Van Day

I got back from the Welsh run last night at about 9.30 last night and there was a van waiting for me in the yard, loaded with a nice run up through the Dales and into Cheshire.

I had 5 drops from Maccelsfield to Wakefield , with a Stockport, Chorey and a Diversion to Blackburn in the middle.

I like driving the Vans because it means I can use sat nav without thinking.
Using sat nav without thinking in a Lorry , any kind of Lorry , even a 7.5 t is a dangerous business but in a van you can get away with it.

The first drop was in Macceslfield and took in some rather questionable roads, I wouldn't of gone the same way in a Lorry but it was a really nice morning and a pleasant drive up through the Peak district into Leek then up to Maccelsfield.

I was a bit early , the place opened at 8.30 and I was outside by 8.15 so I got my Daily Mirror out and settled into the seat.

There were two more vans waiting so I decided to pull into the car park, a little bit away from the loading canopy,letting them know that I knew they were before me.

I watched the staff arrive and the loading doors open and then like a bat out of hell,along came the UPS manThe van is clearly not in the loading area's, my back door is in the right hand frame of the picture and the other van was on the other side and there was a 7.5 t, out of the frame.
He just swept in and started unloading the parcels. I jumped out and before I could speak the goods in said "be with you in a minute drive" , sort of sympathetically.

I hate it when I'm in the truck and they do it but I didn't think they did it to van drivers as well.

I was finished here as soon as the Big Brown Delivery Machine had gone, and I went overto Stockport and delivered 6 boxes of lights

The next drop was a place I have been tolots of times before but doesn't show up on the Sat nav.
Its a multinational on Buckminster Rd in Chorley.

The whole estate is massive but shows up as a field on the Tom Tom. I have saved it as a favourite and as a POI and the same thing happens when I try to route to it, No Route Available.
Because I always approach this delivery from different places I always come unstuck looking for it.
Its just off the A6 in Chorley but the sat nav just finds unnamed roads and fields and a train line.
When I finally got there today I thought I was in "The 100 Acre Wood" look closey now!



This is just a bay shot. I was lucky to be under the canopy today.I had a few more drops to go and set off for Blackburn, then Wakefield. I went over the M62 again to get to Wakefield and took a few more pictures of that house in the middle of both lanes.




I have a new gadget for my Camera, A windscreen mount. Its brilliant, but it does mean I take pictures of absolutly everything I see.Editing the ones I use for this blog is getting to be a full time job.

Welsh Charm

I have three delivery's today , One in Bristol , One in Caerphilly and the last one is @ 5 pm and is in Swansea for Amazon.
I have been listening to the radio debate Jackie Smiths's husbands nightime veiwing habits.

I am having a 45 minute break at the minute in Cardif Service's.


Its a bit of a hole to be honest but I do like that the Lorry park is really close to the actual services main building. Not normally the case.

The Bristol drop went in a flash , I arrived 5 minutes before the allocated time expired and they unloaded me with a smile. Brilliant.

Next I went over the Severn Bridge to Caerphilly.

A building site, I always dread building sites for various reasons,one of them being because they are full of builders.Another reason is it is always notoriously difficult to get unloaded on one.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the JCB driver, he drove up to me and directed over to some solid ground and pulled off the two pallets in about 5 minutes.



I'm sitting on bay 12 at Amazon waiting for my red light to go out. My title for todays post "Welsh Charm" was in serious trouble when I got to the main gate. I was met by a female security guard and her exact words were "whats ocurring here then"?
I bit my lip and handed the notes over.
And here I am, bay 12 in Swansea. Waiting for the Green Light for Go.

"The Great North Run"

I had my own Great North Run today , Liverpool,Burnley, Bolton then over to Malton in York for a delivery at a private house before making my way back to the place were I had so much fun yesterday getting pushed from pillar to post near Selby in Leeds. This time I knew the rules and everything went smoothly.

