Wheel Nut:
Ghiabox:
(kinda miss driving around and about to Oxenhope and around bradford Keighley and funny named pubs like Dirty Dicks in Halifax) and I wish I had plucked up the courage to go have a look around the Crypt in the church at Lastingham
:I have family in Lastingham Crypt.
King Ethelwald of Deira?
Harry Monk & RobK, get yerselves a room, the whiff of homo-■■■■■■ cyber ■■■ is overwhelming 
Regards
Dave Penn;
To get this thread back on topic, for you Lucy, just short of 50yrs in the game now and there is only one company for me, Dukes Transport, Portadown, I did three tours of duty from 1980-1999, there is a facebook page for ex Dukes drivers check it out, not one poster has a bad word to say, it might just be that it was of the era and we will never see it again and I actually agree those days are gone now, so we have to adapt to the new order and those of us who have this game in our blood will do that.
Regards
Dave Penn;
Thanks Dave - and the rest of you who’ve shared your good times. Any more will be greatly appreciated! Contrary to what our man stuck in the Noughties seems to believe, very few magazines want to publish the ongoing ramblings of a single ex-box jockey, and the readers we speak to consistently say they want to hear more from other drivers - PLURAL! 
(Actually it’s quite nice to see Rob hasn’t changed, even though my own life is now almost unrecognisable from that which I was leading when we first “met” on here. It wasn’t the back bedroom of a Middlesbrough ex-Council house though, it was two Scanias in two different laybys at opposite ends of the country ! )
I must admit that over 54 years in this industry i have enjoyed most of the work…some stick out more than ever…the middle east work with Asian transport…then the UK Turkey Uk with Lawrabian Freight was very pleasurable, running with others from the company…the work was fantastic and a good wage as well…another that sticks in my mind was doing recovery work for the RAC.They did direct recovery all over europe, breakdowns, stolen and found vehicles, and if someone was injured, supplied a driver…we even flew to countries to collect vehicles ( i once flew to swiss to collect `Stratford Johns bentley ( he was in Z cars btw )
as for fiddles…i earned more of those in a week than a months wages. 
… a garage would tell the office what the storage costs were…say £200…when we arrived…it was only £100…but a receipt for the original gave the owner a nice tip…the rest for me, and sometimes it would happen at all garages per trip Lubbly…Jubbly…but after a while…the owner looked at ways to take a load out…and he was offered caravans to the south of france,…which we did…and him being an entrepreneur…decide to buy land…to site the vans on…then to build his own vans…he moved to an office in mayfair…i had a serious accident that almost killed me…and had no choice but to pack it in…was in hospital for 3 months, and suing them for negligence…but a fantastic job.
Worst job was running empty to Italy to collect shoes…but on one trip, i broke down…i was there for 3 weeks…and had to strip the engine down…the fitter who came out was a new guy…and the yard stole all of his tools he had to leave behind,and i never got paid when i got back…how about that for a job…but i must say…Revenge is sweet.
Lucy:
Thanks Dave - and the rest of you who’ve shared your good times. Any more will be greatly appreciated! Contrary to what our man stuck in the Noughties seems to believe, very few magazines want to publish the ongoing ramblings of a single ex-box jockey, and the readers we speak to consistently say they want to hear more from other drivers - PLURAL!
That’s because most drivers are thick [zb]s and can only understand the kind of text speak RDC bollox you find on Facebook. Present them with a well-written piece from someone as articulate as yourself and you may as well have written it in Russian for what they’d understand of it. If the editor of your magazine prefers content from other drivers over your own then I’d take that as an insult and politely tell him to ‘do one’.
Just write the article in different coloured crayon, don’t use any punctuation or paragraphs, ensure it’s all written in lower case and mention what you think the best satnav is and you’ll have drivers queueing round the block to buy it. 20% is my consultancy fee, by the way.
SNORT!!!
20% consultancy fee whoa, you have been away too long Robk it’s now 10% and that’s for people with more experience and much more knowledge than yer self or harry the tramp, yer do get it don’t yer, yer both washed up trolls and things have moved on yer both have been left behind, catch up fellas you both were amusing at one time and now you both sound like arthitic pensioners
Regards
Dave Penn;
There’s nowt as amusing as a lorry driver who thinks he’s above other lorry drivers.
Your misguided and rather desperate superiority complex got very old the last time you were here, Knapp. You’re nothing more than a legend in your own lunchtime, and chuckle fodder to the rest of us - regardless of how articulate we are.
Olog Hai:
There’s nowt as amusing as a lorry driver who thinks he’s above other lorry drivers.Your misguided and rather desperate superiority complex got very old the last time you were here, Knapp. You’re nothing more than a legend in your own lunchtime, and chuckle fodder to the rest of us - regardless of how articulate we are.
