It never hurts to get out and have a look first rather than commit yourself and get stuck. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and generally, if you can get in you can get out unless you are stuck in a narrow street with cars behind you. That’s not fun. Oh and NEVER drive on a grass verge as you can sink or even turn it over.
Going new places is usually a fine challenge so long as I’ve got a postcode and a map. The worrying part is when the office sends you a text with a mobile number and a quick note saying ‘No address, but this guy at the site will talk you in, says the road’s fine for artics.’ So you get to the road end, look up the tiny, muddy horse-track with a river on one side and a brick wall on the other, look back at your 3.5m wide load and just… start laughing. I honestly love those jobs for the ten following phonecalls summed up with ‘What do you mean it won’t fit!? Great. Do what you can, if not then come back to yard.’
Learned really fast in the job that getting out and walking for ten minutes and planning out where you’re going at a drop could save maybe four or five hours of frustration later when you take a wrong turn and end up wedged between two gateposts. Or even a quick look around a yard can tell you whether or not you’ll need to back the rear end of the trailer in, or if you can do a quick spin round once you’re tipped.
Used to do tramping on general. Never apprehensive as knew people were decent on the whole. Got sent to military bases to collect machinery. Did a season delivering seeds to farms. No clue of where next. Loved it as back then no where near as many weight limits in the sticks (and the public didn’t get involved in enforcement even if you made an error) and going to farms and military places everyone was friendly generally and saw some lovely parts of the uk. Same on containers in early 2000s. No excitement going to a new rdc I’d never been to. One new set of self important jumped up, caustic, borderline sociopathic, tiny rule-clutching-small brains to deal with as the last
Nothing really phases me to be honest. New drops, closed roads, tight reverses. It’s all good fun.