London and a bloody long day.

London 5 days a week is a little bit like ground hog day without the fluffy little creature.

I usually get to my truck at 4.30 am and arrive at my load destination for 5.00 am.

After watching the shunters and loaders, loading empty lorries for a few hours they eventually  load me with 20 tonnes for central and southern london.
Twenty tonnes is about 24 pallets on my truck and that will all need fork lifting off at various London stores with varying degrees of access ranging from virtually none to very, very tight. Take into account pedestrians, motorcycles and the cyclists that insist of appearing at practically every corner of the truck whenever I find myself still enough to attempt to unload, and it makes for a very, very long day.

The Job would be easier if we were loaded at roughly the time we arrived but since we are at the bottom of the pecking order, ( a nice  bit of information handed to me by one of the loaders) we will have to make do with crossing our fingers and saying hail mary's when ever we pull into the company's yard.

I had a long run the other day and it set me back at least a day and resulted in an unscheduled night out at Toddington. 6 stores in London , starting at Forest Hill and ending at Enfield , via Highgate, Wapping, Vauxhall and Mile End. It was dark when I arrived at Enfield and he was shutting the store and I was just 4 minutes shy of a 9 hour drive. I arrived at Toddington with a minute to spare and £9 worth of meal vouchers to spend. The problem with having a £9 meal voucher at Toddington is that nothing is edible that can be purchased with one. The food in the cafe is awful and the staff just wander around ignoring any one that comes into eye contact with them, the food is all out of sight and everything you see on the menu boards that looks about half decent is not available. The burger king offers a HGV menu but only up to the value of £3.99 so you lose out on half of your voucher and are restricted to King meals with awful over cooked onion rings and fizzy drinks. 

I wasn't able to load back in Leicester until 7 am the next morning but to be honest , it didn't make much difference 

Lorry Days, I love Em !!

The week was a good one really, no difficult deliveries and nice long days being left alone by the office.
Ran out of hours in Lymm and had a really long sleep from 5 pm until about 2 am before I realised and then woke to the sound of the rain thundering down on the tin roof of the scania.

The wind picked up and that slowed me down going over the M62 to Huddersfield where I had the trickiest 1 pallet collection of my life !
A tiny engineering place in the middle of a town called Honley. It would be easy if you knew it but finding it for the first time was a nightmare, I found it and then the lift truck driver told me that usually the bigger trucks park up and ring them and they bring the goods over to them, "your lot usually send a 7 1/2" he shouted out to me while i was busy fending off the school run mums and the doctors daily line up of poorly pensioners !
I escaped with my dignity,  just, and set off back home with my 1 precious pallet to Brush, home of the electric motor and an amazing engineering complex. Its a funny old place, a bit like a time warp, jobs that just seem to be for one bloke,
I mean if you have a pallet for a certain part or division then nobody else apart from that one man can take it off, the tricky part being that you're not allowed to know who that person is until the last one has come and looked and tutted and grimaced and then went away again. I got the name of the man I wanted after a few had inspected the pallet.
he;s on break mate, ill send him over after!
Lorrydays , I love em !!

New App launch

I have been busy with the APp world again and finally released the long awaited ( by me anyway ) secret diary App.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/secret-diary-adrian-mole/id732711749?mt=8

Along with my other Apps , this one will hopefully start rising up the App store charts and keep me busy promoting it and writing for it.

In the mean time I will drive my 32 tonne scania to Norwich with 7 tonne of Class 8 Hazardous goods on board.

Lorry Driving, forums & all that Crap!

As  a Lorry driver I get to see a lot of the country.
Mostly its the arse end of the country to be honest , and it can make you cynical and pessimistic.
As an antidote to all that cynicism and pessimism I write this blog and I now also publish Apps.

This gives me some hope that I wont be driving lorries for the rest of my life, and it gives me something to look forward to.

Even though I know I will be driving lorries for the rest of my life, I can at least pretend I wont be when I'm dragging my tired body out of my warm bed at 3.30 in the morning to head down to london in a 32 tonne wagon to moffett 20 tonne of tiles into spaces that were never designed to be accessed.

It pays the bills and it isn't as hard as being a coal miner or as dangerous as being  fireman but its not the best job in the world.

Its also not a difficult job to do either as some would have you believe.

