Becoming a HGV driver?
Discussion
leggly said:
r3g said:
SlimRick said:
Had my medical a few weeks ago. Passed my theory / hazard perceptions / case studies yesterday and am going for a two-week car to C+E starting on 12th Dec.
I don't have any plans to drive for a living just yet, but you never know what's around the corner so it doesn't hurt to have the license...hopefully!
That is a very steep learning curve. I would recommend first doing 7.5 / class 2 driving for at least some months before attempting to drive an artic on your own.I don't have any plans to drive for a living just yet, but you never know what's around the corner so it doesn't hurt to have the license...hopefully!
Going from a car to being thrown a set of keys to a fully loaded 44 tonner with curtain-sider multi-drop to cash n carry's round London would be your worst nightmare come true as a newbie. Even a 44 tonner of shrink-wrapped palleted pop to a big RDC would test your limits if it's your first time out. Hence why I recommend getting at least some 7.5 tonner experience or ideally class 2 26t or 32t experience to get a feel for weight size, manoeuvrability and weights before jumping into artics.
r3g said:
leggly said:
r3g said:
SlimRick said:
Had my medical a few weeks ago. Passed my theory / hazard perceptions / case studies yesterday and am going for a two-week car to C+E starting on 12th Dec.
I don't have any plans to drive for a living just yet, but you never know what's around the corner so it doesn't hurt to have the license...hopefully!
That is a very steep learning curve. I would recommend first doing 7.5 / class 2 driving for at least some months before attempting to drive an artic on your own.I don't have any plans to drive for a living just yet, but you never know what's around the corner so it doesn't hurt to have the license...hopefully!
Going from a car to being thrown a set of keys to a fully loaded 44 tonner with curtain-sider multi-drop to cash n carry's round London would be your worst nightmare come true as a newbie. Even a 44 tonner of shrink-wrapped palleted pop to a big RDC would test your limits if it's your first time out. Hence why I recommend getting at least some 7.5 tonner experience or ideally class 2 26t or 32t experience to get a feel for weight size, manoeuvrability and weights before jumping into artics.
leggly said:
Automatic gearboxes, sat navs, abs that works amongst other driver aids. I’d say it takes less time to get to grips with driving class 1 these days.
None of those will help you reverse your artic off a street into a tight yard with badly parked cars and vans everywhere when the biggest vehicle you've driven up until that point was a BMW 3 series. I stand by what I've said.944 Man said:
More nonsense. An eight wheel rigid is far harder to manoeuvre than an articulated vehicle.
Total nonsense 
. And I can safely say as that as someone who drove 8 leg milk tankers on farm collections for 6 years. You wouldn't get any of our apparently 'easy to manoeuvre' artic bulk tankers anywhere near them.I had an agency driver with me last night, he passed his test about 10 years ago but has only been driving rigids since.
He was fine on the motorway, but as soon we got into a chaotic hub he went to pieces. He said it had really opened his eyes to the reality of very busy yards with poor lighting, dozens of trailers everywhere, and trying to reverse into spaces with a few inches either side.
Then reversing onto a bay under the pressure of blocking the flow of the yard while he tried.
Such places are definitely a challenge for a new driver, and no amount of electronic aids are going to help
He was fine on the motorway, but as soon we got into a chaotic hub he went to pieces. He said it had really opened his eyes to the reality of very busy yards with poor lighting, dozens of trailers everywhere, and trying to reverse into spaces with a few inches either side.
Then reversing onto a bay under the pressure of blocking the flow of the yard while he tried.
Such places are definitely a challenge for a new driver, and no amount of electronic aids are going to help
Stussy said:
I had an agency driver with me last night, he passed his test about 10 years ago but has only been driving rigids since.
He was fine on the motorway, but as soon we got into a chaotic hub he went to pieces. He said it had really opened his eyes to the reality of very busy yards with poor lighting, dozens of trailers everywhere, and trying to reverse into spaces with a few inches either side.
Then reversing onto a bay under the pressure of blocking the flow of the yard while he tried.
Such places are definitely a challenge for a new driver, and no amount of electronic aids are going to help
So driving rigids didn’t help him then. He was fine on the motorway, but as soon we got into a chaotic hub he went to pieces. He said it had really opened his eyes to the reality of very busy yards with poor lighting, dozens of trailers everywhere, and trying to reverse into spaces with a few inches either side.
Then reversing onto a bay under the pressure of blocking the flow of the yard while he tried.
