Got given an induction / assessment at Thatcham on Monday and Tuesday. All passed without a hitch.
One thing that has rang in my ears ever since is the assessor said some of the deliveries are really tight - Oxford being a pig of a drop and underground. Not really a problem, except we can’t use Satnav.
Now I’m not one for blindly following satnav. I’d rather use it as a guide whilst keeping my eyes on the road. There are apparently store maps in the transport office. So… Would you use satnav and hope they don’t find out. Or keep stopping every five minutes to check your route on the store maps?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I’ve got a start there, but just think they are expecting a lot from us with the delivery slots and no help from satnav.
If the store maps are anything like ours (Waitrose, Brinklow), you wont have any problem at all.
Our “idiot sheets” are pretty ■■■■ good and take you right to the back door.
As we are in artics, you are mostly driving down main routes, which for all but a few stores, are on a single side of A4 (in big writing) we usually have a map too (which you cant see properly as they have used an autoroute type map of the complete journey from depot to store!)
Normally you only need visit a store once (maybe twice) and you know the route anyway.
I have been to about 90 different store locations now, and only really check the route sheet if the run I have is a store I haven’t been to in a long time.
It gets a little more challenging if you have a split delivery as we dont have store to store maps, but using a bit of common is usually all that is needed. There will be a common point for both stores, so you just take up the route directions from that point to guide you in to the second store (also use a map to get your bearings maybe?)
We are normally able to get the next days run when we clock off, so any new stores that I havent been to, I would take the route sheet and check out on google maps the way that they have routed you in. There is normally a reason for an odd looking route (height/weight restrictions, etc.)
I then check out on sat view/street view to get an idea of the size of the yard and street view gives you some land marks to look out for when your getting close to the critical turning points.
I used to live by my sat nav in previous (car driving) jobs but can honestly say mine hasn’t come out of the glove box in almost 3 years and certainly hasn’t made it to work.
On induction, we were told that we were not able to use sat navs, but we have a pretty high volume of agency bods in, most of whom seem to have sat navs glued to the windscreen (its a pain getting allocated a unit after them, as you cant easily get the ring from the suction cup off the screen)
dar1976:
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I’ve got a start there, but just think they are expecting a lot from us with the delivery slots and no help from satnav.
Seriously?
If you think it’s asking too much of you to drive a truck from the depot to a store with a set of printed instructions then I would ask if you believe you’re in the right job?
My very first job driving an artic back in 1988 was for BOC Thatcham, now Gist.
Back then you signed with an agency and lied about how you already had plenty of experience. You also HAD to join the TGWU to work there as it was a closed shop.
We didn’t have sat nav then, we had timed delivery slots, we were given a written set of instructions with a hand drawn map for each store.
Believe it or not, without a sat nav we all managed to find the stores and get back to the depot again.
Just leave the sat nav at home and get out there and do it the old fashioned way, learn the road network by driving it and looking at road signs.
Oh and yes, i remember going to an underground loading bay in my first week for them, it could well have been the Oxford store, and it was quite tight, but I managed it in my first week driving an artic for them so I’m sure you’ll be just fine.
I would be keeping my sat nav in my bag incase I needed it but if instructions are good I suppose you don’t need it, you can only find that out for yourself. How did you get on by the way mate?
dar1976:
Got given an induction / assessment at Thatcham on Monday and Tuesday. All passed without a hitch.
One thing that has rang in my ears ever since is the assessor said some of the deliveries are really tight - Oxford being a pig of a drop and underground. Not really a problem, except we can’t use Satnav.
Now I’m not one for blindly following satnav. I’d rather use it as a guide whilst keeping my eyes on the road. There are apparently store maps in the transport office. So… Would you use satnav and hope they don’t find out. Or keep stopping every five minutes to check your route on the store maps?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I’ve got a start there, but just think they are expecting a lot from us with the delivery slots and no help from satnav.
Where the ■■■■ have you been? Swanning on here looking for advice about Marks and Sparks without even so much as a hello ya cheeky swine
dar1976:
Got given an induction / assessment at Thatcham on Monday and Tuesday. All passed without a hitch.
One thing that has rang in my ears ever since is the assessor said some of the deliveries are really tight - Oxford being a pig of a drop and underground. Not really a problem, except we can’t use Satnav.
Now I’m not one for blindly following satnav. I’d rather use it as a guide whilst keeping my eyes on the road. There are apparently store maps in the transport office. So… Would you use satnav and hope they don’t find out. Or keep stopping every five minutes to check your route on the store maps?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I’ve got a start there, but just think they are expecting a lot from us with the delivery slots and no help from satnav.
Why would you need to keep stopping every 5 minutes to check the route on the store map?
If you think they are expecting a lot, I suggest it isn’t the job for you lol
