Saturday i had to do a driving assessment again at Iceland as i hadn’t worked for them for 6 months. A pain but Fair enough, quite comprehensive, had to do my walk around checks etc etc but this time the examiner asked me to do a slip coupling and a reverse from the near side hmmm. Considering it was 4.30am and raining i thought i did pretty well thanks i think to the glass panel in the cab which allowed me to see my near side. What would other drivers do if that glass panel was not there? In real time i always avoid near side reversing but if i have to i’m out of the cab as many times as it takes to get it done safely.
Also had the drugs tests for alcohol and amphetamines which i’m all for and a run through the health and safety manual. A short question and answer sheet and run through the hydraulic tail lifts, cage and pallet rules. It all took a couple of hours which was paid for and then did a shift. All in all after initial scepticism i would say i learned more about the job and made to feel that my skills were valued than i will ever learn sitting in class room being told by someone who has never driven a truck how to do so.
I would say that this type of assessment (DHL) is the way forward as a real time (if not perfect) test of a drivers ability to do the job.
Do they still issue a bump hat for use when coupling and uncoupling?
yes got one of those as well- all a bit of a change from years ago.
They are also advertising for drivers
£21,000 for 42 hours up to £27,000 for 53 hours…hmm not sure how that’s worked out though.
i think it was 1995, thereabouts anyway, I moved to york and picked up a job straight away, working for iceland, I was to start the then new to the area homedelivery service, anyways had to go to iceland at deeside for driving assesment ect, a guy took me and another guy out in the van, now we were told we were supposed to have transits but due to a problem we were getting sprinters, assesment guy was saying sizes were a little different between the two vans, point was he was saying this as we pulled into a carpark and took the fridge unit clean off the van as he hit the bar, i could,nt keep a straight face…