Post your stories of your first day HGV driving

[ezydriver]

I had to be at Corby chilled by 5am. I hooked up to the trailer and there was about a 6 inch gap between the unit and the fridge. I didn’t know what a close coupling procedure was then so I squeezed in between and got PLASTERED in grease. I was wearing a white t shirt too. I went to Budgens, wellingborough, and my first reverse ever was a partial blindside. I’m proud to say I made it with just one shunt to straighten up. Beginners luck I think.
After I got back I then headed out to a mushroom farm in Yaxley, Peterborough, to collect 26 pallets for Tesco. I remember parking on the road and walking down and seeing the tight yard. I thought “How am I going to get in and out of here?”. After a while a forklift driver assured me I could spin round with a tight jack knife so I edged in the yard and span it round. I felt so cool and proud as the big white reefer turned. I loaded up and got back. All in all it wasn’t a bad day.
I was given a fairly new Scania with a 3 over 3 and splitter. It was quite a pleasure to drive. Everything worked.
Here it is in a layby near Kettering on that very day on the way back from Budgens. In June 2004. After just 2 shifts with them and my third shift was with a twin splitter ERF for homebase.

Please add your contributions and any nightmare stories. I’m keen to hear them.
Regards,
Steve.

[ady]

my 1st drive was for band q grantham, im sure it was run by tnt at the time. you were meant to have a drive with one of there blokes to see if you were ok but for whatever reason i never got one.i remember looking at all the smart motors and bricking it, eventually igot the keys for a old dark green scania hidden away at the far end of the yard, and my run was to runcorn to do a trailer swap , thay gave me a map of how to get there and one of the drivers could see i was a bit stressed so he helped me out by telling me to use a50 then m6 [ i was going up A1 then m62, i didnt have a clue].
any off we set onto A1 to pick up A52, why does this truck only do about 30mph on the a1was my 1st thoughts[ never heard of range change as took test in 6 speed], got on to a52 and spotted a wagon pulled in at sedgebrook so pulled in and told him my problem[ i didnt have a clue what i was doing] so he spent half a hour telling me everything he could in that time[one sound bloke]
i then got going and knife and forked my way to the runcorn. i then went in and the shunter or whatever he was asked me if i was any good at reversing[ ithink my face told him not, id never reversed one in my life, took my test in small 4 wheeler with a drag on the back] so he got me to reverse onto a angled bay on the right when you go through the gate, i did it with a lot of help from him[ another sound lad]. i then went and got my paper work from office and got my trailer, i then attempted to leave the yard by the way id come in the sound lad soon got me sorted out and going in the right direction .i then went up to the office to book out, the security chap said right will go and put your seal on , he wasnt impressed as i hadnt threaded that piece of wire along the side of the trailer [ i wondered what it did]. again the sound lads who were qued behind me helped me out. i then drove back to grantham and started to relax a little, i got back and reversed it into aspace[ cant rememer how many shunts, i lost count] ithen dieseled up booked off and sweared i never do it again.
but here i am still doing it , an loving every minute of it , a dream come true

the only things id say on top of that is dont learn in a four wheeler and drag as it aint any thing like the real thing, and if i wasnt for all the sound lads id of never got through it, which is why now however a bad day im having ill help any one if i can

PART2 a trailer swap for b and q at gretna services[ for another day]

[deesider]

My first day driving an HGV for a living was in September 1972, and er…

erm…

er…

well that’s all I can remember,…sorry!

LOL

[ady]

yep seems like alot cant remember, or dont want to remember

[roadsailor]

Hmmm, I still remember this day with sweaty hands. I was put from a 22 ton rigid onto a full blown Mercedes Actros with a trailer full of tyres. 8 drops to England (from Northern Ireland).

Yes, I was dying every second while walking towards this monster on wheels. I pictured all those tight roundabouts and nasty little bends in the small villages I’d have to pass on my way to the ferry (Larne) and, of course, the ferry itself because there is a lot of reversing to do on these ferries as they are not of those convenient Roll-on Roll-off type of things.

