hi guys and girls.
although i dont drive full time i do a fair bit of agency work but up till now i have never driven a left hand drive artic,just the odd hire car when abroad.
well i got the oppertunity to to so today ,it was an iveco stalis with a semi auto box and the although i was a bit hesitant i didnt find it too bad .
i was worried about reversing it aswell but when i came to do it i didnt find it too bad atall even though i still lined it up as if i was driving a right ■■■■■■.
what does everybody else think of my perceptions
I have never driven one yet but had the opportunity to drive a Daf with a semi auto box for the Royal Mail. Being agency no one wanted to show me how to use it so they had to find me another truck even though 5 mins around the yard would have done.
I reckon a left ■■■■■■ would be a daunting prospect for the 1st time though.
Never driven a left ■■■■■■, only a lhd car, would like to, just to experience it.
Like most ‘new’ things, it’s a case of experience.
On a daily basis I jump between LHD and RHD trucks, vans & cars. When I first took this job over here I felt I really had to concentrate hard becuase it was ‘new’, even though I had driven a couple of LHD’s in UK.
Now I drive either without having to think about it (not literaly, of course). What I can say (I know, stating the obvious!) is that here a LHD is easier than a RHD and vice versa when I drive to UK.
Took me a week to get the hang of em, been driving em around 7 years now, did take a RHD up to Glasgow and back last week, had a job keeping it in a straight line!
When i go for jobs, i only go to firms that i know have got LHD trucks, i was origionaly offered a RHD at Carr Brothers, i turned em down, they rang the next day and offered me a LHD, that was when i took the job.
Left handers are ok. Just gotta remember to hang back a bit on roundabouts thats all.
I always find it harder getting back into a RHD then getting into a left ■■■■■■.
daxi:
I always find it harder getting back into a RHD then getting into a left ■■■■■■.
I know what you mean Daxi… I always end up trying to mount the kerbs!!! 
milkman:
hi guys and girls.
although i dont drive full time i do a fair bit of agency work but up till now i have never driven a left hand drive artic,just the odd hire car when abroad.
well i got the oppertunity to to so today ,it was an iveco stalis with a semi auto box and the although i was a bit hesitant i didnt find it too bad .
i was worried about reversing it aswell but when i came to do it i didnt find it too bad atall even though i still lined it up as if i was driving a right ■■■■■■.
what does everybody else think of my perceptions
It’s helpfull when you stop on a Pub,as you mustn’t run around the Lorry 
When you drive one for the first time, they can be very frightening, with all that space on your right, and you keep trying to drive them the same as a right hand drive , and end up having to correct yourself. You need a lot more concentration, and seem to move the steering wheel, and your body out of the way of lamp posts, telegraph poles, and trees that seem a bit closer to the cab.
The problem i have at the moment is in the uk where the local councils have cut back on maintenance with regard to pruning trees, often giving the drivers mirror a mighty bang. The other difficulty is at roundabouts where you are on the inside and the junction is at an angle, as was said earlier you have to hold back in order to get a clear view of traffic coming across from the right.
My first experience many years ago culminated in me nearly killing someone because the junction bear the road to the left, and i followed it, which meant i couldnt see the traffic, so i took a chance and pulled out…wrong move…and i did apologise profusely before he battered me. But further down the road was many keep left signs mounted on very high kerbs…so i hit one of those with such a band that i thought i had removed the tyre from the wheel…only to find that i had bent the nearside front step level with the underside of the truck. After that it made me very aware of the dangerous situation a driver can get himself into. So it does make you realise the difficult situations a foreign driver can have when he has been trained on L.H.D vehicles and suddenly finds himself working in the uk with the wheel on the opposite side.
Newbie:
I have never driven one yet but had the opportunity to drive a Daf with a semi auto box for the Royal Mail. Being agency no one wanted to show me how to use it so they had to find me another truck even though 5 mins around the yard would have done.
I reckon a left ■■■■■■ would be a daunting prospect for the 1st time though.
dificult to overtake a Farmtractor on a A or B road
…and whichever way around, when you get into an ‘opposite’ side drive vehicle - you keep banging your hand on the door when you go to change gear!! 
back on topic. i have driven left ■■■■■■ trucks in the past. and when it comes to blind side reversing i find that its a doodle. shame i cant say that when im driving my own rhd truck 
i never see any other trucknet members on the road 
with one exception. i seen north surrey haulage on the a14 yesterday morning, parked up with the curtains closed. well it was early
The biggest problem when you first start driving a left ■■■■■■, is when you teturn to the truck after a coffee or to hand in your paperwork, you just look like a dingbat as you get into the passenger side 
Always keep a spare pair of gloves on the floor 
