Carryfast:
Harry Monk:
Carryfast:
I’ve always advised new drivers looking for an international break to check out their owner driving options first but the start up capital hurdle is generally the problem.
As opposed to an over subscribed lottery and face fits bs in the employed sector.
It’s very good of you to freely offer advice to new drivers as to the best way to obtain international work. This is where your vast experience is invaluable.
Personally, I always found that the best way to obtain international work was to approach a company which did international work and ask them for a job. But I accept that we are all different.
Where of course the unfortunate new hopeful would be shown the door as soon as they mentioned no international experience because the firm would supposedly lose loads of money on every trip they were sent out on especially their first one.
They couldn’t have realised ‘the sheer scale’ of.the undertaking in driving a truck across the continent…unless their face fitted and they’d found a way to be exempted from the same old no experience no job bs which affects every sector of the industry except crap local work which the self entitled elite don’t want.
So how does someone’s face fit then and another’s not? And how come some like me have a face that doesn’t fit for years, then suddenly fits? How do you explain that as I’ve mentioned that a few times to no avail?
Yes, I’ve always been puzzled by this “face doesn’t fit” theory of Carryfast’s. What exactly does it mean? Possibly he means that he is grotesquely ugly but I can’t really see why anyone looking for someone to drive a truck to (say) Milan would be greatly concerned with visual aesthetics.
It seems to me that he was offered one international job, the offer of which was subsequently withdrawn (and this can happen for numerous reasons such as losing a contract, or a customer’s requirements changing) and he never applied for another, hoping instead that the international transport industry would beat a path to his door or suggest some type of job exchange scheme with the Council he worked for. It wasn’t difficult to get continental work back in the day Carryfast, but you had to be a tad more ambitious that you seem to have been.
Harry Monk:
Yes, I’ve always been puzzled by this “face doesn’t fit” theory of Carryfast’s. What exactly does it mean? Possibly he means that he is grotesquely ugly but I can’t really see why anyone looking for someone to drive a truck to (say) Milan would be greatly concerned with visual aesthetics.
It seems to me that he was offered one international job, the offer of which was subsequently withdrawn (and this can happen for numerous reasons such as losing a contract, or a customer’s requirements changing) and he never applied for another, hoping instead that the international transport industry would beat a path to his door or suggest some type of job exchange scheme with the Council he worked for. It wasn’t difficult to get continental work back in the day Carryfast, but you had to be a tad more ambitious that you seem to have been.
I get the impression that he thinks there is some great conspirisy against him , the people who offered him the job and then withdrew it are (in his mind) members of some secret organisation that have blacklisted him from all future continental work.
I managed to get continental work 25 years ago without even wanting it -go figure
beefy4605:
I managed to get continental work 25 years ago without even wanting it -go figure
Now that really is rubbing salt into Carryfast’s wounds and shows just how bad he must have been. 
tmcassett:
beefy4605:
I managed to get continental work 25 years ago without even wanting it -go figure
Now that really is rubbing salt into Carryfast’s wounds and shows just how bad he must have been.
He never commented or explained that one .
I simply got a phonecall from my boss at the time (I’d been taken on to do UK/ Ireland work) - " Go meet another driver , swap lorries , your tipping 2 drops round Newcastle , reloading Dunns and tipping Bulogne and reloading Ostend for Covent Garden . Did it a few times and other bits and pieces , never asked for it , never refused it never really wanted it and didn’t do a lot of it , I was young and wanted to travel - so I did. End off
and for the OP - the best language to learn - just enough to get you by . If you can show the locals you can say Hello , Thanks, Where is this ? Steak and Chips please ,they will treat you a lot better . It’s suprising how many locals will then remember they can speak English when they hear you attempt to speak the local lingo
> Harry Monk:
> Yes, I’ve always been puzzled by this “face doesn’t fit” theory of Carryfast’s. What exactly does it mean? Possibly he means that he is grotesquely ugly but I can’t really see why anyone looking for someone to drive a truck to (say) Milan would be greatly concerned with visual aesthetics.
>
> It seems to me that he was offered one international job, the offer of which was subsequently withdrawn (and this can happen for numerous reasons such as losing a contract, or a customer’s requirements changing) and he never applied for another, hoping instead that the international transport industry would beat a path to his door or suggest some type of job exchange scheme with the Council he worked for. It wasn’t difficult to get continental work back in the day Carryfast, but you had to be a tad more ambitious that you seem to have been.
