Your posts make for interesting reading mate. And I think it sounds like you are learing all the time and best of all by some of the mistakes you have made - that is meant in the nicest possible way 
Very interesting reading fella. Thank you.
Tag axle on the unit doesn’t look like it’s all the way down in that pic
Fantastic! Container work is my goal when I get through to Class 1.
Great tales of your tribulations, you seem to be doing very well overall though.
I didn’t think containers would involve much domestic work (the farm pick up) though I must admit.
I did LOL at the cutting seal off mind, if you didn’t manage it I won’t stand a chance. Are they the horizontal seals that look like flat bars with notches cut out? I did wonder how they came off.
Keep up the updates! 
Great topic. We were all you once and some of the old hands forget that easily. It’s nice to hear you have been given a chance and to be fair, you’re starting out with a nice motor too. Even the little mistakes (none of which have really amounted to anything) are part of the process and if you can admit to them here, then you’re obviously not too proud for your own good. Also you’ve mentioned plenty of times how you’ve asked for help, a lot of people fall short even at this point.
Keep posting and good luck.
P.s My first day on containers and my very first collection at Southampton saw me sat in my bay with a straddle crane parked over me with a forty foot box slung under it, blaring his horn at me. I got out, looked up and thought to myself “That ain’t mine mate, my trailer is only a twenty footer”. The blaring horn and a lot of arm waving continued, further asserting the fact that the bloke in the crane was a total spaz.
At which point the driver of the lorry next to me came over and helped me pull my trailer out to forty foot…
I like to publish my mistakes, not because I like everyone to know how terrible at my job I am (;)) but because when I first started out on pallet work, I was making mistakes and I couldn’t find any threads in the newbie’s forum saying they’d made similar mistakes. It was a bit nerve racking since I thought I was the only one doing it, hence I publish them so that anybody new that does make them knows they’re not on their own . As for asking for help, it has gotten me out of so many situations I can’t even publish, it’s silly not to 
The way I look at things is if I make a mistake once, it’s a learning experience, if I do it twice, it’s a boot to the arse and out the door experience. If somehow I manage to make it three times I’ve been lucky the second time and when I get the push I most definitely deserve it!
Your first day on containers sounds like a real PITA, I’d have probably been put off containers for life!
There’s actually quite a lot of farm work (so I’ve heard 
), I’m not entirely sure what but it’s certainly not RDC’s everyday so don’t expect an easy life The funny story with the container seals, I went to that site again the next week and instead of having a person stood there waiting impatiently for me to cut it, I was told where the cutters were and to get a head start, it was the very same type of seal so I thought I might as well make the grooves as deep as possible even if I couldn’t cut it. After about 15 seconds of attempting to cut through it, I succeeded so I didn’t have to deal with the embarrassment of not being able to, so I think you should be fine!
Today has been mostly, an easy day. I woke up outside the ‘next’ RDC in Rotherham after running out of hours while going out the gate 
Parked up round the corner and started at 7:45 in the morning. I had a 4:45 drive to do to get to Southampton so I thought I’d stop at J23 for 45 for a breakfast & shower. After having breakfast I didn’t have time for a shower so I had to crack on, arrived back at half 1 and was told to get a lift off & then a lift on in the docks, done and back to the yard.
Then came the following which made things a bit more complex:
You’re not planning to sleep in the cab tonight are you?
No. Is another driver going to use it overnight?
Yeah, agency.
Oh…
What?
Well, you never know what you’re going to get if another driver takes it out.
Nah, it’ll be fine!
Just after having the above conversation with my planner, I decided to bury the hatchet since I’ve never actually had to handover my vehicle to somebody else for a day and all my prejudice came from agency driver rants on here and that I should find out for myself with a clear mind (I forgot for this moment this site is actually incredibly accurate). All this changed back to prejudice again when I left the office to return to my truck to clear it out for the next man to find it had already left 
with my car keys, phone & card & everything else in it. 
I wouldn’t have minded so much but my car keys were in the tray on top of the dash board (very clearly visible) and my card was still in on other work (it was clearly obvious it wasn’t finished with yet). 
I had to wait an hour until a different driver turned up who was coming down from where my truck was going and swapped my keys, card & overnight bag with them… Not best pleased but at least I’m home now, haha!
