My first day on class 1 ( part 2)

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

So i arrive at newport depot for my second shift at 18.00 and get the keys to a different unit and told my trailer was allready to go , wow i thought an early start. Off i go after coupling up this time ok with out any problems and head off to wiltshire.get to wiltshire at 19.30 and am running good on time, leave there at 19.55 and head off to northampton. I arrive there at 22.40 and manage to reverse it on bay 17 with no problems and couple up to the other trailer at bay 31 ok. i wait for my 45 mins but i am still there at 23.45 i go and find a tm and he said i will be ready in 10 mins .I manage to leave the depot at 00.10 and proceed to head for home but oh no, i get [zb] lost big time the road sign posts are missing and i go around and around the roundabout a few times until i take a potluck and i am heading towrds oxford i think.i end up towards n/hampton town centre its 00.30 in the morning pitch black and dont know where the hell i am going and i got this 45 foot trailet behind me. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I then see a sign saying bridge 13" omg i aint gonna get under that i say , i then have to reverse up this street with cars all around me and all i want to do is get out and screem … i tell you it was a nitemare serious it was scary.
i eventually get on the right route an hour later after leaving n.hampton and arrive at newport at 4.30. The tm has a go at me cos she says you left n/ hampton at 00 10 and its now 04.30 where have you been i tell her the storry and she just says immmm. its now wednesday morning and i got to go to bed i wont see my kids until 5 ish then i got to leave for work agin for 6 this life is not for me, its a life for either a single guy or someone who does not like married life. I quit the job on wednesday i was now jobless, 2 v young kids a wife a morgage,bills ect what have i done. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I phone my ild boss up i explain the situation i was in and after 23 hours i got a call saying i can have my old job back but i have lost 12 yrs service, pension, holidays,bonuses, ect. SO CLASSS 1 WORK TO ME IS A NO GO . i have messed up big style and to make matters worse wife ainrt speaking to me either. life is crap at the moment.
bye vig

Sorry Vig, it had to go. Lib.

2

I dont quite know what to say except you
gave it a shot and you have your class 1
licence if you ever want to go back in the future.
Dont be to down vig your wife will speak to you soon

3

Sorry to hear that you feel class 1 work is not for you. Your first class one job is always very nerve racking, Mine was in a Iveco with a twin splitter gearbox in going from Newbury to Manchester on a night trunk - now that scared the hell out of me, A gearbox that I could hardly change gear with, going somewhere I had never been before, And when I got there I had taken a wrong turn and had to do blind side reverse to turn round, it took me forever.But it does get easier, it just takes a while to build your own confidence up. Don’t be to hard on your self, if the company you were working for had any sense they would have given you an induction programme for a couple of weeks to get you used to things. I had to spend a week with a driver when I went into an Argos depot on agency, so there are some companies that do it right. Why not look around again and see if there of any of that type around - It annoys me when I hear that people are expected to do a new job without being given any sort of training, When I worked as a TM I always gave new starters at least a week with a driver just to get used to things, it is normally money well spent as they get less wrong and are happier in the job. Hope you stick with it, and if you want a misses who will speak to you I will do you a swap - it will be nice to have some peace and quiet for a change round here :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

4

Sorry it didn’t work out m8,but personnelly you quit dead easy.Thing’s will get bad at time’s,wrong turning’s,low bridge’s and over shooting 5th wheel.We have all been there and done the rest.What was the point in paying out all that money to get your class1 to jump ship at the 1st hurdle you come to :question: ( no wonder wife ain’t talking to you) :angry: :laughing: :laughing: You have gone back to your old job.losing your 12 year status and also your pension,for what nothing.( i’m sure that if you return to your old job within a certain time limit,you don’t lose anything) worth checking it out m8.I am not here to judge you pal,but you never gave yourself a chance,we all make mistake’s but we learn by them and try to remember next time.Good luck in your old job.

5

Sorry to hear it didn’t work out :frowning: . Would definitely agree with smcaul with regard to new drivers having some form of induction, passing the test in no way prepares you for reality.

