Since switching careers and working for a TM and a firm who decided to give me a go with no experience whatsoever on HGVs. I have now completed my fifth week and I am really enjoying it, as posted before I am driving 44ton artics on multi drop pallet work. I wasn’t thrown in at the deep end, I spent to 2 weeks with a guy who has loads of experience and he was great giving me loads of tips on driving/manoveuring/loading etc and then I was on my own.
I’ve spent the rest of January working “local” in West/South Yorkshire, driving a DAF CF Space Cab 430 6x2 (twin steer) with a curtainsided triaxle trailer, 99% of the work is palletised, but I get the odd handball job, trailer loads of beds & matresses which is good exercise. I’ve managed fine so far, although sometimes I make a complete “pig’s ear” of some of my reversing, backing on to bays, blind side etc but if you tell people your new to this, most smile and go out of their way to help you, especially if they have a nice expensive car close to the rear of the trailer!!!
There is loads to learn and to take in, so much so I don’t even listen to the radio, just in case it distracts me at a crucial moment, one thing I have learnt is that most car drivers do not understand HGV dynamics, it should be made part of the driving test, so that they understand what HGV can and can’t do, i.e stop quickly, turn on a sixpence etc.
I was on the A1 in South Yorkshire during the gales and saw 2 artics on their sides (hope the drivers are O.K.) I was lucky that I had some weight on the back and also took it steady 30/40mph and tried to pair up with other artics going over bridges where possible.
On friday I had 3 drops in Bradford and I was tipped by 10:0am, then off to a factory to pick up groupage in Leeds came off a roundabout and the unit started to make a “funny” noise decided to stop and call the garage out, they came out and diagnosed a blown turbo, the truck has done approx 700k clicks and is due for replacement shortly, so the garage boss wasn’t best pleased having to pay out for a new turbo, but they will swop the one off the yard shunter and keep the new one as a spare. At least it wasn’t my fault and it was just one of those things, but it meant I finished early on Friday (great) but I lost some overtime (not great)
Some of the new trucks coming DAF XF105/Iveco Stralis/ Volvo FH480, I wonder if I will get one of those, you can dream can’t you! I’ll probably get another hand me down, but there are some Scania 420 Topliners which would be great, but not another CF, the cabs are too small if you are big like me.
Anyway so far so good, I am doing something I really enjoy and I am really interested in, I took a large paycut to do this, but money is not the be all and end all, my health and wellbeing are paramount and job satisfaction is really important. The only thing I have to worry about is getting up in the morning I usually start at 7:00am, but sometimes 6:00am. I know I’ve been lucky working for a company who took a risk with a “newbie”, who run legal, have good kit, well maintianed and do not chase you all the time.
I will keep you posted over the next few months.
