You know, I always thought I could reverse. When I was 7 I had a go-cart with a trailer, which I could reverse into anywhere. My dad even made an A-frame drag trailer for it, but I wasn’t quite so successful there — usually managed about 50% of times. Throughout the rest of my life, I’ve towed & reversed caravans, trailers, cherry pickers etc, behind cars and never had any problems. So how did the first couple of days on the artic go?
Well, after getting the request to do a run for my local company, with a couple of drops in the north-west, I left home at 0530 on a wet & dark Thursday to drive the mile or so down to the yard. The keys had been left for me, along with the paperwork, ready for me to head off. I did my pre-flight inspections, then sat in the seat ready to hit the road. Then saw the first problem — the tacho showing error. I hadn’t put the edges of the chart under the two tabs, and it had chewed it up. No problem, fill in another chart, made a note on it to say what had happened, with the timings for the pre-flight, and kept the graunched one as evidence. So off we went…
The first 3-4 miles or so were through the village & out towards the A12 — giving me a chance to work my way up & down the gearbox. It’s got a MAN Comfort Shift, which was great once I worked it out, as it saved my left leg an awful lot of work. It’s probably just as well that I didn’t have to think too much about the gears, as I was kept plenty busy enough trying to get my head around just how big that bloody trailer seems in the mirrors!
Once on the A12, and then along the A120 / M11, I was starting to settle down into it — the kerbs were fairly safe, oncoming drivers were OK, as I tended to slow right down and get over for them. I don’t suppose the car drivers behind me were too impressed, but hey-ho, somebody’s always going to be upset!
The rest of the trog up the A14 / M6 was fairly uneventful, which is always pleasant. I got to the first drop, at Ashton in Marchwood, at about 1200, and was asked to reverse in off the road for unloading. All nice & easy, even with the Driving School car who parked opposite the entrance, and was disinclined to move, even after I explained that I’d just passed, and would rather he moved to let me have a clean run in. He decided to stay where he was, but the road was wide enough that I could get around him and in. Nice & easy, reversing on my good side. 20 minutes later, 18 tons of pre-packaged currants were off, and so was I.
Next drop was in Skelmersdale, and from the minute I pulled up, I knew it was going to be difficult. It was a blindside — sorry, let me set that up properly:
(Dramatic music) ‘ And now Gary has to perform the manoeuvre dreaded by all truckers — the BLINDSIDE REVERSE’
(I comforted myself by reasoning that even Mark Dixon takes a few shunts, they just get edited out)
Once I was finally in, the forkie told me that he was on the point of phoning his missus to come and give me a hand — I told him it was my first day, he then got all serious and said ‘in that case, you did a pretty good job!’. Praise indeed!
And now an empty trailer to Birkenhead to collect 15 pallets of aerosols. For some reason, my satnav took me the long way round, rather than through the Mersey Tunnel — I don’t know whether there is a height restriction on it? Once again a reverse in, but no great drama as there was a factory opposite with plenty of space to pull in and get straight before getting back in. The 15 pallets became 13, then I finally ended up with 7. All strapped in and let’s see how far we can get South before the hours run out.
Well, Newport Pagnall services was the answer, which is where I bunked down for the night, then up again at 6 for the final crack. An hour later I was in St Albans, where I had to do another blindside into the warehouse, the only problem being you couldn’t see the warehouse doors until you were round the corner, so it was a real blind aim. I was lucky though, as the forkie here was also an old driver, who talked me through step-by-step, until as the cab came round, there was the door right behind me. 10 minutes to unload pallets, 15 minutes chatting, and the back to the yard.
When I got there, had a cup of tea with the bosses, then asked to run bobtail to Maldon and move a trailer from one warehouse to another, so a bit of coupling, uncoupling & reversing all thrown in, No great drama though, and got the trailer back to the yard, ready to collect another one, this time an LKW Walter ferry trailer, and take it to Harwich. It was loaded with 25 tons of refined lead, so made my lorry struggle a bit, but fortunately the brakes were in good nick, as the only bit of drama I had was taking the slip road off the A12 onto the A120, where some muppet was pulled up on the side chatting on his phone. As I got closer he pulled straight out without looking, so I anchored up and leant on the horn. No response, he just continued chatting and poodling along at about 25mph. About another 200 yards up, he just came to a stop in the carriageway, still chatting away, so I stopped, pulled around him, remonstrated, and carried on to Harwich. Trailer dropped off in the secure park, and back to the yard.
I’ve been asked to do some more runs on Monday & Tuesday evenings, down to Crawley for 11 o’clock tips, so I guess they don’t think too badly of me!
When I first started writing / contacting companies, I must have tried over 100 in the area. 3 made contact back, 2 to say thanks but no thanks, and this one actually phoned me up to have a chat. They’re not the biggest company, they don’t run the newest trucks, and they don’t have a shiny uniform. What they do have though is a proper family-run ethos, where as the boss said, ‘If the examiner says you can drive, then I’m quite happy to believe him and let you have a go. If you make a mistake, don’t worry, we all do.’ What they have said though is that I can have as much work as I want to do for them!
So don’t give in, it may take time, but it will happen!
(Phew, I’m going to stop writing now, before I fill TNUK’s servers)
Gary
Rang the OOH number for the guy in the ofifce, he got RHA rescue to come out and jump-start me, finally got back in at 0245!