Anyway, the way to the ferry port wasn’t bad after all and I was really enjoying the driving after 1 hour or so. The reversing on the ferry’s deck was not too bad either although I did panick a lot.

Coming off the ferry I went off to see my customers and most of them where easy to access (reversing but not too tricky) until I arrived at Wembley Tyres. What a prick of a bloke he was and what a ■■■■■■■ of place to turn into led beside to get out of again. I was stopping very busy traffic for at least 20 minutes as I was struggeling to get out of there. Well, I finally managed and needed a massive break afterwards.

My following journey than took me further into the South to Essex and Kent and I remember trying to get to a small Village near Southend on Sea which was called Rochford. Well, it was kind of an adventure to get to this place as every time I tryed to approach this place there was this low bridge which wasn’t listed in the Trucker’s Road map. Plenty of sweat and blank nerves again but I finally managed thanks to the help of one sound fellow trucker who was living near by and saw me struggeling.

The rest of the journey was not too bad and I am still driving despite having had very serious doubts about doing the right thing or not.

uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/turner … pg&.src=ph

[ezydriver]

You got a truck like that for your first trip? You lucky sod. I’ve been going 2 years and yet to drive an Actros. Old or new.
I think we all ask ourselves at least once when we’ve just started “Do I really want to do this?”. You carry on though and after a few weeks its suprising how you’regetting into it.

[gazzareth]

I got an Actros on my first day as well, posted this at the time in the newbies forum … … …

Nearly a week had passed since I got my class one, finally get a call from an agency with a job for today. 03:30 start with Farm Foods out of Monkspath, “nice easy” run to Bletchley & Leighton Buzzard sounds ok to me.

Well when I say ok - the nerves still kick in, going forwards is definately no problem, but “tight” manouvering is still pretty unexplored territory. Turn up at security at the requested time, then head into the traffic office. The run turns out to be Bletchley, Wolverton and Bedford, not too bad and I get provided with hand drawn maps which actually do the job.

I get taken out to the wagon by another driver who pretty much goes through everything I possibly need to know. The unit is an 03 Actros with a “auto” box, which is explained to me and sounds ok. I need to pull the unit forward to check the load so jump in, select forward, handbrake off, and press the gas - not much happens - so I press the gas a little more and shoot forwards, great - that is going to make me look like a spanner !! Try again and realise that the box seems to take a few seconds to decide what it is going to do - technology is wonderful eh ■■

Anyway, we look at the load - the other driver comments “you are going to have fun” - the trailer is full and most of the load is dry - so getting to the frozen stuff will pretty much entail taking everything else off it - especially since half of the dry stuff is going to the last drop. Sort everything else out and set up the Sat-Nav then time to head out.

Easy run down to Bletchley, especially since most of the roads off the motorway are wide open. According to the map the shop is down a dead end so I park up a couple of hundred metres away and then walk down to find it. No problem with this one, it is right at the end - so I hardly have to reverse at all (just straight a couple of metres).

3 Pallets of dry stuff to come off, then have to unload 6 others and rearrange another 6 to get to the frozen stuff. Nearly an hour has gone by - by the time that I have finished the delivery, then I still have to rearrange what is onboard and put the 6 pallets, empty’s & cardboard back on… and I thought getting it off was hard work…

Finally I finish and am ready to go reverse straight back 5 metres then go, thankful of the airconditioning in the unit after all the hard work. Not far to Wolverton, although this drop is a bit harder - best way to describe it is like a “H” gearbox. The road runs 4 to 3, I need drive up 1 to reverse back to my drop at 2 but there is another truck about a wagon’s length into 1 (hope that makes sense). In hindsight I could have reversed 3 to 2, but that would be blindside and I didn’t quite feel up to that yet … … …

First attempt and I just squeeze my nose past the other unit, then head back, but the angle is all wrong without room to correct - so I try again and pull a bit further forward straightening up. This time I can back up straighter (although I have to put a kink in to avoid mirror to mirror contact) but, a little bit of faffing around and I am in the right place. Time to play with the pallets again…

This time I managed to do it so I only have the one full pallet, the empty pallets & cardboard to take off. Then the 10 pallets for the drop, which includes all the remaining frozen stuff. Unfortunately the entrance to the shop itself is on a slope so I am completely knackered by the time I have pulled everything up there (really should start using that gym membership). Although on the plus side I can unload everything for the final drop without even having to unload the empties.