Thanks for your input. Now if you could find someone else to stalk, that’d be great.
Ghiabox:
Tough choice between what I do now (drayman at LWC) or last job in a van delivering beer for a micro brewery based in Co.Durham, the latter was all over the north/mid England and some of Scotland (Edinburgh and surronding areas) some really nice views around Yorkshire (kinda miss driving around and about to Oxenhope and around bradford Keighley and funny named pubs like Dirty Dicks in Halifax) and I wish I had plucked up the courage to go have a look around the Crypt in the church at Lastingham [emoji38]But being on the main drays I get free alcohol and possibly eventually diabetes [emoji38]
Ever been to the dog & gun Inn pub in Oxenhope mate?? Meant to be one of the most haunted pubs in West Yorkshire! I agree with you the views of the surrounding areas are breath taking!
100% petrol tankers, brilliant conditions, new vehicles which we or I certainly took pride in looking after which in itself earned bonuses. The pay was excellent (well above average lorry drivers wage)
and there were some reall good perks to the job. Not only that the group of lads that I worked with were great and all with a similar attitude to myself. I think a lot of it was down to the company I worked for and still do on occasions. They look after their drivers and get respect for it. It works both ways something that seems to have gone a miss these days in my book.
Have done nearly everything in haulage apart from skip work and bin lorries but petrol tankers wins hands down. Almost at retiring time now though.
SouthEastCashew:
Ghiabox:
Tough choice between what I do now (drayman at LWC) or last job in a van delivering beer for a micro brewery based in Co.Durham, the latter was all over the north/mid England and some of Scotland (Edinburgh and surronding areas) some really nice views around Yorkshire (kinda miss driving around and about to Oxenhope and around bradford Keighley and funny named pubs like Dirty Dicks in Halifax) and I wish I had plucked up the courage to go have a look around the Crypt in the church at Lastingham [emoji38]But being on the main drays I get free alcohol and possibly eventually diabetes [emoji38]
Ever been to the dog & gun Inn pub in Oxenhope mate?? Meant to be one of the most haunted pubs in West Yorkshire! I agree with you the views of the surrounding areas are breath taking!
Sadly not, I only ever delivered to the Bay Horse, I would have stayed at that job if the pay was better and they would listen to me and remove some weight from the van (merc sprinter) but instead they were more concerned about how much it would cost them over the year than public and employee saftey.
One view I’ll not forget is that viaduct and the endless fields (a quick google search says its Hewenden viaduct google maps photo here) and delivering to The Old Silent Inn then going the wrong way down the road only just big enough for the van when people think of Bradford they think of the city and how it is now, but theres so much stunning countryside around it!
gazsa401:
I’ve had 2 fantastic jobs in the past 30
years
The first one was at Stirlands of Nottingham a large general haulage company who had some great customers Boots, Raleigh Bicycles, Imperial Tobacco,Pedigree Petfoods just to name a few
Not many people left there
There were a lot of long term drivers,fitters and warehouse staff who were 30 year plus people and at least 10 people with 40 years plus service
Nearly everybody had nicknames
Odd legs, the missing link, thousand [zb],blackadder the gargoyle and the pig man
Mine was “Boycie as from Only Fools and Horses as my laugh was the same
We had a social club where we’d have about 6 do,s a year plus day trips which included families coming
The pay and conditions were probably the best in the East Midlands
The fleet was well looked after i worked there for 17 years
I only left because I got offered a job as yard Shunter at Imperial Tobacco in Nottingham which was too good to refuse
This was a cracking job I was home every night I only worked 7 hours a day with great pay and conditions
I worked there until being made redundant after production of cigarettes ended and the factory closed
When I first started with Fed Ex I had a night trunk from Crick to Exeter and ran down the M5 every night with a Stirlands driver, we became good mates but for the life of me I am not sure if his name was ‘Dave’ ? I do know his CB handle was ‘Double S’ we had some fun times. I even called in at his house one afternoon when I was doing a delivery with a rigid a few years later.
Ghiabox:
SouthEastCashew:
Ghiabox:
Tough choice between what I do now (drayman at LWC) or last job in a van delivering beer for a micro brewery based in Co.Durham, the latter was all over the north/mid England and some of Scotland (Edinburgh and surronding areas) some really nice views around Yorkshire (kinda miss driving around and about to Oxenhope and around bradford Keighley and funny named pubs like Dirty Dicks in Halifax) and I wish I had plucked up the courage to go have a look around the Crypt in the church at Lastingham [emoji38]But being on the main drays I get free alcohol and possibly eventually diabetes [emoji38]
Ever been to the dog & gun Inn pub in Oxenhope mate?? Meant to be one of the most haunted pubs in West Yorkshire! I agree with you the views of the surrounding areas are breath taking!
