The-Snowman:
5 minutes and 400 Shunts is nothing.
You should see me with a reverse from the “right” side [emoji38]
A frame W&D, that’s the thing if you like shunts and sweat.
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theres some good advice on here, so take it all in…tbh, i still prefer to do it on my side wherever possible, and thats after 50 odd years at it 
but not afraid to do it from whatever angle, but as said it takes practice…never be afraid to ask, never be afraid to get out and look, it takes time and practice…Congratulations on your pass to class 1, and welcome to the fraternity of the trucking family where help is always at hand.
IndigoJo:
Bino10:
Hi all, I know it is a stupid question but I can’t get it so maybe if someone explain it to me here I may be able to see the light [emoji16]I just passed my class 1 so yesterday I had my first job, one drop to Amazon in Rugeley.
Took me bloody 5 minutes and 400 shunts to get it in, I was about to surrender and ask someone to do it for me.
Then when I finished the driver next to me nicely suggested I should have done a u furn and and reversed from the other side.
So it looks like I done it from blind side. I could not understand why is harder and exactly how I know it is the blind side or not.
Any easy explanation?
Appreciate
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The blind side is the opposite side to whichever side you’re sitting on, so if you’re in a RHD truck it’s the left, and reversing at right-angles on the left is called a blindside reverse.
Class 1 tuition should include instructions on how to do this. As it is, they don’t even teach you how to do a 90-degree reverse without having to shunt; people just pick this up by trial and error, while other drivers wait and toot their horns behind them.
They do? Not in my experience…
TiredAndEmotional:
.Class 1 tuition should include instructions on how to do this. As it is, they don’t even teach you how to do a 90-degree reverse without having to shunt; people just pick this up by trial and error, while other drivers wait and toot their horns behind them.
They do? Not in my experience…
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Same here, most of the pressure on the reversing driver comes from themselves. However, I’ve found that drivers who’ve waited for me will give a bit of stick, which is to be expected.
This is when a start on agency into one of the supermarkets pays dividends since their work is all about blindsiding. The vehilce will normally have a window in the back of the cab which will make it a lot easier, but after a while you can get used to what it looks like in the mirrors as well.
Blind sides can be a pita but places like amazon with that much room is the ideal place to practice,having been there its easy to spin round and put it in on your good side BUT if you don’t practice you won’t get used to it and what to expect.
When we used to go in there an office bod used to wait next to the bay to pinch your keys but it takes as long as it takes every time getting a bit easier.
Practice blindside wherever you can even if it takes longer or keep dodging it then get to a drop where you have no choice and struggle.
Keep at it will click soon enough
Jeff.
Nothing to be ashamed of mate, I have been driving these for 42 years, sometimes I can blindside in first attempt and others it can take 10 or more shunts, I find blindside back ins much harder over here in the USA than I did back in the UK, the mirrors are different to start with, both side main mirrors are all completely flat and not curved like they are in the UK, the lower and much smaller wide angle mirrors are so small it’s hard to see well, the only advantage I have is the fact that I can move the position of the passenger mirror with the switch and see more that way but it involves slowly moving it back into the normal position ad I take the angle of reverse off. I would never have to alter the angle of the mirrors back in the UK.
Keep up the good work and never worry what others may think about how many times you shunt, speaking from experience those who mock you are usually far worse at reversing than you and try to take the attention away from themselves.
5 mins to get a blindside onto a bay…I’d call that a success!
One thing you’ll always do when you start out is oversteer and one thing you’ll do regularly when you’ve been doing it 6 months is oversteer and it’s even worse with blindside. (Then you get rear steering trailers, but that’s a whole different ball game).
What I learned is to do a bit of opposite lock to get the trailer turning, then go back to normal lock which straightens the trailer out, then a little more opposite lock and so forth. Opposite lock is very powerful and can move the trailer a great amount in a short space of time, whereas normal lock seems to take a lot longer to get it back under control.
Congratulate yourself on getting it right, and don’t berate yourself when you get it wrong.
Btw Juddian - remember when you start off or are on agency, you usually get the truck with all the bits hanging off, this concept of moveable mirrors…have heard of it, but in the 42 times the mirrors have been smashed off by some previous drivers, I suspect they didn’t replace the motor bit on most. 
LOL @ this
I passed my class 1 two weeks ago. My first drop was a full wagon of pallets to alto/smyths in Newcastle under Lyme. I pulled up at the gate where I’ve been many times on class 2 and I told the guy I’d just passed and can he put me on an easy bay. He said every bay is full, you’re on bay 37. This was at the end of building on left as you look at it with a grass verge and raised kerb on left of bay. I had no idea what blindside is compared to a drivers side reverse so I just cracked on … after about 20 minutes and 3 flip flops who had got out and come to my aid (probably fearing getting their own units getting wrote off) I had it in the bay 
It’s a steep learning curve and I’m still largely clueless mate !!
Stinka:
LOL @ thisI passed my class 1 two weeks ago. My first drop was a full wagon of pallets to alto/smyths in Newcastle under Lyme. I pulled up at the gate where I’ve been many times on class 2 and I told the guy I’d just passed and can he put me on an easy bay. He said every bay is full, you’re on bay 37. This was at the end of building on left as you look at it with a grass verge and raised kerb on left of bay. I had no idea what blindside is compared to a drivers side reverse so I just cracked on … after about 20 minutes and 3 flip flops who had got out and come to my aid (probably fearing getting their own units getting wrote off) I had it in the bay
It’s a steep learning curve and I’m still largely clueless mate !!
