Sunday Times
Aug 2006

You dont need 15 stones of brute force and Mr T's forearms to drive a modern lorry, writes Emma Smith

Thanks for power steering, power assisted clutches and automatic gearboxes you can drive an 18 ton lorry as easy as a Ford Focus, and it's almost as easy to parralel park.

Or so the theory goes.... I managed to reverse into a barrier within 20minutes. Luckily Ian Hendry, of Driver Transport Training, my instructor, had taken me to the Gosfield airfield in Essex, a former US airbase where there was plenty of space and no traffic to hit.

Climing in and out of a 13ft high Volvo FM7 was a feat in itself, but once inside the view of the road was commanding. A switch on the gearstick allows the driver to move between low gears (1-4) and high gears (5-8). There's also a "crawler" gear for scaling steep hills.

So far so good, although I did have to resort to two hands to pull the heavy lever from fifth to sixth (no power assitance here). Roundabouts were a littl trickier. You have to adopt the opposite of a racing line, steering to the outside of the curve, to allow your rear end to follow through without climbing the kerb.

Then it was time for the dreaded parking manoeuvre. Hendry lined up a series of cones, barriers and poles to simulate a loading bay.

Reversing an articulated lorry is difficult because the trailer is moving the opposite way to the cab so you have to steer against your instinct.

With a rigid truck like this, the only real problem is the sheer size and, for a car driver, the lack of a rear window. However, what the lorry lacks in rear visibility it makes up for with a plethora of mirrors. I was just about to declare it a blow for women' s spartial perception when Hendry told me I'd hit the barrier.

Ah, I didn't feel a thing but the barrier was leaning precariously. Still, Hendry deemed it a good first attempt and a second try proved more sucessful - one 18-ton lorry parked.

But could I stomach a life on the road? We head off to sample a slice of the real world trucker culture.

A sign by the A120 near Stanstead Airport heralds the approach of the Feed Me Now! burger van where Dave, the chef is doing out mugs of tea and truckers fare, getting through 30 burgers, 48 sausages and nine 5llb packs of bacon every day.

It's a well-run operation parked in a new rest stop which is neat and clean - including the ladies loo's. Old trucking habits die hard and Hendry - who claims to be on a diet orders a double cheeseburger with fried mushrooms, while he and Dave debate whether the "Pineapple Burger" would be a healthier option - " Well, it's a portion of fruit".

"We see a few more lady truckers coming through here now." says Dave, washing up mugs. "You do get some of the older guys who don't like it, but they're a dying breed"