Well I managed it! The plan was to ride passenger with the other newbie driver to Killingholme, then swap over - me drive to Ditton (Widnes there abouts) and him to drive back…however although we started as planned and swapped over at killingholme we had some fun and games!
Firstly the windscreen washers didn’t appear to work so we pulled into the Jet station and asked nicely where we could get water from. I was given a watering can and told the tap is on the side of the building lol. Good job my colleague knew where to find the washer bottle, as it turns out a little filler cap pokes through the steps up to the cab on the passenger side anyway, this didn’t work so after popping the bonnet up we foundout that the hose had come detached somewhere so we had to put it back on! Well, good job we found out what had happened cos the motorway was filthy.
So first time in an artics driving seat with a full (of paper) container, about 23 tonnes worth I think, and things seemed to be ok! So set off in 2nd, hit into 3rd round the roundabout onto the M180 up into 4th, then a really bad effort to hit 5th and got 3rd again, then back into 5th and eventually up into 8th I was under the impression that all gearboxes were 4 over 4, and my colleagues had said ‘just whack it right to go up the range’ without going on to say that 5-8 is further over the box - and when coming down the box from 7th not to let the lever go into what you think is neutral before pulling back to 6th as the box trips back over to the 1-4 selection…but once I’d sussed it with not a few trips into the far side of the rev counter
it went pretty well! It was a Renault truck…
Got to Ditton, and my co-driver who was meant to be giving me directions was too busy on the phone when we got into the industrial estate to tell me to turn left…ended up going to the end of the road, turn right, then reverse back in a straight line across the junction so i could turn right into the industrial estate again. (loose term as it was a road with units off it, and the TDG place we wanted was right down a ‘private’ road!
Booked in fine and got directions to the ‘loading bay’ which turned out to be a metal ramp which is hold up by forklift trucks, you reverse up get out open the doors, hop in reverse back so the end of the ramp is in the container then stop - the forklift then back away and go into the container to get the load.
I explained to the forklift drivers that it was my first day in the job and I’d never reversed an artic before so please keep an eye out. He said ok, and the first bit went fine, swung the lorry from the holding area to infront of the ramp, pulled it back til he held a ‘stop’ hand up and motioned for me to open the doors; then he just did the ‘stop’ hand thing again and it was alright - i was pleased I did’nt have to take a shunt but then again there was plenty of room to get straight in the first place!
There was only 2 other lorries in the Q in front of us but I think we hit their lunchtime as it took about 2 hours from arrival to departure! Still, plenty of time to watch EasyJet planes descending…Anyway, the colleague had said he was going to do nights out too, which I said no to as yet, and sure enough his mobile rang while we were waiting and he was asked to do a night out though Leeds tonight so I drove back to Scunthorpe so he had plenty of time left on his tacho.
Got back to scunny fine, even managed to negotiate the Berkeley Circle without holding anyone up which i was amazed about and then back into the yard. The yard is small, and the reverse into a space was I found to be very tricky, and took 2 shunts at it cus there isn’t enough room to swing round then pull forward enough to be straight before going backwards. As this was the first time I’d reversed an artic in a really confined space I was quite pleased especially as there is no floodlighting and it was more than dingy…winding the windows down did help seeing the mirrors better
So, managed to not kerb the trailer at all today which I was really pleased about and managed to make it home alive, if hungry cus I forgot to make pack up
Tomorrow will be different cus I am apparantly going on Dock runs all day with a bloke who I think has been doing it since Noah built the Arc…
Sorry this post is a bit waffly, but I hope it shows you that if I can do it, then anyone can! :
Si