Got a phone call yesterday to tell me that the unit I was driving around in needed to be swapped with one of the companies drivers. As you may know I’m agency but have been working for the same company for the last 2 or 3 months. I asked why this driver needed to swap so desperately and it turned out he needed to pick up a haz load and being in a hired unit, it didn’t have the fire extinguishers with the unit. Just as I was about to tell them I was ADR the boss of the company said “Don’t worry though, you’ll be made up when you see what your getting…it’s one of them brand new merc’s that you were talking about last week, we,ve got it on hire, first time out on the road too” Ooh I thought, leave the ‘ADR’ line alone ! A nice little test drive in a new merc. Well got back to the yard and dropped the trailer, gave the unit to the other driver who gave me the nice shiny new merc key…
Are you ahead of me yet ? I walked around the corner to see this brand new Merc…Actros, nah it was an Axor. Only the 2nd time I’ve driven one of these and I have to say, as great as the Actros is, it is only equalled in opposites by these monstrosities. I only went to Manchester and back, I’ve never felt so unsafe driving a truck in my life, and this was driving an empty double decker. When I loaded it it became a completely different ballgame. How are these trucks allowed on our roads ? The engine sounds like its in the cab, the brakes are non existent at all. The unit feels so lightweight that when you are driving down motorway it feels like the trailer is dictating to the unit rather than the unit pulling the trailer. Also I don’t understand why these units have beds in them or why they have a ‘taller’ cab. They are too thin to sleep in and if you are buying a thinner wagon to save on cost why would you want it with a high roof. These units are basically for company’s who don’t give a toss about their drivers. They should be built and sold for shunting trailers within the same city or for a country like Malta. Not for running up and down motorways the length and breadth of the country.
Sorry pal but I am still laughing!
That is on a par with mike c’s diarys.
If its any conciliation I went to Stuttgart to the merc launch of the
new actros and test drive. What they didn’t mention was they
would be breathalising before the morning drive and the evening. Before was a free bar!
I never did get to drive one! Had a cracking night though pmsl
Tyres not bedded in, it’ll be fine after 5k miles, trust me.
Ask any driver of a modern design car transporter (standard tractor unit prime mover but connected behind unit as W&G, not semi trailer) what its like to drive when you get a new set of drive axle tyres, but especially when you collect one brand new from the body maker…oh boy its like trying to drive a plate of spaghetti, but a month later and they almost are able to be steered in straight line and become fairly normal…which is nothing like normal normal but normal for them…
Many lorries fall way way short of proper drivers machines these days, which the plucky little Daf CF is when fitted with a real gearbox and not one of satans tool of torture autos.
that sounds like my shift on wednesday. off to do a contract i havent done for over a year thinking, yes i get an actros tonight. nope! all renault premiums now
When I got back to Haydock there was a foreigner unloading a new unit outside Scania (he was actually down the road from Scania). I was on my way past in the car and saw him struggling, it appeared he couldn’t get traction from the position the unit was in on the back of the truck. Anyway he freed it up but it put the unit at an angle for reversing it off the back of his truck, across the trailer and down the ramp so I pulled over and watched him. Then I noticed it was a new ASDA truck (G420). Working for ASDA on the agency I was talking to this guy (in broken English) I was talking about driving for ASDA and showed him my card so he said could you drive it into Scania whilst he pulled the MAN rigid cab and chassis back onto his truck as he was late, so gave me the keys so I drove the unit up to Haydock, a distance of about 300m (on a private estate). So I got drive a ‘decent’ new motor after all ! Not only that, but got the bragging rights over the ASDA drivers as to who drove one of their new trucks first, it don’t bother me but a lot of them in the 3 ASDA depot’s I work in have their own heads so far up their own asp so you know what I mean !
Anyway, it got the guy moving and the truck safely off the back of the truck which was the point of me stopping !
Quite a few haven’t had clutches. Personally, the only thing I ever liked about the Scania auto was the clutch for hooking up trailers and reversing over drainage and bad ground etc.
I can’t stand the axors, I don’t understand why they make a truck thinner than a trailer? Surely what they save on buying a cheap ■■■■ truck they loose on fuel when all the air hits the trailer. I really liked driving an Actros though, I like steering with my right hand again and doing the gears with my left hand like the olden days.
And I wouldn’t be caught dead driving a G series scania. Peasants truck for commoners.
FarnboroughBoy11:
I can’t stand the axors, I don’t understand why they make a truck thinner than a trailer? Surely what they save on buying a cheap [zb] truck they loose on fuel when all the air hits the trailer. I really liked driving an Actros though, I like steering with my right hand again and doing the gears with my left hand like the olden days.
And I wouldn’t be caught dead driving a G series scania. Peasants truck for commoners.
Gone in the new Actros, gears now on the right stalk
FarnboroughBoy11:
I can’t stand the axors, I don’t understand why they make a truck thinner than a trailer? Surely what they save on buying a cheap [zb] truck they loose on fuel when all the air hits the trailer. I really liked driving an Actros though, I like steering with my right hand again and doing the gears with my left hand like the olden days.
And I wouldn’t be caught dead driving a G series scania. Peasants truck for commoners.
Gone in the new Actros, gears now on the right stalk
Ah what!! I thought it was a nice touch with your arm resting on the arm rest and just flicking through the gears.
I’m not really a Scania fan either, but at least a new Scania is a decent motor whereas a new Axor is still just pants pants pants. Also I have to confess that I’ve been the one person who has hated the gradual introduction of automatics but nowadays I get peed off if I get a truck with a clutch and / or gears too. The better trucks like the Actros and certainly the Volvo FH12 have awesome control with the accelerator in tricky conditions, DAF, MAN and others still have to look at themselves.
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