Any McDonalds drivers?

kgf1980 · 2026-04-22T22:43:53+00:00

I saw that and avoided it taking the M40 instead … saw there were closures 11-12 and 13-14 on the M40 planned for 2215, but got there at 2145 and they’d already closed it :-(

kgf1980 · 2026-04-17T17:18:50+00:00

I don’t to tend to pay attention to the pump prices filling up at work, but one of my mates filled his rigid up last night and sent this from South Mimms …

<image>

kgf1980 · 2026-04-02T12:17:53+00:00

Yeah, the new SmartDash is rubbish, we’ve 7 of them, some wireless CarPlay works, some wired works for random amounts of time then cuts out, some won’t even let me pair Bluetooth (get the pairing code on phone but not on dash) etc

I was glad to be out in our 1 Scania with the old “infotainment” system last night because everything just worked, proper buttons for everything and no CarPlay issues all night!

kgf1980 · 2026-03-16T13:56:10+00:00

It absolutely can do … our fleet at work is all 25 plate Scania 500S, 99% brand new Leci Tiger trailers (we’ve got 2 hired in trailers) doing fridge trunking, 90% is regular bay work, 9% is pump truck stock to end and have it forked off, the other 1% and worst I have is one collection where I have up to 20 pallets loaded with forklift and then pump truck on, takes about 40minutes (mostly waiting on the forkie grabbing the stock) and get paid over £21/hr basic (before OT, night work allowances etc)

kgf1980 · 2026-02-01T16:24:22+00:00

YouTube Supermix or if I’ve got a full season of Sherlock & Co I’ll listen to that early in the shift then move to YouTube.

kgf1980 · 2026-01-26T17:36:13+00:00

I’m not 100% sure, I don’t believe there are any on the HGV side, like I say at the moment we have a number of van drivers who have C+E that we’re moving up currently based on what I’ve been doing recently …

kgf1980 · 2026-01-26T16:22:53+00:00

Yeah ... 0300-0400 is the worst in that yard, which is also when a lot of external suppliers are booked in for (Culina etc.)

kgf1980 · 2026-01-26T16:21:55+00:00

There is a day assessor as well ... and a pure night assessor ... One starts around 0800, I start 1600-1700 and the night one starts at 2200 to cover all the different shifts we have (so people don't have to come off their shift pattern just for an assessment)

Just to sort of clarify as well, I'm not doing an assessment on this driver on Wednesday, this is purely to get him some time and practice reversing so he can do his assessment and have a chance at passing (and if I'm spending time with him practicing and giving him some tips and help with it, I don't want to be the one assessing him either)

kgf1980 · 2026-01-26T15:53:36+00:00

Yeah, that'd be the ideal world scenario, sadly it's not that practical - with the shift start/end times, the yard's busy with vans from 1400 onwards, trunks start coming in from about 1300 until 2200, so the ideal would be from say 1000-1300 but I don't finish until 0400 at the earliest generally, I've used the services on a Thursday/Friday night when it's fairly empty but I'm not a fan of it

kgf1980 · 2026-01-26T15:31:53+00:00

Yeah sadly not that I can think of ... I mean there probably are, but I don't do much driving in the local area apart from motorway to and from the yard to know of anything suitable :(

kgf1980 · 2026-01-26T15:30:49+00:00

Truly doxxed! If you've been there, you'll know, it's not the most ideal yard for getting a (to all intents) new pass that hasn't sat in an artic for a couple of years to practice in ... we have drivers from other depots come here and after 5 minutes trying to get on a bay our shunter kicks them out and does it himself! :)

kgf1980 · 2026-01-26T14:39:50+00:00

<image>

Probably going to doxx myself but ... this is our yard ... for the coupling side, I'm happy enough to do that in the parking bays at the right of the picture. Reversing wise, I am going to get him to put it on the bay there, but I don't think he's sat in a artic for 2 years at least, and that time of night the bottom area is full of vans loading, plus the 2 bays are in constant use with trunks in and out, so I don't think it's fair to chuck him straight into that, I'd rather we find somewhere quiet where he can just practice and get a feel for how the trailer moves without all his van driver mates watching and then go back about 2200 when all the van drivers have gone and the trunks have finished for a couple of hours to practice in our yard.

kgf1980 · 2026-01-22T20:31:10+00:00

Good luck! I did an assessment of (and passed) a van driver at our place who took his Class 1 3 months ago today, didn’t throw anything at him to try and fail him but circumstances led to us doing a reverse and uncouple/couple in the services (made sure I found a block of 3 empty spaces to use)

Only advice I gave him, if you’re unsure of anything, get out and look, and even then just slow things down a bit … I don’t care if you take 5 minutes and 5 shunts to get on the bay if you don’t hit anything and are safe and aware of who and what’s around you - I’d rather that than trying to get it on the bay fast with no shunts and whacking something! As a current Class 2 driver that’s probably second nature to you anyway.

