Radar19:
You sound like me. I’ve just started a new job and I’m supposed to learn about 20+ drops in an area that I’ve never been in. I’ve been with a regular driver for the last two days but I’m expected to be out on my own tomorrow. I know where the drops are, its getting to them is the issue.
The guy who’s teaching me said, “you will get lost, you will be late, you will knock over stacks of bread, you will screw up the paper work and you get zb from the other drivers, but this is your first week so keep plugging away.”
Multi drop is always daunting when you start. But, trust me that in couple of months time you’ll be ■■■■■■■ a multi-drop bread run.
Sit down one day after work and plot all the drops on a map of the area. I use Google Maps on the laptop. You can see straight away where they all are in relation to each other and you’ll pick it up & be forgetting the sat nav in no time.
There are much much worse jobs to do in the class 2 sector than the bread.
Keep your chin up. You sound like you’re doing just fine. Ask other drivers they rarely bite. Occasionally you’ll get one that has fell out of the wrong side of bed, like Conor, but generally you’ll be helping each other out before you know it.
Lastly get to know the regulations you will be using. So download the DVSA tachograph/drivers hours PDF(It’s boring as ■■■■), and read it. Then re - read it. Once more for good measure. I agree that you test theory on tachographs/EU rules in no way prepares you for the job. You need to confident of what you’re doing with regards your hours so that you can focus on the important stuff, like where you are going, not when you need your next break.
F-reds:
Lastly get to know the regulations you will be using. So download the DVSA tachograph/drivers hours PDF(It’s boring as [zb]), and read it. Then re - read it. Once more for good measure. I agree that you test theory on tachographs/EU rules in no way prepares you for the job. You need to confident of what you’re doing with regards your hours so that you can focus on the important stuff, like where you are going, not when you need your next break.
The problem is if it’s the type of job where every type of hours reg has to be maximised ( optimised from the guvnor’s point of view ) then the idea of looking after the driving side of the equation not the breaks one is a contradiction.A decent job means one in which driving far exceeds other work preferably across a 5 day week and in which case mostly being regulated/limited by the driving hours limits more than other work/duty time ones in most cases automatically simplifies the calculations of breaks and rest periods.
The problem is you won’t find that in the distribution sector.It’s in either the trunking sector or the distance full load only haulage one.The problem then being that the experienced drivers know that so those jobs are usually off limits and always filled on the basis of dead mans shoes or they are the ones which the owner drivers want.Which leaves one main option and that’s why people choose to take all the risks of being an owner driver which if I had my time again is what I would have done ASAP.Although having said that I did eventually settle for second best in the form of trunking.
F-reds:
Keep your chin up. You sound like you’re doing just fine. Ask other drivers they rarely bite. Occasionally you’ll get one that has fell out of the wrong side of bed, like Conor, but generally you’ll be helping each other out before you know it.
Lastly get to know the regulations you will be using. So download the DVSA tachograph/drivers hours PDF(It’s boring as [zb]), and read it. Then re - read it. Once more for good measure. I agree that you test theory on tachographs/EU rules in no way prepares you for the job. You need to confident of what you’re doing with regards your hours so that you can focus on the important stuff, like where you are going, not when you need your next break.
you cannot get fined and possibly lose your licence for not knowing where
your going but you can for not knowing when your next break is legally due. how is it more important to know where your going
Was speaking to a fellow newbie while tipping and he was also under a bit of pressure with the office always wanting to know where he was all the time, when he could be at his never pick up / drop off point etc. He was starting to have second thoughts about the industry.
Company i’m with you get your job and they just leave you to get on with it, no pressure what so ever
Thank you all for commenting. You’ve been both informative and supportive.
To clarify, I have left: for the reasons I mentioned above and a few more. I have however followed up on some promising leads so perhaps in a few days I’ll know better where I stand.
It was unfortunate my first experience driving ended with a sour taste in my mouth. But I think from what I’ve experienced, and what I’ve read here, I’m better prepared for next time around. I remember a similar thing happening many moons ago. I left a derogatory company to join another in which I would spend many happy years.
