The worst part of Class 2 Multidrop for a Newbie

Well I’ve done 2 days of the above, so now a fully qualified professional who’s opinion matters! (Yeah Bollox! :laughing:)

Anyway, now with my VAST experience, I’d say it’s not the driving that’s the hard part, it’s the parking when you get to your drop. I’ve been on store deliveries, and these are obviously on main streets with lots of traffic & annoying shop customers getting in the way who park exactly where you want to pull up. Kill them all I say! :imp:
But seriously, as a newbie agency driver your brain is going ten to the dozen as you approach your drop, and you only have a split second to assess the situation and decide what to do. For a start, as you don’t know the route or store, you’ve a 50/50 chance of approaching it from the preferred direction, where the regular driver knows this in advance… Then you have the question of; is it a front or back door delivery? So you could park up in what appears to be the perfect spot, only to find you then need to get around the back somehow. Grrrrr! :smiling_imp:

Then there is the probably fact that you have the regular driver’s full load, and while they can probably get through all the drops in their allotted time, a newbie has next to no chance of completing the drops in that time. I think I was about 30 mins behind schedule before I drove out the yard, simply because it’s all new and I didn’t want to miss anything and screw up!

But my biggest learning experience, wasn’t parking up, it was not considering my exit strategy…

So yesterday afternoon (a few hours behind schedule) I arrived at a store, and as usual there was nowhere to park out the front :cry: So instead of driving past and having to finding to somewhere to turn around, I spotted in the split second I had on approach, that there was a large side street what was as close to the store I was going to get. So in I pulled - Big mistake!!!
Anyway, I did the delivery, got back in the wagon and prepared to get to my next drop. However, I now had a decision to make. Do I reverse back onto the main road, which is obviously Illegal, or do something else… Having no real experience of a vehicle that size, I didn’t properly consider that it’s ■■■■ near impossible in an 18ton truck so see what’s coming on the main road, and finding a gap. Meaning that without a banksperson to help you, you’re very likely to cause an accident. So I made the decision to drive down the side street and find my way out onto the main roads that way. But what i had missed (While on my approach to the store) was the sign to say this was a dead end street. And I didn’t find that out until I was 3/4 the way down it! Bollox! So instead of having to reverse out onto a main road, I now had to reverse the wagon almost the full length of the street with about a foot of clearance on either side, plus the problem of reversing back out onto the main road. Again, Bollox!!!

So in summary, that was a very silly mistake i made and hopefully something I won’t do again. But I’m not counting on that! :laughing: Clearly what i should have done, was stop on the main road and reverse into the side road. And I’m sure that’s exactly what you’re all thinking, and so am I now! :wink:

You live and learn… :unamused:

My suggestions are that if you know your drops in advance try and get an idea of the location on Google streetview or failing that stop on the main road and work out your plan of action from there.

If other drivers get the hump then so be it but why risk having an accident because some inconsiderate person hasn’t got time to let you do your job. Remember it is you licence that gets the points in the court, not their’s.

Good luck and it will get easier if you are on a regular route.

If your unsure of where a road goes if you need to turn round go look a 5 min walk is easier than reversing back.
I know it’s not ideal but if you can see a spot to park reverse off the road and never worry about holding traffic up its your job not there’s stuff em,it’s a way of getting your own back when they cut you up lol.

If it’s a tight reverse ask the shop to watch you back as they want you tipped and gone as much as you and don’t get flustered take your time it takes what it takes don’t rush to keep cars happy and hit something.

Don’t sweat it Evil, I’ve been driving for what feels like a million years (obviously taking the odd 45 min break) and only last week I turned confidently into a street near the Blackwall tunnel only for it to turn out to be not only residential but also a dead end. I just blindsided back onto the main road safe in the knowledge that I was sat 65 feet away from any pain that was going to happen! :blush:

Experience will tell you , NEVER drive into a street that you can’t see a way out of. Go around and reverse into it.

as i have already PM’d you, thanks for sharing that - very useful for a newbie :bulb:

Don’t sweat it Evil, just like Maoster and the rest of us you’ll still be making ■■■■ ups 30 years hence.

You got through mate and brought it back in one piece that’s all that matters.

Right that’s all the lorry crap out the way, now down to the important stuff, full report on the totty spotting please… :smiling_imp: including denier worn exact shade heel height precise cup collars and cuffs matching etc etc…pervs us lot?, perish the thought… :smiley:

Reminds me of when I learned to
“go have a look first”
My first week in artic, culture de sac in Watford, no choice but to shunt a couple of hundred times, omfg! Sweating like a bassa lol

Still I learned a lot about how much you can 3 point an artic and how quickly you can put yourself in a world of pain by being green.

Don’t worry Lethal Bizzle or whatever your name is, when I first started, I got myself into a situation that took over two hours of maneuvering to get out of.

That was in an artic though, not just a big glorified van like the one you’ve been struggling with. :wink:

Heres the best bit of advice a virgin multidropper can receive …

And its free …

Chuck yr apple google thing in the bin and buy a street map and a bridge height atlas .

Its obvious to an idiot where the dead end streets are .

Plot yr route and short hand it onto piece of PAPER wiv a PENCIL .