Started at 4.30 to get up to QVC stores for 7 am.
It was an easy and pleasant drive and I chose the Ipod over the radio again.
The radio is getting on my nerves now , BBC 5 live repeats every 15 minutes and Talk Sport just throw jingles and adverts at you , in between Ronnie Irani struggling to read the Autocue and Alan Brazil either not turning up or talking over every guest he has on and answering his own questions.
Radio 2 is pretty bad as well , you had someone called Tim this morning who was so bland he even bored himself and then an old woman called Sarah Kennedy came on for an hour (at great expense to us, the licence payer ) and waffled on about the front pages of some broadsheets and then passed over to Terry Wogan . I flicked over to catch traffic reports but couldn't bear to wait for them.


I did a lot of driving today and every drop ( I had 6 in total) went well, I made good time, I wasn't held up much apart from a 2 mile queue on the A63 to York near the Highwayman pub.I crossed over my favourite motorway the M62 and took a few pics of my favourite parts of it

The House in between the two sections always amazes me , Imagine what it must be like to live that close to such a busy road?
This house was for sale in Malton but I didn't catch the name of the agent, It needs a bit of work though!
I got a run planned for Monday , Bristol and then down into Wales and finish off with a PM drop at Amazon, Swansea.

A Motown Morning

I got into work early today to get up to Selby area for 8 am.

I went into the back to check my load as usual and found all the rubbish from the last drops I had made still on board. Empty pallets , shrink wrap and empty cardboard. I was pissed off because I hadn't been in the day before and had finished at nearly Ten pm that night and didn't have access to a forklift to take them off. There was 8 in total and I had to drag them off before I could leave.

I wrote on Tuesday that I had ditched my radio listening on the way home from London and decided to Dub out with the Ipod.

I kept the Ipod plugged in this morning and set off up the road at 6 am listening to my Motown classics.
It was a beautiful sunny morning and I was making good progress.
I read the delivery notes and realised I was meant to be in two places at around 10 ish , one Manchester and one Leeds , I still had to get to Harrogate as well so I decided to change the order around. whoops ! That didn't go down to well and I was told to stick to the order I was given in future. (noted)

I was still in a good mood though and arrived in Harrogate to the site of an amazing rainbow. The picture does it little justice.

I had also been trying out my new driving style.
When I am being passed by a slow moving truck and they are creeping up on me for about 5 miles I ease off the pedal for a few seconds and let them pass.
I feel better in myself, I don't have them swaying next to me any longer than necessary and I am doing my bit to ease congestion.
I also have a theory that this practice will spread goodwill and that the driver who benefits from this will spread his own love in return !

I arrived at my first delivery and wormed my way through the pedestrianized areas and off loaded in twenty minutes. I head back down the A1 to this Factory I had one Pallet for them and being a large blue chip company they made it as difficult as possible for me to deliver it.
I cant help but wonder what our economy would be like if everybody pulled there weight at work and didn't shirk.
One bloke worked harder NOT to help than he would of had to if he had just unloaded me!
I did eventually find a friendly, helpful worker and they had me sorted pretty soon afterwards.
Its strange though that finding someone to help you at a massive international Ltd company is seen as a surprise and a bonus.
One of the tankers on the weigh bridge as I was leaving




I went over to Manchester to this building site at the Hospital , I wanted to take some pictures but it was teaming it down with rain and made it imposible.I was loaded up with a customers equipment to bring back for them.
This is all about to handballed off by me and some of the drivers in the yard when I got back tonight.
I got to go , Liverpool for 7 am
Its Friday and I got a playlist ready for the run up. Ill let you know tommorow

The Curse of the Smoke

I had the worst day today.
I left London a t 5.40 pm and I just got to Toddington a minute ago. I woke up and went to Asda to buy some supplies because I knew Id be on red routes all day,
Got to my first drop at 8am ,

It was inside a really tricky to get to arcade. I had to call them because the gate was locked but when I went to speak my voice wouldn't work I have been struggling all week and today it just packed in all together !! I had no pain or anything,it just came out as a whoosh of air but no sound.The girl on the phone must of been terrified !!! , I barked in to the phone "Delivery" and "round the back" a few times at her, she must of got the message because she eventually came to the gate but she didn't look too eager to open it.
They had to go up here


That set the tone of the day , things got worse , but Ill be back in my own bed at least , Ive got 2 hours driving left for a ten hour day and I'm at one and a half hours away at most.
I'm back to finish my post with pictures .


