Hey guys new driver here thought i would share my first day with you all.
Agency rang me and asked if I was free tuesday to do a quick collection of a class 2 vacuum tanker from Liverpool to the north east which i thought no problem easy way to get experience. Met the other driver they hired to just show me the ropes and refresh the memory since I haven’t driven since passing the test. We get down to the place we’re picking this vacuum tanker up from put my tacho in and set it to other work to do checks and set the seat up and noticed the gear stick thought no problem if its a manual as its similar to a manual car until I looked closely and seen other gears ontop of gears and felt a switch behind so instantly I was thinking what the f”@k is this as I have only used a auto when learning to drive. After a crash course from the guy we where picking it up from that it was a split gearbox I tried to get it into reverse which didn’t happen so I sacked it off to the other class 2 driver as he had more experience driving them. After the day was done I felt royally f@#ked over by the agency as they knew i had no experience other than driving a auto for lessons and test and then kicked off down the phone that what would I do i have done if they just sent me to pick it up with a van driver so I told them straight that they would have to send another driver to pick it up.
So I am left feeling that I should sack trying to get experience and stick driving for the company I am with on 3.5ton vans with less stress
Must been an old truck.
I passed my test 15 years ago roughly and my lessons were in split gearbox.
After that spent few years on agency and every truck ever driven was automatic.
Drove a manual once and was like a car. 6 speed.
Don’t blame you for refusing if honest.
As if you’ve never driven one be hard and probably end up causing problems as you thrash the gearbox
Just join another agency as chances of driving another is a million to one you just got very very unlucky .
As said I’ve been driving for over 15 years and drove manual once. Must been an old shed of a truck don’t loose faith keep trying your soon find something
Cheers mate was a 23 plate daf so must be specced for it think i’ll drop a email and see if they can make sure its auto next job and if I get f#&ked over again then its game over for them
Pardon my ignorance, long away from the job and my first drive(1960), but in this brave new world don’t you have to pass a test on a manual to be allowed to drive a manual?
Genuine question and don’t remember where I heard/read it.
I believe there was a change in the law a few years back, I think the law now is that if you’re licenced to drive manual cars and pass the HGV test in an automatic you can drive HGV vehicles with manual gearboxes.
Personally I’ve always believed it to be a bad law but I don’t make the laws so…
Yep long as you have a manual liicnce you can take lessons in auto truck. Then drive manual truck once passed your test.
As I said it’s rare to get a manual truck these days
Although these days with electric cars etc more and more people are taking there car test in automatic.
The gear stick is becoming a thing of the past.
Thanks both, it does seem wrong but I must remember that in ‘the old’ days there was a real technique and skill in using a manual non synchro box, double declutching and all that, but with boxes being just like cars the previous skills are no longer needed.
Until a newbie is one day asked by a (deranged?) 1960s Atki owner to take it to Gaydon or wherever, then we will hear some real tunes, and not from the non existant radio either.
I was fortunate when I started with my firm that I had prior experience with manuals that used splitter boxes (even half-gears too for hill inclines etc, but that’s another story). Splitters can be a bit of a nightmare sometimes to select reverse. I did pass my test in an auto though.
As for the Agency, to be fair they don’t have a clue really on specifics as most if not all aren’t even HGV drivers. Even with my firm only about 30% of the office staff are class 1.
Not that long ago we had 5 manuals on the fleet , as new , they were all got rid of due to agency refusing to drive them , we were well pissed off but boss said he had no option
I do remember a agency driver one morning asking if I could explain the manual gearbox in the lorry he was about to use , I said your in the lorry , it’s a manual , didn’t you see the gear stick next to the seat , I said I’ll show you with my lorry how it works , he just said no I’ll go & see them in the office as I only drive auto lorry’s , no idea what happened as I left yard , but no doubt one of the reasons they got rid of our manuals .
All this what I can drive is a joke , we have drivers who can’t drive a lorry without a heated seat , others who have to have microwaves ( were day shift ) , must have tall cabs ) so they can pray ( I thought the knelt to pray ? ) , can’t drive mercs as they can’t climb 4 steps , it’s a bloody joke , but the t/o indulge them so they get away with it .
But when you see a lovely young lass sacked as when she was told the driver had to have a tall cab to pray she said I’ve had enough just drive the lorry your given , he reported her and she was sacked for racism!!
In the old days if they’d of refused a lorry , demanded this that they’d of Bern told drive it or there’s the door
Not having a dig at op , but we all had to just get on with it years ago
Nearest I’ve come to an auto box in a lorry was the epicyclick (or whatever it was called) in the New Generation Mercs of the 1980s (?).
No, sorry, just remembered way back in the ‘60s, had a Leyland Beaver with a preselect box, a bit like the buses of the day. Very nice but good to feel professional enough to be able to drive anything. I would cringe with sheer embarrassement if I ever thought to admit I couldn’t drive any setup put before me.
Remember getting a Scania once as a replacement while my man went in for some work.
Was confused it had ,3 pedals no gearstick.
Was told 3 rd pedal is clutch as normal.
Basaily when your about to stop press it as normal or engine will stall.
So your driving along in auto mode about stop and if don’t press clutch it stalls.
What a stupid idea .
Have to admit though manaul gearboxes. have made the job easier.
Maybe that’s why driving standards have dropped.
As all have worry about is stop and go pedal now.
Well here’s this old lad cringing with embarrassment ……. Foden 12 speed, I just couldn’t master it. I’ve driven most gearboxes but the Foden box was my ‘achilles heel’
Old drivers I’ve spoken to say “silly old bugga, they’re easy peasy” , well they weren’t easy peasy to this old lad.
Thing is it’s easy for experienced driver to ridicule, but you can’t blame guys not wanting to drive manual boxes if they have not been shown or trained on them…
As for dozy’s guy who wanted a high cab to pray ffs… words fail me, I have now heard everything…
lf you don’t want the job mate..■■■■ off, there are plenty who do, crack on with your 'kin religion but don’t involve me by giving me grief over it.
As for the lass who got the sack for the same attitude, everybody should have parked up until she was re.instated…the country is f####d with all this mamby pamby b/s.
I need a strong coffee.
Anyhoo back on track …manual boxes?.. used and mastered most of them, would NOT want to go back to them at any price…why would I when autos are so much easier.
Took my truck to DAF for its six weekly a few days ago. They gave me a courtesy van to go home in. Not only was it a manual it also had weird things on the inside of the doors to wind the windows up and down! I was outraged
What on earth has this bloke started? I can’t believe it, I’ve even read something @robroy has written and, I must have been too long out in the sun, I agreed with everything he said.
Got to go and have a lie down now.
BTW just been out in my car on a short errand. Not a gear was missed….in the auto box.
