Worksop this morning

Up at 6 and over to Worksop for a collection out of a warehouse complex called peppers , it was massive. A security a gate with a " report here " sign met me. I stood around reading a sign on the door saying open at 8 am , it was 8.20 and it was still not open . When they did open I was told to go down to the bottom and find someone !!





I was sorted out by the warehouse lads really quickly and they were great , polite and let me know exactly what they were doing. It made a nice change.
I was loaded up and pulled up to leave through security, another sign said stop and report to drivers reception. I went in and waited in front of a massive glass window , on the other side of this window were 6 people in an office, I stood there looking through the glass and waiting for them to acknowledge me and even better , see to me , well I waited, and I waited , they were all looking very busy but eventually, It was at least ten minutes when someone came over and asked if I was ok ? I said I had just been loaded and the sign said to stop so I pulled over ! oh she said its ok just carry on . What a bleeding waste of time. unfortunately this sort of treatment is all to familiar.

I dropped the full lorry load off at the customers factory and then went back to base for a 45 minute tacho break. The rest of the day was taken up with a few local collections and a lot's sitting around.

Sitting in the Cab and collecting all the scraps

This is what the downtown looks like .
This is a days work
This is the loading bay of an engine supplier we collect for, This collection was for rolls royce


This is a collection going to croydon.

The day started at 10 am and after putting in a tacho and logging into my cab computer. I waited for the work

Another Slow Day. 28th Jan

Today was a slow day so I decided to post a few pictures of the rounds I did today and what I saw , not a lot but like I said , not a lot happened.
First Collection was 5 pallets going to scunthorpe and then Collections from Asforby Business Park in Melton Mowbray then over to Thurmaston for a few Air condition vents . There is very little work coming on the books lately so I expect to be writing more about other stuff than just driving, but for now ill sign off with these pics , there not that great because they were taken with my phone.



This is a customers yard @ Asforby Business ParkThis is the Quarry next door to the collection this afternoon.

Glad this wasnt what I was collecting.



Just more machines in the yard , dont know what they are.
More Machines to move but not yet .... my pallet was a lot smaller .This is where vending machines come to die ......................

Spent the day at home because of no work

I was kept at home today and was told to wait on call. Nothing came in so I spent the day doing a few odd jobs. They want me to come in @ 9 am to see what comes in but nothing yet.
I will sit in the cab and read for a bit and listen to the new talksport lineup of Mike "porky" Parry and Andy Townsend they have just taken over the 10 am till 1 pm afternoon slot that has been vacated by Jon Gaunt. it makes talksort a lot more listenable and means I dont have to swap over to 5 live and listen to Victoria Derbyshire any more.

The stevenage drop and the green guard !!!

This is my home all week


January 29th I was tipping in Stevenage @ 8.30 this morning at John Lewis, A big distribution centre there. I usually have to tip here in the afternoon and they are famous for leaving you sitting waiting if you are early.
I got to the yard with plenty of time to spare I wanted to leave at about 6 am,
I had to do the walk round checks and write out a Tacho , check I had enough fuel . It only takes about 15 minutes to fuel up in the morning but if you leave it until later in the day it can be a pain finding a bunker or a garage that takes our cards.

So I’m nice and early and I turn the engine on and hear this whirring sound coming from the tachograph the time is flashing and there is an exclamation mark flashing as well, then I see that the red light in the dash is on, indicating a problem with the Tacho , I got the new chart in and it all seemed fine , I carried out the checks and found out I had a brake light out . Couldn’t get access to any spares so I swapped the fog light bulb over . Job done .
I was running a little bit late after all this, my tom tom was showing an ETA of 8.40 am ,

I headed off down the M1 , then the A14 and then the A1 to Stevenage Its easy and traffic is usually ok , I can normally do it in 2 hours give or take a few minutes but today I was caught in the rush hour traffic when I got to Stevenage junction 8 I stopped dead. I was crawling along and I knew that the Goods in would be snooty about me being late ,

I have been early lots of times and sat around waiting , but be late and you risk the wrath of the shift change!!!! that’s when they say they cant tip you because your late and you have to wait for the shift change to see if they can fit you in , most of the time they say this ,the yard is empty , its all just power buzz bullshit stuff. But they have got you right by them ,as usual.