After learning I had no voice I set off to Hemel Hempstead hoping it was easy to find because all the drops we do for this customer are hard to find shopping centres and pedestrianised areas , they are all in service yards mainly built to accommodate humans and sprinters not humans driving 18 tonne Lorry's with no way of communicating.

I usually have to ring and tell them I'm outside but that wasn't going to work that way today.

Here is the door near the bins , the sat nav took me straight to the service yard, lucky me.
what you cant see is the massive flight of stairs behind the door where my pallets needed to be.


I was trying to tell the manager at the store I was going to take them up because that is the service this customer pays for but she couldn't understand me , she got a few of the shop staff to help and I was finished in good time. I managed a 15 break to help me in London where I was going to next.

The first part of my London adventure was Finchly , another of our special delivery's for our main customer.
I had trouble finding the address and when I came upon the shop I pulled over to look for a space to unload, yeah right, I had no chance I had been here before and had the same problem then as well.
I cant say to much yet but I think I saw a car move outside the shop when I pulled away, I'm not sure how it moved but it sort of wobbled!!

I rang the boss and explained .
Ill keep you posted.

My next drop was Camben high street and all went OK after I got into my loading bay.
It was on a red route so I was allowed 20 minute's to unload.
I finished in 28 minutes so not to bad

This is a picture of London for those of you who have never ventured down .


That's the good parts of London taken care of.
Now here are the bad parts .Traffic and building work


My drop in Kensington.
Two pallets to handball off the back of the truck.
A nightmare to get to with all the traffic and the weight limits and the small streets , it was on a main road, Queens gate, but with roadworks and traffic and all those tiny mews and places and gardens everywhere I couldn't turn around and get on route to my next drop in the City.


Tower 42 was looming and I was dreading it , just off thread needle street in an underground service yard

The truck took up most of the underground service area and I couldn't get it onto one of the bays.
The guard came out of his office and asked me where I was going.
I showed him the POD (proof of delivery) note and he laughed. 24th floor he said and pointed to the lift , "They shut the lift off at 5 mate" he said "and you wont fit those pallets in either, you will have to break them down and load it onto these trolleys"


Fair play to him though he helped me load up the trolleys and took the first two up himself because it was 4. 30 pm and we only had 30 minutes left.
I was looking forward to getting to the top and seeing the view , I had even taken my camera with me so I could post the pictures here.
Well the help isn't allowed into the viewing area , we are only allowed to sweat blood to drag their crap up to them in stinking, dark and cramped conditions.
God forbid we might want a tiny but of pleasure in our busy and long, hard day by admiring a view.
This is a shot I took through the open door, the service lift is behind me and the London skyline is behind the smoked glass but us low life's are not allowed through.
I was finished the delivery at 5.30 pm, just in time for the London Rush hour.

I tried to follow sat nav out to the A12 to get the M25 but I couldn't get a decent signal because of all the tower blocks. not knowing The Smoke like some people I took the turn toward the cenrte again and ended up on the Thames embankment heading toward Parliament.
I struggled through the traffic and, after getting sick and tired of the radio , people going on and on about trivial things or trying to make a whole story out of a slip of the tongue or a word uttered out of context,I plugged in the Ipod for a two hour Dub fest all the way "UP North" and finally got to Todington services by 7 pm where I had to take a 45 .
I was home by 10pm.
Day off today so lets see what tomorrow brings

Mute Day

Its not Monday for me its Mute day. I cant speak on Doctors orders.