First though I need to leave Wolverton, (back to the gearbox) - I need to leave the way I came in. Looking around there are a LOT of dead bollards around and, asking the staff normal procedure is to screw it around - which looks tight since the gap I need to get through is about half the length of the truck and the total width is not far off the full length either… However it is that or reverse out into the “main” road, so why not. I am now quite glad of my crap reversing as I am about 6-8 feet off the wall (so 5-7 feet from the bollards) which is more than I was aiming for but it should give me room to miss them with the rear end. A little worried I creep round - quite thankful for the auto transmission, and find that I don’t even get close to having a problem - don’t know what I was worried about.

Straight off to the final drop at Bedford, on the way there realising that I much prefer driving the class one to class two’s by a long way (except for the reversing, but it is only day one). Obviously I have a long way to go, but everything seemed to come much easier - and not just because I had an Auto either - since the jury is still out on that !!

The map for the Bedford store led me to the front / car park, in a rigid I would have shot straight in there, but in the Artic I did a slow pass to check there was not a delivery entrance somewhere - looked like there was a roller shutter off the car-park, so back to the A6 roundabout then back to the front of the store and into the carpark. Reverse straight back to the shutter and finally unload everything else.

Finally head straight back to the M1, take a 45 at NP services (parking badly I have to say). Then a run straight back to the “yard” - fuel up and the final challenge of the day - reverse onto a bay. Acres of space since I was quite early back, but still manage to need to take a shunt - and get it on squint, but it was on, and I figured that getting it on in 2 was the best result !!

Overall happy with the days drive - no kerbs hit / nudged / mounted at all and pretty ok with the lines I generally took, in fact no real problems to speak of. I am a bit concerned about reversing since anything I did that wasn’t straight took a few attempts BUT i didn’t hit anything, which is always a plus. Even though it was a physically hard day it was much more enjoyable than the rigid work I have been doing. So looking forward to my next job… …

Brings back memories reading it again, and that was less than a year ago and I am much wiser now - would only do Farm Foods as a last resort !!!

G

[nightpilot]

[roadsailor]

ezydriver:
You got a truck like that for your first trip? You lucky sod. I’ve been going 2 years and yet to drive an Actros. Old or new.
I think we all ask ourselves at least once when we’ve just started “Do I really want to do this?”. You carry on though and after a few weeks its suprising how you’regetting into it.

Can you imagine the amount of sweat that was pouring down on me? Honest, I was [zb] myself that day when they allocated that lorry to me. At first sight I would have preferred one of their old ERF’s to start with, but hey. I managed alright and brought it back in one piece. I think one always learns best when thrown into the deep end,

If it needs doctoring to get around the word censor then it’s not allowed. L.

[jammymutt]

I honestly cant remember exactly what i did on my first day but i do remember within the first couple of weeks getting sent down to ( J17 M4) to a chicken factory and being told to run chickens in to Smithfields market all week, the first night was a nightmare stopping and asking people where it was but after that i managed for the rest of the week.

The worst part was it was night trunking and i was parked in the truckstop near J17 trying to sleep during the day was no fun at all especially in an FL7 with them paper curtains!!!.

[ezydriver]

Brings back memories reading it again, and that was less than a year ago and I am much wiser now - would only do Farm Foods as a last resort !!!

Sounds like me with Budgens. I did one day with them and would never go back. I was very new to driving then and some of the drops were really tight little corner stores in villages. I couldn’t back in so went on to turn around. Attempted to blindside into a cul-de-sac in this village. Screwed it up and had to drive on to a ‘goodside’ turn to turn around. Eventually once I’d backed in to my drop (a petrol station) she told me “They usually drive straight in from our other entrance”. I looked across and thought “Oh yeah, Why didn’t I see that? but the printed delivery store locator map thing they gave me told me to back in.”
I soon learnt.

i do remember within the first couple of weeks getting sent down to ( J17 M4) to a chicken factory

I’m sure thats still there. I regulary have to go past j17 on my way to j18, Bristol, and smell this farm from the motorway. Its got to be one of the worst smells I think.

