Another diary...

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

First day of driving work after the Kosovo trip (well, actually, I did a day a few weeks ago, but I was only a driver’s mate in a Sprinter instead of the class 2 driving I’d been promised).

Arrived at NYK Logistics at 06:15, and got given my truck - a well-looked-after Scania 53-plate, and the paperwork - the usual checksheet, declaration forms, anti-hijack procedure :open_mouth: , and run details. - take an empty trailer up to Brackmills (Northampton), and bring a full one back. There were also two other drivers doing the same trip, so we were going in convoy.

After scraping off the ice, hitching up the trailer, we all started off up the road to Aust to fill up with diesel, then we set off up the M48/M4.

Once we got onto the A419/A420, I hate to say it, but I really started to miss the Eaton twin-splitter gearbox :unamused: - I got a bit fed up of forgetting to dip the clutch to move the splitter…

Only one minor incident on the way over, as an idiot car driver decided to try to overtake me on an on-ramp which was going down to 1 lane, forcing me onto the hard shoulder. Oh, and I made a car slow down on a roundabout a bit more than I intended when I tried to maintain momentum by pulling out and when I went to accelerate away (only slowing him down a little bit), I got low range (1st) instead of the high range (4th) that I’d intended, and virtually stopped right in front of him. Oops. :blush:

Got to Brackmills, reversed the trailer in blindside with only 1 shunt :sunglasses:, refilled my washer bottle that had run out on the way over, picked up the new PC World trailer, and pulled out. One of the other drivers had a problem with his seal that took ages for them to resolve, so after I’d got the remainder of my 45 minutes break, I set off on my own, while the other two drivers waited behind.

I pulled on to the M40 at J7, and the traffic promptly ground to a halt - a number of police cars, ambulances and fire engines went past on the hard shoulder, so it was obvious that it was an accident. All 3 lanes were blocked, as we didn’t move for an hour. Eventually I left the M40 at J7A :unamused: and continued on the rest of the journey.

I decided to be lazy on the way back, and took the A34 rather than the A420. Dropped the trailer in the warehouse (again, reversed in with only 1 shunt :sunglasses: ), and clocked off.

I still haven’t recovered from the fact that they’ll give me, an inexperienced agency driver, a truck probably worth £50k, and contents probably worth in excess of half a million… :open_mouth:

423 km covered.

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Good Read MrFlibble :smiley:

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Good read Mrfibble ,glad you’re enjoying it.
regards derek

4

Did the same run again yesterday, except that this time I was the experienced one :sunglasses: leading another agency driver who, although being a more experienced driver, had never done the Brackmills PC World run before. Fortunately, no major traffic jams this time (except for the usual one through the contraflow on the A34), and I came back the A420 route instead of cheating :wink:

Was reasonably OK on the reversing - 2 shunts to get on bay up at Brackmills, but made a bit of a mess back at Avonmouth, and needed about 6 shunts to get it where I wanted it. :blush:

The worst bit? After I finished the shift, I drove to the local train station to get the train into town to meet some mates at a pub. Do you think I could park the car in the car park? Could I buffalo. I kept turning the steering wheel the wrong way :unamused: :blush: :unamused: :blush: :unamused: :blush: :unamused: :blush: :unamused: :blush:

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LOL…I only hope that day comes to me…must be quite amusing to say the least. Nice one MrF…

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Getting into a habit of this…

Not much else interesting happened this time.

Started off with the usual top-up at Aust - I managed to squeeze 151 litres into the tank to get my extra 50p :wink: , then set off down the M4.

As I turned off the A419 on to the A420 there was a sign saying “Major incident on A420 - HGVs use M4/A34”. I almost turned around, but I thought that it’d probably been left out from a previous incident, especially since it was 7am on a Saturday, and none of the HGVs coming the other way were signalling to me, so I pressed on.

Anyone know what the “major incident” was? I didn’t see anything :unamused:

Arrived at Brackmills, opened the back of the trailer to check it was empty before putting it on bay, and set the alarm off :open_mouth: :blush: :laughing:

Dropped the trailer on bay as there were no parking spaces (I left it a bit wonky, but I wasn’t too far off, and I know I would have been there for hours if I’d tried to straighten it up :unamused: :blush: ), and picked up my new trailer, which was parked along the perimeter road.

The journey back was rather slow, as the A34 was really bad - there was a queue for the A420 exit stretching all the way back to the contraflow, so I decided to go the A34/M4 route instead. I figured that maybe the “major incident” sign was preparing for some big event that was expected to jam up the roads.

After getting past the A420 exit, I was doing 50 mph on the cruise control, and I saw a truck overtaking me in the mirror. Then, as he was about half way up the trailer, he started blowing his horn :confused: I was still doing 50, so it wasn’t like I was speeding up and leaving him stranded, and I was still well in lane. Anyway, as his cab drew level, I realised the reason - it was a foreign driver in a left ■■■■■■ who held up a piece of paper with “DOVER” written on it, and gestured to ask whether he was going the right way. I nodded, then held up 4 fingers and made a left-turn pointing motion to indicate “turn left onto the M4”, which he seemed to understand.

If it hadn’t been for the “no stopping” rule, I would have flagged him over, shown him on the road atlas and given him directions, but I decided against it.

No reversing at the end, as there was no space in the warehouse, so I just had to drop the trailer in the middle of the yard, which I could do forwards.

430 km covered.