Afternoon all,
Buckled a gate today, just clipped it with my o/s back end driving out onto a narrow rd (one of those 90 degree beauties), i’ve only been driving artics 5 weeks! A poor showing I must admit, but I’m doing what must be the worst HGV job there is… Multidrop. 10 + drops per day, and a 8 outta 10 times a different location. When was your 1st whoopsy, or am I the only one? 
sure feels like it!
anyone how says they’ve never had a bump or a scratch is a liar 
it happens to us all but you learn from it. My first opps was when i was a shunter about 4 years ago and i dropped a trailer on its kness 
- thank god it was empty or i still would have be winding the bugger back up 
i do a mixture between multi/distance - dont mind multi except for edinburgh 
anyone how says they’ve never had a bump or a scratch is a liar
I have to agree with the above…
been there got the tee shirt. First couple of weeks i smashed a few light lenses plus a whopper. i left the hand brake off whilst coupling and slightly scratched a parked car! Accidents happen to everyone in this job you’ve accept some micky taking and learn from your mistakes.
merc0447:
anyone how says they’ve never had a bump or a scratch is a liar
well i have never had one 
but i could be having you on
dropped a trailer on its knees and had a new wing and light hit a small post 
sideswiped a skip with the front of the cab while reversing onto a box lol, about a year after i passed my test.
nothing was really said,only a few bits of fibreglass and an indicator and it was back ont he road within half an hour lol.
mine was in one of those 8 wheeler hooklift tippers picked a skip up in the yard to move to the opposite side off the yard it had at least a 4 foot overhang i swang it round to go over weighbridge and knocked the post which held the gate on over luckily for me they was making the gates wider anyway
I have widened a few gate posts in me time and creamed a couple of cars…
As the others have said it happens, no one is perfect, my first bit of damage was hitching up to a bulker trailer loaded with clay, I put the air lines on first and as back under, it rolled away slid off the skids and the legs buckled, a lesson ive never forgot, but since then mainly lense and side lights in narrow lanes etc. its the low level bumpers now I find alot of them running around are scratched and dented due to the low profile, you will probably come across that one later.
Not long into my driving career I reversed into a small lane to get to the drop off as I couldn’t turn around in their yard and sort of pushed one of them old lamp posts into about a 45 degree angle Some old guy came running from the back of the trailer to tell me, he noted my reg and stuff but still not heard anything to this day 
.
Had lots of little mishaps too, light lenses and paint scrapes off the odd car, only to be expected.
We all do it at some point
My 1st whoopsy was doing a Chilled delivery to Brakes(think it was brakes lol) in Middleton. I was in an artic and had just got in through the main gate, when one of their [zb] drivers decided he was going to try and squeeze through the gap instead of waiting for me to move out of the way. Anyway he didnt quite make it , so i tried to move over a little (dont actually know why i did, should have me that [zb] backup out the way.) and scraped about 6 inches of the rubbing strip down the black gatepost (it was dark at the time so couldnt see the thing). All it did was take the heads off the rivets. All part and parcel of driving a large vehicle imo
I dropped a fully loaded trailer onto its knees!
Trouble was I was 20 years into the job!
my first mistake way back in 1996 was listening to a chap who came out with the classic “weve had bigger than that in here drive” when I was trying to get a little 7.5 tonner into a tight car park entrance to drop some bits off to the gang who was doing some building work there, when I managed to rip the under run bar off on the gate post as I caught it trying to get turned round
My first was pulling off from a fuel pump that wasn`t working with the nozzle still in the tank
I put it back on,gave it a tug and it felt fine…until they fixed the pump!!
The first driver to use it pulled the trigger and it blew the hose off!
The trouble was it kept pumping and didn`t cut off until it reached 500 litres
Being an honest guy,I kept my mouth shut and pleaded dumb!!
Was doing Agency work a few years ago and was delivering to a shop and started at 5am.
On arrival I discovered the place was shut till 8am so I went for a kip as you do when cursing the tube that had you up at half three in the morning and was woken with a loud bang on the drivers door, I sat up let off the handbrake and rolled right into a transit van.
Some mess it made of it too but I was very lucky the guys weren`t unloading their tools.
Some strange looks off the lassie at the shop who woke me up that day. 
i was RUSHING ! (key word here)
1 afternoon taking empty boxes into eldapoint which is less than half a mile away an it was 5 to 5 in the afternoon and the last bookin in is 5pm, so under trailer air lines on legs up, sod the number plate (tin hat at the ready) jumps in cab hand brake off, into gear pulls off see’s the nice brand new skelly dissapear behind me
hadnt checked my 5th wheel had locked in looks up to see the boss sarcastically clapping his hands, empty had to wait until the next day
double post
I was moving a trailer using our shunt motor ( renault premium) and jumped out and went to connect it up, got the red line on and the entire thing started moving, I thought it was strange and then I had realised what I had done, left the handbrake off, thing is the alarm didnt go off, it didnt have one!! I managed to pull the red line and it stopped
Another classic was when I was parking a trailer up, right outside the office, I had only been there a few weeks and I pulled the pin, dropped the legs and then set off, then the TM started screaming at me, I hadnt taken the lines off , the amount of grief I got was unbelivable, got called strectch for a while!!
LIke everybody else says, if you havent had a bump then your lying!!
joemaxi:
My first was pulling off from a fuel pump that wasn`t working with the nozzle still in the tankI put it back on,gave it a tug and it felt fine…until they fixed the pump!!
The first driver to use it pulled the trigger and it blew the hose off!
The trouble was it kept pumping and didn`t cut off until it reached 500 litresBeing an honest guy,I kept my mouth shut and pleaded dumb!!
then he was a div. All electric fuel delivery installations (should!) have a master switch readily accessable.
Was reversing a 55 foot trailer into a yard one Sunday morning and had to take a shunt forward, never noticed the car parked in front of me ,squashed it against a wall, phoned TM and he told me to leave a note on the car. Went in the next morning to see a 6’6" guy in the office and ■■■■ myself, guy was not happy but boss sorted it all out then told me “Go get your ■■■■■■■ eyes tested” lol