Was just reading Sinclair89 post on his first week on an Artic , thought I would do the same as I’ve just completed my first week too , and if you want perfect punctuation ,spelling ,grammar ect buy the Telegraph it will ramble on a little so here goes
Got a start this week with a local general haulier up till the Xmas period ,so very grateful for the start as I’ve only had my class 1 since last November and only used it very occasionally and I mean very occasional as my past employer didn’t have any class 1 vehicles and weren’t in the transport business ,as I said used it now and again over the last year till I finished up with my local council because wait for it I always wanted to be a Trucker.
Yes I am a newbie , have I made mistakes this week , of course I have ,have I had people toot their horn at me yep , have I cut someone up yep , have I had a coffee bean gesture or is your seatbelt on gesture yep ,have I been pulled by Vosa too this week yep,and lastly did I look through rose tinted glasses upon the industry all of the above this week folks.
Anyway Day one picked up unit ( a Scanny R440 auto box 3 pedal ) and curtainsider at the yard around 0600 ,did checks and headed to Troon sawmill to pick up a load for the Greater Manchester area , of course a Monday morning load not ready and wouldn’t be ready for another hour or more , so phoned boss just as a courtesy call to put him in the picture that I would be a bit later on getting underway , so got loaded eventually and strapped the load down and closed the curtains , got underway and headed down to the Lancashire area , picked up fuel on the way down at the Fleece , got down and got first of my 3 drops off as its timber yards only got one off which to be fair after all my hold ups ect my boss didn’t think I would make any drops till the next day , so was head of the game by one .
Day 2 made my other 2 drops ,as I had parked up the nite before in the industrial estate for one of the two drops it went well and was tipped early and then made drop number three ,then made my way over to St Helens for my backload to Glasgow which again parked outside the delivery point for an early tip next morning .
Day 3 tipped at the Glasgow delivery early and then headed to the yard for another load of timber for a 3 dropper around the Preston area so headed south once again , managed to get one of the drops off that afternoon as when I arrived at the first drop it wasn’t booked in till the following day and they weren’t expecting me , but turned on my Scottish charm of be nice to people and they’ll be nice to you ,the forkie says okay driver bring it in get it off just now and you’ll be on your way , no arguing shouting or falling out with people , tipped and away toot of the horn and a wave , got my second off last thing and day 3 was over parked up for the nite and reflected on the week so far,yer it’s hard going at times wrestling with curtains in the wet and windy days , and strapping down loads especially timber or anything for that matter ,well what did I expect curtains would
Open themselves by magic and ratchet straps would attach miraculously , hello wake up call numpty get on with it , this what you signed up for .
Day 4 last of the 3 drops and then over for a backload to Glasgow from St Helens once again , day going fine arrived at backload pick up at a decent time then head North and thinking nice wee run up to Glasgow and unload on the Friday morning and then mayb a little local run on Friday to finish week off eh naw numpty Vosa had other ideas to (zb) your day took me to a checkpoint in there for ages checked everything over right down to my CPC card and Tacho card fair enough everything in order but lost valuable WTD time , they don’t do anything with any great speed do they , anyway put my boss in the picture of the drama’s he says don’t worry your not going to Glasgow your doing a trailer swap at the Fleece and then head for Grimsby and backload from Scunthorpe ( general areas not right in Grimsby or Scunthorpe both were industrial estates outside each of them ) so the wee local run around Glasgow on Friday wasn’t long in getting oot of my pea sized brain , any way run home on Friday and was done by 6 and home in time to see Scotland win 1-0
What did I learn this week number 1- How to drive an Auto with a 3rd Pedal as I only had driven a 3 over 3 Scanny with a splitter up in till then
Number 2 - Timber yards can be tricky for reversing
Number 3 - RDC , the more room you have can be just as tricky ,why you say ,well in the tight Timber yards it’s only going in a small tight area so you know where you’ve got to reverse to , whilst in the RDC to much room and I managed to ■■■■ it up with a couple or three shunts to get square on a bay , mayb to much time to think I don’t know .
Number 4 - be nice to people , it does go a long way and use it to your advantage
Number 5 - when I had a wee struggle here and there this week not one Driver let me down every one helped me or gave me good advice , no I don’t want someone to jump in and do it for me , just guide me in or talk me through it
Number 6 - yes I did enjoy it , a little stressful now and again but that’s part of it and learning curve
Well that’s a wee diary of my escapade of the week , hope you made it to the end of this fair ramble cheers guys any advice welcome , and no I didn’t use my dundy money to achieve my class 1 , from medical to class 1 cost me £2800 of my saved money because it was an ambition .
