Except that the spare tire is mounted on top of the cab and it sits a little higher off the gound. It's a diesel and a standard. We have a part time Logistics/Warehouse guy that manages the warehouse, runs the forklift and pulls the truck in and out daily. Well I don't know exactly when it was delegated to me, but I was informed I'd be needing to pull the shop truck out in the mornings and back inside before closing.
HOLD THE PHONE! That's a STANDARD. I did not officially take driver's ed (just the at home version) and no where in my training was there anything called a clutch.
Now, fortunately not all is lost. I have had some exposure to operating a standard and understanding the concept of "ease off the clutch," but not enough to just go whipping it in and out of a WAREHOUSE. Maybe a pasture.
So I needed to find a willing participant to teach me how to drive the shop truck. Of everyone in our office (which is between 6-10 people given the day), there were only 2 guys that I deemed acceptable teachers. One of which is Kevin. Our outside salesman. He told me when he got back to the office we could practice out on the back roads behind the office for a while before we closed.
Another factor to note is that our building is made of tin? So we have the tin/metal building and shop, then just a tin/metal fence around the back of the property with one of those wide swinging tin gates. The shop truck is usually parked just outside of the overhead shop door in front of the swinging gate. That's where it was located when I took my first driving lesson.
I got the keys, unlocked it and jumped in. There was no keyless entry, so I literally had to reach over and physically unlock Kevin's door. It's a single cab with a bench seat. The middle seat belt is not the standard lap belt, it's a shoulder seat belt just like the driver and passengers seat belts. I used my left hand, reached over my right shoulder and pulled the seat belt across me.
"Umm. Kevin? I don't have a plug for my seat belt."
"What do you mean you don't have a plug?"
"I don't have anywhere to click my seat belt into... seriously! There's NOTHING there!"
"Well what do you mean? Did Rudy cut it off or something?"
"I don't freakin know, all I know is that it's not there."
About that time I jump out of the truck to see if I can somehow find the missing receptor for the seat belt to plug into.
"I seriously don't have one, Kevin!"
"Um, why are you trying to put on that seat belt? Your seat belt is on YOUR left side."
"Ohhhh....."
Ok, back in the truck with the correct seat belt on.
"Ok, now push in the clutch and turn it on. You're in 1st gear. Keep your foot on the clutch."
Done.
"You look like you're really far from the steering wheel and pedals, do we need to scoot the seat up for you?"
"Yeah, that would probably help."
Kevin reached down under his seat for the lever.
"The lever is on your side. So you'll have to pull it up and we'll have to both scoot forward at the same time." (Remember it's a bench seat.)
I have my foot on the clutch, one hand on the lever underneath seat, and the other hand on the steering wheel.
"Ok, ready, go"
I pull the lever and we both try to scoot forward in unison. Something evidently wasn't jiving. We either weren't moving simultaneously or I wasn't moving forward at all. Then it started to seem like everytime we would scoot ourselves forward in the seat something would push us back. Evidently as we were scooting back and forth, my foot was going back and forth on the clutch too.
It was hard to tell that the truck was moving forward because we were scooting back and forth and back and forth in the seat. We would go forward, the truck went forward, we would go back and the truck was going... well I don't know where all I know is it was going! And then it was all too late...
"Push in on the clutch! Clutch! Clutch!"
Bang....
I drove the truck into the tin gate. That was latched shut. And padlocked. Well after I hit it, it wasn't either of the two. Kevin being the good guy that he is jumped out as fast as he could to try to get it shut back.
"We've gotta get it shut before somebody comes out here and asks what the hell that noise was!!!!"
Eventually after some finagling, the gate was able to be closed and locked again. But it has a few dints in it. And my bosses haven't asked about it, so maybe they haven't noticed. And the truck is fine.
The rest of my driving training went perfectly. I didn't kill it once and I mastered all of the shifting.
The following morning I was on my way out to the shop to back the shop truck out when I stopped by our service guy's desk. He was my other option for a driving instructor.
"Did Kevin tell you he helped me learn to drive the shop truck yesterday?" I said so proudly and cheerfully.
"Yeah. I heard you did a bang up job."
"Oh my god, Jarrod! You're not gonna tell anyone are you? What if someone asks you about it? What are you gonna say?"
::paranoid???::
"I'm sure Kevin, Rudy, or I will take the heat for it so don't worry."
Yeah................ Never gonna live that down.