I have been struggling with my voice all weekend and lost it completely on Saturday night and through Sunday.
I was expecting to have the day off and took the opportunity to see the doctor.
I wish I hadn't of bothered.
I showed her my throat and she told me it look very red but nothing to worry about, this Dr who I have been bringing my kids to for 5 years, suffering with chronic Eczema as well as all the other childhood ailments you would usually expect then asked me if I had children! , she didn't remember me even though she had my name on her screen as a clue. I was a little bit disarmed by this but I continued to believe I was in the best hands. She then criticised my for gargling with salt water all night insisting it was ghastly and of no use at all. I have the leftovers of a nasty throat infection but I seem to be over the worst was her diagnosis
I told her I thought it was actually getting steadily worse since the beginning of the week. No she said it was getting better.
She was seriously lacking in empathy.
I didn't want any sympathy or a magic cure but the Doctor delighted in telling me , "there is no magic pill you know" I felt Like I had wasted my time.
Her advice when I told her it hurt to talk was "Don't Talk then"
She asked me what I did as a job , and when I told her I was a Lorry driver she said oh that's OK then you wont need to talk much will you!
I left there feeling really annoyed and like I had been accused of wasting her time, good job I didn't bother her with all my little ailments and worries .
I have to concede one thing though , I don't feel as ill as I did when I went to her,
I decided to spite her and prove that I wont be ill if she decides I'm not. weird I know, maybe its alternative medicine .
Turns out work cant cope without me after all So I have been dispatched over to Birmingham with a delivery so important its coming over twice, Ill explain later .

Ok, So I pick up my delivery for Brum and collect some other stuff for tomorrow at the same time, only the stuff for tomorrow is going to exactly the same place as the stuff for today ....... you still with me? but they wont take the stuff for tomorrow until tomorrow , even though I'm there today with today's stuff. That make sense? They even asked me what that stuff is , I said its for tomorrow , they said oh , see you tomorrow then.

that's the crazy world of Haulage, you take stuff all around the country and some bod decides it wasn't booked in , or your to early or to late and it just goes straight back to where it came from , over and over again it happens and its the big players that are usually the worst.
I picked up some stuff for Central London today and I was taking the piss in the yard because it was for the 24th floor of a tower block in the City, Me and the other lorry drivers were laughing at the thought of the van driver with his sack barrow going up and down the lift....... guess what ? yeah you know it ! its my last drop 4 pm in the city .....
I'm going to be posting a few pics of the view I hope ,
Ill post tomorrow I think

A Long Day and a Long Rant !!

I was expecting a really crappy job on Thurday because I had collected it on Wednesday!!
But the took it off my truck and put it on the other one. I was well pleased, For about 20 seconds , then I saw the size of the bundle of notes in his hand and the grin on his face.
It was mostly food deliveries and it was all in the midlands , so at least it was close to home.
It started here


Makro in Coventry , It was booked in for 8.30 but I was early and found my self alone in the yard
It was disgusting , I tried to capture the mess but didnt have a wide enough lense on the phone :D


Any who has ever been to any Makro will know the "Time Delay" that occurs in one of their depots so I was suprised when they put me on a bay straight away and in ten minutes I was away.
I have to mention the smallest goods in window in the world. It was one of those tiny windows you get in a toilet or something it was ridiculous , I tried to get a picture of me putting my notes through , honestly I had to fold them to get them in , I couldnt get a photo because I didnt want to get caught and not get tipped. Next time Ill take the phone with me when I walk over with the notes (folded) .
The next drop was another Makro in Halesowen.
It took ages to get there because by now it was 9 ish and rush hour was well and truly underway and the M6 and M42 was ground to a halt.

Halesowen must of been easy becauase I can't honeslty remeber even being there , thats why its called Lorryday, not Lorry week !

I went over to a few more food drops all over the West Midlands including Shrewsbury and Telford and because I was only dropping one pallet a time, it seemed never ending. A few drops were a little late and I was expecting the "sorry Mate" speech but It was ok , they were all very acomadating and didnt cause me a problem at all. I had managed 9 drops and only had one left , it was back in Birmingham , kings Norton , only a few miles from drop 8 , but It might as well been 100 miles , Birmingham was gridlocked !! , I dont know the town very well so I just followed the ring round top go around the city centre
It was getting late , after 5 pm and I was still going nowhere,!!
Ringing base did little to help I was just told get there and see if they were still open.
When I arrived there was a welcoming commitee of three very pissed off engineers , The last dropo was battery's and they had to be tail lifted and then handballed into the lockup . It wasnt good arriving at 5.45 pm on a friday but , hey I didnt plan the route and I told them that as well.
They were alright actually after that and they did understand the way the traffic was at this time of the day.