Such places are definitely a challenge for a new driver, and no amount of electronic aids are going to help
if only he’d started driving artics 10 years ago. leggly said:
So driving rigids didn’t help him then. if only he’d started driving artics 10 years ago.
No, doofus. It confirms what I said earlier about it being a very steep learning curve coming straight out of a car into an artic. Even a seasoned class 2 driver with a decade of driving experience in them will struggle with manouevring in an artic at delivery/collection points in pretty much every scenario other than a huge, clear, empty yard in full daylight and dry weather. Add in the dark, rain on mirrors, obstacles to reverse between, badly parked vehicles and the pressure from the yard marshall at the pallet hub waving his arms at you, shaking his head, facepalming, screaming instructions you can't hear/understand while all the truckers sit in their cabs parked alongside you, ignoring your struggles and instead get their phones out to film the carnage you're about to cause.... if only he’d started driving artics 10 years ago. That's the reality, hence why I strongly recommend learning the job in the smaller and lighter vehicle classes where there is much less to go wrong and these are much easier to manoeuvre, generally speaking. There's nearly always pallet network class 2 jobs required and local authority bin truck driving, especially through agency. Either of those will teach a LOT about driving in tight spaces and give you a lot of valuable on-the-job experience.
Total up to the newbies what they do - ignore my advice at their own peril. Makes no difference to my life. Too many armchair expert know-it-alls "you'll be fine, drive', crack on" whose sum of driving experience is from playing Euro Truck Simulator on their PC.
Edited by r3g on Friday 2nd December 01:58
r3g said:
leggly said:
So driving rigids didn’t help him then. if only he’d started driving artics 10 years ago.
No, doofus. It confirms what I said earlier about it being a very steep learning curve coming straight out of a car into an artic. Even a seasoned class 2 driver with a decade of driving experience in them will struggle with manouevring in an artic at delivery/collection points in pretty much every scenario other than a huge, clear, empty yard in full daylight and dry weather. Add in the dark, rain on mirrors, obstacles to reverse between, badly parked vehicles and the pressure from the yard marshall at the pallet hub waving his arms at you, shaking his head, facepalming, screaming instructions you can't hear/understand while all the truckers sit in their cabs parked alongside you, ignoring your struggles and instead get their phones out to film the carnage you're about to cause.... if only he’d started driving artics 10 years ago. That's the reality, hence why I strongly recommend learning the job in the smaller and lighter vehicle classes where there is much less to go wrong and these are much easier to manoeuvre, generally speaking. There's nearly always pallet network class 2 jobs required and local authority bin truck driving, especially through agency. Either of those will teach a LOT about driving in tight spaces and give you a lot of valuable on-the-job experience.
Total up to the newbies what they do - ignore my advice at their own peril. Makes no difference to my life. Too many armchair expert know-it-alls "you'll be fine, drive', crack on" whose sum of driving experience is from playing Euro Truck Simulator on their PC.
Edited by r3g on Friday 2nd December 01:58
Edited by fttm on Friday 2nd December 02:59
r3g said:
leggly said:
So driving rigids didn’t help him then. if only he’d started driving artics 10 years ago.
No, doofus. It confirms what I said earlier about it being a very steep learning curve coming straight out of a car into an artic. Even a seasoned class 2 driver with a decade of driving experience in them will struggle with manouevring in an artic at delivery/collection points in pretty much every scenario other than a huge, clear, empty yard in full daylight and dry weather. Add in the dark, rain on mirrors, obstacles to reverse between, badly parked vehicles and the pressure from the yard marshall at the pallet hub waving his arms at you, shaking his head, facepalming, screaming instructions you can't hear/understand while all the truckers sit in their cabs parked alongside you, ignoring your struggles and instead get their phones out to film the carnage you're about to cause.... if only he’d started driving artics 10 years ago. That's the reality, hence why I strongly recommend learning the job in the smaller and lighter vehicle classes where there is much less to go wrong and these are much easier to manoeuvre, generally speaking. There's nearly always pallet network class 2 jobs required and local authority bin truck driving, especially through agency. Either of those will teach a LOT about driving in tight spaces and give you a lot of valuable on-the-job experience.
Total up to the newbies what they do - ignore my advice at their own peril. Makes no difference to my life. Too many armchair expert know-it-alls "you'll be fine, drive', crack on" whose sum of driving experience is from playing Euro Truck Simulator on their PC.