Nail on head Harry:
Back in the day when I was looking for Drivers a man called Biddle came on the radar, an ex Cantrell’s driver.
If ex Cantrells was not a warning sign, when Biddle turned up for a chat/interview he was visually a ****ing mess, no finger nails but black stained hands & nails, dirty & scruffy, as 4Q
Turns out he couldn’t read or write, BUT something about him suggested he could do the job.
You wouldn’t introduce him to clients, but gut instinct made me give him a test run to Jeddah.
Turns out he was really good at the job and made it his and a really nice bloke too, a real gem and asset to the crew.
So if CF’s face doesn’t fit, he must be worse than Quasimodo from the Notre Dame ■■
When I worked for Romac, a bloke turned up one day looking for a job.Johnny Mac said “What experience have you got of going abroad?” and the bloke said “I did a day trip to France once and I spent a week on the Isle of Wight with the Scouts when I was 10”.
He was on the Dover-Calais ferry the next day.
Harry Monk:
Carryfast:
Harry Monk:
Carryfast:
I’ve always advised new drivers looking for an international break to check out their owner driving options first but the start up capital hurdle is generally the problem.
As opposed to an over subscribed lottery and face fits bs in the employed sector.
It’s very good of you to freely offer advice to new drivers as to the best way to obtain international work. This is where your vast experience is invaluable.
Personally, I always found that the best way to obtain international work was to approach a company which did international work and ask them for a job. But I accept that we are all different.
Where of course the unfortunate new hopeful would be shown the door as soon as they mentioned no international experience because the firm would supposedly lose loads of money on every trip they were sent out on especially their first one.
They couldn’t have realised ‘the sheer scale’ of.the undertaking in driving a truck across the continent…
So how come countless tens of thousands of drivers managed to do exactly that?
Going by Dave’s logic it couldn’t possibly have happened when even owner drivers supposedly turned down their own employment, in the form of their first trip in case it all went horribly wrong.In which case they obviously never could have got that all important ‘experience’ anyway.
Carryfast:
Going by Dave’s logic it couldn’t possibly have happened when even owner drivers supposedly turned down their own employment, in the form of their first trip in case it all went horribly wrong.In which case they obviously never could have got that all important ‘experience’ anyway.
So why did my face not fit for so many years? You’ve still not answered that one
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
Going by Dave’s logic it couldn’t possibly have happened when even owner drivers supposedly turned down their own employment, in the form of their first trip in case it all went horribly wrong.In which case they obviously never could have got that all important ‘experience’ anyway.
So why did my face not fit for so many years? You’ve still not answered that one
.
Define ‘so many years’.
Face fits as in the ‘experience’ issue being applied regardless of ‘years’ for some on the basis of no ( international ) experience no job - no experience etc etc.
To the point where even now I’m told that my lack of ‘experience’ makes the idea that if you’re going to send a day cab D series to Saudi best send it the easiest way possible is wrong.
Much better to drive the thing via East Euro and Turkey.
Ironically Dave would have been right with a blown up or abandoned wagon stranded somewhere between Istanbul and the Saudi border loaded with the US ambassador’s furniture.
Hi Beefy, you are not wrong about the locals. As I said in an earlier post I tried to speak the language of what ever country I was in ,and it once paid off big style. Coming out of Paris I was contacted on the cb by a first timer who I had passed and was lost. Follow me says I. well so busy talking missed the turn/slip rd for the Carrefour pompadour, (forgive the spelling). Oops low bridge, never mind we will do a u turn, dual carriageway very busy but hey its Paris so we turn. Oops gendarme waiting other side stops us. looking at 900f fine here. So here we go. Pardon Mansour la Ponte es petite la camion Est Grande big problem. Trying to explain missed turn. So after me blundering around like that for a good few mins wringing my hands etc. and luckily the other lad wisely not saying anything the bobby explodes. In perfect English told me to stop butchering his beautiful language, gave us a massive Bollocking and then told us to leave . As we were walking away I turned and asked ( in English for directions). He burst out laughing and said i had some cheek, but told me anyway. Just one instance of trying no matter how poorly to communicate with the locals. Sorry for droning on, thebeardedone
Was that off the A 86 Creteil, surrounded by fly overs ,underpasses .must have been the original “laughing policeman”.