Sadly not, I only ever delivered to the Bay Horse, I would have stayed at that job if the pay was better and they would listen to me and remove some weight from the van (merc sprinter) but instead they were more concerned about how much it would cost them over the year than public and employee saftey.
One view I’ll not forget is that viaduct and the endless fields (a quick google search says its Hewenden viaduct google maps photo here) and delivering to The Old Silent Inn then going the wrong way down the road only just big enough for the van [emoji38] when people think of Bradford they think of the city and how it is now, but theres so much stunning countryside around it!
Your boss should have listened to you 100% the roads around Oxenhope are just about designed for a car let alone a van/truck haha! & You are right I was always thought Bradford was a dump how wrong was I… I was gutted to find out the tour de Yorkshire was just starting as I was coming home!!
jakethesnake:
100% petrol tankers, brilliant conditions, new vehicles which we or I certainly took pride in looking after which in itself earned bonuses. The pay was excellent (well above average lorry drivers wage)
and there were some reall good perks to the job. Not only that the group of lads that I worked with were great and all with a similar attitude to myself. I think a lot of it was down to the company I worked for and still do on occasions. They look after their drivers and get respect for it. It works both ways something that seems to have gone a miss these days in my book.
Have done nearly everything in haulage apart from skip work and bin lorries but petrol tankers wins hands down. Almost at retiring time now though.
Petrol tankers have always been good jobs, we have so many fuel tanker jobs around the NYC area but I don’t want one, I don’t want a hazmat licence, they have ridiculous laws here, such as stopping at every dam rail crossing for 10 seconds, no travelling through tunnels etc. I often see the guys standing on station forecourts freezing their nuts off in winter, that’s not for me, I drive a liquid sugar tanker and 90% of the deliveries are indoors. I also don’t want to work weekends which is required.
Pat Hasler:
jakethesnake:
100% petrol tankers, brilliant conditions, new vehicles which we or I certainly took pride in looking after which in itself earned bonuses. The pay was excellent (well above average lorry drivers wage)
and there were some reall good perks to the job. Not only that the group of lads that I worked with were great and all with a similar attitude to myself. I think a lot of it was down to the company I worked for and still do on occasions. They look after their drivers and get respect for it. It works both ways something that seems to have gone a miss these days in my book.
Have done nearly everything in haulage apart from skip work and bin lorries but petrol tankers wins hands down. Almost at retiring time now though.Petrol tankers have always been good jobs, we have so many fuel tanker jobs around the NYC area but I don’t want one, I don’t want a hazmat licence, they have ridiculous laws here, such as stopping at every dam rail crossing for 10 seconds, no travelling through tunnels etc. I often see the guys standing on station forecourts freezing their nuts off in winter, that’s not for me, I drive a liquid sugar tanker and 90% of the deliveries are indoors. I also don’t want to work weekends which is required.
Yeah I understand what you are saying Pat, everything has changed drastically from when I first started. At the start you did not even have to have hazmat. The H%S was almost non exsistent and you could go and have a cup of nice hot tea in the office when you were unloading. It was job that allowed me on the property ladder in London so I have no regrets.
Certainly not the same job now but still far better than most in my book. Liquid sugar sounds pretty good though!
Virginia, I loved that job. It was the exact job I’d dreamt about as a kid. Still remember the day the boss phoned me and asked when I could start, I was in warehouse at HSF Nijmegen and spent the rest of the day on cloud nine. Covered so much of Europe from Norway to Hungary to Greek Island to more usual Spain and Portugal. Lovely laid back office who treated us like professionals and in 8 years there as a driver we never had a single argument or even raised word. Always felt respected there and of course within a year of ditching my truck they allocated me a brand new 750. Very family orientated too, they always got me home (in truck) to see family when I asked and indeed when my brother died they helped pay for funeral (he also used work for them) but then of course it all went downhill -
Took job as TM to open new UK depot with excitement and enjoyed it for first few months but then it all went wrong. I wasnt much cop as a TM and ask they wanted was a puppet that doesn’t think. Makes me sad that working for Virginia a company I loved went so sour. We were both to blame. If I could turn clock back id never take that bloody TM job. 'Better to regret something you have done rather than regret something you haven’t done ’ isn’t true
switchlogic:
If I could turn clock back id never take that bloody TM job.
Ah but…
If you hadn’t left Virginia, you might not be doing all the stuff your doing now which you enjoy.
fate innit i spose
John Davies International…
Or ‘tranquilo transportes’ as a cherry beret once said to me.
Good kit, good management that left us alone to get on with it, never pushed, good driver facilities at the yard, different jobs all over Europe, cruise liner chasing, Bosnia, Greece, Portugal, Italy all over the place really.