Catch 22 gaining experience but no-one will employ you!

[LancsMike]

i think its about keeping going, just keep trying. i was in the same position and got lucky.

 

 

A Fellow Arbtalker on here said to me '' Dont hope for work, the work is out there, just go out and find it '' and he was right [ Cheers Andy / Treequip ]

 

I love tree work but I'm working in Haulage at the moment and would love to get back into Tree work and maybe get my HGV Licence in time too - that doesn't mean I want to drive a HGV all my life but like a lot of the guys have said here - it is a very valuable skill and qualification to have because there is a shortage of Class 1 and 2 Drivers out there. Combine that with your 30/31 and 38 and 39 in time means you're more likely to be employed by someone because you're a lot more useful to them. Just depends what you want to do and how you want to go about doing it really.

 

Got to be a bit more positive 656Solo , you'll do alright just have to see it from another angle and like Mr Einstein once said :

" In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity "

[scotspine1]

HGV, it is a very valuable skill and qualification to have

 

I agree, a big truck loaded with chips towing a big chipper requires an experience driver otherwise this kind of thing can happen -

 

[LancsMike]

Looks like a right mess there, wonder what happened, blowout maybe ?

[scotspine1]

Looks like a right mess there, wonder what happened, blowout maybe ?

 

From Treebuzz TreeBuzz Board: warning for rookie drivers

 

 

my company made the news friday, but in a most unfortunate way. 645am on the way to a job on the interstate, i was about ten cars ahead of my crew who were in the chip truck when traffic slowed suddenly. i slammed on my brakes to avoid rear ending the guy in front of me and immediately looked in the rearview mirror, hoping my employee had left enough stopping distance. he's a good driver, but has only about 2 months experience driving my 16gvw truck and i think probably had no idea what the real stopping distance of the vehicle is. he slammed on the brakes, then swerved suddenly into an open lane to avoid collision but again maybe had no idea how such a large vehicle would react to such a sudden correction. truck went out of control, hit the jersey barrier, went up on 2 wheels and tipped over. rolled truck and chipper and 5 yds of chips now in the carpool lane at rush hour. amazingly no one was injured and no other vehicle was involved. unfortunately this is my only rig.

 

there was a 7 mile backup that started the day off badly for half of seattle and about $1000 in towing fees. it took the three of us about 2 hrs to ferry all the gear from the chip truck at the tow yard to my house. we still have the ability to do top notch tree work, but are lacking the ability to clean up our mess until the repair/replacement/insurance dust settles. that will likely take a month. no news yet if truck is totalled, chipper likely is and replacing it will mean taking on another payment as it's 10 yrs old.

 

moral of the story: being a good driver of a small truck or car is only halfway to being a good driver of a loaded compound vehicle. this accident might have been unavoidable - no way to tell and no point even going there - but i have to think that following less closely would have helped. my lesson is don't just give the keys to rookie drivers w/o some serious training. i was very clear about being aware of the increased size of the vehicle. i was not very clear about stopping distance. oops.

[Mark Bolam]

A cautionary tale indeed Tim.

 

Thanks for posting.