So posting here for our friend Carryfast. #ThrowbackThursday. Short one this week! My first ever picture of a Virginia International Logistics lorry, on my first ever run, to Lidl Warrington. 2007. 06 CN 831 and VT211, a new trailer behind a year old V8. I thought all my Christmases had come at once Was the start of the best few years of my life.
Can’t remember how many weeks I did U.K. work at start of this job. My first long distance run was Portugal.
peggydeckboy:
Was that off the A 86 Creteil, surrounded by fly overs ,underpasses .must have been the original “laughing policeman”.
Hi Peggy, genially cant remember the route number, carrafore pompidor was on the top off the road leaving PARIS you had to go UP the slip rd to get to it. Had a supercube on at the time no way was it going thru the underpass. Was making my way to MAUX. Have to say the bobby had us bang to rights think being busy he just wanted us gone. thebeardedone
Carryfast:
Define ‘so many years’.
Face fits as in the ‘experience’ issue being applied regardless of ‘years’ for some on the basis of no ( international ) experience no job - no experience etc etc.
But why would an international road haulier apply different requirements to you than me? If I could get international work with less than two months of UK driving experience, then why couldn’t you have? Do you think maybe- just maybe- I might have tried a bit harder?
> Harry Monk:
> > Carryfast:
> > Define ‘so many years’.
> > Face fits as in the ‘experience’ issue being applied regardless of ‘years’ for some on the basis of no ( international ) experience no job - no experience etc etc.
>
>
> But why would an international road haulier apply different requirements to you than me? If I could get international work with less than two months of UK driving experience, then why couldn’t you have? Do you think maybe- just maybe- I might have tried a bit harder?
Harry, I think the difference is that CF has made it clear he doesn’t like any physical work.
And although Euro & ME work tended to see less loading & unloading due to much longer runs, there was a requirement to be able to strip down & rebuild a tilt, change wheels (And on ME work fix your own punctures etc…)
I think that requirement for occasional physical exertion would have excluded him, that’s why he delivers cars, as the most strenuous activity there is walking to the car.
whisperingsmith:
> Harry Monk:
> > Carryfast:
> > Define ‘so many years’.
> > Face fits as in the ‘experience’ issue being applied regardless of ‘years’ for some on the basis of no ( international ) experience no job - no experience etc etc.
>
>
> But why would an international road haulier apply different requirements to you than me? If I could get international work with less than two months of UK driving experience, then why couldn’t you have? Do you think maybe- just maybe- I might have tried a bit harder?
Harry, I think the difference is that CF has made it clear he doesn’t like any physical work.
And although Euro & ME work tended to see less loading & unloading due to much longer runs, there was a requirement to be able to strip down & rebuild a tilt, change wheels (And on ME work fix your own punctures etc…)
I think that requirement for occasional physical exertion would have excluded him, that’s why he delivers cars, as the most strenuous activity there is walking to the car.
Also, a think he knows it all attitude and lack of any sort of effort or ambition probably did not help Carryfast and contributed to his immense failure.
switchlogic:
So posting here for our friend Carryfast. #ThrowbackThursday. Short one this week! My first ever picture of a Virginia International Logistics lorry, on my first ever run, to Lidl Warrington. 2007. 06 CN 831 and VT211, a new trailer behind a year old V8. I thought all my Christmases had come at once Was the start of the best few years of my life.
0
Can’t remember how many weeks I did U.K. work at start of this job. My first long distance run was Portugal.
How many ‘years’ on UK work from when you got your licence and what difference does that make to Dave’s weird premise that no one can possibly do that first international run regardless because of the ‘scale’ of the undertaking and the risks of entrusting it to an ‘inexperienced’ driver.
The whole experience thing is an oxymoron and convenient pretext used to enforce a face fits career progression regime.
Harry Monk:
Carryfast:
Define ‘so many years’.
Face fits as in the ‘experience’ issue being applied regardless of ‘years’ for some on the basis of no ( international ) experience no job - no experience etc etc.
But why would an international road haulier apply different requirements to you than me? If I could get international work with less than two months of UK driving experience, then why couldn’t you have? Do you think maybe- just maybe- I might have tried a bit harder?
I’m still intrigued by this question……looks unlikely we’ll get an answer tho
