Oh it’s easy for you to say, been there done that and of course, once you get into it, it’s easy right? Well, Yeah, sorta 
Agency rang today and offered me a short job to do. I’d already harassed them earlier on so this I guess was payback
Pop over to a vehicle hire place and pickup a rigid for Milton Keynes. So off I trundled. I didn’t want to give a bad impression so changed out of the smart suit I’d been wearing for other meetings today into some clean work trousers and a t-shirt then went to the hirer.
The chap in the office said ‘oh yeah, the little truck, sure’ when I said who I was collecting for. After an hours wait of paperwork and stuff he took me out back and introduced me to a DAF 26t rigid fridge truck 
Did the walk around checks and the damage spotting for the paperwork, everything looked fine to hopped in, fired it up and… then had to return to the office as it was a paper tacho 
and I didn’t have a disc.
It was an 8sp manual gearbox with a range change on it. Having trained on a splitter (I think) this was quite different.
1st was slow and 4th wasn’t that much faster, but I couldn’t pull away in 5th. Took me a moment to even find fifth but thankfully rush hour traffic was upon us and the traffic moved slow. Left Coventry and trundled off down the A46/A45 and by the time I reached the M45 I had found cruise control, top gear and the radio was knackered. Never mind. Rang Dad to let him know the deal and the plans and what was going to happen later and stuff. The agency had said catch the train back, get a receipt we’ll pay but a kind family member offered to collect me from MK and I could pay them the £20 I would have had to spend on the train. Apparently the choice was ‘housework’ or ‘couple hours in the car for family’ no contest really, for someone who doesn’t like housework but likes driving
My SatNav didn’t like the 24v power socket in the cab so I was without charger. I struggled to find the details on the map as the directions were, ahem, interesting. Eventually got it on the map after talking it through with the office at the other end and heard someone call out ‘the drivers lost’ I did point out that it was a new trading estate and wasn’t in the map or the satnav Anyway. Found my phone with TomTom on was able to operate without a power lead (but drank the battery) and just using voice directions and the screen not visible to me. This was very handy!
So. Remember I said you couldn’t pull of in 5th? Well, I could at a push, well, I managed it once or twice but found it just easier to plan the roundabouts in MK. There were a few cars that indicated left and went around the roundabout, but I’d already got halfway across the roundabout before they indicated their presence with their horn. Kind of them wasn’t it It only happened twice but when I’d made the decision to actually proceed they weren’t even visible!
Turned up on site, dropped it where they wanted it and found for the second time that day I was actually managing the reversing better than going forwards But got it nice and straight before clearing my stuff out and getting out of the cab. I had a walk around with the guy in charge of the yard. Seems all the other DAFs in the yard (3 years old and under) were all auto’s on digi cards. He was not amused when I pointed out it was a manual with a paper tacho, but grinning he said it wasn’t a problem as he wouldn’t be driving it
He then was going to give me a lift to the train station. I thought I’d have to find my own way but instead got him to drop my by the motorway which made life so much easier
So, it was an awesome afternoon. Nice to be able to get behind the wheel eventually and really pleased it went really well
Of course, having cargo as well would have helped. Averaged 10mpg on the way down there, and 8 when doing 55mph…
Sorry, no pics Proved my satnav power cable isn’t good enough, the bluetooth earpiece works and I can drive afterall
Stopped at NP services and I’m sure some of the drivers thought I was a wimp by having to get the revs wrong pulling out of that space I’d only stopped to check the map
Still. Swings and roundabouts, and more roundabouts than swings in MK 
I’ve had experience of other vehicles with difficult gearbox combinations and then heavy loads so kinda knew it was a bad idea. I’m glad I didn’t have that on my test though, it’s quite a bit of work to get used to it and I was only driving it using the gears as much for half an hour, the rest was on the motorway in top gear.
