Just got a call from the agency, im doing a class 1 arctic job tonight, starting at midnight, at my old old place where i used to do just van / 7.5t work 
Should be fun, need get used to an artic as ive only done wag & drag before. think ill practice a bit when ive done my last drop (not before as its all rdc’s with timeslots to be there at).
Any tips i should know about when going from wag & drag > artic ? apart from the obvious longer trailer.
cheers ROG
Best of luck
Regards
Paul
Enjoy it mate and just relax, not too much ofcourse … 
Best of luck with this one mate.
Was expecting a call last weekend to do some night driving too, but alas no call. 
They tell me they should have work this weekend 
Haven’t heard that one before!
Keep us updated
just take your time and enjoy it mate if it looks tight get out a have a look 
oh enjoy it i have been drivig artics for 2 and 1/2 years and i still get out and have a look mate 
Relax & take it easy, if in doubt get out & look, dont be affraid to ask for help & take your time. Dont let any people watching put you off, that was one of my biggest problems. Goodluck mate
Good Luck bigJon 
Im Also W+D Pass same as yourself , Let us know how you get on Fella 
Good luck! Enoy yourself!
No, I’m not jealous…not at all…not one teensy little bit…no…not me…
LOL
Make sure you are up to speed with the coupling/uncoupling procedure using a fifth wheel and don’t forget the “dogclip”
I passed my test in W&D and then drove artics now back on W&D (with the odd artic stint), the principles are the same, but they do drive differently 
Just got back in from my shift. started at midnight, ended at 13:30.
As is usual at the sandwich factory, they didnt have the sandwiches ready until 2am. Now my run is supposed to leave at dead on midnight, to get from Atherstone, Warwickshire upto Pontyfract Netto for my first tip. then onto Brakes at Rochdale, finishing up at Aldi , Middleton.
Now as this is a purely RDC run, you would have thought they would get their finger out and get me on my way… no 2 hours late leaving = 2 hours late arriving. add on the usual messing about when you get to the RDC;- queues , booking in clerk being slow etc etc.
Anyway this made me miss my booking in time for Aldi, and had to bring back 3 pallettes of sandwiches as they rejected the load (tbh RDC’s are their own worst enemies, if they dont want stuff to be late then dont hold the drivers up, simple as 
) .
Anyway more about the drive than the actual shift .
Jumped into the cab (DAF 105XF, nicest cab ive been in yet tbh) after doing the usual vehicle checks. Started up and was guided out of the yard by my shift supervisor. Started driving off slowly to begin with to try to get a feel of how an artic handles, without going out of control. Luckily at 2am theres very little other traffic at all, apart from the night trunkers. but decided to stay away from the major roads, and decided to go the ‘back’ way (A444) from atherstone upto Measham to join the A42. Some nice sharp bends to practice on on that road.
So i get to Netto, did the queue, and it was my turn to go onto the bay. Had to turn the truck round and reverse from the gatehouse down along the front of the bays (trucks on bays to my right, and empty units on my left parked up for the night) its quite tight, and have to try to swing the trailer round into the bay . Now this wouldnt be too bad, if the kerb didnt start coming in , in quite a sharp curve, restricting the room i had to play with. Anyway after about 10 attempts at getting it in, i managed to get the truck inbetween the other 2 trucks on bays… however i wasnt lined up with my bay… and couldnt crab the truck over to line up. One of the other drivers saw i was having trouble and came over to assist me. He actually ended up jumping in the cab and showing me how to do it in the end . Thankyou kind stranger, you were very patient , and understanding that it was my first ever run in an artic.
Finish up at Netto, then onto brakes. Now my forward driving is sorted now, or so i thought. more about that in a few moments. drive into the yard with no problems. i chose which bay i was going to attempt to back onto, and set about doing it. took me maybe 10 shunts , but i finally did it and felt quite happy . i get tipped, and drive out the yard. only to find some bright spark has parked their van right on the corner of the entrance. making it impossible to do a left turn from the yard. i found that out after attempting to get through once. and had to reverse back up into the yard again. i turned left upto the top of the ind estate. and found somewhere to spin the truck round and come back out again.
And then onto Lidl. need i say more about that place ?
Anyway , to sum it all up . I hit NO kerbs , NO street furniture , NO pedestrians , NO cars, Nothing
Managed to practice reversing a bit at Lymm Services. If you were there and were wondering why some weirdo was reversing and pulling forward constantly. it was me thought it would be better to practice in a large open space so i dont hit anything while practicing
Got back to the yard, had to reverse off the road into the yard. taking only 3 shunts. im getting better , yippee
dropped the trailer, after figuring out how things worked. I had no idea how the release handle worked etc and that dogclip is a bit awkward to get to
running bobtail was quite fun aswell. and overall i enjoyed my first run. cant wait to do it again
I enjoyed reading that
Ahh nice one mate!! at least u cracked it in the end ay" as with anything the more you do it the easier it becomes ay, I yet have to Jump into that Artic seat after being a W+D Pass like yourself,
Again well done Mate,
Well done, and a good read, now you’ve got the first run out of the way which is always the most buttock clenching, onwards and upwards
Well done BigJon! Enjoyed the read through.
Will be chuffed if my first run goes half as well.
that was a real good read, well done mate.
and it was really nice to hear that driver helped you, awwwwww.
good work mucker plus you got paid too,hopefully be me soon , doing me c1 next week
well done mate, I passed back in April and Im learning something new every day. The bars that guide you into the bays at nettos arent straight, i did exaclty the same thing, took me ages to get it lined up. Like everybody else says Get out and look if your not sure. Hope it goes well in the future.