when i was doing airfreight i loaded midnight dec 25th heathrow destination Prestwick Scotland when i arrived heathrow to load just before midnight the bloke said what do you want couldnt you have had an accident or somthing so we didnt have to load you nice people you see
Big Leggy:
I’m suprised there aren’t more responses from North of Carlisle to this question !
Back in late '60s when I was a “lone Englishman” working at ■■■■■■■■■■■ for Inter City Transport, Christmas Day was a normal working day [no double bubble] & New Years Day was the holiday [not in England then] !!
Cannot remember when/year all this changed !!
Took some getting used to I must say !!
I started my apprenticeship in 1970 at BRS Gateshead. Upto about 1968 and because of the depot’s proximity to the borders I was told a fitter had to be on duty 24/7 all over Christmas in case of any problems with one of the Scotch trunk motors who were running as normal.
christmas 2000,
me wearing a blue beret, keeping an eye out for turks/greeks,
new years was spent having 5 days off in paphos though… 
anyone ever had to work on xmas day…merry xmas lads
Working today as usual Dog Walking for a couple I know £10 per hour. Easier than stood on the back of a wagon in the pouring rain with a hand hook loading wool.
keith 2:
anyone ever had to work on xmas day…merry xmas lads
When I was doing middle east for Brit European in the mid '70’s,I was tipping in Kuwait and I thought when I left in November that I SHOULD be home for Christmas.
Most firms were flying their drivers back from where ever they were,but after a 10 day holdup in Kuwait,I 'phoned my boss and he said contact me from the Harem on your way back,thanks.
My wife,being more realistic than I, had packed me a shoebox that she insisted I did not open until Christmas day if I could not get home.
I raced from Kuwait and managed to get to Ramtha om Christmas eve.
Christmas morning,I opened my shoe box to find a tin of chicken,a tin of vegetables,a tin of potatoes,a small christmas pudding,a packet of custard,a card from my wife and one from the kids and a good book.
I set up my dinner on the cooker,put up my cards and searched the waves on my cab radio,to find a carol service coming from Bethlehem.
Sad stuff eh?
Not the only Christmas away,but one I shall never forget.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.
Hi all.like bestbooties i have had many xmas’s away from home especially in the 70’s and 80’s doing M.E.in 75 i left the U.K. at the end of november for simons thinking ‘‘no worries,bit of welly and we’ll be back for xmas’’.due to the truck blowing up in turkey i eventually got home at the beginning of march.another xmas was spent at the cizre border[turkey\iraq]with my wife in a 50km queue.‘‘happy days’’.many times i was given loads of ships stores at xmas as my wife and i drove together as a team it seemed to be thought ‘‘oh,ther’e together in the truck so it don’t matter where they are’’.but thats transport for you.
happy xmas to anybody on the road over xmas.make what you can of it.
take care.mike
Hiya…74…75…76 always worked xmas day or night. its the sugar beet season. the beet factory,s
run from oct to march 24 hours.thats when we could earn big bucks.Newark to peterbourough
or Brigg and a Colwick on your way home…there would be 8 or 10 of us doing our bit.
John
Christmas Eve 1994 I parked on a petrol station forecourt in Novgorod, Russia all on my lonesome in a snowstorm, and the following day I drove to Moscow, which was about 600km.
25th December is an ordinary working day there, they do Christmas in January, but it felt really weird writing 25/12 on the tacho card, that is a date I had never written before on anything, and I probably haven’t since.
I had the New Years Eve in the Tankbar in Poland on the way back where I bumped into another British driver, Sean from Eaglefreight and we we had a brilliant evening, the Tankbar used to be a favourite watering hole for British drivers in that part of the world, and we ran back through Poland on a very icy New Years Day…
Good hangout The Tankbar Harry, been there plenty of times & seem to remember calling in at another gaff a few k’s up the road on the other side.
Just had a text off a pal he’s just left Saudi customs he’s 1260 km to Dammam where he’s tipping, never been that far down myself but he’s warm & no doubt its chicken & rice for him 
In winter of 1999 I was doing a trunk from Crick to Exeter and back employed by Federal Express, they asked me to run Boxing night and paid me a weeks pay for 8 hours I was between women at the time so I did it.
I’m suprised there aren’t more responses from North of Carlisle to this question !
Back in late '60s when I was a “lone Englishman” working at ■■■■■■■■■■■ for Inter City Transport, Christmas Day was a normal working day [no double bubble] & New Years Day was the holiday [not in England then] !!
Cannot remember when/year all this changed !!
Took some getting used to I must say !!
I worked every Xmas Day when Wincanton ran the Maltby site,I swapped my mate to get Boxing Day off as it is my wedding anniversary (not taken t’gloves off yet) .I was shunting full time and we tried to get all trailers loaded Xmas Eve ready for the first ones to go out on Xmas night.I had to check all the fridge temps,lights,tyres so that everybody could get away without calling a fitter out .I used to get paid 11 hours @ double time and a day in lieu and no bugger to interfere - just me and two security men on site.If owt wanted transhipping I did it myself.Boxing Day working was a regular occurance when I was on tankers in the 70s,moving gas condensate from BP/Amoco Easington,East Yorks to the NCB refinery at Wath on Dearne.
WELL…STILLL SEEMS YOUR STILL SAD AS EVER…TRUCKNET CHRISTMAS DAY…IF YOU EVER DID RUSSIA…MR.SPONK
Harry Monk:
Christmas Eve 1994 I parked on a petrol station forecourt in Novgorod, Russia all on my lonesome in a snowstorm, and the following day I drove to Moscow, which was about 600km.25th December is an ordinary working day there, they do Christmas in January, but it felt really weird writing 25/12 on the tacho card, that is a date I had never written before on anything, and I probably haven’t since.
I had the New Years Eve in the Tankbar in Poland on the way back where I bumped into another British driver, Sean from Eaglefreight and we we had a brilliant evening, the Tankbar used to be a favourite watering hole for British drivers in that part of the world, and we ran back through Poland on a very icy New Years Day…
When I had my transport co it would be me that worked christmas & new year so the others could have there time off
I did leave late evening on christmas day to be down in Huntington for early Boxing day the same New years eve
Although before being involved with transport I was in catering for a few years so did work christmas, boxing new years eve new years day some of this was split shifts or just the day or evening as some people like to go out to eat at these times
Chris Webb:
I had to check all the fridge temps,lights,tyres so that everybody could get away without calling a fitter out
The amount of ballaching that comes about over xmas days off because fridge’s run out of fuel is amazing, call-outs for no fuel in the tank, because the fitter aint got nowt to fix the company dispute paying even though its their lot at fault.
Tesco used to be proper bad before the green team turned up.
B1 GGK:
Chris Webb:
I had to check all the fridge temps,lights,tyres so that everybody could get away without calling a fitter outThe amount of ballaching that comes about over xmas days off because fridge’s run out of fuel is amazing, call-outs for no fuel in the tank, because the fitter aint got nowt to fix the company dispute paying even though its their lot at fault.
Tesco used to be proper bad before the green team turned up.
You are right there B1,that was another job,making sure the trailer tank was full.I’ll bet I had to refuel 25% of the trailers as we didn’t have a lot of lecky points and even then some of the sheds wouldn’t run on lecky.Bleeding some of them was a pain in the arse,it was quicker to tranship 26 pallets than do that! 
“Have you refuelled the trailer” was a question I always asked,sometimes getting a blank stare,because the drivers,usually agency lads,hadn’t been told by our so-called driver trainer.As long as they could handle the motor that was all he was bothered about.Some trailers would be stood for four or five days throbbing away if the load wasn’t required over Xmas.