Right well, this is the end of day 3, it’s been a very hard few days for lots of different reasons but overall although I am bruised, have a blister on my toe from my safety boots and am totally knackered I’ve had a lot of fun and met loads of helpful and lovely people.
Anyone driving around West Sussex, if you spot a grinning redhead in a white (and very occasionally a black) DAF it’s probably me, gis a wave!
Day 1
Easter Sunday - I was allocated our one black DAF XF, 58 plate I think, auto, digicard, pretty clean and well looked after, I didn’t have to do my collection after all, just pick up my load from our warehouse. I cheated a bit and had a friend along who is a class 2 driver with bags of experience both with big trailers and just HGV procedures in general. This meant I had a constant banksman for reversing, someone to remind me of breaks etc and basically take some of the worry out of the day. Got out of the yard fine, my nice new sat nav taking the directional strain. I was enjoying the auto, and loving the cruise control. Got into the warehouse between 2 other trucks with help from my able banksman and got my load on for Brinklow. Traffic on the M25 was a pig and due to delays I had 15 mins to spare driving time when I pulled into the Waitrose RDC. I mentioned this to the gateman but there were no bays free so I parked up out of the way and took my full 45. Went in and waited patiently to be called, by now my delivery eta was out of the window, although I arrived at 14.09 and the expected time was 14.00 it was around 15.50 when I was allocated a bay. The reverse didn’t go as easy as I had hoped and I did go back onto the bay rather harshly. The bays there are slightly uphill so you have to push it up… but not that hard. No damage was done, it was just rather loud. Handed in the keys and tried to wait patiently but after a while I suspected they had forgotten me as I’d heard them in the box the instant it was on the bay and it doesn’t take that sort of operation long to offload 21 pallets. I held out for an hour and politely asked them to check on them. As expected they were finished and I was given my keys back. This was 17.15 now. Back to Littlehampton but again M25 was slow so it was 20.00 or so when I reached the yard, now panicking that there would be no (easy) parking spaces. I was very tired and kept reminding myself to focus but still upon seeing the yard and the fact there were in fact spaces left I was so eager to get in and get done I made the very basic error of forgetting to give room for the trailer. Thankfully there are only bushes either side of the entrance, had it been a wall I would have taken it out, as it was the bushes bounced back. I was mortified however and felt so ashamed at making such a textbook error, it rather took the shine off the day. Got home exhausted but pleased with my day bar the ending. I only needed to do 3 reverses throughout the day and didn’t really feel I made a lot of progress in improving my techniques. Hours 8-20.00
Easter Monday - first, proper ‘solo’ day; Didn’t start as planned, the vehicle I was due to take wasn’t back from Swindon so I was allocated another. Put my card and and was nearly finished my checks (and had put my sat nav etc and all my junk in) only to be told ‘sorry, you can’t have that one now, take this one’. OK, these things happen, packed up my stuff and transferred to a little DAF CF80 I think, quite old and tatty as nothing much else was left. Manual box & Analogue tacho and as I discovered later, put my tacho in the wrong way up (well, I had a 50/50 chance didn’t I?) Being a ‘W’ reg it didn’t have a seatbelt fitted which I found very disconcerting to drive. I loaded up at the warehouse with some oranges for Chichester Food Park, Merston site. I found it and pulled up to check in and was told all bar one loading bay was out of order, the one left being the most difficult to access. I’d pulled up in the wrong place really so although I did have a vague go at a blindside reverse I was really just hoping for some help, and it arrived in the form of a lovely Fowler & Welch driver who I let get onto the bay first as I had no deadlines (I was just down to be ‘girl Friday’ and clean up some small jobs here and there). I watched him make the bay (not and easy feat and of course he made it look slick and simple. Once he’d pulled out he guided me in, I did take a small piece out of the concrete guide which I reported but no one was bothered. I now know how to manage that one though! I was given a heart attack when my satnav took me the worst way to the warehouse; I ended up facing a sign which indicated a VERY low bridge in one direction and a 7.5t restriction in the other!! I pulled up, hazards on and rang in for help, really hoping I wouldn’t have to reverse back or turn around in a busy little village! I was able to use the 7.5t restriction as I could turn off a little way down but it was uber tight anda bit stressful. I’d been asked to return to the warehouse and swap vehicles again to an older DAF xf, manual with a few quirks shall we say. I had several issues with the box as the hi/lo would occasionally not work and at one point I could not get a gear at all and just had to put my hazards on until I could finally move off again. I delivered the load which was on. The loading bay for delivery was a downward slope which I found much easier, I did have to shuffle about a lot to get onto the bay but not embarrassingly so. Once delivered I was to drop the trailer back at the yard. I dropped the trailer only to discover that the one I was to hook up wasn’t there. I was told topark up the unit separately and swap again. Another similar DAF xf, older style, but with a slightly better gear box. I made a small collection, again a downward sloping loading bay which took me too long to get into. Dropped that at our warehouse and returned to the yard and finished up. A messy, bitty day, but interesting nonetheless. Did about 10 reverses in total which was good but again I didn’t really feel my confidence improve much. Hours 8-17.30
Tues 22.4 - Early start, 6am at the warehouse. I had the little DAF CF80 again, put my tacho in the right way this time but as I discovered tonight there’s a malfunction and it didn’t record my speed or driving details, just the bits around the inner ring. I was to spend all day running between two nurseries, only about 1/4 mile apart. It was a hard day, lots of graft, fair amount of paperwork but over all it was fun AND it was great reversing practice, both loading bays downwards slopes and one a fair bit tighter than the other and actually I did great. A bit slow maybe and my last one when I was knackered was a faff but I really felt my reversing came on a lot. I’m knackered, covered in bruises - I bruise easily - especially my right upper arm from getting my head and arm out whilst reversing. Probably did about 15 in total and a couple I was dead proud of, I didn’t miss the seatbelt given the proximity of the two locations. It was a gorgeous day, everyone was so helpful and positive and when I finally finished at 19.30 I got plenty of praise for even managing such a grueling day that many a bloke before me has moaned about or even tried to get out of. It was a long day but I did feel that I had done a stirling job and a good days work, when I think of the amount of stock I shifted from site to site and even the amount of loading/unloading I’m dead chuffed with myself. I was told that the customer at both ends was full of positive comments as were other drivers etc that I was working with during the day which was great as I couldn’t have put any more effort in. Hours 6-19.30.
I’ve a few days peace now, day off tomorrow and my office job Thurs/Fri. Will probably be out Sat though.
The grin factor has been huge, overall it’s been a ball, a learning curve yes, and so much to remember. Day 2 I forgot my break in time, but last night I sat down and made up a check sheet to help me get through the day without forgetting anything and it was a huge help today, stuff like start/end mileages, a helpful list for walk round checks, vehicle and trailer details etc. I do actually know I can do this now my only worry is stamina as I couldn’t do today again tomorrow, not at all. Next week maybe, but not tomorrow!
Looking forward to the next adventure!