects too) and I just parked for the night, it took me 8 shunts to get it backed in a ■■■■■■■■■■■■. I thought it would be easier ad I’ve driven A frame wagon and drags and the same principles apply, but it wasn’t.
I got it in dead straight on the last shunt and that’s with 28yrs experience of backing all kinds of trailers into all kinds of difficult places, 8 shunts and TBH it was only 8 shunts through luck not skill.
OP, I feel your pain
I had a go in my mates B-train here in NB a few years back…needless to say I have not rushed for a job driving said vehicles!
Rob K:
it’s what you were trained to do when you took your test. IIRC you’re only allowed 2 shunts on your test or it’s a fail so why you all making excuses for him?
Except its not. Perhaps when you learnt to drive you were actually trained to reverse in “real world situations” but I’m confident most of us were taught nothing more than the laughable dog leg reverse at the test centre
Source?
I’m pretty sure that 2 shunts is correct unless it’s since changed from the dog leg reverse maneouvre. Where is Peter Smith?
Rob K:
it’s what you were trained to do when you took your test. IIRC you’re only allowed 2 shunts on your test or it’s a fail so why you all making excuses for him?
Except its not. Perhaps when you learnt to drive you were actually trained to reverse in “real world situations” but I’m confident most of us were taught nothing more than the laughable dog leg reverse at the test centre
Source?
I’m pretty sure that 2 shunts is correct unless it’s since changed from the dog leg reverse maneouvre. Where is Peter Smith?
I’m not claiming you’re not allowed two shunts to do the dog leg maneuver, I’m claiming that being allowed two shunts to do a dog leg doesn’t constitute training for being able to back on to a tight RDC door which in the vast majority of cases will not involve simply driving staight forward in to endless space and then reversing a bit to the left and a bit to the right and job done.
Except its not. Perhaps when you learnt to drive you were actually trained to reverse in “real world situations” but I’m confident most of us were taught nothing more than the laughable dog leg reverse at the test centre which in no way prepares you for anything you’ll do in your job.
Can I say in a lot of cases you could well be correct with what you say but do you realise the only objective of a training company is get a candidate through their test and there after it is the responsibility of the driver to gain experience and learn.
In an ideal world an instructor would teach a person to reverse in real world situations but when you have a limited amount of time it is not always possible especially if you have a slow student or two!
We had 3 days on an artic or coach to train 2 students (which then may only hold a car licence) which is one and a half days each.Do you really think you have time to show extras on reversing when they are having trouble going forwards?
Initially when I started training you had far more time to train a person as a driver but now it is more prepare them for the test.
It is all about time and money now .
The LGV test needs to be a lot stricter.There is too much luck involved in passing hence drivers can pass and not be able to reverse properly.Standards are crap all round.
For the test your trained to pass the test, that’s all. Practise is set up exactly how you do it on test, so your not actually showing your reversing skills, your showing that you remember how to do this particular reversing manoeuvre
This is exactly it. Just because the OP has passed a UK Class 1 driving test, it doesn’t mean he’s qualified in a practical sense to do anything other than the very limited and non-realistic sequence of events that constitute the driving test. Doing a dog leg reverse is all well and good but how often do any of us go to deliver somewhere or park up somewhere and replicate that maneuver? Driver training needs to be based on what drivers will need to do in real life, not the current shambles.
Rob K:
it’s what you were trained to do when you took your test. IIRC you’re only allowed 2 shunts on your test or it’s a fail so why you all making excuses for him?
Except its not. Perhaps when you learnt to drive you were actually trained to reverse in “real world situations” but I’m confident most of us were taught nothing more than the laughable dog leg reverse at the test centre
Source?
I’m pretty sure that 2 shunts is correct unless it’s since changed from the dog leg reverse maneouvre. Where is Peter Smith?
You’re allowed two shunts, however one thing nobody tells you at the time is that each shunt counts as a minor fault, a third would convert it to a major one. If we knew that before our tests, we’d try and straighten out a balls up before risking a minor.
robinhood_1984:
This is exactly it. Just because the OP has passed a UK Class 1 driving test, it doesn’t mean he’s qualified in a practical sense to do anything other than the very limited and non-realistic sequence of events that constitute the driving test. Doing a dog leg reverse is all well and good but how often do any of us go to deliver somewhere or park up somewhere and replicate that maneuver? Driver training needs to be based on what drivers will need to do in real life, not the current shambles.
Ok so in other words a lot of drivers would probably need at least one months training if they were switched on.
Can you imagine the cost? How many could afford it?
Unfortunately the current system works and produces a very poor standard of driver.
Do not forget the LGV test is just like the car test.
You pass your test and then you start to learn.The problem with some drivers is they pass their test and think they know it all!
It is the whole system that is at fault.
Remember the LGV test is a basic test designed to get a candidate through their test and that is exactly what most training companies do.
you’ll get there 
