As the credit crunch starts to bite over here, the firm who we do a lot of export work for is suffering a bit of a downturn as orders dry up.
The upshot of this for me, is that my beloved drawbar is parked up in the yard gathering dust, and
I’ve been driving an artic with a Moffett around Germany for the last few weeks.
So I thought I’d do a diary with a few pics to hopefully entertain you peeps out there in cyberland.
A couple of weeks ago sees me up at daft o’clock for a 4am Monday morning start up to Hamburg.
Today I’ve got a full load of clay plaster in “Big Bags” for various house renovation projects oop North.
1st tip is just north of the Elbtunnel in a housing estate.
Köhlbrandbrücke
This is where an artic is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.
With a drawbar it’s a piece of cake. We load the first few drops on the front end, so that we can
lose the drag and are thus able to get into any tight drop with, how you Eenglish say?, “Prime Mover”.
However with an artic, it’s a different story. I circumnavigate the whole area looking for an
appropriate way in. In the end, I park up and walk down to the delivery address to see if I am
indeed able to get in, and more importantly, get out again, or if I will have to use the Moffett to
unload on the main road and drive each pallet 300m to the site.
Fortunately, I find I will be able to to turn around on a crossroads next to the drop. By this time,
the builder blurk has turfed up and we have a short discussion as to where he wants his 3 bags of
clay, as there is no bloody where to put them, as a rather large skip full of building debris is in
t’road. We then decide that the place occupied by the portable toilet will do nicely, so, after a
quick check to see that nobody is curling one out, 3 of us pick up the bog and “relocate” it.
This tip done, I head north up to a little village near Neumünster.
6 bags for this tip at a farmyard. Nobody home, and no reply from the 2 phone numbers I’ve got for
the drop. So I stick the bags in the yard and take a few photos which we use as POD in cases like
this.
Next, it’s up to Kiel to lose another 4 bags at a haulage firm.
From here, across country via Plön to Lübeck,
then on the new Autobahn A20 to Grevesmühlen.
1 bag here, giving a whole new meaning to door to door delivery, as I stick the bag into the house
where the front door will be.
Old Soviet trailer with original registration.
It’s knocking on now, and I’ve got 1 more drop in Schwerin. I would rather get this tipped tonight,
so I bell the bloke and tell him I can be there at just gone 5. He meets me on site and I quickly
tip the last 3 bags into a garage.
I ring the boss to tell him I’m tipped and he says he will get back to me in the morning regarding a
backload.
So I toddle off to look for a place to park up for the night. Just south of Schwerin, I see a couple
of trucks parked up off the road next to a restaurant, so I pull in to give it the once over. The
delightful serving wench informs me that they serve an “all you can eat” buffet for 8€!!
I immediately go into full “Viz” mode: “Yoinks!! Now for a feast!” 
One pig out and a couple of beers later sees me back in the cab listening to the podcast of The News Quiz on my mobile and I laugh myself to sleep.
Tuesday.
Had a lie in ‘til 8am. Coffee is on the go as a message arrives from the boss telling me to head to
Sittensen to pick up a load of “Poroton” bricks for a builders’ merchant in Paderborn.
In and out in 45 minutes, mainly due to the forky loading 3 pallets at a time.
A leisurely drive across country through Rotenburg, Verden, and Nienburg avoiding the autobahn (and
the maut!) before picking up the A2 just south of Minden.
Get another message from the boss. Drop the Moffett into Paderborn for a service and MOT, then after tipping the Poroton, load car parts, also out of Paderborn, for Schwandorf in Bavaria.
Taffy (bloody Brits are everywhere over here 
) makes short work of tipping the bricks, taking 2
pallets at a time, and I’m in and out in 30 minutes.
2kms down the road to load. Bit of a wait here and I’m horrified to see that the dreaded High Viz culture has crossed The Channel and made inroads into this particular firm. I make a silent protest by putting mine on inside out. Grrr. 
Top secret this place, apparently, so no photos.
With a whole 5 tonnes of car bits on board, I make good progress via Kassel and park up for the night at Autohof Werneck near Schweinfurt. One of our lads is also here, but he’s already gone Tubby bye byes and is away by the time I get up in the morning, so another chance to exchange inane trucking banter gone.
Wednesday.
Arrive at the “Logistic centrum” for a 10 am tip. Following a spot of brekky, it’s a whole 5 kms down the road to reload.
Chimney elements for Bielefeld. Bit of a pig, as I have to open both sides and clamber about on top to put plastic protectors under under all the belts before strapping down.
Head off back north again, then get a message saying the Moffett is ready to be picked up in the
morning.
I stop for the night at an Autohof on the A44, about an hour short of Paderborn.
Thursday.
Up at 7am. As I head off for a wash, I see that “Stuart”, with a Union flag in his screen, driving
for a Spedition from Borken, was parked next to me. He’s gone by the time I return. So another
chance to exchange inane English banter gone!!
I pick up the Moffett in Paderborn, thence to the tip in Bielefeld.
Open up both sides, belts off, then get the coffee on and let the lads get on with it.
I was expecting to head back to our yard after this, but no.
They load a couple of pallets of commissioned chimney elements for a new house out in the sticks
near Osnabrück.
On my way there,I pick up 450kgs of timber from a sawmill near Bad Essen.
After this, it was over to Bramsche to load clinker bricks for Verl. The wood was going to the same
place, so I had it bunged on top of the bricks.
Then, coming back through Bielefeld on the B68, the dash lit up like a Christmas tree.
Low water level.
Bugger. 
Sod’s Law dictated that it was going home time for the pen pushers, so traffic chaos ensued as I stopped at the side of the road and jumped out to have a butcher’s.
As it was persisting it down, I couldn’t see any obvious leak.
Fortunately, my 10l water container was still half full, so I tipped the contents into the
radiator. Obviously lost a lot of water, cos it didn’t do the job. However, it was only about 10 kms
back to our yard, so I rang the boss and told him I would drive gingerly back to the yard down the
back roads keeping a weather eye on the temperature gauge. Got back to the yard and tipped the cab
to see if we could see the problem. One of the hoses had split. Luckily, the local MAN is
only 5 kms away, so I dropped the trailer, filled up the radiator and arrived just as they were
about to go home for the night. Top lads, 2 of them stopped on to get the problem sorted.
The culprit was a bit further forward, but they replaced this hose as well.
Back to the yard, hook up and off home to sleep in me own bed for the night!
Friday.
Dropped the bricks and timber
and then booted up to Herford to preload for next week.
A load of plastic watering cans and flower pots for a Max Bahr distribution centre (B&Q type joint) in
Hamburg. Back to the yard to top up the load with another 2 drops in Hamburg and 1 in Hannover. Then, attack the cab with a vacuum cleaner and a handful of proprietary cleaning materials.
And, because it’s Friday, the chance to exchange more inane trucking banter than you can shake a
stick at with the other lads as they return to the yard. 
So, a typical week for me (apart from the unscheduled pit stop!). Hope you enjoyed reading, folks.
. Thanks for posting it.
It just goes to show that truck driving isn’t a drag when you can saddle-up. 
Blimey, so that counts as a history book now eh??