I was finished and off home by 6pm and I got back to base by 7.15 pm and I was home to miss my son going to bed (again) by 8 pm.

I had a late start today , 8 am and went off to Wellingborough and Northampton , and Milton Keynes it was a beautiful day and It mostly went without a hitch ,one incident gave me time to make a few ObservatiuonsI want to share with you.

Security Guards at DC's What is wrong with them ?

I know I shouldnt make a judgement on all of them BUT if the cap fits I have always said.

I was dropping off In Milton Keynes today and pulled into the customers yard , The Guard took the reg, the details of the delievery, and the time I arrived . then he said go and park over on the left , they will be with you in a minute, I sat and I sat and I sat , and then I phoned the boss and he said , sit and wait , so I sat , and waited and sat and waited and waited and sat....... you bored yet ? yeah, well I was as well . I left the Laptop at home as well.

After 45 minutes I went and asked, "why so long?" "who you here for drive" they asked. I explained and they said they hadnt been told I was there.

You turn up at these places and you put your time and your future delivery's in other peoples hands and it just gets to me , they always get away with it.

Another thing is Litter


I just don't get why so many people drop this stuff all over the place, laybys , slip roads, everywhere .
I have a load of carrier bags in the truck and when one is filled up , it goes in the bin. Its simple,
But it seems that a lot other people cant manage this :?:
It makes the country look disgusting.
we cant blame the government and the Highways agency are always out clearing the verges. I have seen young teenagers walking with there parents just throw a can on the floor or a mac Donald's over a hedge , but I have also seen things flying out of windows as well.
The truck laybys are always covered in rubbish , I cant work out if its because the bins are overloaded or the drivers are just dumping it there. I suppose its a bit of both, I don't have any answers just really gets to me.
I'm off Monday so Ill post on Wednesday.




This was on the Bay opposite me while I had my lon wait, lovey 58 reg Volvo FH

The Leaning Tower of Powys

I had a busy day today, It started at 4.30 am. I managed to get a packed lunch sorted and drove to the yard. I was in the truck by 5.30 and set off just before 6 am.
I had to deliver a massive 2.5 ton weight to a company in Ross on Wye. It took a little two hour's I arrived just as they were opening the shutters. The last time I was here I was here for 7 and had to wait so I was pleased I had took my time a little.
The next Delivery was Welshpool. I looked up the directions and couldn't find a decent route on the sat nav so I got my map out and planned what looked like the best way. There was a lot of cross country driving on small a roads and it was going to take 2 hours to travel 77 miles !!.
The journey was made a little longer by these two. The Tractor is in front of "The Leaning Haystack."


I would like to thank the driver of this lorry though because he gave me the funniest hour of the year today. I had lost the reception on the radio and was really bored, the winding roads had been keeping me busy but I was restless.
"The Leaning Tower of Powys" lurched out in front of me and we overtook the tractor on a steep hill together. I was going to over take the haystack as well but decided against it. I'm glad I did because the next fourty or so miles gave me such joke I was oohing and arrh ing as he lurched and swayed across the winding roads in front of me, all the way into Powys Wales.

The haystack was leaning over so far when he turned that he was hitting buildings and brushing against hedges as he went passed. I was nervous as he rattled downhill on the tiny lanes and struggled up the steep hills. The camber on the roads made it lean over so far at times I was sure it was going to go. It was a 7.5 tone flat bed and it had 6 of these bales on. It didn't look secure but he seemed to get away with it.
It was entertaining though. My heart was in mouth on more than one occasion and I was only behind him.

After Welshpool I had to take a break in the company car park because I had driven right up to my four and a half hours. I usually have a break while I'm tipping but I have started to get a mode switch misuse warning on my Tachograph chart analysis. Its a new thing the company that looks after our charts has to mention to us.

My Tacho defaults on rest when you start driving so I have to remember to switch it off and on from now on. Another switch to press, which made me think of a post I read on the Truck net forum about your favourite or most essential piece of kit the thing you could least do without.
I still remember the feeling of dread, when I was on an agency job for the first time and my Tom Tom Tom failed! I had absolutely no idea where I was.

