Lorry Driver!

[SamMillarF1]

Hey Guys!

Just thought I'd post a little bit about my job, a video and a few pics, and see if there are other like minded people on here which I'm sure there will be.

I'm Sam, I'm 19, male from Scotland UK and I'm a Class 1 HGV Driver...hahaha funny right? No really..

I'll be 20 this year and I've been a HGV Driver since I was 18.. not long sure but old before my time, damn it! I drive for a company out of Glasgow, to England every day or not picking up a load to bring back to Scotland, for the day drivers to deliver frozen foods to Greggs and other places and suchlike.

Some pictures of my truck;

Any other truck guess where I am here?

http://mattgarner.net/upload/images/2013/04/17/YbyGiW.jpg

and a little video for you..hope i've not bored you. Cheers!!

 

[SamMillarF1]

Good to see a company giving young guys a break so many are put off by drivers age and the associated rapage from the insurance

I've never quite understood it either because a quote for me on a HGV is cheaper than my car.. weird eh?

Sam - meet Scania. Scania is OcUK Motor's resident HGV driver.

Oh excellent, good to see another one around then.

Your gonna get some stick for driving 44tons whilst on ya phone taking pics

I thought someone would be a long with that soon.. if you look at the video I have a camera on my head that does everything, and the pictures of me driving are taken with the same camera.. not stupid enough to do that and then self incriminate myself with it

 

[SamMillarF1]

That's quite an achievement - I've never heard of anyone your age driving a proper articulated lorry.
How did you get into it and how long did it all take you? Did you take your car test then to straight into the class 1?

Thanks! Yeah I passed my car license shortly after my 17th.. the minimum age to drive a HGV in the UK now is 18 so I knew it was what I wanted to do as it's in the family, when I turned 18 I immediately started my training and passed that, which was for rigid bodied HGVs, then a few weeks later I done the same for artics and here I am now.

 

[SamMillarF1]

Very interesting - I assumed there was a minimum age of 20 or something. Did you have contacts within the company that got you the job or were you just lucky/particularly good at interview?

The minimum age to drive a HGV used to be 21, then it was lowered September 2009 to 18. It's still 18 now if you want to drive commercially but in January this year they raised it to 21 for the likes of horse box drivers etc (non commercial.)

I got my first break driving rigid bodies with the council on the bin lorries.. that was great, stupidly easy work days for even easier money and tons of great reversing practice into the bargain.. can definitely see myself returning to that when I'm a bit older in life and bored of the day to day long haul..

I got my break on the artics with this company, they happened to post an advert for the vacancy saying it was just to cover holidays initially as the summer was coming up and I applied, exchanged a few emails with them and heard nothing.. one week out of the blue I got a phone call about 5pm and it was them asking if I wanted a run to England that night.. I jumped at the chance and that was me ever since! I never got an interview with them funnily enough, when I got to England that night and I was parked on the bay being loaded I had to fill out a form with all my license details and bank details etc.. fascinating really when you consider what you're in control of, no pre license checks at the office as it was for a night shift run starting at 7pm.

 

[SamMillarF1]

One of them anyway!!!

Hi Sam, nice to see somebody so apparently keen to join / have joined the industry! - give it time, you'll hate it soon enough!!

Stobart (who I work for) have a lot of 19year old apprentice truckers - we give them a lot of stick, poor things...

Talking of which, is that an ex Stobart Scania you have there??

I hate it already!! But as you know with trucking it's a love hate relationship, a way of life and once a trucker always a trucker! Yeah I have a few mates who got their license with Stobart.. I can't stand Stobart personally but each to their own as they say It is indeed an Ex Stobbies unit. Helen Josephine H5515

I envy you, good luck

Good choice in music, another thing in that video I did giggle at what seems to be an incompetent Zafira driver just overtaking you... As I said good luck and stay safe on the roads

That's nothing compared to what we're used to, driving standards are terrible.

What's your worst hate drivers?

I always feel harsh when I'm unloading you lot and

a) turn you away because of broken pallets
B) keep you guys waiting for 3/4 hours because the labels on the pallets are dodgy, or we have to do some stuff for stock with it wtc
C) make you come inside and restack a pallet, if you don't we will reject it so ya have to take it back.

I'd hate all 3 of those if I was a driver I think!

Them all, when you consider that a broken pallet is not my fault, nor is a dodgy label. You won't find me restacking a pallet either unless I'm responsible for damaging it, ie not strapping it in the trailer which won't happen because i'm hugely safety concious like that. I'm a driver, I drive and I'm not paid to worry about you rejecting the load or anything of the kind unless it's purposely my fault

The worst of them all has to be; "sorry driver we have to reject your load because we don't have enough space for it."

Hey Outkast, do your guys still drop trailers at Tebay every night?

 

[SamMillarF1]

Yup

Delays.. I always take my guitar with me. You would be amazed at the customers attitude change when they tell you "Sorry drive, You'll have to wait". When you shrug and get your guitar out they invariably start tipping you a couple of minutes later.

lmao, must try that at every RDC im at next. So the trailer swaps, is it just a simple driver change to carry it on up north or?

 

[SamMillarF1]

Basically yes.

Langdons (Nagel group) have their own network called "ChillNet". We have depots at strategic locations all over Europe.

I'm a night trunker so I only deliver to our own depots who then either tip & reload or trailer swap and back home. All within the required 45 min break.

Tip & reload within the 45min break? - isn't that illegal???

Yeah it was my understanding that you shouldn't take breaks on a bay.. heard some stories of VOSA basically storming Tesco Livingston a few times and do'ing everyone on the bay with break on..

 

[SamMillarF1]

To do that at 19 is rather awesome, have to say it looks very fun! I know you said you went straight onto the licences, how long did it take you to do both?

Enjoyed the video too btw.

Cheers! I actually completed it all when I was 18 I took me about a month to get them both done because I had to wait on my license coming back from DVLA between licenses, but the actual training is 4 days with test on the 5th day. Some people require more though.

New respect for the viability of a truck driver, that left mirror is a PITA!

Yep, mirrors are huge blindspots for us really but without them we'd be lost...keep this video in mind when you're near a truck.

I got a ride in a huge car transporter (with a trailer on the back - had around 12 cars on it). Fascinating watching the driver and looking out the mirror watching the trailers doing their thing. I was convinced we were going to hit everything in our way.

Yep, trucks are very wide so it can look like every sign of traffic light you're coming up to you will hit but it's not the case.. well it is if you're not careful but all in a days work!!

I've posted my liqqle vid here before but you probably haven't seen it....

One thing for sure, that certainly ain't no headcam haha! I enjoy it though, cheers.

There's a few other videos on my channel guys, another which features the headcam is this one however the headcam footage is the same as the first video.

 

[SamMillarF1]

I'm just doing my C as part of my service training as most of our vehicles range from 3.5t to 7.5t.. quite like the idea of doing my C+E one day.

Good on ya mate.

Good thing you're getting the full C out of it as you know you only need 7.5T so it will be something to fall back on one day perhaps.

 

[SamMillarF1]

Been driving Volvo fire appliances for the last 20 years, passed out as a driver/operator of one of these last week:-

Quite a different beast to drive compared to a standard fire appliance. Carries a 26 ton demountable pod which is ridiculously top heavy but despite that the MAN is a fairly quick bit of kit for its bulk.

I wasn't too keen on the MANs I drove, found the gearbox really rough but they were all hire motors so chances are they've just been booted a lot lol! Tidy looking bit of kit that is.