I know you were an off the street driver so I don't fault you for not knowing how it can be for the inside workers. I show up anywhere between 15-30 minutes early on average. First reason is parking, it's a good timeframe to get good parking, second is the guard shack. I showed up 10 minutes before start time once and spent 10 minutes in line at the guard shack as there were that many people who showed up at the same time and had to be searched and wanded.
After that there's nothing wrong with getting to work 15 minutes early and either scoping out your assigned work area to know how much it's going to suck or sit around the timeclock with your coworkers shooting the
. Been more than a handful of times I showed up early and an early start person called out so the sup gave me the time because I was present, qualified, and available.