Who knows, maybe in six months I’ll find that trucking isn’t for me after all. Although I’m certainly not reaching that point unless I feel I’ve given it my best shot. Onwards and upwards right?
Sounds similar to my first place, knowing what I do now there isn’t enough money in the country to get me in one of their units, but back then I was naive and keen. There are good companies out there so don’t give up hope.
First off, that company is not like every other transport operation. There are good and bad, it seems you had the misfortune to select one of the latter for your first job.
A good company will give a new driver some help and feedback, no driver is born knowing it all.
The drivers on this forum will give you help, you sometimes have too have a thick skin with some of the replies , but most on here give good advice,
midlifetrucker:
It’s the job. Get the experience and reference under your belt that’s more important. Give it six months or a year and then keep your eyes open for other jobs.
Like everything once you’ve done it a few times it becomes easier. As for getting the hurry up just ignore it. They all do that no matter What you do.
Praise is normally if no one says anything at all to you.
And how many times is it ‘hurry up and wait’
It’s a shame you’ve chucked it already cos above is the advice I’d give. When you get something else, bear in mind what you’ve been told ie, it’s your licence, not theirs. Don’t get stressed over bad timing, traffic delays etc, get there when you get there. Don’t be pressured in to speeding like some of the heroes on here, or in to driving aggressively. You’re driving a truck, not a sports car. Keep your own records of what happens / what you’re expected to do, so that if you do get the bullet for not keeping up, you can do something about it.
I started on artics at 21 and was sent out on my own in an eight wheeler for two days, then straight on to artics. No one went with me and I’m glad they didn’t. Times were different then, but now it’s all go, go, go, so do what the late great Bobby Moore used to do and slow the game down to suit yourself. And good luck.
F-reds:
Keep your chin up. You sound like you’re doing just fine. Ask other drivers they rarely bite. Occasionally you’ll get one that has fell out of the wrong side of bed, like Conor, but generally you’ll be helping each other out before you know it.
Lastly get to know the regulations you will be using. So download the DVSA tachograph/drivers hours PDF(It’s boring as [zb]), and read it. Then re - read it. Once more for good measure. I agree that you test theory on tachographs/EU rules in no way prepares you for the job. You need to confident of what you’re doing with regards your hours so that you can focus on the important stuff, like where you are going, not when you need your next break.
+1 This…
I was in the same boat a year ago, started doing shifts for co-op on store deliveries. A year on, I’m asking drivers about drops at stores that are new to me, and helping the newbies with theirs. What goes round, comes round, I find…
With that said, I took a full time post at a builders merchant in Lincoln a few months ago, and basically told them to cram the job up their ae due to being pressured to make more drops per day, etc. You’ll soon get to know what is feasible in your day, what (demands) are impossible, and weigh up whether the company you’re with is ok, or a bunch of t***s. Allways, safety first, don’t break the law - it’s your ■■■! Now glad to be back on agency doing the co-op stuff
Wow, that’s a bit premature IMHO, I’m thinking that could be a problem on your CV, I would advise you not to mention that you ever did that job.
Now bare with me here, I’m going to tell you how it is without minding my P’s and Q’s.
If a TM sees that on your record it will raise a red flag, so he’ll ask you about it and you’ll probably tell him something similar to your OP, telling him you were not prepared to work like that etc etc.
The TM will then get the impression that you are likely to be a PITA as soon as the going gets tough, which it will, this isn’t a game, it’s a serious business that has more than its fair share of crap days where it all goes horribly wrong.
