i was in fradley tescos thursday night when a young lad backed under his trailor. he got out to check the height of the unit as so i thought then pulled back a bit more then o took no notice of him till i heard an almighty crash. yes you have guessed he pulled out the unit went right the trailor went straight on what a mess it made tescos mangement was all over him spoke to him after and he said he was practically given the licence and had not been shown how to connect up properly i find this hard to believe
No point blaming the army, the training and tests are done by civilians! 
Most of our wagons are wagon and drag however we do have a few artic fuel wagon tank transporters etc.
If this bloke had used them he would have been trained to couple and uncouple correctly. The Mod are very ■■■■ about ensuring that you’re trained correctly on all vehicles we use.
On to be honest if this lad hasn’t used a artic before the company are responsible to ensure correct training under H&S.
The Army HGV training is done by a civilian company, But it is very basic compared to ours.
Most of the officers don’t even get in a lorry, They are simply signed off and given a licence. They are not expected to use it, They just need it, Otherwise how can they order someone to do something that they arn’t licenced to do themselves.
In times of war, The instruction is even more basic. You may be in a carda of 30 men, and only 5 will get to drive.
It was an instructor that told me this.
We get the “fridge on the bunk” on a regular basis, to send a driver to a job with no training and expect all sweetness and light is stupid.
The driver carries only a small proportion of the blame, I hear all the time from fellow drivers how X did Y and how useless they are, and noboby went to help them, a few pointers to a driver who is new to the place is better than a load of pointless criticism.
My concern is with those who after many years have no aptitude for the job whatsoever.
To be fair the Army have been sending guys all over the world not prepared,for years!
I am preparing to leave the army this week on redundancy, so for the last year when on leave I have been doing agency work and I have been very surprised by all the help I have received from other drivers. I thought that after all the threads that I read here I get no help but wrong.
I saw that,they were just trying to get a forklift under it…I was on my way back to the office to get another exit code because the first one was no good and the security gimp would not
let me out.
I nipped through a gap in the trailers and got round it…I thought poor sod thats gonna
generate some paperwork.
harvey69:
i was in fradley tescos thursday night when a young lad backed under his trailor. he got out to check the height of the unit as so i thought then pulled back a bit more then o took no notice of him till i heard an almighty crash. yes you have guessed he pulled out the unit went right the trailor went straight on what a mess it made tescos mangement was all over him spoke to him after and he said he was practically given the licence and had not been shown how to connect up properly i find this hard to believe
I had to read this a few times to get the just of the exact details of what happened on site
peirre:
harvey69:
i was in fradley tescos thursday night when a young lad backed under his trailor. he got out to check the height of the unit as so i thought then pulled back a bit more then o took no notice of him till i heard an almighty crash. yes you have guessed he pulled out the unit went right the trailor went straight on what a mess it made tescos mangement was all over him spoke to him after and he said he was practically given the licence and had not been shown how to connect up properly i find this hard to believeI had to read this a few times to get the just of the exact details of what happened on site
Me too, bloody foreigners. 
Maybe the army training on Artics is not that hot, seeing as they only use these little rigids with a trailer.
peirre:
harvey69:
i was in fradley tescos thursday night when a young lad backed under his trailor. he got out to check the height of the unit as so i thought then pulled back a bit more then o took no notice of him till i heard an almighty crash. yes you have guessed he pulled out the unit went right the trailor went straight on what a mess it made tescos mangement was all over him spoke to him after and he said he was practically given the licence and had not been shown how to connect up properly i find this hard to believeI had to read this a few times to get the just of the exact details of what happened on site
My guess,the gist is,he didn’t hook up correctly and its all the army’s fault.
Montmerency:
peirre:
harvey69:
i was in fradley tescos thursday night when a young lad backed under his trailor. he got out to check the height of the unit as so i thought then pulled back a bit more then o took no notice of him till i heard an almighty crash. yes you have guessed he pulled out the unit went right the trailor went straight on what a mess it made tescos mangement was all over him spoke to him after and he said he was practically given the licence and had not been shown how to connect up properly i find this hard to believeI had to read this a few times to get the just of the exact details of what happened on site
My guess,the gist is,he didn’t hook up correctly and its all the army’s fault.
I would have to agree thats how it reads lol 
I’m still trying to figure out if he missed the pin and hit the back of the cab. Or if it was a cactros, he smashed the airbox
peirre:
I’m still trying to figure out if he missed the pin and hit the back of the cab. Or if it was a cactros, he smashed the airbox
It was a Renault and he got about 30 feet out of the parking space, when the unit and
trailer were divorced.
he missed the pin completley and ■■■■ happened
it was a white renault 62 plate and that does sounds about right 30 foot
oatcake1967:
peirre:
I’m still trying to figure out if he missed the pin and hit the back of the cab. Or if it was a cactros, he smashed the airboxIt was a Renault and he got about 30 feet out of the parking space, when the unit and
trailer were divorced.
If thats all it takes,can I miss the pin with the wife?
I already do! Apparently!
I am preparing to leave the army this week on redundancy, so for the last year when on leave I have been doing agency work and I have been very surprised by all the help I have received from other drivers. I thought that after all the threads that I read here I get no help but wrong.
That’s because you haven’t met any trucknetUK drivers yet if you do you won’t know about it till you get home and see a forum post on your antics. There’s quite a few helpful people on this site rest are just RDC waiting room material where they ■■■■■ and whine and not do anything about it apart from complain via a forum post
Job is what you make it! if your spend all your time been negative about it your going to have a crap day. And that’s where you need think about your life maybe get another job and to hand your licence back to DVLA and let some one who wants to do the job do it rather then rip the mess out of them
limeyphil:
The Army HGV training is done by a civilian company, But it is very basic compared to ours.
Most of the officers don’t even get in a lorry, They are simply signed off and given a licence.
Absolute rubbish. Army training is done by civilian instructors employed by the MOD. ALL students do an intensive 5 day course and test. Once they’ve passed the test, they then do a three to four week course covering vehicle familiarisation, off road driving, loading and securing and basic vehicle maintenance.
Army HGV training is actually far better than a 5 day course, test and a bit of classroom work for a DCPC. Show me a HGV school that teaches you how to service a wagon or even change a tyre.
Yours, someone who has actually been through the training, has worked at the Defence School of Driving which is 10 miles up the road from me and who knows someone who is still an instructor there.
Where it falls down is that C+E is basically taught in uprated 7.5 tonners with a drawbar trailer on. Unless they specifically have to drive an artic, they’re not taught how to couple one up or if they are, never do again. So when a squaddie decides to earn a bit extra doing class 1 on a weekend or if they’ve just left the army, they make ■■■■ ups like this lad did.
However I will say this in his defence. I’ve seen plenty of halfwits who’ve been driving class 1 for some time do the same.