[leslie_g_heath]

Although it was just over 30 years ago i can still remember my first job driving an artic and it was a nightmare.
I had taken my test on a little Ford unit with a small single axle short trailer.
Those days there were no 2 years experience, you just turned up, showed your licence and was away.
Turn up for job, very cocky, 21 then.An Atkinson Borderer with a 40 foot container, to a place near the Aston Villa football ground, from Reading.
Well, what a shock, the thing shook, i looked in the mirror and the trailer seemed enormous, i could not turn the steering wheel, and the pedals seemed all over the place.
Eventually got to the drop and it seemed a relatively easy reverse.
When i eventually got the beast almost on the bay i was literally soaked in sweat, it had taken me at least 10 minutes.
However i lived to tell the tale.
A postscript, i had to deliver to the self same site around 1999, with a Cannons Scania.I had 23 years experience and guess what i still could not to that reverse.

[killsville]

Deesider:
My first day driving an HGV for a living was in September 1972, and er…

erm…

er…

well that’s all I can remember,…sorry!

LOL

What a month that was! You started HGV driving and I was just starting to fill nappies!

[rewmer]

Mine was an agency Job two weeks after passing my class 1. A nice easy run from Thurrock to Oxford with a collection just outside Oxford on the way back - simple …

Things started badly when the guy from the agency showed me to the wagon - a 1998 ERF ECT. The first problem was the 4 over 4 range change gearbox, I had only ever seen a 4 by 4 on the Renault Premium I trained on. Next the tacho thingy. Had to tear up the first one after filling it in all to ■■■■, and then I proceeded to put the next one in upside down, this was pointed out by the owner.(Charlie)

Ok, ready to go. Tom Tom installed (purchased the night before) route set, notes collected. “Turn right out the gates boy, then left, then follow the signs to the motorway” . So I turned left out of the gates , waved back at the owner as he waved at me and half a mile later, realised I needed to reverse half a mile as the security guard at the yard at the end of the dead end refused me permission to turn in the yard on the grounds of “health and safety”. It was at this point the agency guy drew up and pointed out I had gone the wrong way - Derrrrr. I can just imagine the phone call he must of got as he was heading back to his office " WHAT THE HELL KIND OF FOOLARSE DRIVER HAVE YOU SENT ME - WHAT A ■■■■■■■■■ - or something along those lines.

Any how, half a mile of the worst reversing ever seen,up and down the kirbs, full lock to full lock and I am on my way. Tom Tom was giving directions and I started to settle down. After a while things started to get a little congested and the roads started to narrow and I noticed I was approaching Oxford centre, Tom reported I was a mile from my destination. “in 400 yards take the next left” oops 7.5 ton weight limit cant go that way, the next left was a side street and panic started to set in. I was at this point I noticed a bridge in front of me. 13ft 6 max hight. This is when I remember someone saying" take the ring road to avoid the bridge" I managed to pull in at the bus stop and after looking around the cab to try to find the hight, rang in - me “how high is the trailer” Charlie - "13ft 6 . on his advice I dumped the air from the truck and trailer and crept under the bridge.After speaking to a nice cabbie, found my drop 100 yards on the other side of the bridge. Cabbie wasnt interested in buying Tom. Drop was preety unremarkable, had to wait for an hour or so to get tipped, and made sure I got good directions back onto the main road.

The collection was rather easy, after getting there by the shortest route, acording to Tom - many B roads and small villages, I headed back to the yard exhausted and realy , realy sure I had made a mistake getting my license. The next problem I had was finding the yard, It was now dark and I had no idea how to get there, I had lost all faith in Tom, even though he was insistent he new the way. I recognised some points, but I wasnt local to the area and finally had to call the agency and admit I was lost. After much description of my location , I got directions and finally pulled back into the yard and parked up. Nearly fell out of the cab as I had been so tense all day I had lost all power to my legs- two days later my legs still ached…