6

Sounds like you had a couple of rough nights there vig, dont think your the first bloke to do those things though mate.
You have to give the job a fair crack of the whip, the tm cant expect you to do the job at the same speed as a regular man, and if she did shes no tm is she? Everybody gets lost (apart from all the technos on here with sat-nav!) Its part of the job, as long as you have derv in the tank and a tongue in your head whats the worry? No ones going to shoot you for getting lost.
Pick yourself up, dust off the doom and try again somewhere else (where there a bit more understanding perhaps?)
Good luck
jon

7

vig you let it get to you :cry:

we all have bad days no matter what job your in ,you didn’t give it chance. we all learn buy are mistakes. in my first week i took some blokes fence down trying to get out of this farm, but [zb] happens mate.

are lot give us maps but i still get lost, i had to deliver to leeds st johns shopping centre last week but who ever drew the map was a plank and i ended up doing a 3 mile detour around leeds to get back agin ,i hadn’t a clue where i was going .

things happen and i think you should give it another go else where.

jon

8

i agree, it sounds like you’re on a hard ‘learning curve’, but don’t give in. How about doing some days work; at least then it’ll be daylight!

also, maybe think about supermarket work, no nights out, and they’ll put you with someone for a week to help. Well, any decent firm should double man you for at least 3 or 4 days I think.

good luck

Si

9

I can remember when I first went out, I [zb] myself and returned to Class 2 driving for a while. It is a very hard learning curve when you first get onto Class 1, I found for the first 6 months or so :open_mouth:. You at least have the licence now and if you feel like trying it again in the future you can. You did very well to get out of that street without damaging anything, especially on your first night with no one watching you back. I would be proud of myself for that :wink:.

I agree with Si, would have been nice to have been shown the ropes. It’s a nightmare when you get “here’s the key’s, off you go.” The test just does not prepare you for the real world. Their should be some sort of minumum training period as in the US. Hope all’s ok with the job you go back to.

10

Shame you do not like the work after all the effort to get there !! Obviously you have had a bad experience in your first couple of days.

After reading your earlier posts I had thought the night work may have been a good bet, although now I am not so sure. At least you have the licence now in case you feel like giving it another try again in the future.

11

I’m sorry to hear that you had such a tough time VG but I agree with the others it’s shifts like that, that you will look back on later when you see a newbie pull into the yard. It does get better a lot better but take a little time (not too much though) and remember what you went through to get that licence. It can’t be that difficult all the time or so many of us wouldn’t do it. So gather yourself together then try a little agency work at the weekends to get you’re confidence up and of course you know where we are. :wink:

12

Sorry that you didn’t enjoy it vigfanbke, it does get easier though. I spent 14 years driving Wag and drag both in and out of the forces and with vehicles that were oversized and upto 60 tonnes before i got my class 1. I was probably more nervous than you when i was let out on my own with a tractor and fully freighted trailer.

9 months on from passing and i am, without being bigheaded, wondering what all the fuss is about. Now on a weekly basis i am delivering to places that 6 months ago would have nearly given me a heart attack.

The secret is to keep calm and not let things get too you, everybody makes mistakes and getting lost is part of the fun, you wouldn’t believe the amount of superb parking places i have found in Germany and France simply by being lost.

i then have to reverse up this street with cars all around me.

Most people would agree that is probably the hardest thing about driving an artic and you seemed to have had no trouble.

Driving an artic isn’t easy or everybody would be doing it, however i do feel that you are doing yourself an injustice by giving up so easily. That said i also feel that the company you started with didn’t exactly go out of thier way to help you though they must of known that you had only recently passed your test.

As for your wife not talking to you, you have to see it from her point of view. I have no doubt that you worked hard for that license and your wife will know that better than anyone on here but all she can see at the moment is someone giving up at the first sign of not liking it. All that money spent to achieve, in reality, nothing.

13

:slight_smile: Its a hell of a steep learning curve the first few trips. I would say being scared is normal, means you appreciate the many possible hazards.
Where abouts in Wiltshire were you going to on the way ■■
If it was anywhere near me, I could have offered you to come with you for a reasonable fee and guide you through most probs and worries. :stuck_out_tongue: :laughing:

14

hey vg you cant give up now mate , you aint done bad at all at least you can reverse onto the bays no problem i cant well after several attempts i can lol.
im always getting lost so what,its part and parcel of the job it would help if they gave us decent addresses ,example i was in newcastle yesterday new york industrial park delivering general cargo to… well i was in the right area right street phones the tm explains the situation i will get back in 5 mins was his reply 20 mins later i phoned 118 118 here is the telephone number ,i phoned guess what i was sat outside there office although on the booking sheet was a different name dont give up now i still owe you a coffee…
try agency work if you dont like it you dont have to stay but if the company your working for is ok well who knows at least you can pick and choose when you want too work gain some experience on different trucks
what ever you choose mate you still did it c1

