One of our regular drops has a little transport company on site and they would do all loading and unloading. It was a father and son outfit with maybe 2 or 3 other drivers working for them. The son is 24 now, but they taught him to drive the forklift when he was 6 or 7, and artics at the age of 12.
It was an easy yard, except if you had to go to the back of the building, then you had a blind reverse between a shed, a container and a little wall to get to the bay. That really was tight.
One day they had somebody with a drop for the back and told the driver to have a look first before he had a go. When he came back he looked a bit doubtfull, but he had a go.
About 20 minutes later he came back and said it was impossible and ordered to be unloaded at the front.
When the father told him it was not only possible, it was even possible in one go, “even children could do it”, he just put his keys on the counter…
The bloke’s face when the father called out his son (then 15), priceless…
And when the boy reversed it in one go… even better
Yep my ole man… have never lived it down either - i had got a carnival float stuck in a gateway… there was a gnats hair either side of the truck, I could not go back i could not go forward and was wondering if to just take the gate post out with the trailer - my ole dad came over - sucked his teeth and said words to the effect of i will be having words with YOUR mother, I am sure you aint mine… I got out through the keys at him… he caught em, and with a spring in his step jumped in, took off his cap, rev, rev, judder judder and it was like a hot knife through butter, straight through the gate way - did i feel a prat !
I’ve found that when you get the usual “XYZ get’s their mixer / tipper / builders merchant wagon in here” I ask if they’ve got the drivers phone number so they can give them a ring and ask them to pop down.
I had a bloke tell me that they’d had a 60’ wagon in a place the other day, ah but artics bend I replied. “No it wasn’t an artic!” Having seen that Jewsons and Travis Perkins could just about squeeze in and out but only by cutting the corner a bit tight across the edge of a ditch there was no way it was going to fit.
I was delivering a car to a private address with a wagon and drag. The only place I could find to park without blocking someone’s drive was to pull across a driveway that had a skip on it - therefore not used in the foreseeable half hour. I was parked opposite another driveway. A couple came out and started arguing that I couldn’t park there because they couldn’t get their car out. As soon as I offered to get their car out for them, the bloke suddenly decided that he could do it himself!
bald:
One of our regular drops has a little transport company on site and they would do all loading and unloading. It was a father and son outfit with maybe 2 or 3 other drivers working for them. The son is 24 now, but they taught him to drive the forklift when he was 6 or 7, and artics at the age of 12.
It was an easy yard, except if you had to go to the back of the building, then you had a blind reverse between a shed, a container and a little wall to get to the bay. That really was tight.
One day they had somebody with a drop for the back and told the driver to have a look first before he had a go. When he came back he looked a bit doubtfull, but he had a go.
About 20 minutes later he came back and said it was impossible and ordered to be unloaded at the front.
When the father told him it was not only possible, it was even possible in one go, “even children could do it”, he just put his keys on the counter…
The bloke’s face when the father called out his son (then 15), priceless…
And when the boy reversed it in one go… even better
Had a similar experience but reversed again. I’m 19 now coming on 20 and held my Class 1 since I was 18.
Dad used to drive waste tankers (artics) and I used to go with him and some of the sites were admittedly quite tight… I remember one day before I passed, must’ve been about 15 or so, and my Dad let me reverse the artic around this tight corner and right back to the pump. Anyway some time later one of the site attendants appeared and was talking to me and my Dad and turned round and said to him, “must’ve been quite hard to get that around here?” and my Dad went no, he done it, pointing to me. His face dropped lol.
When I did my class 1 training I was struggling a bit with the reversing practice, my instructor patiently climbed into the drivers seat and told me to walk along side him so I could see his steering inputs. He put it in reverse, opened the door and stood on the step whilst demonstrating how it should be done.
Of course you it doesn’t matter what kind of artic unit you drive or standard 45ft trailer you pull , they have ‘always had a bigger truck in here before’ and of course if you damage something they are on the blower to your boss right away looking for money for damages!!!
On the flip side I like a challenge and the thought that sometimes I might be the driver that did the first drop and had a bigger wagon. Some of the places I’ve dumped containers are awkward to say the least, I can just imagine a builders mechant driver getting told about the bloke who put that there
With an artic on the back of a wrecker, you can run at anything up to 90 odd foot long, and it bends twice in the middle.
You can’t screw a wrecker round anywhere near as much as you can a tractor and trailer, maybe 60 degrees at the most before the under lift is up against the wheels on the casualty vehicle. And double drive bogies don’t like tight turns anyway, especially when your front axle is light (when loaded).