I got to the drop at 9 am and came across a security guard I had never seen before , Now security at any distribution facility is a whole other chapter,
some would say a whole other genre, but the security here and at most of the other John Lewis depot’s I have been too has always been first class to me. Usually they come out of there little hut and read my reference number and its either “Bank 4 drive” or “Bank 1 drive” This guy sat there stony faced , so I got down with the truck blocking both lanes in and out . I gave him my paperwork and he looked lost , I said bank four mate and he agreed but his face looked blank.
I saw him crossing out his arrivals’ paperwork and realised he had no idea where bank 4, or what bank 4 even was!! . I pulled into the space reserved for Bank 4 delivery’s and handed in my paperwork to the goods in man.

“14 pallets”” I told him , “14 Pallets” ? He said like he was disgusted , how am I going to have time for them before my tea break” I shrugged , it was bite your lip time again. He got me to back onto bay 5 and said he will try the best he could to get them all off . Ahhh bless any one would think it was his job to do that !!! . So I open up the doors to get on the bay and this artic comes flying into the yard right up to my back doors, he flies out and is shouting his head off , “Fucking security “security , “Fucking stupid thick idiots” He was ranting , turns out he had arrived an hour ago and the security hadn’t known where bank 4 was and had sent him all the way over to the other sites. He was fuming. The warehouse man tipped him straight away as I was going to be unloading myself

Drama outside over I went in and found the my lorry was stacked very close to the rear doors and there wasn’t much room for the loading bay to fit on.
My friend the warehouse man was moaning and handed me a pallet truck.
Ten minutes later and 14 pallets sitting on the dock and I was on my way.
It always amazes me that people always have something to moan about ,while doing their job , I suppose I am now though , come to think of it.

I had a collection to make in Corby that was en route to Singapore but I wouldn’t be taking it that far sadly I took it as far as Leicester , around the corner from our own yard.
It was an easy drop and I was back in the yard by 1.30 pm . I reported the defect to the TM and we ran the truck up to All- truck to have it repaired. I got to go home and was home by 2.30 pm , finding out how hard my wife has to work all day with the little ones at home, Phewww, give me a few tonne of wood flooring to handball any day .




This is the asda depot at Donny

A horrible day on the first week at work

The story of my first week at this company I’m with now .

I had been to the renault formula one team headquarters and was buzzing at what a good job this was when I was sent a collection through on the computer.
I was told to go into Market Harborough and collect, I didn’t know what and I didn’t know where. I had a postcode and that was it. its a tiny market town and was a one way system through the centre. I found the place , A tiny bookshop up an alley and spoke to the owner regarding making the collection.
It turned out our company were always collecting from there. I was directed around the back and it opened up to a much bigger road and I was fine parking up outside the car park area at the rear. It was going to be a bit of a walk and I had to handball the boxes on but I wasn’t bothered. The customer at the shop said we always go into the car park , and said she would direct me, I was cool ok with that and being new I felt obliged to try , well I reversed in ok , it was very tight and I had a few inches either side of an iron gate and a 2 foot high post t worry about but I managed it. I loaded up and was all set to leave but it was a public car park for the church and a van had come in and parked up as well , I had to come out at an angle and kept getting two close to the post , no matter what side i went to it was too close.
The shop owner was directing me and telling me how close I was to the post with my passenger step , I was keeping my eye on the rear , She told me to go back but I had lodged the rear curtain strap under a coping stone on an old wall and it was lifting ... ... I was stuck.

I moved forward and the whole wall started leaning onto the truck curtain, I was now the only thing holding the wall up and it was stopping me pull the other side away from the gate post , I pulled forward and by now a crowd had gathered and a school had just finished ,I had sweat running down my back.

