The New Beast

[SimonPeters116]

On the licence front. I phoned my old boss on Monday to tell him I had received my licence. We've had occasional phone conversations since I had that stroke, I was promised that my job would be kept for me. So he asked me to drop in on Tuesday and would I be ok for a shift on Friday? Tuesday afternoon I dropped in, he took a photocopy of my licence, for his insurance company and his records. Would I be OK to do a shift Wednesday? I had a 5am start time, drive up to Aberdeen, do a delivery. Drive back to Montrose, deliver more stuff. Drive down to Glasgow, do 3 collections and then back to the yard in Stirling. 5am start, 5.30pm finish. Another shift on Thursday, a long lie in, only a 6.30am start, and worked through to 6.30pm. Today, another 6.30 start and finished for 4.30, easy shift I've only driven about 1,000 miles this week. A regular week, say Switzerland and back, is between 2,500 - 3,000 miles. 100,000 miles + per year is fairly normal.
I was a bit nervous about driving an artic after nearly 16 months of driving nothing bigger than a car. But it was like falling off a log. Within 10 minutes of leaving the yard I was back in the groove, as if I'd never been away. Next week, I'll be heading South. I'll have a load of something to deliver near Birmingham, it doesn't really matter what, it just has to cover costs. The main point of the job is to collect the proper paying load for Scotland from there, and delivering it. I'll sleep in my truck on Monday night.
I haven't got my 'own' truck yet. I'll be getting an old one. 4 years old, 600,000 on the clock. We get a new truck every 4 years, the new one to replace the one I'll get is already more than a month overdue. Delays in the supply of computer chips apparently. Trucks are driven by chips these days, drivers just steer them.

 

[AgentCooper]

On the licence front. I phoned my old boss on Monday to tell him I had received my licence. We've had occasional phone conversations since I had that stroke, I was promised that my job would be kept for me. So he asked me to drop in on Tuesday and would I be ok for a shift on Friday? Tuesday afternoon I dropped in, he took a photocopy of my licence, for his insurance company and his records. Would I be OK to do a shift Wednesday? I had a 5am start time, drive up to Aberdeen, do a delivery. Drive back to Montrose, deliver more stuff. Drive down to Glasgow, do 3 collections and then back to the yard in Stirling. 5am start, 5.30pm finish. Another shift on Thursday, a long lie in, only a 6.30am start, and worked through to 6.30pm. Today, another 6.30 start and finished for 4.30, easy shift I've only driven about 1,000 miles this week. A regular week, say Switzerland and back, is between 2,500 - 3,000 miles. 100,000 miles + per year is fairly normal.
I was a bit nervous about driving an artic after nearly 16 months of driving nothing bigger than a car. But it was like falling off a log. Within 10 minutes of leaving the yard I was back in the groove, as if I'd never been away. Next week, I'll be heading South. I'll have a load of something to deliver near Birmingham, it doesn't really matter what, it just has to cover costs. The main point of the job is to collect the proper paying load for Scotland from there, and delivering it. I'll sleep in my truck on Monday night.
I haven't got my 'own' truck yet. I'll be getting an old one. 4 years old, 600,000 on the clock. We get a new truck every 4 years, the new one to replace the one I'll get is already more than a month overdue. Delays in the supply of computer chips apparently. Trucks are driven by chips these days, drivers just steer them.

Congratulations on getting back into the swing of things with ease, that’s great news. I tend to forget how to do most of my job requirements after a bank holiday weekend so kudos to you!

And I might as well ask whilst I’m here… I’m a huge Euro/American Truck Simulator nerd and whilst my technique is impeccable on most things, I very rarely nail a first time drop off when reversing into the bay. There’s always a bit of shuffling to get the sweet spot. As someone who’s done this many times in real life, are there any tips or techniques you could lob my way when it comes to lining up and executing the perfect reverse with a tractor/trailer?

 

[SimonPeters116]

Congratulations on getting back into the swing of things with ease, that’s great news. I tend to forget how to do most of my job requirements after a bank holiday weekend so kudos to you!

And I might as well ask whilst I’m here… I’m a huge Euro/American Truck Simulator nerd and whilst my technique is impeccable on most things, I very rarely nail a first time drop off when reversing into the bay. There’s always a bit of shuffling to get the sweet spot. As someone who’s done this many times in real life, are there any tips or techniques you could lob my way when it comes to lining up and executing the perfect reverse with a tractor/trailer?

Reversing tips? Erm, nope. It's just practice, practice and more practice. I've been driving artics for over 30 years, and reversed into spaces hundreds of thousands of times. I have good days and bad days. On a bad day, it can take 3 or 4 shunts to get the sweet spot. On a good day, it's on in one. What I have noticed is, if it's a tight spot with no room for errors, you get it in, because you look and plan and then do it. If it's a big empty space, your approach is much more casual. You look and plan, but the plan is more "I'll swing it round about there, stop about there and it'll be an easy reverse from there to there". Very similar to the plan for a tight space, but with a tight space there is no 'about'. It's a precise plan, executed precisely, because if it isn't you won't make it at all.

Before/during my stroke I was driving a new Daf XF Superspace cab, 530bhp, 3 axle 25 tonne unit. Now I'm driving a Mercedes Actros 2551 (25tonne, 510bhp), 3 axle tractor unit, with a 4 metre high, Schmidt Cargobull Euroliner trailer. Sliding roof, curtain sides with aluminium load retaining planks, 5 planks per section, 4 sections per side. Empty weight is 15.5 tonnes, max gross weight, in the UK 44 tonnes, on International work 40 tonnes. 44T is because of UK domestic (internal) rules. Dutch trucks, in Holland only, go to 60 tonnes with exactly the same truck, because of Dutch domestic rules.
We have sliding roofs so stuff can be craned on or off. It often is. We used to take the big paper mill paper rollers from Glenrothes to Germany, for refurbishment, and then bring them back a few weeks later. 4 to 6 meters long, about 6 - 10 tonnes each. We also load wood-chip fired, central heating boilers, from Germany to Scotland, also usually craned on and off.

Delivering a small machine in Switzerland.

 

[SimonPeters116]

Like most jobs, the everyday routine can get monotonous. It's the unusual challenges and none routine stuff that keep it interesting.
My first European trip, in 2000, was 😲 almost the whole way. Now, I've driven those same roads so often, it's routine. That first trip, I took a load of Pampers, from England to Mueng Sur Loire, near Orleans. Reloaded with tyres from near Lille, to Cisterna de Latina which is South of Rome. I reloaded with cooker-hoods from a little place called Sassoferato, up in the mountains near Ancona. Delivered those to Folkestone. But I drove around the Riviera, had a break near Pisa, diced with Roman drivers on the ring road. Over the Appennine Mountains. North through Switzerland and the Saint Gottard Tunnel. Those are just the obvious highlights, it would take a full page to describe the complete trip. And I was being well paid to do this as well 😊
Now, I've driven through the Saint Gottard Tunnel so often, it's just another tunnel. Still 17km long, still very hot in the middle (36 degrees C) even if it's -20 outside, but just another tunnel.