Ok, so I’ve been driving Class 2 for almost two years now, with the last year on the dustcarts. I reverse into tight spaces dozens of times a day and am often having to fold in my mirrors to get through tight gates/alleys, or reversing between bollards/low walls literally inches from my wheels.
I’ve not hit anything in my whole time reversing dustcarts, yet put me in a huge open yard and ask me to do a 90 degree reverse and I’ll likely need to take a shunt, even if the gate’s not that tight. It’s odd because I’m pretty quick at backing into side roads to turn around, which one needs to be when driving in the city centre - this makes me think that the problem is a lack of visual cues as I’m fine when reversing 90 degrees whilst following a kerb. It just seems to be worse when I’m backing up and turning in open space with the opening out of my rear mirror’s view.
Perfect example is when I go to tip off. I used to tip in bay 1, which is off to the left. I’d drive in a big U shape and then back in. However, I now use bay 5, which is directly opposite the weighbridge, making it difficult to completely spin around without lots of faffing.
I often end up driving off the weighbridge and to the side (in an L shape) and then trying to reverse in on an angle. However, sometimes it’s hard to tell which bay I’m pointing at as you can’t see the numbers from that angle. I started into the wrong bay tonight, not for the first time, which caused the weighbridge operator to comment “we’ll make a proper driver out of you one day”.
It was of course funny, but I was also a little peeved that I’d done some stupidly tight reverses earlier on, and yet was here making an arse of myself right now - i actually had another driver comment earlier on how tight the gap I got into was (had an air vent sticking out the wall, which meant doing a kind of S shaped manoeuvre).
Tailschwing:
Ok, so I’ve been driving Class 2 for almost two years now, with the last year on the dustcarts. I reverse into tight spaces dozens of times a day and am often having to fold in my mirrors to get through tight gates/alleys, or reversing between bollards/low walls literally inches from my wheels.
I’ve not hit anything in my whole time reversing dustcarts, yet put me in a huge open yard and ask me to do a 90 degree reverse and I’ll likely need to take a shunt, even if the gate’s not that tight. It’s odd because I’m pretty quick at backing into side roads to turn around, which one needs to be when driving in the city centre - this makes me think that the problem is a lack of visual cues as I’m fine when reversing 90 degrees whilst following a kerb. It just seems to be worse when I’m backing up and turning in open space with the opening out of my rear mirror’s view.
I’ve also done commercial dustcart work (not council) and tbh found the same. You are right about visual cues - it is key I think. Now with C+E I find it easier to put an old garden hose nozzle… chosen as it’s orange and thus visible (on the near corner of the yellow box) and this helps me get a better curve when going into a bay.