The wall came down around me and it went down , from around 6 feet tall to about a 2 foot wall, (I took pictures of the damage for work , ill dig them out and post on my blog one day ) . I was also wedged onto a Suzuki vitara chrome spare wheel cover , I mean really wedged , the more I moved back or forward I made it worse . We found the owner of the Suzuki , he was the landlord of the pub , He didn’t want to swap insurance. don’t know why he just moved the car and said cant be helped !! (It could be helped, I was an idiot) There was around 150 bricks in the road and a massive gap in someone’s garden !!!!! . I lost my bonus for that for 6 months , :( But my lesson learned was you’re the driver and you park and load where you feel comfortable not the customer. The best lessons are the ones that cost you money , Im at Stevenage in the morning at john Lewis so Im going ,Ill write some more diary Tomorow

Up to Donny 23rd Jan

I started out @ 6.15 am today to get to my drop for Asda into Doncaster. It usually takes a few hours to get tipped up there but I was out in under 40 minutes , 7 pallets off and the one to Manchester nicely tucked up on the head board , Cheers Asda. I wanted to mention the drivers room up here at the Asda in Donny, The atmosphere is awful Its like a doctors waiting room, a deathly silence when you walk in, very tense, I think because they have a lot of drivers waiting a long time it creates tensions. I left the morgue and went over the M62 , past the snow capped peaks and into Manchester !!! I had a tip in a furniture Village it was full of units selling different things like carpets , windows , kitchens , it was called furniture units I think , weird place.
I dropped the pallets and went over to my collection , this was at one of the Hospitals in the city centre. I had to collect twenty steel tool boxes on wheels Via the tailift . It took about an hour there and then I could get over to Knutsford for a 45 minute Tacho break. Not a lot to report really , I collected nine pallets of bricks on the way back in and finished around 5 pm . I am glad Friday is here , We have been very busy so far at work , All the trucks and vans have been out.



On the Bay at Asda in Doncaster

Driving out of Asda past the Staff Canteen

On the Bays

The route to my LGV Licence

There are a few reasons why I needed a change of career but without any qualifications, and no work history ,I was short on options.

My Dad had been a lorry driver and I still remember traveling with him and looking at the road flashing past while I lay on the floor of the cab looking through the round windows of his truck.

I looked on the Internet and soon found out that the roads were paved with gold and that drivers were rarer than rocking horse shit and hens teeth.

There were hundreds of companies willing to train me and I would become a steering wheel technician and a millionaire in no time.

All bullshit of course and I found this out when I discovered this when I found the truck net forum here. http://trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/index.php

I got brilliant advice and lots and lots of encouragement as well , especially after my assessment drive that didn't go very well.

I looked around for a decent training center and didn't base my search just on cost , you get what you pay for in my opinion, or you should do anyway ,

I went to J coates of Leicester and liked what I saw straightaway, They looked professional and I was happy.

I had an assessment drive which is designed to see how many days training they think you will need, I was sceptical because I assumed they would all say the maximum, usually 7 .

I thought I was a good driver , I thought it would be easy , just a bit bigger and the gears would be harder , I was in for a shock , the gears were OK at first , it was a switcher 4/4 in a Mercedes artego. It felt massive I thought I was taking up the whole road , I was nervous and scared and I thought I was never going to be able to do it . I forgot every thing I ever knew about the highway code. I was a mess and afterwards I never wanted to go near a Lorry again

Those thoughts soon passed and before long I was wishing away the days until my training started.

We started at 7 am on a cold Feb morning and we were in pairs . I watched the instructor as he pulled out of the yard and tried to take everything in. He drove around the test routes and up to the test centre itself and parked up.
I took over and we went through everything , mirror signal , manoeuvre. Most of all he wanted us to take our time, remember its not a car he kept saying over and over . Nothing clicked and nothing went right at all, I hit kerbs , went round the roundabouts all wrong, I nearly side swiped a few innocent car drivers as well.

I went home after that day and thought It wasn't for me , I would never get it at all. I didn't want to go back again and dreaded the next morning.

It went like that for most of the training , but things did gradually sink in and I was lucky that the other trainee was hopeless, he made me look good.

