HI, I’m a long time lurker on this site and decided it’s time to join in.
I have been out of the game about 6 years now but am looking at getting back into it (don’t do it!!! I hear you cry).
Thinking of my options I remembered back to my days delivering to supermarket RDC’s and how I wondered about the life of the yard shunters. Does anyone here have any experience of this work or know anything about it? Are the jobs like goldust or are firms crying out for shunters?
Also I’ve been looking into a days refresher (decided against it, I will do an easy day with a shister agency I’ve been told about, £6 an hour!!! but better than paying to have a practice eh?)
But while looking into it I noticed a company offering “Shunter Training”, now would that just be reversing practice or learning how to drive one of those Tug wagons?
Anyway, hello to all.
Hello Patches, its all very different from company to company. I’ve been a shunter a few times, my longest stint was for 12 months, i was agency and none of the companys drivers wanted the long hours, Sun to Fri/ 6am to 6pm. Other companies i’ve been to ,the shunters job has been much coveted as you get max hours/canteen facilities and regular start finish times etc. Its all down to how the depots drivers are. Whilst i agree that shunting can ‘sharpen’ your reversing skills, i’m not so sure that it would be a good refresher course for someone who has maybe not driven a truck for a while or is looking to get experience (from scratch). It’s true you can sit around and have not many moves in a day, but also you can get hectic and need to go some, you usually get lumbered with everything from…the diesel pump/truck wash isn’t working to…how many empties have we got in the yard, and can you give me the numer of an empty trailer with a tail lift…which can make for an interesting and occupied day just keeping up trailer lists and other small jobs. Its a job i like anyway.
Thanks for the info Mike, sorry it took a while to reply but I have been back behind teh wheel with a couple of shifts. I was suprised how quickly I felt comfortable driving again (going forwards anyway) and had a Daf CF hi-top to play with. Very nice wagon in my limited experience having driven scania day cab fleet dogs in my previous stint.
Anyhoo, thanks again for the info Mike.