Common Mistakes New Lorry Drivers Make in Their First Year

The first twelve months behind the wheel teach you more than any test route ever will. You pass your Class 1, feel pleased with yourself for a fortnight, and then discover that reversing onto a tight bay at six in the morning with three drivers watching is a completely different skill from a clean run with an examiner. Most of what goes wrong for new drivers is not dramatic. It is small, repeatable, and avoidable once you know where the traps are.

Tachograph Errors: The Paperwork Nobody Warns You About

Tachograph infringements are the quietest way to damage your first year. Nobody shouts at you for them, and nothing goes bang, but the infringements pile up on your card and they follow you between employers. Almost all of them come from the same handful of habits.

• Driving without recording the other work you did first — the walkaround, fuelling, strapping down, queuing at the gate — because the card went in late.
• Leaving the mode selector on the wrong setting after a tip or a collection.
• Taking a break in the cab while you are still effectively at someone's beck and call, which is not proper rest.
• Forgetting manual entries for work done on another vehicle or in the office that day.
• Never downloading or checking your own card, then finding six weeks of problems in one go.

Build a routine and stick to it. Card in, manual entry, check the mode, start. At the end of the shift: manual entry, card out. If something went wrong during the day, make a printout and sign it while the details are fresh. Ten minutes of tidiness at the end of a shift is worth far more than a difficult conversation a month later.

Bridge Strikes: The Mistake You Cannot Undo

A bridge strike is the one error on this list that can end a driving career outright. It is also the most preventable. The root cause is almost always the same: a driver assumed the trailer was the same height as the last one.

Trailers are not interchangeable. Fifth wheel height, suspension settings, tyre wear and whether the trailer is loaded all affect how tall your combination actually is. So measure it after you couple up, with the suspension at running height rather than raised, and write the figure where you cannot miss it — a note on the dash, a line in your phone, a reminder on the sun visor.

Then plan before you pull out of the yard. A satnav set to lorry dimensions helps enormously, but it is not gospel; it has never seen the temporary sign or the fresh resurfacing. Signs on the ground beat the screen every time. If you are approaching something low and you are not certain of your height, stop short, get out and look. If there is any doubt at all, find another route. The ten minutes you lose will never be mentioned again.

If the worst happens: stop. Do not reverse away and do not drive on. Make the scene safe, call the emergency services if anyone is hurt or the structure is damaged, notify your operator immediately, and photograph everything. Bridge strikes are reportable incidents, and leaving the scene turns a bad day into a serious matter. Speak to your operator's compliance team or a solicitor before you start giving accounts of what happened.

Blind Spots and Slow-Speed Shunts

Almost every bump a new driver has happens below walking pace. Forwards, the front nearside corner is the danger. On the turn, it is the tail swing — that long rear overhang sweeping out the opposite way to the cab. On the nearside, it is the cyclist or pedestrian who has slipped alongside while you waited at the lights.

1. Set your mirrors for the trailer you are actually pulling, not the one you pulled yesterday. Do it after every coupling.
2. Walk around the combination before you move. Check the catwalk, the legs, the number plate, the seals and the load security.
3. At junctions, check the nearside mirror twice — once before you commit to the turn and once mid-manoeuvre. That second glance is the one that saves people.
4. Reverse on the driver's side wherever you can, use a banksman when one is offered, and get out and look as many times as the manoeuvre demands.
5. If it does not feel right, stop. Nobody remembers a driver who took three shunts; everybody remembers the one who hit the gatepost.

There is no prize for getting it in first time. There is a very real cost for getting it wrong.

Paperwork Slips That Come Back to Bite

Delivery notes are not a formality. They are the record of what actually changed hands, and a signature you gave away carelessly can become your problem weeks later.

• Signing a note before the pallets have been counted.
• Failing to note damage or shortage in writing, on the note, before you leave the site.
• Mixing up seal numbers, trailer numbers or collection references between drops.
• Handing in a crumpled pile of receipts and notes a week late, with times written from memory.
• Leaving site without photographing the load and the trailer.

Photographs take two minutes and settle most arguments: all four sides of the trailer, the seal, the load itself, and the signed note. Never sign a blank document or accept a cheery "just sign there, we'll fill it in later". And never amend a tachograph record or a timesheet to tidy up a bad day — that is the point where a mistake becomes something much more serious. If you are ever put under pressure to do it, get advice from your union representative or a solicitor.

Daily Checks and Defect Reporting

The fifteen-minute walkaround becomes a three-minute glance surprisingly quickly. Do yours in the same order every single time so that your eye does not skip the boring bits: lights, tyres, brake lines, coupling, load security, mirrors, plates.

When you find a defect, report it in writing and keep a copy. "I told the office" is not a record. If the vehicle is not safe to take out, do not take it out, and ask for the instruction in writing if anyone pushes back. It is a far shorter conversation than the one after an incident.

Planning Routes and Asking for Help

New drivers take the wrong road because they do not want to look inexperienced. Ring the customer. Ask about the access, the height of the yard entrance, whether there is a low canopy, and where artics are expected to go. Ask what time they want you and who banks you in.

Check the last mile properly: weight limits, width restrictions, narrow villages, school run times. Start a notebook of the places you visit — gate codes, which bay is awkward, where the keys go. By the end of your first year that notebook will be worth more than any app on your phone.

Getting Through Year One Intact

Good drivers are not the ones who never make a mistake. They are the ones who build habits that make mistakes rare.

• Slow down earlier than feels necessary.
• Get out and look, every time you are unsure.
• Write it down, photograph it, keep a copy.
• Ask the question before you move, not after.
• Report and record anything that happens straight away.

Look after yourself as well as the load. Fatigue makes poor decisions feel reasonable, so stop when you need to — no delivery is worth driving tired. If you have concerns about your sleep or your health, speak to your GP. Rules on tachographs, licensing and weights differ by country and change over time, so check the current guidance rather than relying on what someone told you in a lay-by, and take proper advice if a situation turns legal.

The first year is the steepest part of the learning curve. Take it steadily, ask the daft questions, and the second year will feel like a different job.