We got to know the transport cafes in Leicestershire pretty well those 7 days and we went up to crick to learn the reverse and the braking test.
The reverse took ages to sink in and I still sometimes lose my bearings when backing onto bays etc. I just think take your time and you will get through .

On the night before my test I went up to the test center in my car and practiced driving properly, shuffling the wheel and leaving from every route possible so I wouldn't be surprised by any roundabout or funny junctions.The test centre has a few weight limits around it and sometimes the examiners try to trick you into taking some of them so I wanted to be prepared.

My training partners test was before mine but ended when he went into reverse on the first roundabout outside the test centre. I went through the test in a state of mild terror. My legs were shaking and I was struggling to swallow, my gear changing was terrible , I was messing it all up spectacularly, The examiner was brilliant though and kept talking to me about anything other than driving, we chatted about my business ( a pub at the time) and how the beer in his local was kept etc etc, I relaxed and got round the town in around 30 minutes , It was over and he said "I am pleased to tell you , you have passed,"
I was shocked , the others who had failed were pissed off but I didn't care. I had passed.

When I got back to the training centre I signed up with there agency and I was driving a truck the next morning for them all on my own .... I will tell you about that journey another day ......

I have no secrets or tricks to tell you or brilliant advice to offer , other than you can do it, take your time and remember , you are passing a test , they want you to obey the laws of the road as much as drive the lorry.

22 Jan A Photo Day

This is the view when we drive into our yard the artic is on the left .





our office is on the top floor,

This is mission control , the sat nav , the driver hour guard and the company tracker and message system , that's how they send me my jobs , it beeps all day.
We take these cages to lots of exhibition centres with coffee machines in , things like the good food show in Glasgow and ideal homes at Earls Court, Lots of smaller ones as well , We did one at Newmarket Races, it was a beautiful place.
This is one of our main customers loading bay , I spent most of the day pulling pallets out of here today , 40 in all , back and forth in the rigid I drive. I got my job for tomorrow (Friday ) Asda @ Doncastor for 8.30
The early part of my day I went to a Costco distribution centre dropping 5 pallets off , then over to Corby to take a small water pump. It was nothing to report really , I didn't even get a chance to read a book I was tipped so fast. I will update how Donny goes I expect it will be a slow tip , and then off to Manchester for a collection at a skanksa building site.

just trying out posting pictures

This picture was the smallest toll booth I ever saw , It cost me 40 pence to go through cos I had two axles !! , it was last year in OXford somewhere cant remeber now.

21 st Jan 2009

Missed a day , so here is what I did. I had a 8.30 start yesterday and went out in a 7.5 t to drop a few pallets in Northampton @ blacks the 7.5 t is the skankiest one in the fleet , a real turd. No way to tie your doors open so when you have to back onto the bays they keep swinging open, , I dropped them and sped back to base. I pulled into the yard and the other drivers had decided to start burning all the old pallets, it was stinking the whole yard out and covered everyone with the smell of smoke. I went out in my normal wagon then, the 18 tonne and collected loads of wood for the vans to deliver. Went home around 3.30 pm and was told to come in @ 10 am to do the odd collections. Change of plan and told to drive the other 7.5 t to Harrods in hounslow to drop 5 pallets for 8 am . I hate going out in other wagons but it was a decent drive and was heading back in good time. Then the tracker went off and i was sent over to collect from Leicester and take some of it to Welingborough and some to Corby, When i got to the collection I had to wait 20 minutes while the warehouse were on break. It turns out that the load was 265 boxes going to monsoon , all handball , then another 69 boxes going to corby , handball again. The customer asked me what order I was doing the drops in , I asked him what he thought as I had never been to this customer before , He said Corby then Wellingborough, We loaded corby on the end and then I set off.
my boss rings asking what is taking me so long ? The wellingborough is booked in @ 2.30 pm
I explained that the customer hadn't mentioned anything about the time . I had to go in the back when i got onto the bay and move them all around again. Why cant the office just explain what we are doing , it would make a lot of difference , They don't think we are capable of thinking for ourselves .
I got to Corby and then eventually got home around 7 pm. The Corby drop was trouble free but It meant I had been out over 13 hours ,

I get a message on the tracker on the way back saying Wellingborough tomorrow 8.30 am tomorrow.

