kindle530:
maverick72:
you gotta be in the clique to enjoy the job, also gotto remember that you are the best driver in the world,and double drivers are just scum 
also gotto dress like a 70s rock reprobate with lots of tattoos and also a goatee is acceptable,and you must in the course of one day mention the work klusterf**k in any conversation you have,and finally the double driver under no cicumstances can drive the truck into the gig,otherwise they loose their rock and roll image status
You havent got to be ‘in the clique to enjoy the job’!
You havent got to be the best driver in the world, it is handy if you have a clue where youre going without relying 100% on a sat-nav like some people (ive had arguments with double drivers who were telling me the easiest/quickest way i advised them to go was not right because sat-nav said to go another way (via a low bridge/weight limit etc) and that was from a driver who had never been abroad before (apart from to Calais on a beer run)
The main reason a lot of people fail at TransAm is that they cannot adjust to driving a left hand drive truck, let me give you an example…
I had a driver meet me in the yard to come double driving with me for around 3 weeks, he had never sat in a left ■■■■■■ before and wanted to drive from our yard (down a small narrow twisting B road in the countryside which has a lot of bulkers running up and down it all day and night) to Brixton Academy in London, he got the hump when i told him there was no way he was driving until we got on a dual carriageway.
Anyway, we got onto the A14 and i pulled up in a layby, i asked him if he’d driven a Daf before and he said yes, i said well all the controls etc are in the same place, just reversed, he then sat playing with the gearbox, and said he couldnt work out how to get it into high range, i told him after hes [zb] the switch to put it into neutral as normal then to pull the leaver towards him (as opposed to away from him in a right hand drive) and drop it into 5th. We had around 5 ton in the trailer, and he pulled away in 1st low and used every single gear and split in low range before hitting high range, well we nearly hit high range… he was trying to push the gearstick away from him and started shouting it wont go in, so i told him to pull it towards him, at this point he was looking at the gearstick and not the road, i told him to look at the road and he didnt, i then shouted to look at the road, and as he eventually looked up we were just about to drop our offside unit wheels into the stones in the central reservation, he just managed to keep it out of the stones, i reached across and [zb] the hazard lights on as he pulled over to the side of the road (we had hit the dizzying speeds of 25m.p.h in all this!) he stopped, jumped out of the truck and was shouting at himself to pull himself together, he then got back in and appologised, pulled away and did exactly the same again, when he started drifting i told him to dip the clutch and keep his eyes on the road and i changed gear for him.
He did manage to suss out the gearbox dilema out after 2 weeks.Anyway, there wasnt a minute in his hr drive when he didnt drift over to the middle lane. This stayed the same for the whole 3 weeks he was with me, and when your doing 1500km a day you need some rest, but i couldnt rest properly as i had to keep my eyes on him and his antics.
The one time near the end of the 3 weeks when i said on the way to Calais ive got to sleep, follow this road all the way towards Calais and dont turn off for Paris, any probs, give me a nudge,when i woke 30mins later i asked him where we were and he said 50km from Paris, i said we dont want to be anywhere nr there, he said he panicked at a big junction and couldnt remember if i said to head there or not, so that was handy, i had to drive thru Paris in the rush hour. That was one driver, another one i had fell asleep after 30mins driving while i was sleeping and ran the whole truck along the crash barriers for 2 or 300 yds, when i jumped up and said what the **** was happening, he said ‘sorry about that, i just fell asleep’ (he had just been picked up from a hotel where he had had 2 days rest an hour before) not forgetting the fence he pulled down when he turned right at some roadworks on a set of traffic lights in Switzerland. thats a couple of many of my double driver stories.
Saying that i have had a couple of brilliant ones, where i could just fall asleep and let them get on with it, but they are few and far between in my experiance.
Ive been into punk rock since i was 13 (im now 41) so dress like it, there is no uniform to wear so you wear what you like, most people tend to wear black so when youre walking around backstage you tend not to stand out, as all the working crew wear black so they are as invisible as possible when the show is on. I have quite a few tattoos, mostly they are naes of punk bands, but these (with the exception of one i got done in Antwerp on a day off, another punk band name) were all done before i started with TransAm
There are no more than 2 or 3 drivers that have a goatee.
I dont think ive ever said the word cluster****
Whoevers disc is in the tacho at time of loading/unloding is the person who drives the truck into the gig, there is no status to loose there…
TransAm is without a doubt the best job i have ever had, there are some really nice interesting people working there, ive made a lot of friends in my time there, most drivers are very very knowledgeable about the job, as they have been there a long time, i dont think ive ever met an arrogant driver there, its a great job for travelling to some amazing destinations that hardly any UK firms go to nowadays, and the money is good, the people in the office are the nicest people i have ever worked for, and if you have a problem or need advice there is allways somebody that will give you the answer as they have been in that situation before.
So, i dont really know where you get all your information from my friend…
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thats some bad crack with those drivers man, i know if i got out with u in the truck u had i would be ■■■■■■■■ it, not because ive never done left ■■■■■■ (not till the morning anyway) but aye id be scared driving ur truck, u look after it like its ur own and id be scared if i damaged it in anyway.
but around 2am or something we will be heading back from bulgaria to london to reload, good times lol
