This morning was my artic assessment drive and to borrow from my good mate Alan (aka Cecil, who got me into all this!) what a ridiculous amount of fun. Oh yes, the size of the thing is awe-inspiring but this is the dog's danglies of truck driving.
As you will know from my last update, though I had won a pass on the Rigids there was a bit of a sting in the tail with no enthusiasm (from them) for artic training and more than a suggestion that I wasn't up to it. Well maybe they are right, we shall see but after this morning I am totally encouraged.
Yes, it is a whole new challenge again, but building so much on all I have learnt so far and I was amazed at how comfortable a lot of it was (and similar to the Rigids) and the new skills I have to acquire I understand and started to put into practise today.
In the current recession there is very little agency, let alone permanent work around for C class drivers and no-chance for a newbie. So despite my previous trainer's recommendation to get some C experience and having discussed it with Alan I decided to press on and get my C+E ticket.
During my last training sessions I had become aware of a fairly large haulage company in Winsford,
A warmer but wet and misty day with light drizzle persisting. I parked in the staff car park and reported to Reception who directed me to the Training Area. There I met the Training Manager whom I had spoken to on the phone and G who was to be my instructor for this morning. We did the usual formalities of licence checks and G scanned my Test Report from a week ago last Monday.
They knew that I had had the most-feared examiner at Swynnerton and yarned about their experiences too, echoing the Basset's instructor whom I spoke to while waiting at the Test Centre last week. They again confirmed that there was a period when this guy first came to the Centre that no-one was passing and it took several complaints to the DSA* to get something done about it. They encouraged me by saying that he is still a very hard marker and to come out of it as I did was good-going.
With that we were out into the yard in the rain and to my command for the morning. This firm runs an exclusively DAF fleet of 18 and 26-tonner rigids and 38 and 44-tonner artics. I spotted the 44-tonner with L plates and a 45-foot Curtainsider tri-axle trailer coupled up behind it. On no, that is just so big. This one is a DAF 85 (now the CF range): a mid-sized cab and 330 BHP unit.
G explains that the first thing we are going to do is the reversing exercise (as at the Test Centre and our practise sessions at Port Vale FC in Burslem). Oh joy! So no shallow-end here then! As he explains, the idea of the assessment drive is to work out how much time they think I will need to be ready for the test and many drivers really struggle to reverse the artics at first. So there's not a lot of point in going out on the roads and driving well-enough if there is a major reversing problem. With that he asks me to get in the driver's seat and up I go.
This has a different dash layout which he explains to me. And the range-change is now a collar on the gear stick: up for high and down for low – no problem there. But it has a splitter too (so that's 16 gears) with a turn of the same collar left and right. "He (examiner) will expect to see you use that". You have to be kidding?!! (Oh I hope he is. I can just handle the range-change but as we shall see in a minute I am still prone to a complete black-out in a crisis). I keep a poker face but have no idea for certain what's going to happen when I let the clutch up. Mostly I'm in the gear I hope for but sometimes it's 7 when I wanted 5 and worse Reverse (graunch-crunch) when I wanted 4.
And so with that I adjust the seat and steering column and start her up.
"Right, first off I want you to reverse straight back down the yard and keep the trailer straight".
Having towed boats all round the country, this is not so daunting for me, but you can't rely on turning round to look so have to do it all on mirrors. The knack is to only put a little correction on and wait for the trailer to answer. Too much either way and you end up snaking all over the place and in a right mess. I was pleased that I could control it easily. I stopped a few metres away from the kerb at the end of the yard and G showed me the piece of silver tape on the rear mudguard of the trailer and where to line this up on the kerb. With that I carried on and stopped, switched off and checked the trailer position: just three inches from the kerb – perfect!
They have the full reversing pad set-up permanently marked out and with its coned-off loading bay with the A and B cones (as per the Port Vale pics from Day 6). With just me in the artic I then drive forward and set up the rig so that the A and B cones are visible in a line down the nearside and use the kerb mirror to put the left A cone right on the front nearside corner of the cab.
And then I'm off, but this time we have to use the opposite lock to a rigid to get a good "bend" in the trailer and to keep the tractor unit parallel to the yellow line on my offside. I hold this line reversing very slowly until I can just see the trailer legs appear in my nearside mirror then "follow the headboard* round". This means I now have to put some left lock on (not crossing the yellow line with the front offside wheel) to get the unit in line with the trailer. And hey! There it is – that dreaded and much-squashed B cone in my offside mirror. Result! Now all I have to do is keep the trailer heading straight for the dock – no problem. But then as I move the tractor a little left-and-right I loose the vital "control" side view, meaning I can't see down the offside of the trailer. So under G's direction, I take a small shunt forwards in 3 to straighten us all up and then back into the dock perfectly, lining the sliver tape up with the kerb. Engine off and out to have a look: spot on. I am well-pleased!
"Well that's a pass and bloody good for a first try. Believe me, there are guys who just can't get this". (I thought back to the lad I met in the Driver's Canteen two weeks ago last Monday morning at Stoke who failed his artic on three shunts to do this).
So with that we are out of the yard and onto the roads. It feels comfortable. Yes I know it is so much bigger but all my previous training comes to the fore. I have no problems in positioning on the road and my mirror routines are the same. Brakes no problem but the gearbox I am struggling with, only because it is different. It's exactly the same as the Volvo, but I keep going up (or down) the wrong slot (if you will pardon the expression). Both this DAF and the Volvo are servo (air) assisted gear-shifts but whereas the Volvo was quite a "notchy" gate this one is very subtle and there is very little movement required between 7 and 5 or 8 and 6 let alone – 4 and 2 and –ahem – CRUNCH – Reverse! Sorry G.
The big, big change of course are the tight junctions and judging how much road we are going to borrow (well bully actually). As G says "We have two major advantages over car drivers: we are bloody huge and don't own this thing". Oh I like him already!! And as he says we have the Lunatic plates on the front and back, so expect anything odd to happen (and it will!).
So a bit like my early days with Dave, G is calling the shots on the lines to take on the tight ones but I am soon learning where the trailer goes and beginning to make my own judgements.
On the way into the yard this morning in the Mitsubishi, I was stopped at a major set of lights near to my home. This is where the A54 Chester-Winsford road crosses the A49. Having wondered where our route for an assessment drive might take us I had ruled this one out entirely telling myself that there is no way you can get an artic around this one (bollards and lights in the centre of the road you are turning into.) And as I waited two 45-footers swung it with ease but I watched the line they took with fascination. So I had a clue.
As we left the yard and headed up through various "A" road roundabouts I knew we were heading for Northwich. Oh you must be kidding! Born and raised in
Faced with having to move my 28-foot boat out of
Northwich in many ways reminds me of some of the small Dutch towns with their swing bridges and ship-sized canals. So back in March, in search of a home for my boat I found the ex-shipbuilding yards of Northwich down by the Weaver.
The point of this divergence? Well when Northwich developed into a town they hadn't thought of 44-tonner six-axle artics. So its Victorian swing bridges and traffic-light junctions hadn't either. And to my utter amazement I drove this juggernaut (sorry for the old cliché but it is so true) through this place in four combinations and didn't hit a kerb, railing, traffic light or (thankfully) anything else.
Yes I had G as a co-pilot: "Now at the next turning you are going to have a stiff challenge" Oh good. As the lights came into view I saw why. Tight left-hand turn, pedestrian railings all around and a centre bollard with lights on the road I am turning into.
"Now take the hash-markings (on my right) they are owned by us (truckers). Get over more – and again. Right, ignore the left turn for the moment, drive straight ahead, keep going (I am convinced I cannot now turn the tractor unit left). Now go for it"! I wind the left lock on and the cab swings left and misses the traffic lights by inches. My sore neck (from last week) is even worse now as I scan the mirrors left and right to judge where the trailer is swinging – and the nearside trailer wheels clear the railings by inches. Oh hell this is hard – but what satisfaction and fun. To think someone might pay me to do this. Over the narrow swing bridge (G doesn't have to tell me when to give way or hold position – this is like driving Rigids in Stone town centre). And then another fearsome left at a set of lights onto a dual carriageway.
"Your biggest problem here (apart from clearing the railings on my nearside) is not swiping the traffic lights on the right with the headboard as the tractor unit turns left and the trailer headboard swings to the right". I think my neck has now developed 360-degree movement!
With that we approach a well-known (to me) sort-of-roundabout based around a pub in the middle with lots of tight lanes. I followed a low-loader with my boat on it around here not so long ago. G: "I'm not going to say anything and see what line you take". I got around with no problems and a "Well done" from him. I am liking this! Then we did all those awful junctions in Northwich again, before heading back on the "A" roads to the yard.
Just to give an idea of how much power and torque these things chuck out. He had warned me that it was quite possible to spin the driving wheels on the tractor unit when lightly-loaded and indeed this I did on one roundabout. Staggering!
So back into the yard he says "You might as well get some reversing practise. Screw it right around at the end of the yard (270-degree turn) and put the trailer in between those other two". OK – and I did!!
De-brief? Well I am struggling with this different DAF gearbox but that will come within the first day. My mirrors are good but need a brush up, though he can see that's because I am struggling with the 'box and the size of the thing. Not tucking in tight-enough to the left on right-handers (got a Minor for this on my test last week). But reversing is fine and doesn't see a problem. Result!
So I start on February 10 for 4-days of one-to-one with my test on Friday 13 and with the dreaded gimlet-eyed baldy one. But (1) I'm not superstitious and (2) I know how to handle him and (3) yes, they are big, very big, but what is all the fuss about?
Night all,
Neil
*DSA – Driving Standards Agency. A quango that sets all the hoops we have to jump through.