Edited by r3g on Friday 2nd December 01:58
Blimey not getting between you two 
.
Back in the dark ages i went straight to class 1, however i'd spent the previous 3 years driving vans and 7.5 tonners.
Now whilst neither of those gave me any artic experience (i was a banger racer though so used to trailers) the route knowledge gained was invaluable, no M25 then or M8, going south you went through London itself, going north east Scotland meant through Glasgow, also invaluable was the discovery that MIchelin truck tyres of the time lasted forever but had little to no wet grip worth speaking of.
Artics back then were still 40 ft trailers, mostly flatbeds so roping and sheeting was the order of the day often after handballing 21 tons on/off, which again gave you cause to take care out there, maneuvering was something you picked up pdq because no power steering, unassisted clutches and constant mesh or crash gearboxes, not everyone got issued with a brand new F88 the day after they passed their class 1, the basic 60's designed ERF Foden Atkinson and AEC motors were a reality check that brought you back down to earth in an instant.
Where i think things have got worse for new drivers is the sheer complication of modern trucks, back in the day you had a gearbox to learn and half a dozen switches if that, these days swapping around different motors is a bleedin nightmare with umpteen menus and the truck taking over from you without a by your leave, ie AEBS.
Artics nearly always had windows all round, most new drivers will never have the opportunity to appreciate just what a Godsend the rear window in a tractor unit cab is when blind side reversing and when hitching up, missing the pin simply never happened back in the day...though chasing a trailer half way around a yard because the air had drained out (spring brakes not a thing then) and the cable park brake was permanetly either seized or some clot had ratcheted the cable over the spool.
.Back in the dark ages i went straight to class 1, however i'd spent the previous 3 years driving vans and 7.5 tonners.
Now whilst neither of those gave me any artic experience (i was a banger racer though so used to trailers) the route knowledge gained was invaluable, no M25 then or M8, going south you went through London itself, going north east Scotland meant through Glasgow, also invaluable was the discovery that MIchelin truck tyres of the time lasted forever but had little to no wet grip worth speaking of.
Artics back then were still 40 ft trailers, mostly flatbeds so roping and sheeting was the order of the day often after handballing 21 tons on/off, which again gave you cause to take care out there, maneuvering was something you picked up pdq because no power steering, unassisted clutches and constant mesh or crash gearboxes, not everyone got issued with a brand new F88 the day after they passed their class 1, the basic 60's designed ERF Foden Atkinson and AEC motors were a reality check that brought you back down to earth in an instant.
Where i think things have got worse for new drivers is the sheer complication of modern trucks, back in the day you had a gearbox to learn and half a dozen switches if that, these days swapping around different motors is a bleedin nightmare with umpteen menus and the truck taking over from you without a by your leave, ie AEBS.
Artics nearly always had windows all round, most new drivers will never have the opportunity to appreciate just what a Godsend the rear window in a tractor unit cab is when blind side reversing and when hitching up, missing the pin simply never happened back in the day...though chasing a trailer half way around a yard because the air had drained out (spring brakes not a thing then) and the cable park brake was permanetly either seized or some clot had ratcheted the cable over the spool.
Smint said:
Blimey not getting between you two .
Back in the dark ages i went straight to class 1, however i'd spent the previous 3 years driving vans and 7.5 tonners.
Now whilst neither of those gave me any artic experience (i was a banger racer though so used to trailers) the route knowledge gained was invaluable, no M25 then or M8, going south you went through London itself, going north east Scotland meant through Glasgow, also invaluable was the discovery that MIchelin truck tyres of the time lasted forever but had little to no wet grip worth speaking of.
Artics back then were still 40 ft trailers, mostly flatbeds so roping and sheeting was the order of the day often after handballing 21 tons on/off, which again gave you cause to take care out there, maneuvering was something you picked up pdq because no power steering, unassisted clutches and constant mesh or crash gearboxes, not everyone got issued with a brand new F88 the day after they passed their class 1, the basic 60's designed ERF Foden Atkinson and AEC motors were a reality check that brought you back down to earth in an instant.
Where i think things have got worse for new drivers is the sheer complication of modern trucks, back in the day you had a gearbox to learn and half a dozen switches if that, these days swapping around different motors is a bleedin nightmare with umpteen menus and the truck taking over from you without a by your leave, ie AEBS.