Eg A123/B4567 N . 3rd r/b R . 2nd L . 1 mile Xrd R into Virgin Aven

Job done home for tea

Thanks for the comments and suggestions people, and being “green” pretty much sums me up! :smiley:

I’ll confess that I’m probably being overly conscious about not holding up other traffic or causing an obstruction, and I need to get over that. Maybe a few weeks on skips is what I need so I can get used to blocking the whole road while I drop and collect them…

As for getting out and having a look, I must admit doing that a few times following that incident! Although clearly a little late to help on that occasion…
I have to confess that I got out quite a few times when i was reversing, and I did feel a little embarrassed that I didn’t know exactly how long my vehicle was! :blush: (Even with a reversing camera! :laughing:)

The most important thing is that I learn from these rookie mistakes and try not to make such a ■■■ of myself again, but that’s probably just a Utopian dream! :grimacing:

Yes Juddian, that is the upside of shop deliveries, the fine young fillies! Although I find I’m concentrating so much on what i’m doing, most are currently passing me by! :unamused: However, while stuck in Selsey high street yesterday due traffic congestion, I found myself gridlocked directly in front of the pelican crossing, and salivating at the young ladies. One in particular caught my eye, probably mid to late twenties with a tight peach coloured knitted cropped top and lovely tight jeans that left little to the imagination of her perfectly shaped buttocks! :stuck_out_tongue: I was sad that the traffic cleared and I had to move off… :frowning:

Contraflow:
Don’t worry Lethal Bizzle or whatever your name is, when I first started, I got myself into a situation that took over two hours of maneuvering to get out of.

That was in an artic though, not just a big glorified van like the one you’ve been struggling with. :wink:

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

The gloves are off now pal!

Jeans! pigging Jeans!

Jesus wept whats gone wrong with the country, you young bloods aint training the young ladies up proper like to dress well, i didn’t get where i am today by leching at girls in jeans you know.

mutters off into his bottle of something soothing…

boredwivdrivin:
Heres the best bit of advice a virgin multidropper can receive …

And its free …

Chuck yr apple google thing in the bin and buy a street map and a bridge height atlas .

Its obvious to an idiot where the dead end streets are .

Plot yr route and short hand it onto piece of PAPER wiv a PENCIL .

Eg A123/B4567 N . 3rd r/b R . 2nd L . 1 mile Xrd R into Virgin Aven

Job done home for tea

LOL - Horray, I’m not an idiot then! :laughing: (Is that a compliment? :smiley:)

Not sure the last time you brought a map mate, but the ones I own don’t have house numbers on them. So are you saying i should memorise every side road and deadend along the whole street of my drops addresses? Also, if i was to go through and write out short hand versions of all the drops i had in the day, I think the Transport manager would be asking me why I was still in the yard hours after all the drivers have left. I’m guessing that as class 1 driver, you probably only have a couple of drops to do in a shift, and they are probably not on busy high streets with side roads all over the place.

Juddian:
Right that’s all the lorry crap out the way, now down to the important stuff, full report on the totty spotting please… :smiling_imp: including denier worn exact shade heel height precise cup collars and cuffs matching etc etc…pervs us lot?, perish the thought… :smiley:

If a Lady’s wearing a Mini Skirt & you get a ‘Near Flash of the Gash’ is that a Near Miss or a Near ■■■■■ ?

boredwivdrivin:
Heres the best bit of advice a virgin multidropper can receive …

And its free …

Chuck yr apple google thing in the bin and buy a street map and a bridge height atlas .

Its obvious to an idiot where the dead end streets are .

Doesn’t tell you which ones have a HGV turning area at the bottom though and its a lot more dangerous trying to follow a street map as you’re driving and not only that, you can’t actually buy street maps to cover anywhere near all the streets in the country and the maps are usually at least 2 years out of date before they go to print.

martinviking:

Juddian:
Right that’s all the lorry crap out the way, now down to the important stuff, full report on the totty spotting please… :smiling_imp: including denier worn exact shade heel height precise cup collars and cuffs matching etc etc…pervs us lot?, perish the thought… :smiley:

If a Lady’s wearing a Mini Skirt & you get a ‘Near Flash of the Gash’ is that a Near Miss or a Near ■■■■■ ?

Whatever its called its time to do some traffic ducking and diving to get back in front for the windscreen view, apparently.

Juddian:
Jeans! pigging Jeans!

Jesus wept whats gone wrong with the country, you young bloods aint training the young ladies up proper like to dress well, i didn’t get where i am today by leching at girls in jeans you know.

mutters off into his bottle of something soothing…

Tight leggings or a skirt at least lol no idea kids these days about totty spotting lol

As for "not getting where I am today " could always work for Sunshine Desserts lol all the young uns wondering what’s he on about :laughing:

Juddian:
Jeans! pigging Jeans!

Jesus wept whats gone wrong with the country, you young bloods aint training the young ladies up proper like to dress well, i didn’t get where i am today by leching at girls in jeans you know.

mutters off into his bottle of something soothing…

What can I say Juddian, it was the best on offer that day…
But she was a cracking example of the female form, and I’d have loved to have seen her in a nice tight little dress. Well, for a few minutes anyway! :laughing:
Anyway, you need a bit of mystique, especially if you’ve seen as many naked women as I have! :grimacing:

Haha all sounds like great fun, you will live and earn my friend. Like you said you wont be doing that again in a hurry will you :wink:. As for the totties if in traffic jams please try and get pictures to post on here discreetly :grimacing: