Driving for three years and I had my first knock, reversing into a site with a banksman and caught this with the front of my trailer. While the banksman understandably can’t be held accountable I’m irate that they kept ushering me backwards. I’m usually very conscious of my nearside when reversing too, I’m just ■■■■■■ off with myself really…
This is why I don’t trust banksmen.
1st in 3 years? 
I understand you’re annoyed, but you should be proud of that record…
I’ve not been driving professionally that long and would be very happy to hit that number!
But not the van! 
Crap happens mate, so sleep well…
Go slower next time 
damage would of been less.
I wouldn’t worry about it. I got too confident driving my motorbike a few months back and fell off. Made me a safer driver. Mistakes are great you learn a lot from them and fortunately yours is not a bad one.
It’s a great shame, but no-one died. And that isn’t a facetious comment. Could easily have been someone standing there. So think yourself very lucky.
We’ve all done daft stuff. The last one I did was a few years ago in the training centre. Managed to reverse a w+d into a parking space clouting a huge diesel tank on the way. That was bad enough. Only took the paint off a bit of the tank. Worse bit was that my candidate, a Trucknetter, was watching at the time!!!
Once again, no-one died.
Chin up. Pete 
I was 2 months off going 10 years without a bump from since I passed I had been totally accident free then I came a cropper…tried to squeeze past through a gap between another wagon and a post,cleared the wagon no problem,but the post was not so lucky scraped the side of my trailer,no more than a scratch (bit of paint)on the trailer but it annoyed me that I did it when I should of got out and asked the other guy to move over a bit.
1 month or 10 years it’s still annoying and does make you think twice next time,chin up fella.
And where was the banks man standing
?
Ok it has a scratch in it
If you have kids you may understand this on sunday my son ( ok 26 but still my baby ) was playing american football now know the game kicked off at 14.00 no phone when playing at 14.34 he phoned me he had taking a bad hit was eating for ambulance to take him to hospital don’t worry my leg is in a splint ( later to find his tim & fib are snapped ) that i s the call you don’t want he will live had op at home all is well
Deal with it as said nobody died it could have been a lot worse
■■■■ happens …believe me even after 35yrs on them I kin wrote my motor off 2years back in zero vis(duststorm) on the backroads out here and me being H&S guy preaching on about safety on the gravel rds… 
.I TOOK IT FOR GRANTED and let my guard down ,and that everyone else followed the rules well believe me there is some real ****** out there and never ever take anything for granted. Nobody was hurt, but my pride took a real hit as well as my insurance the cops said nothing to me(said the insurance company was going to hurt me enough) but gave the other driver a warning about what he did,well my auld girl was totally wrecked ,I ended up with the cab at right angle ss to the chassis ,was fully loaded at 30kms.
Could have been a lot,lot worse.
Crack on
I got through my whole first 2 years, with the higher insurance rates and excesses etc without a single scratch. 2 days after my 2 year anniversary I caught the edge of the tail lift on a post in a hedge and knocked it sideways, felt absolutely awful about it, but the boss was brilliant. He just shrugged and said ‘don’t worry, you probably feel a lot worse about it than me. ■■■■ happens, i still have the occasional knock even after over 50 years driving them’. Put it nicely into perspective for me, but still feel bad when I break something. I pulled the rear mudguard of the trailer yesterday reversing out of a real ■■■■■■■■■ hated having to phone the office.
As above, I think remorse can play a big part in how an accident is perceived by the management!
It worked for me on my second day in a VAN…
You’re all right, it could’ve been a lot worse, thankfully property is replaceable. Lessons learnt, never trust a banksman and always keep your eyes open around you.
Awaiting a company investigation now and hoping for the best. Thanks all for the support.
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so…what is the point of a banksman? 
carryfast-yeti:
so…what is the point of a banksman?
Someone to run over…
Just like putting your hazards on in some places, it gives no clue to were you are heading… 
2nd day out in a rigid I ran the offside against a telegraph pole, luckily no damage to the pole and minor scuff to reflective tape.
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MOSSSIDEDEEP:
2nd day out in a rigid I ran the offside against a telegraph pole, luckily no damage to the pole and minor scuff to reflective tape.
I can beat that! 
While pulling over and misjudging it on second lesson of VAN driving, I smacked the mirror against a lamppost and shattered the passenger side window covering my instructor in broken glass, you’re welcome Dave! 
He was still picking shards out of his ear the next day…
The best bollox I can come up with as an explanation was that i wanted to stop before the lamppost and realised that to do that smoothly it was going to be tight, so i released the brakes and was taken unaware (due to the weight) how quick it kept moving and it didn’t give me quite enough time to steer around it!
Evil8Beezle:
Someone to run over…
Or on bigger sites, especially construction ones - “someone qualified to be run over” as they often state no reversing without a qualified banksman. Btw, is there a points system in HGV driving like you get with cars, eg:
100 points for little old lady
500 points for traffic warden
1000 points for making the banksman run…?
could never understand why most banksmen were ,either a young lad who had the job because the local government made them employ the infirm or auld joe 65yrs old blind as a bat just waiting to retire and yes I have been royaly screwed over by both types when I was wet behind the ears. trust no one and take nothing for granted.
Banksmen are like sat navs:
look at em listen to em
Never fully trust or believe `em.
(For sat navs you can substitute: politicians, salesmen, religious leaders, other drivers, etc etc, according to your own particular prejudices.)