We’ve all had them and at the time you probably wanted to curl up and die but time, so they say,heals everything. So much so that we can all look back and laugh at them - here’s one of mine…
Years ago - Daf 3300 ati and me delivering to a regular drop, it’s 08.00 and about -6 outside, on leaving the yard the manager says you can leave up the new road (an old one that had been resurfaced) ‘it’ll save you driving through the town’. Off I set, and followed his directions, turning left, down a 1 in 4 incline, where i come upon a very narrow, low and totally unmarked bridge. Dumped the air but still 1 inch too high, tried to back off but slide - so am now 1inch too high and 1 inch too far to the right! Get out of passenger side of cab - that’s how narrow the bridge is - and decide to uncouple, drive unit round and drag the trailer up a bit - but by now it’s 8.30 and the back lane is getting busy with mum,s on the school run. Old bill turn up and call out the bus company wrecker to sort me out but am seen by every trucker under the sun rolling over the road above at a time when Steve Wright’s Mr Spoons was on the radio - you can imagine my nickname for the next few months thanks to road workers removing (and not replacing) a 13’ 2’’ bridge sign! 
There’s another of me taking (innocently) a completely empty tilt to Holland for Allegro…but that’s for another time!
of course they`d removed the sign chef 
we believe you honest 
On my first European trip, my second load was tyres from Bethune near Lille to a place a couple of hours south of Rome. I had just started with Murfitts and they always wanted you to go via the Frejus Tunnel, on the way in to Italy. I couldn’t find the Frejus tunnel on my one and only map, which covered the whole of Europe, but I did find a town called Frejus, not far from the France/Italy border. Logically, to me anyway, one of them will be named after the other.
Not these two places. The tunnel is between Lyon and Turin. The town is next to Nice 
. I discovered this when I arrived in Italy, without using my tunnel toll card, which I had sorted out when the signs said Frejus was getting close.
For those that don’t know, the difference, in a straight line, is at least 300 miles possibly as much as 500 miles north/south.
My T/Ms answer, when I told him of my mistake, was_ are you going to make it on time 
, try not to do it again . I was about an hour, if that behind where I should have been and I had two days to do about 7hrs driving.
Another new driver didn’t know the company shorthand. He spent Thursday lunch time to mid Monday morning, parked up at Via Stevenson, just off the Vialle Certosa in Milan, a great place to W/E. He had tipped and asked for his reload. The reply was None, so naturally he parked up. Murfitts used a sattelite text system.
The problem was that None meant:-
Zannussi
Some road
This Ind Est
None (pronounced No Knee).
We only had that one customer in None and the text company bill was per letter, so shorthand wasnormal. I would have done exactly the same thing, if I hadn’t heard this story.
went to pick up a load of wheat from a farm near brentwood, thought i would take a nice wide turn in his yard but didnt notice the manhole cover for the septic tank, yep right in it up to the frount axle 
got draged out backwards with the farmers tractor, power washed off as best i could but the motor stunk for a week after!!
chris
Wasn’t me, but what about Castle Carey, one in West Country, near Wincanton and the other near Falkirk…colleague went to Scottish one, even though the other 10 drops were aroun Chard, Tiverton, Exeter, etc!
Really wasn’t me!
Merlin
take your time!
Errrr…Hmmm…don’t drive over those concrete covers with “Cable TV” written on them, they’re only about 1" thick
merlin:
Wasn’t me, but what about Castle Carey, one in West Country, near Wincanton and the other near Falkirk…colleague went to Scottish one, even though the other 10 drops were aroun Chard, Tiverton, Exeter, etc!Really wasn’t me!
Merlin
take your time!
How many Preston’s do you think there is in the UK, I learnt the hard way and found out it’s 15, eventually!
Loaded in Kent for Preston, headed up there and stopped at Knutsford to take a look at the map books for the address. (Which did not exist) Another driver pointed me in the direction of Preston near Hull so having called the boss for advice he said “OK, it must be that one, off you go”.
It eventually turned out to be the Preston in Kent, only 3 miles from where I had loaded!!!
When I left school I was working in a garage, One saturday morning someone walked in asking directions to blackpool, we thought they meant blacktoft, a nearby village. It turned out that he had come from near Manchester and been told to head for preston then he would find signs for Blackpool. He had found preston near Hull. OoPs