Artics nearly always had windows all round, most new drivers will never have the opportunity to appreciate just what a Godsend the rear window in a tractor unit cab is when blind side reversing and when hitching up, missing the pin simply never happened back in the day...though chasing a trailer half way around a yard because the air had drained out (spring brakes not a thing then) and the cable park brake was permanetly either seized or some clot had ratcheted the cable over the spool.
I’m just against nannying to be honest .Back in the dark ages i went straight to class 1, however i'd spent the previous 3 years driving vans and 7.5 tonners.
Now whilst neither of those gave me any artic experience (i was a banger racer though so used to trailers) the route knowledge gained was invaluable, no M25 then or M8, going south you went through London itself, going north east Scotland meant through Glasgow, also invaluable was the discovery that MIchelin truck tyres of the time lasted forever but had little to no wet grip worth speaking of.
Artics back then were still 40 ft trailers, mostly flatbeds so roping and sheeting was the order of the day often after handballing 21 tons on/off, which again gave you cause to take care out there, maneuvering was something you picked up pdq because no power steering, unassisted clutches and constant mesh or crash gearboxes, not everyone got issued with a brand new F88 the day after they passed their class 1, the basic 60's designed ERF Foden Atkinson and AEC motors were a reality check that brought you back down to earth in an instant.
Where i think things have got worse for new drivers is the sheer complication of modern trucks, back in the day you had a gearbox to learn and half a dozen switches if that, these days swapping around different motors is a bleedin nightmare with umpteen menus and the truck taking over from you without a by your leave, ie AEBS.
Artics nearly always had windows all round, most new drivers will never have the opportunity to appreciate just what a Godsend the rear window in a tractor unit cab is when blind side reversing and when hitching up, missing the pin simply never happened back in the day...though chasing a trailer half way around a yard because the air had drained out (spring brakes not a thing then) and the cable park brake was permanetly either seized or some clot had ratcheted the cable over the spool.
I tell anyone who’s thinking of doing it to practice reversing with car and trailer as it’s much harder to correct than an Artic. Wasting money on class of vehicle you can move down to seem pointless. 
smifffymoto said:
Everything is easy compared to an 8 wheeler and trailer. The number of times I had to unload the trailer and double stack before dropping the trailer was ridiculous. The only positive was being paid percentage and a crane that could lift 2 packs of bricks at a time.
Yep, I have some experience on a 4 wheel rigid and caravan type trailer, but the trailer with wheels on the corners!Was sent one night to a firm with a 3 axle rigid and the two axle trailer on front and back, when I got to the other end was told to change bodies, it was raining, pitch dark and the bodies were stood at an angle. Took me hours to get both trailer and truck under both.
Refused to do it again
Most impressive reversing I’ve seen was my best mate when his race team was running. He got stuck at customs and arrived late at Magny-Cours so the (tight) paddock was absolutely full except our bay, and the two adjacent (French) teams had been allowed to encroach
Couldn’t have been more than a meter extra width and about 6 or 7 meters space to the hospo setup opposite where the tossers sat outside were having a tantrum about us asking them to move to give him a bit more room.
He got it in on the blindside a with only one shunt to straighten it up as soon as he’d got the trailer in far enough, couldn’t have been more than a few inches clearance on every corner, f
k knows how he did it, he must have been using the force.
Couldn’t have been more than a meter extra width and about 6 or 7 meters space to the hospo setup opposite where the tossers sat outside were having a tantrum about us asking them to move to give him a bit more room.
He got it in on the blindside a with only one shunt to straighten it up as soon as he’d got the trailer in far enough, couldn’t have been more than a few inches clearance on every corner, f
k knows how he did it, he must have been using the force.It's several decades since I drove for a living but I think it all comes down to what you do daily. When I passed my test (1993) I found reversing really tricky as I wanted to see every corner which you can't do in an artic. Once you trust where the unseen bits are you build confidence and it comes together but it really is experience - and always if in doubt, don't.
I always likes the predictability of box van rigids for the very reason of direct visibility but the turning circle as others have said is hopeless. Artic tankers are the easiest, short stubby trailers, no real height to worry about and you can see down the sides within the 2.5m width in the mirrors so less opportunity to miss stuff and knock it over.
I always likes the predictability of box van rigids for the very reason of direct visibility but the turning circle as others have said is hopeless. Artic tankers are the easiest, short stubby trailers, no real height to worry about and you can see down the sides within the 2.5m width in the mirrors so less opportunity to miss stuff and knock it over.
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