I do however reserve the right to complain about my job.
I have just as much right as the next person to moan.

I used to post on the Truckenet UK forum, I even used to write a small piece for them each month.
This blog used to be posted up on the Truck & Driver website so I know a bit about having an online presence.

The sad thing now  is that anywhere you write an opinion about anything these days, others jump down your throat and line up to insult you.

If you mention that work gets you down, "Give it up then" , "muppet" they type, or "stop complaining and get another job fool" they post.

If you mention things you see out on the road ," wannabee copper" they put, "get back to your sad blog , ( as if anyone reads it)" they put.

Before you can even get a decent discussion going ,the keyboard warriors pile in and spoil every thread.

I write because I like to write and I like to share what I see out and about and I like to find out that others have the same experience's  as me .

Its good to find out that others feel the same way as you and that you're not alone.
Basically I write and I publish Apps, I also drive a truck and I don't care admitting that most days, I hate it.

One day I might be able to sit at home and get paid for it ,using my brain instead of my driving licence and thats what inspires me to get up and go out to work every day. It's called ambition and some of us have it and some of us don't, a bit like class really.

Here's some pictures and the links to the APPS. thanks for reading

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.examples.ratmyride

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rust_in_piece

http://www.appstore.com/ratmyride

http://www.appstore.com/rustinpiece

The Capital of the UK

I'm in the Capital of the UK most days now and after a lot of initial reservations about being down in the middle of traffic mayhem I am finally getting used to it.

My Day starts out here though at 4 am, watching them load driverless trucks for Tamworth and Coventry, even though I'm sitting in mine waiting to be live loaded for the Capitol.

I will not be paying for this ticket though as other than bringing it all back, I had nowhere else to unload.

lovely example of a classic beetle

The back of this truck is like a magnet, as soon as I take the moffett off, people swarm around it like flies and cars flock to park behind it.



Once you've seen one big wheel , you've seen them all Officer!































I don't think this tyre is going much further




A picture of a big clock





Whitechapel really does look creepy in the daylight as well.



Photo Edited with Rat My Ride.


Not Much Room



This is where you are supposed to deliverer 10 Tonnes of tiles with a Moffett!



At last I have a new tyre on the moffitt, grip at last !

App Release Day , two new apps released on Android tonight

I have written two Apps and released them on Android today

Rust In Piece allows you to take a picture of anything you see out on the road, add an effect or a caption or a slogan and send it direct to me at lorryday to share on the rust in piece page of this blog or share directly with friends or social media.

Its perfect for capturing those hidden or abandoned relics such as tractors, old trucks , cars that have seen better days, anything that you think needs sharing or better still saving.

When we know where they all are we can see if we can give them a new lease of life.

Download the app here for android  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rust_in_piece

The 2nd App is called Rat My Ride.

This App allows you to Rat Look your ride , or truck or whatever you like.

You can take a picture or select one from you gallery, then choose what items you want to add,

you can choose from over 50 Rims, roof Racks, barrels, jerry cans, stickers and skateboards.

you can choose to add a speach bubble or even a clever thought cloud to caption your image and share the look with your friends.

See what looks you can create and download Rat My Ride for Free now
.https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.examples.ratmyride

London! Is it all that ?

I have had the misfortune of having to drive a 32 tonne truck around central London, complete with M3 Moffett.

It's a long day and a long struggle to complete a full day within your hours and without getting into any trouble.

Its also extremely difficult just to get through all the jobs given to me without damaging anything.

There is so many things that can go wrong, 

Parking the truck at the destinations is the first hazzard I come across, weight limits, red routes,ridiculous access points, bus lanes all conspire to ruin your day.

If I'm lucky enough to get anywhere near the door I have the next problem.

Pedestrian's. 

They are all made of metal surely because they just swarm around the truck the minute I park it and get the moffett off. I'm sitting on a 2 tonne machine with spikes pointing out of it over 2 metres long and they just step out in front of you or worse , behind you. 

Cyclists don't bother me in London though because I just assume they are all mad. You would have to be to risk death so many times in a day. Every day. 

I'm wrapped up in 12 tonnes of truck and I'm terrified. Imagine being a scrap of Lycra away from certain death. 

A2 closed , I was doing really well until then. 

Last drop was just off Tower bridge. 

Weight limit means we have to go the long way round. 

Shard is everywhere you look.