Been a while since i’ve been on here, but suffice to say, i’ve started driving wee lorries now. Cause its the newbies section, i thought i’ll contribute back some of my thoughts on a complete newbie to the game.
After phoning some of the agencies, they wanted to have the paper license first… which is kind of understandable, and some also wanted me to have experience of some kind first as well ( again, understandable ). I didn’t get the license in until a week past thursday.
However, I have signed up with an agency on monday who said i’d need to do a short stint on 7.5t vehicles just to build up a bit of experieence, then I can jump up to the larger ones. Thought i would be waiting a while after that sign on, but on wednesday got a call to head up to kinning park and report to a office furniture company that day for 12:30.
“dont wear jeans, wear black trousers” they said.
" err … like suit trousers ? "
" nah, black combats or something."
" ok … "
did i have black combats ? nope ! 
a quick diversion via T K Maxx and a quick change in the car had me sorted out. Arrived a the place on time ( bricking it ) , and was sent out in a 7.5t to fill it up with fuel and dump the contents at the scrappies and head on to an office in paisley. Got to the petrol station. Could i open the filler ? could i buggery ! had to drive on and fill it later 
alas, the rest of the day went fine and had a good laugh. got asked to go on the thursday too and enjoyed it as well.
Friday was to a different place for 7am in the morning. 
Arriving in Finnieston with Glasgow AtoZ in hand i asked " so roughly what will i be doing today "
" you’ll be heading down to ayrshire to drop of deliveries to butchers and the like "
looking at the glasgow A2Z in hand, inside myself i thought " arse! no map for ayrshire here ! " Luckily, when he started naming the towns, i new them all pretty well from horsey stuff and pals in the area, so that made it a lot easier. Did the drops, found the places OK and returned quite happy. Then the rest of the day was spent going from the depot to the local cash n carries to deliver stuff there.
The depot guys were spot on with me. For each drop , they took the time to let me look up the location in the A2Z and make sure i was happy with where I was going. I know my way around Glasgow to get to areas, but its the last few turns to get to the back of places where the guys really helped me out. I’ll not comment on the loading bay guys though.
So that was my first few days. Overall, I really enjoyed it. It’s nice to be working again. OK, the pay isn’t as good as what i used to be on, but its bringing money in and with time to reflect on the first few days, i 'll be going to the next job being a little more savvy and knowing the ropes.
So … Things I have learnt from a newbie perspective … might seem obvious to experienced guys, but when your just out of the blocks, these are just some of the things which i noticed.:
- ASK questions.
If you’re handed a delivery slip with an address, check it out before you head off and if your not sure, ask the gaffer.
If your loading up with another person, ask why he does it a certain way etc
If your arriving at a drop and not sure of the process, ask another driver… i did and all the drivers i spoke to were top notch.
- Black combats are great
If you dont take a bag, then the combats are great. The side pockets kept my keys, wallet and phone on me all day. Dead comfy and as they’re black, they go with just about anything.
if you’re wearing safety shoes, break them in first
I made an effort to break mine by wearing them to the stables and get them comfy. I’m now used to them completely and happy to wear them all day. doing that first just takes another thing to worry about off the mind.
- Get an A2Z and a UK road Atlas, plan your route and note some of the key street names to look for as you approach
I found that most of my drops were on 2 sets of pages in the A2Z. I folded over the corners of them so i could flick to them easily, and also circled in the location along with its name each of my drops so that in the future, i’d find them quickly. I probably will get a GPS setup further down the line, but paper maps are much cheaper and still get you there when you first start out.
take something to store tacho cards
Experienced drivers probably have wee wallets and holders and spare cards etc etc etc. But if you’re like me, there is only so much you can think of in advance … and i forget about this on until i pulled the card out at the end. The tacho cards mark dead easy and even a basic thing to hold them is a great idea. They are typically the same size as CD’s so things like spare CD cases/ wallets or even the spindles that you get for blank CD’s make great storage holders and help stop damage to the cards.
i’ve rabbited on enough, but thought i would share my experiences for anyone who is in a similar position to me
You seem to like too–that helps. 
