Company hired an experienced agency class 1 man to do a load today. Gets keys to a 105 auto and off he goes. An hour later he finally leaves yard with his trailer but seems to taking his time getting up the road. 10 mins later he comes storming in the office, chucks the keys across the desk and says the wagon is ■■■■■■, it’s stuck in low range, and before we get chance to diagnose the actual problem he got in his car and ■■■■■■ off home, leaving the wagon sat in the middle of the road about 200 yards away. Went up to the wagon to bring it back, find that the gear selector is in tortoise mode. Put it in neutral, started it up, engaged D and drove it back to the yard just fine.
How do these thick [zb]s even manage to pass their test? Scary when you think you’re sharing the roads with these people.
Very strange as reading on here it’s claimed agency drivers are better drivers than company drivers as they go to different companies on a regular basis driving various different makes/ models of trucks whereas company drivers only drive one make of truck model .
“consultant” is describing their guy as “Experienced”? Maybe he was 10 years experienced, and still too proud to ask “how to use autobox” not very professional of him at all. Complete knob.
The sort that’ll call your all-in with bottom pair at p ok er. Just don’t ever try to bluff through such egoistical people!
its not just this industry , I spent 30 years in engineering and lost count of the number of times I have been presented with a new starter and asked to "show him the ropes " . explain to the guy what we are doing and how and why we are doing it this particular way , the guy looks at you with that "im not stupid " look , so you leave him be . an hour or so later the foreman appears " get over there and sort out the mess that clowns created " . I think that’s why most larger firms put new employees through a training course before they let them loose. its cheaper than sorting their ■■■■ ups . the best bit of advice I was ever given was if your not sure ask !!. begs the question was he just ignorant or was he too embarrassed to ask ■■
syramax:
its not just this industry , I spent 30 years in engineering and lost count of the number of times I have been presented with a new starter and asked to "show him the ropes " . explain to the guy what we are doing and how and why we are doing it this particular way , the guy looks at you with that "im not stupid " look , so you leave him be . an hour or so later the foreman appears " get over there and sort out the mess that clowns created " . I think that’s why most larger firms put new employees through a training course before they let them loose. its cheaper than sorting their ■■■■ ups . the best bit of advice I was ever given was if your not sure ask !!. begs the question was he just ignorant or was he too embarrassed to ask ■■
Currently the victim of this in my new job, still better than messing it up later down the line
We are having our time wasted on DCPC when the training time could be usefully spent on driver inductions.Our vehicles are highly complex ,its just stupid to expect a stranger to walk in and drive away.If I were a T.M. I would be making sure that a new driver knew how to use the tackle before attempting to take it on the road.
alamcculloch:
We are having our time wasted on DCPC when the training time could be usefully spent on driver inductions.Our vehicles are highly complex ,its just stupid to expect a stranger to walk in and drive away.If I were a T.M. I would be making sure that a new driver knew how to use the tackle before attempting to take it on the road.
That in my opinion hits the nail smack on the head. A point well made sir.
alamcculloch:
We are having our time wasted on DCPC when the training time could be usefully spent on driver inductions.Our vehicles are highly complex ,its just stupid to expect a stranger to walk in and drive away.If I were a T.M. I would be making sure that a new driver knew how to use the tackle before attempting to take it on the road.
That in my opinion hits the nail smack on the head. A point well made sir.
+1
How many posts about ‘what does this button do?’ or ‘does anyone know what this button / switch is for?’…
Great, they’ve come on here and asked, but to have took the picture means they’ve been in the truck, chances are, they are asking us AFTER a days work in the truck…
I remember when I started on buses many years ago, we had VF - Vehicle Familiarisation - to show us what all the buttons did and how each vehicle drove differently.
1st artic job I ever did, got handed keys to a unit, and told ‘trailer is over there on that bay, don’t forget to raise the suspension before pulling out or the tail lift catches the guide bars’…
Me: “How do I alter trailer suspension? I know how to do unit suspension using the remote, but I don’t know about trailer suspension”.
Other driver: “come with me mate, I’ll give you a quick guide on the job”
alamcculloch:
We are having our time wasted on DCPC when the training time could be usefully spent on driver inductions.Our vehicles are highly complex ,its just stupid to expect a stranger to walk in and drive away.If I were a T.M. I would be making sure that a new driver knew how to use the tackle before attempting to take it on the road.
Spot on! I had to learn to use back-to-front-and-inside-out Fuller 'boxes on the job, Twin-splitters on the job, EPS crap on the job, ‘Teligent’ (so-called) 'boxes on the job and Eurotronic 'boxes on the job - and all the Scania/Volvo/Merc/MAN variations. It was a struggle but I learnt to use them all, often in the pitch dark at 4 0-clock on frosty mornings. But wouldn’t it have been safer and easier to have been given a few minutes instruction on each of them before taking a vehicle out?
I once worked for GIST, where you are not allowed to take out any vehicle you haven’t been trained for. By that stage of my career I’d driven everything and just found it irritating that I was expected to receive training to drive a Twin-splitter ERF EC when I’d driven with a Twin-splitter to the Arabian Gulf and back. But then I remembered what I’ve just said in the first paragraph and decided that it was ‘a good thing’ after all. Robert
alamcculloch:
We are having our time wasted on DCPC when the training time could be usefully spent on driver inductions.Our vehicles are highly complex ,its just stupid to expect a stranger to walk in and drive away.If I were a T.M. I would be making sure that a new driver knew how to use the tackle before attempting to take it on the road.
Who are you trying to kid? Highly complex? Really? Maybe building one is highly complex but driving one certainly is not.
Power steering auto boxes etc have made it even easier.
Maybe an eaton twin splitter took a little while to learn but anyone with half a brain could master it after a short period.
If a lorry was highly complex to drive we would not be so low on the pay scale…get a grip.
I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the steering wheel on a premium, it wasn’t in any of the usual places and I ended up leaving it the way it was. Only had to move it few foot out of the way but can anyone tell me just for future reference?
I kinda had the opposite to the op the other night ,
So called experienced agency guy not used him before , I was on site coupling my trailer and he comes over . Can I show him how the gearbox works
Ok it’s a daf cf manual 4 over 4 with splitter
Apparently he works for culina and hasn’t driven a manual for 16 years
I did larf to myself
I drove a Renault premium with auto box the other day and could not find reverse! There was nobody around to ask and I was going out solo, and luckily I was able to drive off site without reversing. I stopped down the road and eventually worked it out. It was a bit weird it just had D and N on one switch then there was a separate one for R but you had to leave the other one in D before selecting R.
And how many of you suffered the embarrassment of not being able to move a Volvo F10 /12 because no one had shown you that little knob that you had to press in when the air is up / engine is warm (can’t remember which it was now! )? Robert
robert1952:
And how many of you suffered the embarrassment of not being able to move a Volvo F10 /12 because no one had shown you that little knob that you had to press in when the air is up / engine is warm (can’t remember which it was now! )? Robert
Ricekrispies:
I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the steering wheel on a premium, it wasn’t in any of the usual places and I ended up leaving it the way it was. Only had to move it few foot out of the way but can anyone tell me just for future reference?
Depends on the age but some have a button you press with your right heel by the corner of the seat.