As for the container seals, they’re this sort of thing : americanseals.com/sites/all/ … cation.JPG
Also, the lift axle is purposefully lifted as the contents of the box are very light so it’s in no danger of putting my drive axle overweight
DJC:
There’s actually quite a lot of farm work (so I’ve heard… I had to wait an hour until a different driver turned up who was coming down from where my truck was going and swapped my keys, card & overnight bag with them… Not best pleased but at least I’m home now, haha!
I don’t mind a bit of hard work,just trying to keep clear of overly physical loads - at 5’2" I’m not going to be much use for much manual work. Excellent, it just takes determination and a few seconds of peace and quiet then!
What a divvy, even for an agency driver!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread but felt compelled to post when I read about that agency driver. The majority of agency drivers are not that bad, you just seem to have found one of the few special ones (and that guy sounds spectacularly stupid) who do agency work as no one in their right mind would take them on.
One quick lesson.
If your kit is in the lorry keep control of the keys
Tipper Tom:
One quick lesson.If your kit is in the lorry keep control of the keys
The funny thing is, I have and it was locked! The office keep the spare set and he took those ones, ridiculous! I’m still left without my phone & my sat nav though so who knows what will become of them!
Surely if a person left their card in it should be handed in at the office & maybe think to ask if I was still there at the same time.
trampyjoe:
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread but felt compelled to post when I read about that agency driver. The majority of agency drivers are not that bad, you just seem to have found one of the few special ones (and that guy sounds spectacularly stupid) who do agency work as no one in their right mind would take them on.
You’re right of course, we shouldn’t generalise about any group as there are those that try their best and those that don’t try at all out there in all walks of life! Who knows maybe this very fella was on his first day himself and was so nervous he didn’t even see any of the personal effects or know who to ask about them. A lesson to all of us newbies/wannabes - if in doubt… check it out 
What’s done is done and the cab is returning to normal and the smell of smoke that mysteriously arrived that same night is also disappearing. Nothing else to report apart from the fact my hi vis jacket has lost it’s hood and I’m now running around in the rain (which is refusing to stop for the last few days) in a black bin liner looking like a prat. 
DJC:
my hi vis jacket has lost it’s hood and I’m now running around in the rain (which is refusing to stop for the last few days) in a black bin liner looking like a prat.
Thank you, that’s started my Friday with a laugh!
Did you get your phone back and other bits and pieces (except your hi vis hood) in good order.
When do you close the cab door for Christmas then and, for how long?
Got everything back just fine, the hood happened months ago but it didn’t have much relevance at the time, the hood however is in my container lock so I don’t forget to take it off in the docks so it’s still being useful but not the intended way.
Given the fact I started at the end of November I’ve not had the time to book days off so I think it’ll just be the bank holidays for me, not ideal but nothing really planned so it doesn’t make a big difference to me.
That’s fair enough. I take it you’re not out all week by the way I’ve read your posts.
Thanks for the updates DJC. I’m quite new to the industry and threads like these are really beneficial to read.
NiceRoadTrucker:
That’s fair enough. I take it you’re not out all week by the way I’ve read your posts.
Not been out all week before but have done a handful of two day runs, I’m quite happy to have nights out as frankly it saves me money on petrol, it’s less frantic as it’s common that I’d have to get home & go almost straight to bed & I don’t have to deal with rush hour, it doesn’t bother me while out in the truck but it’s the most infuriating thing while commuting! 
Simongrove:
Thanks for the updates DJC. I’m quite new to the industry and threads like these are really beneficial to read.
I’m thankful for the comments and there is work out there to be found. I think it’s also important to highlight that when starting out slip ups can happen, as said before when I first started I was forever expecting to get some sort of disciplinary because getting thrown straight in (fast paced night shifts) was difficult to adjust to and I did make slip ups.
Good thread. Containers are pretty decent work really, though most of the work I’ve done has been just shift stuff not nights out.
You soon get used to the skelly trailers. And impatient crane drivers!!!
I got work for Roadways in Leeds and loved it driving to Felixstowe night trunk. New mercs etc. but then when I pointed out that I can only do 2X10 hour shifts in a week and that you can’t do Leeds to Felixstowe and back in 9 hours driving 5 days a week they suddenly put me on TNT driving the horrible clapped out ERFs in the yard, persevered for 6 weeks hoping to get back on containers but fate was sealed . That was the end of that relationship
Would like to get back on containers looking around at the moment. If you don’t hear from me soon it means I have starved to death.