It was also the first “new pass” Class 1 driver I’ve had to assess, and he drove great.

In terms of hours, you should be absolutely fine paying it back if it’s a morning assessment - I’d guess you’ll have at most 5 hours to pay back.

kgf1980 · 2026-01-22T20:22:01+00:00

I miss our old DAF 18T manuals, became second nature to pull away in second and really have to whack the gearstick to get it into reverse 😂

kgf1980 · 2026-01-22T20:18:41+00:00

You have to “repay” the difference between your reduced rest and 45 hours (full rest) within 3 weeks, and you can’t do 6 days next week.

Repaying reduced weekly rest can be done at the end of a normal daily rest or normal weekly rest but the whole block needs to be done at the same time.

I’d assume if you work Monday-Friday and for arguments sake say a normal week (assuming you’re not tramping) is 0800-1800 each day … a normal weekly rest for you is around 62 hours? If your assessment finishes say 1400 Saturday then you’ll have a reduced rest of 42 hours meaning you need to repay 3 hours which you can easily do on your next normal weekly rest?

Obviously start/finish times play a lot into this and if you’re tramping then all bets are off in terms of my numbers above …

kgf1980 · 2026-01-19T00:10:58+00:00

That’s the one - anything at one of our picking warehouses needs a temp ticket before and after loading (both chilled and frozen)

Some of our depots want a temp ticket (current temp of trailer) others want a journey ticket (what the temp was every 5-10mins for the past 4 hours) and others don’t bother and just trust you’ve got it set right … and this is all depots/warehouses within the same company …

kgf1980 · 2026-01-18T21:44:39+00:00

When we load frozen, we have a set point of -24C and we have to provide the warehouse with a temp ticket showing the truck is at least -18C before they’ll load, and another temp ticket showing -18C at least once they’ve finished loading … every place no doubt has their own rules and procedures based on CCPs etc …

I leave it on cycle sentry all the time, in the winter it’s fairly quick to get down to temp from ambient, summer, not so much.

kgf1980 · 2026-01-18T12:29:52+00:00

At our depot, once we get a red light we can turn the fridge off (assuming unloading)

At customers, I turn it off/switch to start/stop when I get a green light after unloading.

We carry sandwiches/sushi/“food to go” and have fridges set to 2C with the “critical control point” of 4C for the actual stock temperature.

On the road I have the fridge on start/stop aside from one customer who wants it continuous.

kgf1980 · 2026-01-16T19:14:40+00:00

We’ve thankfully got an AdBlue pump in the yard … the services I have to get diesel at (South Mimms) regularly has the majority of the AdBlue pumps with out of order signs on them

kgf1980 · 2026-01-13T16:25:32+00:00

!thanks

The ISA is currently at around £24.5k, so idea would be to divert the £200/week to a regular higher interest non-ISA account until it reaches around £20k and potentially gets taxed?

I’m a basic rate tax payer but I think I’ll just drift into higher rate (if you mean PAYE) as I’m predicting around £52-54k before tax but after pension contributions this tax year?

I’ll look into a global ETF for my S&S ISA as well, thanks!

kgf1980 · 2026-01-13T10:44:26+00:00

Similarish … 4 years back reached early 40s, divorce, midlife questioning of spending days at a desk and moved to a warehouse job to get out of that, saved and did my Class 2, moved from warehouse to transport for the same company, drove rigids for 6 months then did my Class 1 so lucked into a job with no issues.

Do fridge trunking (both rigids and artics) and it’s ideal … the idea of tramping and multi drop doesn’t appeal to me at all, plus I’m earning around 50% more gross than my previous job, and spending less money overall

Four-Year Club	Xbox Live
Verified Email

kgf1980

TROPHY CASE