I really didn't know what part of the country I was in and what roads were near to me even. It taught me a valuable lesson, .................
Always carry a spare TOM TOM.

Not really, (although I have got a spare) It taught me to plan where I am going on my map as well and find out where I am heading to, and what towns I am going through.
Anyway I thought Id show you some of the things I use every day (some of) yes there is more ,


MDT this is my offices way of ruining my day .(I mean getting in touch with me)


The most important thing expect the cigarette lighter socket !!!
and the remote also very important.

The Driver hour Guard also very Important

The DAB Pure Highway This baby is brilliant but I had to get an external magnetic Ariel to go with it to guarantee reception everywhere ( I lost the signal today and found out the Ariel had been knocked over on the roof behind the wind breaker)






I use this to countdown my hours as well as the driver guard and to count breaks as well.,



I think the tom tom would be my most essential item but I carry an ipod as well and a PSP, and a DVD player and an E book and this laptop ( mini Dell on Vodafone) and I buy the newspaper , and yeah I sometimes even get time to drive as well. Ha ha

I finished my break and had the envious job of collecting a lot of cartons from a private address in Wolverhampton. It was down a tiny street with houses either side and looked like students lived there. I was knocking on the door and trust me it was a hole, the house and the area, It was next to the Wolves stadium and although it looked tidy enough there were a few scrotes walking around, chavs in vests and walking rottweilers and drinking strongbow. I was loading as fast as I could , I had a date with colesill for 2.30 !! .
It was a dead end and I was at the wrong end , A four hundred yard reverse later (with a line of cars in front of me and more behind getting out of my way and blocking up the main road) and I was on route to Hamshall in Coleshill.
That drop was pretty standard and I was off home.
I have a full load for tomorrow and Ill tell that story maybe on Monday. I'm shattered and have to post in Truck net after this. I promised !!

Didnt make it yesteday , another double header !!!

I was running around the Northampton area first thing on Monday morning, dropping to a lot of our local places and was finished in record time. I tipped at a place in Daventy that normally takes an age, but yesterday it was all over in around ten minutes. (No Jokes)! I came back to base and had a laugh watching this. I tried to get a photo of the sign pinned on to the machine saying OUT OF ORDER
DO NOT USE !!! All our trucks are filthy as well ha ha .

Had lots of collections come in . I finished up with three different runs on my wagon. One for Basildon , Chelmsford ,Ipswich and finally, finishing in Cambridge ,
I started out with a Caterpillar job to Basildon but the jobs just kept coming in and me being the only wagon driver on this week It was all put on me.
here are some pictures of Cat






This double decker looks fun. Id hate to have to handball one of those.

At the Caterpillar drop Their Yard was a nice modern one. When I arrived there was a Spanish truck waiting to be off loaded but the Chirpy,Chippy, Cockney decided to unload me first. What a change. He was really freindly.

After the cat drop I was loaded up for a a job that we sometimes have to handball or if were lucky it's a Tail-lift to Essex County Libray . I was lucky.
This was in the Car Park
Id love the Book Bus job that must be really chilled.

This was the way into the Car park. again they were really friendly and was off in ten minutes. It must be the weather it brings out the best in people.

I was making great time and I had got rid of most of the heavy stuff already, the Cat stuff was 4.5 Tonne and the books were just under ton a pallet.
I was left with five , 3 metre rolls of membrane for a site in Cambridge and a few tiny pallets of bricks for three different drops around Ipswich. The road to Ipswich was really quiet, in fact the whole day has been relatively stress free.
My last drop was the membrane and wasn't on any maps as it was under a railway bridge in a field..
I wasn't looking forward to finding it but they gave me a Landmark . Ill give you you a clue.
you guess yet ? ha ha ha.
Yeah I had to find the tower .
It was easy to see but getting to it !! what a bastard, !! still I got there and dropped off the final delivery.
This caught my eye on the site and I got talking to the driver, he was a real old boy , giving me advice on how to drive the little trucks
A long day but it was an easy day really. I am tired though, I am in Ross on Wye at 7 or 8 tomorrow.
Ill post more about the day then.