Hi everyone, it’s been a while since i posted anything on here (nearly 2 years) so thought i’d give an update.
My partner wasn’t pleased about my choice of career and never really gave me any backing so it sealed the end of our relationship back in September 2015. Our 8 year old dog had to go to a rescue centre as neither of us was able to keep her, she got rehomed very quickly considering (9 days in and out again). I moved from our rented home in Suffolk to Berkshire where i stayed for a year before moving back to my hometown in Surrey.
After moving to Berkshire i studied for the HGV theory and CPC case study tests, passed them before i even got employed anywhere. I didn’t have the funds at the time to do Class 2 so everything has happened slowly but surely since though that is mainly due to lack of free time rather than not having money.
Approaching Christmas 2015 i was starting to get worried as i hadn’t had my car driving licence for long and i wasn’t absolutely certain i could cope with work when i got it since i had an operation on left ankle less than 2 years earlier which stopped me getting pain caused by tarsal coalition. I applied for lots of jobs only to hear nothing back until i applied to Yodel as an employed driver driving a 3.5t van which would be contracted until christmas eve and perhaps longer. I attended the interview, was told about the job role, pay and the hours i was expected to work (Tuesday to Saturday with Mondays optional as overtime). Left the interview on the understanding i’d be starting on Tuesday 24th November then get a letter through post stating Monday 23rd was my start date.
Sunday night before i was due to start i set alarm then went to sleep, got awoken by mobile ringing with someone from Yodel asking where i was. I’d only gone and set alarm for pm not am doh. I explained what had happened and they said to turn up the next day which i did, on time. As anybody involved with in the parcel delivery business knows November/December is hectic. I was trained up to use the pda and shown the basics of the job on my first day. The trainer was asking questions to basically gauge whether i’d be back the following day. I told him it seemed ok and i wouldn’t mind having a go at doing it, unbeknown to him it was the only job offer i had had to date so was going to give it a go regardless.
On Wednesday the managers were discussing what i should do when the trainer i had been out with previous stated he wanted me with him again as he hadn’t shown me everything he wanted me to know. The junior managers wanted to send me out on my own but the depot manager said i should go with the trainer again and that was that.
On Thursday i got sent out by myself. The depot manager took a shine to me for some reason and said i should deliver sacks to home delivery couriers (a task he only allowed certain people to do) followed by a round to be determined after i get back. After delivering sacks to home delivery couriers i found i was expected to deliver about 50 parcels around Basingstoke. The patter was that because i was new they would break me in gently and i’d get more parcels to deliver as i became more experienced. Sounded fair enough but reality was different, the postcode area i was given was very large and rural with most addresses having names instead of numbers. I was fortunate in that on my first day on my own i was given a charger lead for the pda used for proof of delivery. Those machines had a satnav system which guided you virtually right outside the places you needed to deliver to in many cases. I never got a charger lead for the pda after that day though so bought a Garmin satnav which took me to the postcode then i had to search for the address which could be anywhere up to a mile from where satnav took you. Add to that it being Winter when it gets dark early and you get to see the picture but i did my job efficiently going back to depot with empty van, signatures for all parcels and getting no complaints or queries about anything i delivered. I ended up ordering my own charger lead for pda after a couple of weeks which had to come from Belgium and a windscreen mount which came from USA. My efficiency went up after getting my charger lead for pda and improved moreso when windscreen mount arrived.
Shortly before Christmas Eve i was asked to stay on with Yodel though i would never get a permanent role, the best they would do was rolling contracts which the depot manager said even he was on.
Working at Yodel was time consuming, 10-18 hours a day 7 days a week in that peak period then the hours dropped off slightly after Christmas and it became 6 days a week. Obviously i was earning quite alot and had no free time to spend any of it so it just accumulated in my bank account.
I took a weeks holiday before the end of March otherwise i’d have lost the entitlement to it and was fortunate to get a booking for a Class 2 practical test which i ended up failing. I took a sickie a few weeks later to take a retest and failed that also, i kept stalling the vehicle due to treating the airbrake like a handbrake and pulling away slowly with it engaged but got myself used to it enough on rest of test to pass a few weeks later. The practical side of CPC was finally done in August and i left Yodel in September. I started work for a company driving 7.5t lorries delivering tyres just to get used to tacho and larger vehicle and now i am with a different company driving a 26t Scania delivering steel.
I’ve also attempted the Class 1 practical twice last year in August and September failing both for mounting a kerb and decided to put it off until i am more used to larger vehicles as at time i was used to 3.5t vans.
I have continued to frequent the forum as a guest to obtain info and just out of interest, it is a goldmine of info.