19th January 2009

I came in today at 10 am and the yard was full. Drivers and trucks.
I was told not to warm the lorry up and wait for a van.
I had two cartons to take to Curry's warehouse in Newark. I was there in an hour and it took more than that to get in through the security. Eventually I carried the cartons in the warehouse to save some time.More time to get out. I looked at my booking in time for B&Q in Worksop it was 5 pm ! . I was there at 1 pm and they said I had no chance. I decided to go and find some lunch and come back later. and here I am its 3.30 pm and I have got through the first holding bays into the 2nc holding bays............. I will probably get out around 6 ish then on the M1 at rush hour ,
Thats what this job is , dissapoinment after dissapointment , the only popsitives are less dissapointment than you were expecting. I have got a small plus ,I am getting paid for sitting here.

This blog is going to be easy to write if it stays like this , nothing to really say .
No one is upsetting me or winding me up, no one to blame for anything , nothing gone wrong , yet !! I'll update this day but I suspect it will be: they tipped the pallets and happy ever after on the journey home.

Well its home time , I left B&Q @ around 5 pm , got told to take the van home if I wanted too , back in work @ 8.30 am.

These are some engines I picked up for caterpillar . There were four and they sent one of our sprinter vans to get them all the way to Devon from our base in Leicester.
As you can see only one would fit in, I got to get the other three the next day.
They weigh just over 1200 kg.

16th Jan 2009

It was an easy day today , start @ 8 am get a load of pallets from our main customer , they have to go to John Lewis,Stevenage @ 3 pm but I had to take a load of bamboo flooring to a flat right next door to Hackney marshes, Two Australian builders took delivery, good lads they were because I couldn't get that near to the property so they had to carry them over the car park. Then I took a 45 minute tacho break in south mimms truck stop. Nothing to report really .over to Stevanage and meet up with one of our sprinters that had 4 of the pallets on.
The warehouse said they couldn't take it off the sprinter because of health & Safety. I had to drag them to the back with the other driver before the forkie would take them off.
Back to base then for 6 pm

My Driving job

I drive all over the country and meet a lot of people in this lorry driving job .
Every time I get out of my cab to get unloaded I dread them opening there mouths.

Most people look at my skin (white) and think that I share there views, they spout their racist, bigoted and ignorant opinions.
Its all ways the same, pointless,boring and sometimes sick comments, all spouted in a vicious and often nasty way.
I just wanted to get this off my chest. I'm going to use this blog as a daily diary for my lorry driving which takes up most of my life lately.

I am sitting in the yard right now waiting to go out , no jobs as yet.

Yesterday I was sent to Chelsmford from our base in Leicester one pallet of books for the Essex county council. I dropped them off with the tailflift and then over to Basildon to collect two radiators for the Irish lorry , I knew this would cause me a problem later on in the day because It had to be back before 5 pm and I was due in Brighton next.
I arrived in Brighton @ around 11 am and found the address. The hills were amazing, I had to deliver to Albion Hill rd.I have never seen hills like them.
The load was over a tonne of wood flooring. The lorry was tipping like a double decker bus on the tight hilly roads and I had barely 6 inches either side of my truck as I crept down the sides of the parked cars. I tried to park up and the lorry rolled precariously as I pulled onto the side of the rood outside the house, I pulled away but the Lorry's rear lights had caught the rear tyre of a transit van behind me and pulled it clean off. I jumped down and inspected the damage.
The van`s owner was brilliant and said there was no problem.
I told the customer I was there and she looked at me very surprised , She expected me to unload all the flooring on my own and to put it inside her front room were she wanted it.
We are normally told to deliver outside the house only as someone should be there to unload with us but as usual this was not explained to the her. I just got on with it.I put the tacho on break so I could get straight to the next drop in Lewes and then all the way back to Leicester before 5 pm and meet the Irish truck.
Got back at 4 45 pm, then back to the yard and home . 9 hour and 45 min driving time used up.

First Lorryday Post

It was allways the same, every year it comes round ,