As a linehaul driver in the Benelux, I am used to starting at the same time and doing the same routes to various distribution centres every day, and as an ex railwayman, the regularity of this suits me down to the ground. I like working to a rough timetable, knowing which routes I’m taking, and knowing the alternatives if there is a road closure. I like knowing where and when I will take my breaks and knowing roughly what time I should be home every day. Also, being a Brit in a foreign land, it helps me to know where I’m going and that I’ll deal with the same warehouse staff every time.
However, I lost the first half of my shift recently when we lost a contract to a competitor, and for the last couple of weeks it’s been a nightmare. I’ve been sent to different places all over the place every shift. The planners don’t quite know yet what to do with me for my first half so I’m having to find obscure DC’s in massive industrial estates in the dark, and some of these places have very discreet signage so you’re not sure if you’re even at the right place. Plus some of the street names can be up to twenty letters long and hard to pronounce, and would score very highly in a game of Scrabble.
The other night, I had to try and find a DC on one of the many estates surrounding Amsterdam Schiphol airport and I was buggered if I could find the place. I tried flagging down a passing KLM Boeing 737 on an adjacent taxiway to ask if he knew where Theseusstraat was, but the pilot was too busy trying to sort his own satnav out to find Helsinki or somewhere to stop and help, so I was on my own. I eventually found the place but was driving around for ages, and then when I found it, couldn’t see how to get in due to there being several entrances. So, I’m having to walk around in the wind and rain trying to find someone to ask.
Anyway, the point of this post is to ask who on here likes the regularity and relative reassurance of doing the same job or same runs day in day out? Knowing where they’re going, who they’re going to have to deal with, and how they are going to reverse when they arrive. Or are you the sort of driver who likes the unexpected and likes to see a new address on their delivery notes. Who likes the challenge of trying to find a place and maybe having to do a difficult reverse in a strange yard.
ive never been anywhere regular or with any particular load or at any set time , the only thing I do is go after 9 hrs off work all 3 15s ,be at the job waiting for them to open and squeeze in as many loads as possible . I rarely carry the same load twice.
Hate regularity with a passion, if I do the same job twice in a week I ■■■■■ and moan. I started doing this job because of the appeal of new horizons and having to think on my feet. Nothing pleases me more than a panicky phone call from the T.O telling me that the ■■■■ has hit the fan somewhere and I need to change what I was doing and go and sort it.
I fully respect the guys n gals who do supermarket type stuff with regular drops, start and finish times etc, but to me that would be purgatory. Gimme a new drop every day and I’m a happy bunny.
I like regular drops where you get to know the people, the quirks of the place, timings etc, very happy where i am, go to a different place most days but a limited number of delivery points so best of both worlds for me.
We’re all different thankfully, i doff my cap to the boys and girls doing anything up to 130 drops/collections a day on parcels, how they don’t explode in sheer frustration i don’t know.
I always liked new places, new faces and new stopping off places, then you begin to remember the best ones, the ones to avoid and the ones you have heard of but never been to. When I was on the lift tanks we always seemed to get different drops to the road barrels which made it more interesting for me.
I passionately dislike not knowing where I am going. I can find my way to any Town or suburb in the UK. It is from there I want to know in advance and to be able to refer to that information again 1/2hr before diving in. Driving around lost in an artic is one of my ideas of hell, it is so easy to miss a roadsign or unfortunately have a lapse of attention while stressed. Knowing where the correct entrance is completely does away with all this added aggravation. Regular haunts also mean your face is known, I well recall the difference in London Markets between a drop at a wholesaler who knew you by sight made life easier - willing to run a pallet or two round to another stand, or how one who didn’t recognise the haulier’s livery could mess with your day.
I’ve been night trunking for 17 years and personally I love it. I can understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I like routine and trunking is quite routine! I like the fact that I know where I’m going and when I will leave and pretty much when I’ll come back. I also know the people I’ll be working with at the hub, so build up a relationship with them. So long as you can cope with a lot of waiting and queuing it’s an easy job and reasonably well paid and stress free. Also when you get to know the people and the system it is possible to adapt and speed up your progress through the place - RESULT!!
I know many on here think we’re the lowest of the low but someone’s got to do it and if I do they won’t have to
I like regularity but not just going to the same place and back every night. Where I’m at there’s around a dozen or so different places we can go to and occasionally I’ll do a week on days where we’ve hundreds of stores.
Winseer:
I like having to use my head to get around traffic blockages, in particular “alternative routes to bypass entire motorways”…
I’ve not had “Off-Route” as one of my nicknames since the 1990’s for nothing!
Recent examples - would be “getting around the night closures of the M20, M2, A2, M26 and M25” of course…
yes yes and thrice yes, almost everyone else will be following satnav’s diversion, by using ones noddle thinking laterally you can find traffic free alternatives, which if you’re really cunning end up with you taking priority over satnav lemmings at any junctions where you might meet or cross paths
My current job has a mixture of old and new places. Every week is different.
Might be full loads and collections to regular haunts one week, and half a dozen drops the next, backed with ten to fifteen collections.
Could tip a full load in a dock or oil refinery, could do a single 15kg carton collection in a town, village or farmyard halfway up a mountain in the same week, or anything between. Even the regualr ones come up in different combinations on mixed trailers.
Some of drivers prefer going to the same area each week, but I`m happy floating about anywhere. Suits some, but not others.
I asked one of our office staff the other week how many collection addresses we had on our files, seems we have over 3,500 of them. Some are regular with several trailers a week, some are one offs.
Variety makes for a spicy life.
Of setting off with no satnav or mobile. Only a handful of delivery notes for the week, my map of the UK (and later on my Michelin of Europe) one 10p piece for the return load phone call.
We do pretty much set runs but they can be swapped around a little and I’m happy with that now.
When i was on concrete products it would be different drops every day local or distance deliveries to council depots builder merchants building sites farms private houses . I enjoyed the challenge of finding the different places no satnav best thing to use was Ordnance Survey maps or in towns use A to Z maps.I did one month 2 loads a day to the same place it was good money but bloody mind numbing knew where to change gear, change radio wavelength got to know every pot hole
i wouldnt be doing rdc gulag or multidrop local work,and everywhere abroad is new till youve been there.
after you get some experience,then every new destination has mostly been covered before with only the last bit the naulbiter.
i hated night trunk,hated plobbing for tesco types where your not allowed to think or show initiative.
18 drops and 8 collections in dublin or london ect is just pish,
so long as theres a good bit of driving,then the clue is in the job description of cross channel general haulage with a mixture of good or bad.
Winseer:
I like having to use my head to get around traffic blockages, in particular “alternative routes to bypass entire motorways”…
I’ve not had “Off-Route” as one of my nicknames since the 1990’s for nothing!
Recent examples - would be “getting around the night closures of the M20, M2, A2, M26 and M25” of course…
yes yes and thrice yes, almost everyone else will be following satnav’s diversion, by using ones noddle thinking laterally you can find traffic free alternatives, which if you’re really cunning end up with you taking priority over satnav lemmings at any junctions where you might meet or cross paths
I was having a bit of a chuckle this past week, as the M20/M26 westbound was closed one night, and I followed the official diversian off the A228 at Leybourne for a short distance, only to find a massive queue of artics waiting to turn onto the westbound A20… After realizing that this queue didn’t seem to be moving, I pulled out around it, and cut across country to Tonbridge then up the A21 to re-join the M25 @ J5. No traffic in sight along the route, being the small hours of the morning at all.
Approaching J6 I saw the gantry signs for M23 J8-10 closed, and seeing as I was going to Gatwick, I pulled off at J6, down to the Mormon Temple, then cut across to come into the A23 Horley down the side road across the M23… Interestingly, there were a few wayward RM double deckers blundering around this area I noticed, and figured that at least among the agency this christmas run-up - there must be a few “thinking like me” out there among the new intake…
Full Timers - would no doubt be sticking to their 318’s, too afraid to “think outside the box” - so I figured they’d all be sitting in the mile-long queue back at the A228/A20 junction still…
One can only imagine the regular Debrief:
How come you were sat at Leybourne taking an apprent unauthorized break for 90 minutes? Erm. Stuck in the traffic boss. Why didn’t you take the official route? M20 closed westbound boss. Why didn’t you come off at the official diversion and go onto the parallel A20? Massive queue at the junction boss. OK. Be aware that it’s Three strikes and you’re out here. Dismissed!
I like going to places I’ve been to before but not going to the same place every day/week. My current job suits me as a cover (agency) driver; I do 30 or so routes, some I get once a month, some twice a week but it’s varied enough. I’ll probably get bored eventually once I have done each route 10-15 times.
The unexpected for me. Always preferred it though can do regular for a fair while before boredom strikes. Most days I’ve no idea what I’m doing next day till late afternoon or early evening and that suits me fine.
I enjoy the variety of what i do , Monday was 4.9 metres wide turbine peice from Hull to Gt Yarmouth, Tuesday was a load of timber back to Leeds,
Wednesday was a ferry trailer of plastic boxes to B and Q Glasgow with porridge reloaded bound for France from Grangemouth back to Teesport, Thursday was a big Filtration tank on a stepframe to Aberdeen with a load of scrap pipes from Montrose back to Thirsk, next week is looking different again
Being on tippers we had a few regular drops, concrete works mostly, but mostly it was different places at different times, both dry stone and coated. Some local, some distance. I didn’t like late starts, before 6 am suited me as you could usually get an extra load in. Some lads liked regular runs though, we had several trucks doing six or seven loads a day to Hulland Products and some of the lads on that run did it for over twenty years. Likewise another chap did three Lichfields daily for almost thirty years. Myself I liked variety, but often that involved early starts and late finishes.
