Have you ever noticed when you start a new job, the old timers, wise beyond years seem to have a very dry sense of humour.
I remember when I first passed my HGV as it was in those days. Like every other new driver, getting your first proper job wasnt easy due to a lack of experience, and like many others I started with an agency. Having done a week or so on curtain siders and a similar time on boxes, I felt I knew enough to lie my way into a job. Turning up at a proper haulage yard one day (Matlock Transport), I was interviewed for the job. How long have you been driving HGV;s? Four weeks became four years. Had much experience? Aye, couple of years on curtain siders, year or so on boxes and a year on flats. Ah good, you've done flats. Can you rope and sheet? Gulp. Yes, easy. OK, go and sheet that load up properly and well see.
With mounting trepidation I approached the load, somehow managed to sheet it as if a child were wrapping its first present for its mother, what a mess. Then the ropes. I hadnt done it before, but I had seen it done many times and thought i could work it out. So, my best attempt at a truckers slip knot and gave an almighty pull to tighten it. The knot was no longer a knot and i catapulted backwards and down a grassy bank landing on my proverbial in the mud.
Then I heard that voice. "Hmmm, never seen it done that way before, try this instead".
Funnily enough, I got the job.
Later, having been sent to a farm to unload, I caught a very low branch on the farm track and cracked my windscreen. Getting back to the yard, I had to fill out a dmage/accident report for my unit. In gaffers comments he simply wrote
"Forgot to duck".
I remember when I first passed my HGV as it was in those days. Like every other new driver, getting your first proper job wasnt easy due to a lack of experience, and like many others I started with an agency. Having done a week or so on curtain siders and a similar time on boxes, I felt I knew enough to lie my way into a job. Turning up at a proper haulage yard one day (Matlock Transport), I was interviewed for the job. How long have you been driving HGV;s? Four weeks became four years. Had much experience? Aye, couple of years on curtain siders, year or so on boxes and a year on flats. Ah good, you've done flats. Can you rope and sheet? Gulp. Yes, easy. OK, go and sheet that load up properly and well see.
With mounting trepidation I approached the load, somehow managed to sheet it as if a child were wrapping its first present for its mother, what a mess. Then the ropes. I hadnt done it before, but I had seen it done many times and thought i could work it out. So, my best attempt at a truckers slip knot and gave an almighty pull to tighten it. The knot was no longer a knot and i catapulted backwards and down a grassy bank landing on my proverbial in the mud.
Then I heard that voice. "Hmmm, never seen it done that way before, try this instead".
Funnily enough, I got the job.
Later, having been sent to a farm to unload, I caught a very low branch on the farm track and cracked my windscreen. Getting back to the yard, I had to fill out a dmage/accident report for my unit. In gaffers comments he simply wrote
"Forgot to duck".