Quite often get told to ‘drop it in a slot round the back’ or ‘back it on a bay so we can tip it’.
Usual answer is, how about I drop the trailer outside on the road and you can shunt it in yourselves, and I’ll put the unit where you want it?
8wheels:
When I did my class 1 training I was struggling a bit with the reversing practice, my instructor patiently climbed into the drivers seat and told me to walk along side him so I could see his steering inputs. He put it in reverse, opened the door and stood on the step whilst demonstrating how it should be done.
My class 1 instructors trick was to reverse it into the box whilst walking alongside the unit
Yes I have!!!
At Norberts one of the forkies was taking the ■■■■ out of my reversing in the canteen and I was in a foul mood that night anyway so I chucked him the keys and went for a ■■■…
When I came back he admitted he cant drive!!!
Get to a delivery and an artic will not fit, so i would ring the farmer or house owner, and tell them i can not get down their lane or track, they will always say they get the bin lorry or milk tanker down there all the time.
Or say we had an artic delivery last week, when you arrive and quiz that, they say it was a transit van with a trailer.
If you meet a car down the lane , there is no room for two, and the risk of cutting open the trailer curtains and damage to the mirrors or paint work on the truck.
A car had parked badly in a remote village, no room to get by, the village life ground to a halt for 25 minutes to find the car owner to move the car, surprisingly i did not hear one horn going off in a bad way, no abuse, as the traffic jam could see what the problem was.
There was a thread similar to this on the forum some time back. One post on that thread made me chuckle.
A driver arrived at a drop in the backstreets of a town,saw that access was nigh on impossible and spoke to the person in charge who asked “what length trailer have you got” ? “40’ 2replied the driver .” Well it will get in here ,we had a 50’ in last week." "Well ,the driver said ,you come and look at my truck and if you think you can do it , feel free! “The said manager walked to the truck with the driver and on seeing the truck said " Ahh, your 40’ is longer than the 50’ that went in last week!!!”
The public have no clue about turning circles, reversing an artic down a lane, the width of an artic.They say we get them all the time down here.
I will meet you at the top of the lane and bring a van to hand ball the load off then.
I have on a few occasions usually to people I know as a bit off banter but on occasion a bloke came out without even saying hello starts telling me how I should do this that and the other I let it go and proceeded to do it my way he then comes to the window telling me I don’t know what I’m doing I’m only an inch from a brick pillar, I told him I was aware I was only an inch from it(I was more than an inch but this old women was
Panicking) i informed him as long as I can see daylight between the 2 I was happy and know when I’m ok and when I’m pushing my luck, now I’m only 26 but have been driving since I was 18 on 7.5 then done my tests just after my 21st but I do look bit younger, now this old women is really starting to get on my nerves by this point shouting and balling to my window and then he asks my age how old I am and informs me he’s been driving before I was even born and should back in the other way( he had been driving a CAR longer than I’ve been alive) so I turned the engine off hand break on threw him the keys and started walking off he asked what i was doing so I told him I was going to the shop to get my lunch and told him to get the truck in what ever way he wanted 50 meter walk later he’s asking me to come back ill never forget that it was funny to me at the time.
Oh and I got in and out without any damage MY way!
some years ago i arrived at one of our depots i had not been to before, and there was a long Queue of wagons waiting to get tipped. so i go up to the transport manager and he tells me all the bays are full and they are running behind as the shunter has gone home sick.
i point to the bay right on the end, against a wall, and ask if i could use this as its been empty for some time. the manager says only the shunter can use it as its a blind-side reverse. so i say, well if i can get on it will you tip me? so a couple of shunts later i am on, all pleased with myself, i go up the steps to make sure that someone starts to unload me.
“well done” says the TM. if you would like to move that trailer next to it, i will get someone to unload you right away. so i drops me trailer and moves trailer as requested, then puts another trailer on the bay for him. i go up the steps and it looks like someone has only just started unloading my trailer. well you can guess the rest, but over one hour shunting later im just about tipped.
on the way home, im laughing at my own naivety, i wonder how many other impatient drivers he has got with that one.!
Having seen that Jewsons and Travis Perkins could just about squeeze in and out but only by cutting the corner a bit tight across the edge of a ditch there was no way it was going to fit.
Some of the places I’ve dumped containers are awkward to say the least, I can just imagine a builders mechant driver getting told about the bloke who put that there