Often a farmer will leave a sign up for tipping; Rather than faff about reversing around ancient trailers and other farm junk, move the sign to where it’s convenient for you. I’ve done this several times 
gnasty gnome:
What he said. I do farms all day every day, OS maps are essential.Few hints about farm deliveries;
Satnavs don’t work. Well they do, but the postcode will take you to the farmhouse,not the yard, which can often be up a different lane, or down here in Wales, in the next bloody valley!
Never trust a farmer’s word that your lorry will fit. If in doubt, stop and walk up the lane before you drive up. And beware of old milk steps (the platforms they used to put churns on) and other crap hidden in the hedges, they’ll rip your bumper off. Ask me how I know.
Keep a look out for suitable places to turn round or pull in if needed. Bear in mind that whilst most farmers can reverse better than you can, many car drivers can’t and you’ll need to be patient.
And now you’ve got to the farm… meet the dog(s). Most farmers have them, most are harmless; but just in case, keep a couple of those chew sticks handy in case you have to bribe your way out of a chewed trouser leg.
(That is genuine advice from the BOCM drivers handbook!)
Many dogs will also ■■■■■■ you from the premises, running very close to your wheels and occasionally snapping at the tyres. This can be unnerving if you’re not used to it, but if it does happen just proceed slowly and steadily; you’ll soon spot the dogs who didn’t read the rule book for this game, they’re the ones with only three legs!
And NEVER get dragged into the “throw me a stick” game, you’ll be there all day and have a friend for life!
Oh, and one other thing; ALWAYS leave a gate as you found it. If it’s shut, close it after you, and don’t be tempted to leave it open till you come back out; the payoff for failing to observe this is a crash course in shepherding without the benefit of a trained sheepdog, and it’s a lot less fun than you might think.
Very good, there speaketh the man with the T Shirt, Tattoo, scars and nightmare flash backs
Another point to remember, always close windows and sunroofs just before arrival, and never be tempted to leave your door open when leaving the cab. Failure to adhere to this advice will result in a cab full of dust, chaff, flys, bugs, midges and anything else that can stow itself away, or leap through an open door in a moment like mangy old cats and dogs plastered in cow ■■■■. The dogs are easy to spot in the cab before leaving, but cats tend to hide away, revealing themselves about 20 miles down the road 
It’s got to be a Phillips atlas for farms, just some advice when you ring, the farmer will.expect you to know the area as well.as he does & it can sometimes be easier & quicker for you to reverse 100 yards than wait for some old dear to go back ten, so get used to.going backwards …
kemaro:
It’s got to be a Phillips atlas for farms, just some advice when you ring, the farmer will.expect you to know the area as well.as he does & it can sometimes be easier & quicker for you to reverse 100 yards than wait for some old dear to go back ten, so get used to.going backwards …
I do use the Phillips ones as well but there’s one serious flaw with them; unlike the OS maps they don’t differentiate between “C” roads (usually minor roads wide enough for two lorries to pass with care) and single-track roads. These are noted on OS maps, both as yellow roads but one is wider than t’other. Nor do the Phillips ones show steep gradients. On the plus side, because the scale’s smaller they’re easier to read (a bonus when you’ve left your glasses at home 
) and you don’t need a first-class degree in Origami to fold them back up.
Hello again to all
Overwhelmed by the amazing ammount of responses. I will take it all on board and see about getting memory map too.
Hope that I can offer help in the future to those ike me who are just starting out and are on the very steep learning curve.
Thanks to all who replied
regards
Truckist
Best map book I bought was an AA Great Britain Road Atlas printed 1976. It was based on Ordnance Survey Maps and included everything, its a bit worn and tatty now but I still look it up to find some out of the way place that isn’t included on modern maps, interesting to see the road systems then too, M42 was just a proposed route with the M25 only going from Colnbrook to Sevenoaks, I inked the rest in later. A4 sized book and only needed to odd A-Z to compliment it. Satnavs! My Ar…!
Franky.
I think AA maps are inferior to Phillips ones; I’ve got a Berkshire one that doesn’t name many lanes and farms in comparisson to other drivers’ Phillips ones. Thankfully Berkshire isn’t a county I deliver to very often. I had a Glos AA map which I replaced as that was even worse.