Small EE-Scandinavia diary

Hello all!

Had a short stint as a truckie this week, after almost a two years absence from the profession. Figured I had to get something out of the tacho card I renewed last year for almost €50.

As I usually work in a different field nowadays, a long trip was out of the question, so after learning I could either a: sit in the office at my place of employment in northern Norway for the next two weeks, 7am-3pm, drinking coffee and boring myself to death as there was nothing better to do or b: head home to Estonia and find something useful to do, I had to make a choice.

I chose option b, took the 1400km drive home and after a day with the family went to the yard of a friend of a friend to take a Volvo out to Oslo.

This is the steed I was given the keys to, a 2013 FH500 with just about half a million kilometres on it. And boy have those kilometres been rough.

Climbing into the cab, one is greeted with the stench of stale cigarettes, thick enough to cut with a knife. Getting past that, the buttons and stalks are just dirty, the radio works intermittently with the display out of function so you never really know, what you’re listening to.

Passenger seat un-tiltable, the retractable part of the bed doesn’t lock, so it stays under and angle which makes for an unpleasant sleeping experience.

Thanks for the welcome coffee though!

The headliner looks lovely.

Loaded with 22 tons of Cider from the local Carlsberg brewery, don’t know if it tastes the same coming it out as it does going in, as is true for the beer produced there

Load on, seal on, head back to the yard for the wife to pick me up, have a couple of hours to spend before I have to head for the port so we’ll go and pick up the dining table for our newly finished (barely) house. The boys will not miss an opportunity to climb into the cab as well

Head back to the yard for 6.30pm, the ferry to Sweden goes at 9pm with check-in at 8pm latest. Grab a newspaper and some drinking water at the Circle K in Keila.

Some lights work, some don’t. It’s expensive to get a lorry serviced at either the dealer or some other reputable workshop, so you can save a lot of money by doing the work yourself.

Coincidentally you can save a lot of time by not doing the work yourself either.

Surprisingly many trucks going to Sweden on a Thursday night, as you only have time to tip and reload in the greater Stockholm area. I’m one of the latest to get on, which means one of the first to disembark tomorrow.

The port is located in the lovely Soviet-chic town on Paldiski, known for it’s depressing architecture, history of nuclear submarines and lately a 17yo kid, who stabbed a random stranger 11 times to relieve him of his Adidas track suit. All the while displaying it on Facebook.

Parked onboard, had the fridge at +10c, so can safely turn it off for the trip without the need for a hookup. A familiar owner-driver reversing into place next to me. If I ever will figure out the point of driving old bangers for a mars bar a mile, I might become one once again

Onboard I had the cabin all to myself, not uncommon. Cabin is clean and pretty quiet.

Dinner already served at 8.30pm, usually the food on cargo ships is pretty decent, this was more like, nah.

But I can bet quite a few drivers accept a less-than-great wage just because you can sleep and eat on the ferry all the time. There is of course also the shower in the cabin, but one has only so much time you know.

Read the newspaper and drift off to sleep for a 5.30 alarm. Take a good hot shower to start a long day and head over to the cafeteria for the breakfast. No pancakes and the pizza looks to be a store-bought frozen one. Meh.

Only the swedish air-freight wagon and drag got sent upstairs amongst the trailers, Kapellskär nearing.

Bought the Eurovignette for Sweden online, two days, from now on it’s , well ,boring

Traffic nearing rush hour while approaching Stockholm about 45 mins after departure, fortunately I’m heading for Oslo on the E18 so turn off west before reaching the city limits

Heading well away from Stockholm, overtaking is stress free with no smaller vehicles waiting behind me. After this overtake I got a message from the gaffer, saying I’m booked to unload at 6pm. Surely driving at the limiter is pointless now, I set the cruise at 80kph and that’s where it says for the next two days.

The gaffer actually lives in Bali and due to extraorbitant costs for cellular communication uses Facebook messenger to communicate.

That’s enough for today, maybe more tomorrow!

your spoilt rotten,and i bet your loving it.
the gripes are just a cover.

Great post milodon! Enjoyed reading it

milodon:
Coincidentally you can save a lot of time by not doing the work yourself either.

Very enjoyable, looking guard to the rest

Very nice pics there M, shame about the neglected state of the Volvo, looking forward to part two…

Thanks for the comments!

