Hi Coffee,
I have just spent ages reading all your diaries - most excellant, I really enjoyed them. Thank you very much for putting in the time and effort, it is most appreciated - I am looking forward to the next one.
I was wondering, since you mentioned several times invoicing people (e.g. for NBS - 
) do you own your truck? I would be really interested in a bit of background on your setup.
Some great pics as well.
Thanks again.
Thanks for the kind comments. Not sure when the next diary will be as the job is so routine at the moment, virtually the same run for the last 9 or 10 weeks, it would be a boring read as Iāve covered the trips already.
Yes I do own the truck, well actually I lease it but itās the same difference, I started as an owner driver 16 years ago and despite all the doom and gloom merchants, then and over the years, with warnings of āYou canāt make money as an ODā and āyouāll be bust in less than a yearā Iām still doing it and will be for the forseeable future.
I agree with jayhoe your tales where informative, intresting, expertly
explained , routes and tips, I belive that we are not alone when we say
that we waiting for your next tale of a journey on the road,
well until then once again thank you very much .
Hi Guys
I must agree the rest of the lads there excellent reading.
Two years ago I was driving on the continent for about a year it was the best time of my life. I wish I had taken more photos of the places I visited mine was a set run from Europoort to Holland then Germany , Italy , France ,Spain then home via Le Harve. Saw some amazing sites driving through the snow in Austria en route to Italy
Iam currently in the process of been a Owner Van Driver covering Europe and the UK and was wondering what sort of Gprs/ Sat Nav you are using Neil also how are you sending your invoices back to the UK as this is something am trying to sort at the moment
Paulyc
Coffee
I have to agree with the rest I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your trips. The excellent photos helped to explain the problems, like the Italian customs stop which looked a bit of a nightmare. Like Paul I wondered about e-mailing invoices back home and about GPS. I would also be interested in the layout in the cab regarding cooking etc.
I did not need a tin hat after all.
Many months ago, Mr.Coffeeholic said that I would get the blame if people did not enjoy his postās of journeyās far and wideā¦
Keep the stories coming Neil, people enjoy reading them and seeing the pics.
Cheers,
Niall.
As iāve already sent coffee an e-mail a while ago regards how i enjoyed his diaries i wonāt repeat myself, but basically i wrote the same as you guys, as an ex euro driver of many moons ago (early 1990ās) and whitnessing the closures of the passport controls etc. we turned up one day and there was noone there basically! i find his diaries very interesting and give a brilliant insight as to how things are nowadays, especially as i am considering returning to euro work.
I know what you are saying neil about you doing the same journey so therefore you think it would be boring reading, but each trip canāt be the same surely, there must be something interesting that happens, come on mate iām stuck doing TNT trailers up and down the bleeding M1all week, 
how about listing your favourite overniteing places, or the best placeās to eat etc.
Thanks for all the nice comments. with regards to a couple of the questions raised for Sat Nav I use a version of Tom Tom that works with my Nokia 9210.
For email I use a Vodafone Connect card in my laptop although I donāt email the invoice back to the UK, I make up the invoice when I get home and leave it on the TMās desk when I ship out again on the next trip. The email is mainly used for sending the POD details back to the yard, time, name of person who signed and any problems with the delivery, or for them to email me documents that they have forgotten to attach to the CMR. Not that that happens too often but there are some documents downloading as I type this. 
Iāll see about doing another diary soon, maybe the first trip of 2005 when the new German truck tax has started would be a good one to do.
Remember guys, and ladies
you can vote for the best TruckNet thread
here
trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7396
I am not suggesting for one second that you should vote for Neils posts but a vote for your fav thread would if nothing else get it noticed!