15

Been there, done it and look back (a few months) and laugh about it. First night in this job I took a wrong turn in Brum and ended up down a dead end. Thanks to a Dutch driver who was trying to sleep I managed to reverse round on the blind side and get out. Next night I ended up going through a housing estate with a 16’ high trailer at 2 a.m. Lucky no-one saw me.
I have no sense of direction where roads are concerned (that’s why I like trunking!) and live in fear of getting lost.
Face the facts mate, it can’t get any worse, so it has to get better!
Good luck whatever you do in the end.

16

do not give up…ive broken two trailers …been lost …treated like a nobody unable to reverse no matter how many shunts…damaged a load ,but it does get better…it was the job that was crap not you…join a different agency with different contracts and carry on and good luck with your mrs…lbe realistic life is like that sometimes

17

For my first shift after passing my Cat. C, I was asked if I could do a 7.5t run around “Birmingham”. “Easy” said I, as I know Birmingham quite well. The first drop was in Worcester, then Ludlow, Bridgnorth, a few other places that way, and the last few actually in Birmingham :unamused: .

I got lost a few times, and eventually finished the shift something like 5 hours late, having done a 15 3/4 hour shift (yes, I know, I was young and foolish, and I didn’t quite understand the drivers’ hours rules then), and I felt completely knackered.

My first shift after passing my C+E I was given a British Bakeries artic and sent to Forest Gate in London. Because the directions I was given were wrong, I missed the turning, and then had to turn myself around on a very busy London road (this was mid-Friday-afternoon). I managed to find a circular route on my London A-Z, but as I approached one of the turns, it was a mini-roundabout with pedestrian railings all the way round, and lots of other obstacles. I just got round with only a foot or so to spare. If I’d had a 45’ trailer instead of the 40’, I’d’ve been completely stuck. When I tried to pick up my new trailer, I discovered that it didn’t fit the unit when there was only 6" gap between the headboard of the trailer and the back of the unit. I then spent the next hour helping the bakery loaders re-load the entire load onto the trailer I had brought up.

Basically, vigfanbke, you should expect your first few days to be complete [zb]. It’s like that for nearly everyone. Then it slowly gets easier as you gain experience.

I still can’t reverse artics for toffee. However, I am actually improving. At least I’m not “completely hopeless” - now I’m “almost completely hopeless” :laughing:

Personally, I’m surprised that you gave up so early after you were so determined to get your license. IMHO, you really should give it a bit more of a shot; however, I guess it’s your decision.

Also, you have a PM (or at least you will have when I’ve written it… :wink: )

18

Just put it behind you and give it another whirl.

Either that or suffer never ending ear ache from t’wife.

It’s a doddle after a few weeks. :slight_smile:

19

Hey Vig!
Sorry to hear that it didnt work out :cry:
I havent been over here for quite a number of weeks, so have only just read your post. Why dont you give aADR another shout, get yerself up the brewery, & you can be put with me for a week or 2 until you feel happy about going out on your own. Honestly, once you can get yourself in here, if you are keen but are still nervous, they will bend over backwards to help you. Its not something Ive seen in any other company Ive worked for…In fact, sometimes I think they pander a little too much to some of the drivers whims & fancies! :open_mouth:
This is the only realistic way you are going to get your confidence back, because once youve had a frightening time like youve had, it will take an awful lot of nerve to try it again. Better you do summat about it right away! :wink:
T.■■

20

vig you had a bad un mate but dont give up the most experianced drivers on trucknet all have a bad one every now and again comes with the job old pal my first week on artics many moons ago was a nightmare begining of the week was 10 drops lancashire the end of the week was five drops in cornwall i had a headache all week couldnt shift it and if anybody has done trago mills in the middle of falmouth town centre theyll tell ya its no fun in a full lenth artic.that was nine years ago since then ive seen most of the uk and the benalux countries of europe.if it gets to much stop for 15mins and have a cuppa or a kip.if ya get lost ya get lost ■■■■ happens.goodluck mate dont give up :wink: :laughing: