Where do I begin! What a learning curve today!
As it is one-to-one training I was due to do 4.5 hours today. I left the yard at 3:30pm after a 8:00am start (meant to be 12:30pm) but they are worried about the weather (snow and ice cancels tests and training of course) and have virtually put me through two days-worth today. Knackered is an understatement but a really good day. I feel I can drive this thing now. Gearbox sorted – well almost – and can read my own positions and lines on most junctions.
I think it is the sheer look of horror on pedestrian's and motorist's faces when (1) they realise this is a huge artic struggling for space in outrageously-tight town centres (Stone and Middlewich come to mind) and then (2) spot the "L" plates. At least I get a bit of sympathy.
Instructor: "Nothing for it here Neil. That artic three or four cars back has blocked the traffic coming our way, so no-one can move. You'll have to go on the kerb, but watch that pub sign and his hanging baskets with the headboard". Really, it has been that close today.
Started in the yard for reversing with no assistance and got it wrong two or three times but took a shunt to straighten up and got in OK. Lost count of how many times I did it but finally got two or three “passes”. I’m getting too close to the near side in the dock but think I can fix that tomorrow.
Then did the coupling and un-coupling exercise. Lots to remember here – the driving bit is easy enough. Having done this with Alan (Cecil) in 2006 with three Sainsbury's trailers, I knew what had to be done, but each instructor/driver has the wrinkles and tips as to how they want you to do it.
Lots to recount here but I won't go into all the detail tonight. Suffice to say that on the test, you have to secure the trailer (as if you were leaving it at a yard) with it's legs wound down (might loose half a stone by Friday – a heavy winding job!) then uncouple the (tractor) unit, drive forward then reverse it and park neatly next to the trailer with the front of the cab and trailer in-line.
Then do it all in the reverse sequence, and couple up to the trailer treating it as one (the trailer) you have never seen before. So that's the same walk-around checks (tyres, wheel-nuts, mudguards, lights, reflectors, bodywork) AND check that the MOT on the trailer is valid and check the plated weight for your cargo. (Labels on the nearside).
The final check once all connected up is to turn the lights and hazard warnings on and walk one more time around the total vehicle. As we pass the offside, walking back to the cab G points to one off the orange lights on the side crash-bars and says "Don't be a tit"!
Me: "Sorry"?
G: "Don't be a tit".
Now I really like this guy because he has my kind of (I think) humour most of the time and we get on. On the Volvo (Rigid) these were rectangular orange side-lights but on this trailer they are well – ahem – feminine boob- shaped.
Me: "Ah OK, got it – tit. But – er – why"??
G: "What's on the other side of the trailer at this point"?
Me: "Oh, with you! The trailer brake".
G: "Make sure you took it off" We walk forward to the next boob-shaped orange light and he points and says "Don't be a tit".
Me: "Got it G – make sure the trailer legs are up". (The trailer winding handle for the legs are here (on the other side).
I have lost track of time but I guess it is 10:00-10:30am by now.
Then onto the roads and I felt comfortable with this thing now. Onto the M6 at J18 (Middlewich) then foot to the floor on the limiter (56mph) , M6 South to J16 A500 east, past the Talke roundabout, down to the A50 east then onto our test routes of Longton etc and down the A520. I even got the awful mini-roundabout at Rough Close (kerbed the Rigid badly here) but got the artic through unscathed. Through
I've found the exhaust brake (foot pedal on the DAF) and (to my utter surprise) have sorted out the splitter and am now offering a choice of High or Low 7 on the nastier bits on this road. So good to feel in control and not frightened of this thing.
Then in to the oh-so-familiar town centre of Stone. How ridiculous is this in an artic!!
Straight off I got a “Left at the lights”. This is the hopelessly tight one with the scaffolding by the pub (mighty struggle to get a Rigid around it). And since I was in Stone three weeks ago, they’ve dug the bloody roads up. Jeez is this tight at times. But I really think I’ve cracked it and can handle this thing. A staggering achievement from where I have come from but these instructors earn their money I can tell you.
It almost feels like "I do apologise Madam, but I need to borrow part of you shop-front to get this thing around so I won't be long – if you could just move your display of vegetables and baskets we'll be through here in no time"!
I even had senior citizens and Mums with kids in Corsas reversing (!) to let us through. Well I suppose that's what 44 tonnes with "L" plates does!
Two or three circuits of this place. The confidence this gives me to handle tight spaces is worth all the pain, though my nervous tic (mirrors) has become now set for the rest of my life!
New training outfit, new butty van on the
G: "If you're not happy with this I'll turn it around". Me: "Piss Off, I'm doing it"!
And then in for a welcome brew (11:30am).
Then back through every combination of Stone for two more times then to the infamous Walton roundabout again. You know it: "More people fail here….".
Up the hill and then to
The plan was to park up at the Test Centre (G needed a wee) but the approaches are totally chocker with training vehicles so we keep going to the outrageous Give Way just before Eccleshall and I learn to do this with an artic. I would have put a lot of money on being certain you could just not do this. We did!
Into a dirt-track lay-by and used the rig as a modesty screen for a wee (and a fag for G) and then on down to the A34 again and a turn north.
This was of course our "home run" for my Rigid training and so I am thinking "M6 J16 then J18 and home to Winsford. And then G with a glint in his eye says "Well you are doing well. Do you want to see
Now don't ask me where I have been. Maybe some time I will look at a map and try to work it out. But we turned off the A500 at the Talke roundabout but this time took a right through Chesterton (old mining village) and headed into the country lanes. I have never been in such tight lanes in a Rigid as I did with this. Towards (if not through) Audley but at one point an escarpment with the whole of the
Of course I am still neck-twitching watching the line of parked cars on my left and the oncoming Puddle-Jumper (derogatory reference to a 7.5 tonner, Fisher-Price truck: driven by car-drivers with a straight four or six-speed gearbox – not truckers at all).
Eventually I recognise where I am (A500 Crewe roundabout) and we head into
I can't count the number of ridiculously-tight roundabouts or junctions I have been through today. We finally get back to the yard and G tells me to park up on the right. Then says "I'm getting out of the cab now, to move those cones" (blocking a trailer-bay tight up against the warehouse side). He just says "Take all the room you want and reverse it in here".
So with that I take a big sweep right-to-left (270 degrees), pull the unit into a bay opposite the one I want (to straighten the trailer up) and reverse into the bay with a foot or so each side. Engine off and a de-brief, then into the office for an introduction to my "homework" (folder). These people are good – really good.
And tomorrow I do it all again. No doubt with the reversing that I have to get right. I will.
Night all.
Neil