That was 4 months ago and I have been getting a good amount of driving in for a local nursery. This has involved some seriously tight driving and reversing, but have risen to the challenge and got through, without to many scrapes. Tom is also now behaving now i know how to use it, and has turned out to be an invaluable tool, and I am now realy enjoying the work and always look forward to a new drop and the challengesit presents. The icing on the cake came as I reversed into a ridiculasly tight drive with all kinds of obstacles in the way, and the the customer said " I can see youve been doing this job a while driver" - I grinned to myself …

[rob_k]

Rewmer:
Mine was an agency Job two weeks after passing my class 1. A nice easy run from Thurrock to Oxford with a collection just outside Oxford on the way back - simple …[snip]

A perfect example of why Satnav is a bad idea. Now if Rewmer had been able to read a map (yes, maps, anyone remember those? ) then he wouldn’t have got himself into half the difficulties that he did .

[mezzzz1211]

MY first job was driving an auto fm12 down to west thurrock with a load of that tempary fencing ■■■■■
was absoluteley brickin it but i did ok
seems ive gotten worse with practice

[rewmer]

Easy Rob,
I have been using maps and navigating around the country for many years before getting my HGV license. My only error was not being fully competant with Tom before using it. Since learning how to use I wouldnt be without it and have never got lost. I do, however , always check the given route with my Truckers atlas.

[smcaul]

First ever job after getting my class 1 was a night trunk from Newbury to Manchester for Securicor. First time in an artic and it was an Iveco with a twin split Still, managed to get it there in one piece, good job the load was light as I only used the top three gears on the way up there - did get lost once on the way, wish they had invented sat nav 11 years ago as a road atlas did not go into enough detail Coming back was much easier - after that I got a job as a shunter for 4 months and that sorted out my reversing in double quick time

[wheel_nut]

I cant remember much about it but my first day out on my own with an Artic legally was a trip to Low and Bonar in Forfar from Hull. I remember been stopped by the ministry at Sterling and asking them directions

As it was still log sheets everything was perfect and I remember getting there and finding a hotel near the factory to get a drink. I worked out of Gartcosh all that week running between there and Forfar.

Its Too Far To Forfar Fife

[theghostofcain]

My 1st day went OK, the 2nd was a bit more fun though…

theghostofcain:
Tuesday morning, after sleeping through my alarm I headed for Grosvenor waste in Crayford. The previous day a driver had given me directions and said, 'turn right at the pub, under the 13’8 bridge (I had a high cube box on, so about 14’5) and it’s on the left. Sat-nav also directed me into there but I still didn’t have the guts to turn down there, and went up to the roundabout to spin round and try again (well, he may have been winding me up). It turns out the 13’8 bridge has been ‘dug out’ below thus giving more clearance but the sides have been reinforced so it’s VERY narrow. Still, I thought as long as I go through straight, it should be OK. I arrived at the waste transfer station & asked another driver where to go. He directed me to the weighbridge office. Now, there were 2 weighbridges, side by side. The driver is on the right hand one, so I head for the left. There is a building on the left just before it so you have to keep close to it and turn into the left just after it to straighten up. I got onto the not-so-wide weighbridge and the lady in the office said ‘if there’s no-one behind you, reverse onto the bay’. So, I start to reverse and, bearing in mind the building, gave it a bit of left hand down, and straighten up. Well, that was the idea. I preceded to make fundamental errors in judgement and ended up with the rear of my trailer at an angle pointing towards the building with about 3 feet to spare, and having nowhere to go in front to straighten up. But still I tried, and tried, and dug myself into a deeper hole. By now, I’m blocking everything and wagons are starting to build up behind me. The sweat was pouring off me. What do I do?? HELP!!!. But no-one came. Then, out of the mist strode a heroic figure to guide me to safety. Well, OK, another driver wanting to get on with his work. He directed me back and forwards until I was straight & I managed to get out of everyones way. Then to cap it all off, I had to blindside reverse onto the bay:( . Luckily the driver helped me through that too. Once on it only took about 15 minutes to get loaded and I was on my way back to Felixstowe. I swapped the 40 box for a 20 which was going to Huddersfield for 9 the next morning. I arrived back at our yard at 5.45.