Now, on a lighter note it is wise to avoid any company that has a business other than transport at its core, usually any company delivering a product that it makes will be hard work. The transport operation is a cost to them and they try to minimize that cost by working you like a dog and keeping equipment well beyond its useful life. It never used to be that way, quite the opposite in fact, the better paying jobs were at own account operations, but now it appears that is not the way it is in most cases.
newmercman:
Now, on a lighter note it is wise to avoid any company that has a business other than transport at its core, usually any company delivering a product that it makes will be hard work. The transport operation is a cost to them and they try to minimize that cost by working you like a dog and keeping equipment well beyond its useful life. It never used to be that way, quite the opposite in fact, the better paying jobs were at own account operations, but now it appears that is not the way it is in most cases.
That explains the wagon I’ve driven for the last two days. Stiffer clutch than a Lamborghini or an Aston Martin, steering as vague as a vague thing in a vague competition, holes in the front corners of the box, gear-box full of frozen treacle, reverse only selectable by impersonating an albatross and only half a million kliks on the clock. I just hope I get the keys to the 13 plate this morning.
On the plus side, I reckon I could win a (left-handed) arm-wrestling competition now!
Firstly it sounds like you did a lot better than most on your first week.
You have to remember that all this blah blah blah guff given over the phone by the traffic office is just that… guff!
Just tell them your the captain of the ship not them and it gets there when it gets there. Nothing got damaged, nothing got rejected for being late and no body got hurt. I’d say you did just fine!
I personally wouldn’t have quit till I’d found another job but thats juat me.
Good luck findi g another job and remember they’ll all push and push until you say NO!
Wow, that’s a bit premature IMHO, I’m thinking that could be a problem on your CV, I would advise you not to mention that you ever did that job.
Now bare with me here, I’m going to tell you how it is without minding my P’s and Q’s.
If a TM sees that on your record it will raise a red flag, so he’ll ask you about it and you’ll probably tell him something similar to your OP, telling him you were not prepared to work like that etc etc.
The TM will then get the impression that you are likely to be a PITA as soon as the going gets tough, which it will, this isn’t a game, it’s a serious business that has more than its fair share of crap days where it all goes horribly wrong.
According to the OP it seems to have been a typically out of touch operation expecting 50 mph ‘average’ speeds on non motorway roads together with maxing all the hours the job can manage.
The only person that trying to meet those demands was likely to go horribly wrong for was the OP.You’re right getting nicked sooner or later for exceeding hours regs,speeding,let alone dangerous driving,isn’t a game.Then people are asking why the roads are full of trucks being driven at the wrong speeds in the wrong place by stressed out zombies.
I opened this post a few days after I had resigned. All said and done I worked for them for a little over a month, twenty-three days in total. I couldn’t see things getting any better overall, even though the actual driving was becoming more comfortable.
Even knowing what I know now wouldn’t have helped much. I was sick of the place, their attitude and the pressure. The latter of which may have been manageable but I was getting 4-5 hours rest a night whilst away and over the weeks this built up to create fogged judgement and impaired reasoning.
Thinking about it now I have no regrets. It was a toxic environment to work in and one which I’m glad to be parted from. I feel it was only a matter of time before I had an unfavourable experience I couldn’t walk away from.
Mate you did the right thing. You’ll always get your heroes who will say be a man, grow some balls or whatever cliche but if you’re not happy then walking was the best option.
Not all jobs will be like that. A lot are unfortunately but I wouldn’t say it’s normal. I’ve only had 2 permanent jobs in my brief career and both have been pretty relaxed. Even working for Stobarts on agency was a doddle. OK so they plan you to the wire hours wise but once you get settled it’s fairly easy work. They hardly ever rang me asking questions and every time I was late for a delivery (some times up to 3 hours) I never heard anything.
To all those saying to ■■■■ it up, you clowns are why many drivers get treated like ■■■■ for poor pay, you lot need to find some self respect and stop tugging your forelocks and being grateful for the crumbs, the feudal system has been abolished …at least it has in Scotland, its 2014 not 1514 and slavery and indentured labour was abolished long ago.
Just one piece of advice though, always let the office know as soon as you know you’re going to be delayed, though you’d think with modern tracking systems and telemetrics they’d have figured that out already.
, but most on here give good advice,