Its like everything in life you will cop on what’s the easy way in time
It comes to us all and when it does you will think what the [zb]
As others have mentioned its just all down to practice but even after 25+ years ill still always try to avoid a blind side. Thinking i got it right a while back i blind side reversed a fully freighted tilt through the workshop doors… i wasnt popular… 
Anyone that says its easy is telling porkies…
trevHCS:
Btw Juddian - remember when you start off or are on agency, you usually get the truck with all the bits hanging off, this concept of moveable mirrors…have heard of it, but in the 42 times the mirrors have been smashed off by some previous drivers, I suspect they didn’t replace the motor bit on most.
That is a very good point , though so long as the n/s main mirror works on the motor the rest of them don’t matter so much, so long as you can at least move the buggers to set them up right and they aint seized solid all pointing the wrong way 
been class1 28 yrs now and still hate blind side reversing,will do it if I have to but still hate it,mind you I have improved doing it even if I do say so myself
I was told when a learner to plan, plan plan. Stop short of the bay and have a look; get out if it helps. Make a plan and use as much of the available space as you need. I did some nightmare jobs when I first started driving artics: Someplace in Runcorn; always at night, and I had to reverse into a sort of channel, a foot wider than the trailer, between two docks. A pet food place in London that had a similar setup, except that the dock was inside a roller shutter and once the trailer was in, you couldn’t see a thing. Picking up yoghurt in Cheddar for Blake’s - we used to drive up alongside the dock and then screw it 180 degrees round a wall with a hedge facing the dock so there was just enough room to straighten up.
I remember my first blindside at Sainsbury’s Feltham - we usually screwed it round at the end and came back, but there was a broken down truck in the way.
The golden rule is planning and patience; if it goes ■■■■ up, pull away and have another try.
Munchkin:
I call trolling. How can you do instruction and a test and not work out it’s easier when you can look out the window !!Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk
It beggars belief that someone has sat their C+E and have not had the basics of reversing explained to them.
Unless one of the many who forget what they have been told!
Regular occurrence when doing boxes at our place…
Obviously the idiots parking in no parking zones makes it even more challenging… 
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Dr Damon:
Munchkin:
I call trolling. How can you do instruction and a test and not work out it’s easier when you can look out the window !!Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk
It beggars belief that someone has sat their C+E and have not had the basics of reversing explained to them.
Unless one of the many who forget what they have been told!
With respect to the trainers out there, they are only trying to get candidates through their test. Learning and practicing blindsides and awkward manoeuvres is the ideal way to go of course, but how many can afford the extra time and cost involved? Passing the test isnt a sign of a fully fledged driver. Having the theory of reversing explained isnt any match for time and experience behind the wheel.
Munchkin:
How can you do instruction and a test and not work out it’s easier when you can look out the window
Because on the test you’re supposed to do most of it with the mirrors.
You can look out the window, but on C and CE training was advised not to do it much or you fail fir failing to fully observe. Its when you figure it out afterwards that reversing gets easier.
Franglais:
Dr Damon:
Munchkin:
I call trolling. How can you do instruction and a test and not work out it’s easier when you can look out the window !!Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk
It beggars belief that someone has sat their C+E and have not had the basics of reversing explained to them.
Unless one of the many who forget what they have been told!
With respect to the trainers out there, they are only trying to get candidates through their test. Learning and practicing blindsides and awkward manoeuvres is the ideal way to go of course, but how many can afford the extra time and cost involved? Passing the test isn
t a sign of a fully fledged driver. Having the theory of reversing explained isnt any match for time and experience behind the wheel.
I passed a few months ago with the forum sponsor from the newbies section. I have no complaints about anything to do with the course, vehicles or service. Constant reviews in that section rate it as one of the best trainers out there. However it is solely focused on preparing you to pass that test. All reversing practice is for the test exercise.
As said I would have loved to do some more practice but as above you are looking at the best part of £100 per hour for training some things you just have to pick up as you go along. I certainly have had to. You just hope someone is there to ask or the boss is understanding.
That’s the reason a lot of firms don’t take new passes because we don’t know all this and have the experience. I am lucky that I work for a firm that would firstly take me on as a new pass and then after a few weeks of struggling for reversing I spoke to the driver trainer who arranged me 4 hours in the yard with him practicing. I am far happier now and I know not everyone has this opportunity but just want to say in a very rambling way that with some time and practice a new pass will get there even though it wasn’t detailed on the test.
Franglais:
Dr Damon:
Munchkin:
I call trolling. How can you do instruction and a test and not work out it’s easier when you can look out the window !!Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk
It beggars belief that someone has sat their C+E and have not had the basics of reversing explained to them.
Unless one of the many who forget what they have been told!
With respect to the trainers out there, they are only trying to get candidates through their test. Learning and practicing blindsides and awkward manoeuvres is the ideal way to go of course, but how many can afford the extra time and cost involved? Passing the test isn
t a sign of a fully fledged driver. Having the theory of reversing explained isnt any match for time and experience behind the wheel.
Probably quite correct but also you may find some of the trainers can’t do a blind side themselves let alone show someone else.