General Truck Drivers
Transport goods in rigid trucks, often over short distances.
A night on the tow truck
You are a tow truck driver on the night roster for a regional highway, with a long list of call-outs before dawn. It is 1:30am and raining. You have just finished one tow when dispatch gives you another, and the next few hours will test your patience, your judgement and your care for people who are having a very bad night.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
Two jobs have come in together. A car with a flat tyre and a family on the shoulder of the highway near Marsh Creek, and a car blocking a driveway in town where the owner is angry. Which one are you taking first?
The driveway first, since it is close, the owner has already rung three times and he is cross
The owner is satisfied, but the family on the shoulder has been waiting twenty minutes in the dark with passing trucks. A loud complaint is not always the most urgent job.
The highway family, and ask dispatch to tell the driveway owner when to expect you
You reach the family quickly. Dispatch rings the angry owner with a time, and he settles down. Safety on the road comes before a blocked driveway.
Whichever is easier to hook up, so you can get your night's count up
You pick the driveway, then hear that a second driver has been sent to the highway. Your supervisor asks you to explain. Chasing a tally is not a reason to leave people waiting.
My two kids are in the back and it is freezing. Can you just tow us home to Kingsbridge, not the garage? It is only forty minutes away. I do not want to wake them by moving them around.
Explain what the job covers, check with dispatch and offer the best option for her and the children
Dispatch confirms what can be done and Nasrin chooses the garage, where there is a waiting area. She is grateful for the clear answer, and the children stay warm.
Agree to take them home, since it is what she asked and the kids need to sleep
On the way you realise the long trip pulls you off your next call-out and nobody checked what her insurer covers. She is left with a bill she did not expect.
Tell her the rules are the rules and take the car to the garage without discussing it
You follow the process, but Nasrin feels she has not been listened to. Explaining a decision takes seconds and makes the night easier for everyone.
We have one more before the end of your shift, at Tuckers Corner. It is a long way out and you are due off in half an hour. You have been awake since yesterday afternoon. Can you do it?
Say yes, but drive slowly, keep the window down and stop for a coffee halfway to the job
Slowing down and stopping help a little, but a coffee does not undo a missed night of sleep. You get there, and the tiredness is still waiting for you.
Say yes, since you have done longer nights before
On the way back you drift over the line and catch yourself. The job gets done, but you took a risk with your own safety and with others on the road.
Tell them honestly you are too tired for a long drive, and suggest the day driver
Dispatch sends the day shift driver, who is already on the way in. It is better to say so than to fall asleep at the wheel.
How it went
You got a family somewhere warm and handed over your last job honestly. Truck driving is a job of long hours alone, quick decisions and moments of real kindness to strangers. Would you be comfortable working at night, and being the first person someone sees on a bad day?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The reverse nobody wanted to watch
A fictional case set in a towing and rigid truck business servicing a regional highway and local depots.
The situation
Ravi drove a rigid truck for a building supplier, delivering plasterboard to a new townhouse site. The access lane was narrow, with parked utes on one side and an excavation on the other. The site manager waved him in and said, 'You will be fine, just back down, we are in a hurry.' No one was free to guide him, and the delivery was due before the crane arrived at two.
What they did
Ravi stopped the truck at the top of the lane and got out to walk it. He told the site manager he would not reverse without a spotter and asked for one of the crew to stand where he could see them. They found a labourer who had done it before. Ravi lowered his window, went slowly, and stopped twice when he lost sight of the person.
How it turned out
The delivery was ten minutes late, which the site manager noted. Nothing was damaged and no one was hurt. The next week the site had a marked unloading bay at the top of the lane, and Ravi's manager praised him for refusing to guess.
What would you do?
- Would you feel able to say no to a site manager who is in a hurry?
- Why is it so important for a driver to be able to see the person guiding them?
- What would you do if no spotter could be found?