I guess one can say that drivers are spoilt with the ferries in Scandinavia, as even the shortest 2-hour crossings from Tallinn to Helsinki offer a buffet meal, cabin and access to sauna to cargo drivers.

In the afternoon I reach the border between Sweden and Norway at Ørje, where it might as well be 3am, as almost no trucks are going to Norway. The śingle truck belonging to my previous employer sits close to the x-ray truck, with the driver looking nervous. Perhaps he had stocked up on too much “singing oil”, preparing for the weekend in Norway?

It is actually forbidden by law for an “international transport worker”, eg a trucker or a sailor to bring a long any alcohol or tobacco into Norway, but I’ve never heard of the law being applied and haven’t gotten into any bother for bringing along the amount allowed into the country toll-free for all folk.

The customs checkpoint was open heading into Sweden, they only check for two things in cars coming into the EU - stolen goods and diapers. Diapers sold in Norway are of much higher quality, than those sold in EE and they cost about four-five times less than an equal amount goes for in a supermarket in EE.

But you can only bring along enough for your own familys consumption and not, for example, the 230 packs I can fit in my Volvo, roofbox included

Time for a celebration! Vodka at home unfortunately.

Heavy traffic heading to Sweden for the weekend. Some go to their cabins, many commute to Norway from Sweden.

I take a 45min break just before joining the E6 motorway, see what the fridge has to offer. Well it’s not the best, but as I’m still suffering from the weight gained during my 6-week xmas holiday, the worse it is, the less of it I eat. Some tasteless pasta with minced meat from the supermarket in Estonia.

Steadily towards Trondheim. I must apologize for the terrible quality of the pics, surprisingly my Huawei still works after dropping it on the pavement from a height of twenty feet.

After passing through Oslo, three lanes merge into two, creating a bottleneck and corresponding Friday evening traffic jam. I’m getting off the motorway at this point, 4km and almost two hours until my booking at the Ringnes DC.

Checked in at the gate at 5.45pm, trailer empty with the CMR in hand at 6.25. They work until midnight anyway.

Thanks for taking the diary, I enjoyed it and the griping! Looking forward to the rest.

Love these diaries, it’s alwyas interesting to see what goes on in other parts of the world.

However, I’m mostly interested in the bit where you said the gaffer lives in Bali…I really am doing something wrong!

albion:
Love these diaries, it’s alwyas interesting to see what goes on in other parts of the world.

However, I’m mostly interested in the bit where you said the gaffer lives in Bali…I really am doing something wrong!

Hmm I picked up on that too, but you beat me to it. Sound idyllic…

Considering the minimum wage in Bali is about seven times less than what I pay in mortgage plus heating costs alone here in Estonia during the winter months, not really all that surprising.

Such a shame to see the truck in that condition. There’s no need for it and would be a great motor if only it was looked after…

Steve-o:
Such a shame to see the truck in that condition. There’s no need for it and would be a great motor if only it was looked after…

That’s the problems of multi-manning trucks, one person might care the others might not,

My how things change, it will be 35 years in June since I went up the E6, from Oslo to Lyngseidet it had only been metalled a couple of years before, now it’s an eight lane motorway to Trondheim, fascinating. I think the dual carriageway ended about 30 km north of Oslo then. I must go again sometime.

Milodon,just curious,but where are you working now in the North[just the area].

Hei hutpik, the regional office I work out of is in Bodø, but we work all over northern Norway. My latest projects for example have been Rørvik in Nord-Trondelag, Leknes and Svolvær in Lofoten, Myre, Stokmarknes and Sortland.

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Nice area’s to work in,both summer and Winter.I done a few odd trips this Winter to Moi-i Rana,Harstad and Hammmerfest.but otherwise it’s just been clearing snow,snow and a bit more snow since November.But great for the Lappland tourism.

Ahhhhh Lofoten, the most beautiful place on earth! I’m only slightly jealous!

While we’re at it some of us are waiting for your diary to Italy with the new double clutch Volvo your lagging behind these days Luke.

switchlogic:
Ahhhhh Lofoten, the most beautiful place on earth! I’m only slightly jealous!

It certainly is a lovely place to work. No tin cab to sleep in after a hard days work either, this was taken outside the apartment our team of two was housed at in Kabelvåg last fall or thereabouts.

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short walk:
While we’re at it some of us are waiting for your diary to Italy with the new double clutch Volvo your lagging behind these days Luke.

I’ll try and get that up by weekend (read weekend as any weekend between now and Christmas )