BACK TO THE FUTURE - Who's been where W/E 25/10/25

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
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Bit of a blast from the past in topic form…The weekly “Who’s Been Where” thread was invented right back in 2001 when Rikki-UK first had a standalone forum for TruckNet UK - the old UBB board, remember that?

Anyway, it was good because it was an easy one for people to contribute to, so let’s see if it can help get things off the ground again!

Me? Nowhere much this week, mostly been at my desk writing up stuff I’ve been to already. For those who don’t know me, I’m an ex-tramper (15 years) who got picked up off the TNUK boards by then T&D Ed Dave Young to write bits for him. A good many years spent scribbling on loading bays later, and I’d scraped up enough of a reputation to write for the trade press as a full time freelancer.

I also met my husband (Rikki-UK) on here, we became friends when I first joined the Mod Team. There’s been a lot of water under the website’s bridge since then, but - much as I promised I’d keep out of things, a vow Rik has so far kept - it has a rather special place in my heart, so I’d hate to see it die!

Hoping our 44 “Roll Call” responders might be persuaded to help…Or do I have to tag you all so you get spam email about it? :face_savoring_food:

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Ps….SUGGESTION! If you’re struggling with the new forum layout, but want to join in again, why not just bookmark yourself straight into the PDF? (This forum area in old money. :wink: )

I’ll even give you a linky…: THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE) - Trucknet UK

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Reading , Norwich , Lowestoft, cwmbran, Hereford , Warrington , Coalville , Lutterworth , magor , yate this week , and probably a few I’ve forgot .

Pretty boring but as now a day shift driver

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Retired now.
Been to the shops…twice!

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That’s what the wife is for franglais

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Northampton, Northampton , FLX , coggelshall, LGW, Leighton buzzard ,LGW ,MK,flx , lutterworth , flx , Braintree, FLX, hoddeson , FLX coggelshall, FLX and was aiming back to Southampton but didn’t make it

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I think the farthest north I’ve been on days is Newcastle , south Exeter , west Swansea , east Folkestone

Had terrible cramp comming back from Lowestoft, so couldn’t do any farther that that

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So while you’re doing all that what do FLX depot drivers do-work out of STON? :rofl:

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Try using a truck rather than towing the trailer by yourself.
Less likely to get a stitch that way.

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Yep usually the way :wink:, but it’s not a them and us

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Everyone gets night out money, and no-one wants to sneak off home and refuses an early start.
:wink:

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Yes we all get night out money
But some have multipule faimaly deaths births ,dentists at 3pm on a friday :enraged_face:

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Well, apparently I’m not driving any more. Fed up with battling other road users, non-existent parking, showers that you get out of dirtier than when you went in, poor food availability, planners etc etc…. So I’ve retrained as an EPC assessor (you know, the rainbow graph thing that gives property energy usage information). So no more driving for me!

Ok, so I’ve been driving on agency :roll_eyes:. Did a few shifts with a company that had not one, but two driver facing cameras! One of them an AI one. Just don’t get me started. Let’s just say that it sapped all the joy out of driving and I didn’t last long.

Definitely not doing the driving thing any more though… probably…

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Rob’s busy week.:grinning_face:

Tues night watch The Toon thrash Benfica in Champions League.:smiling_face_with_sunglasses:….had to get that in.:joy:

8am start Wed morning, couple of locals, then pm collect loaded trailer, night out Stoke.

Thurs drops….Coventry, Warminster,.Uffculme, night out Cullompton ind est after shower at MSA

Fri Torquay, breakfast at Lee Mill, then Scorrier (next door to Smokey Joes) last drop Truro early pm.

Avonmouth about 1800, strap loaded trailer while getting ‘kin soaked to skin (literally, water went right through my crappy cheap firm’s ‘waterproofs’ :roll_eyes:) park up Avonmouth unit only.

Collect trailer this morning, into Greggs for bacon sarnie and latte, back home about 4pm…..traffic evil.

45 ish hours booked this week think it was.

Never even got out for a pint this week, been a cab rat.:roll_eyes:

Off to next Wed, for a similar run next week.

Deffo worse jobs out there, still content with it all,.although a lottery win would cure me of it.:smiley:

Btw @Lucy

Top marks Lucy for trying to get more traffic on the forum and revive it.:+1:

Unfortunately it’s become a shadow of it’s former self.

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Im still driving the sofa.

I hung up the keys in February 24, the frustration of it all was gonna kill me, or I would have ended up killing somebody else. Although I did a month or so in September 24 for a shop fitting firm, I haven’t driven a truck since. I occasionally get the urge to get back behind the wheel. But finding something that I like is getting harder to find.

The only driving I’m doing is in the go faster German hot hatch down to the peninsular south of Lisbon and hanging out there for several weeks at a time, with a few friends and a glass of wine soaking up the sunshine and watching the world go by. I did contemplate the idea of moving to Portugal and buying a property there.
I’ve also been trying (badly) to learn Portuguese, something I started doing during lockdown, and still haven’t improved greatly :rofl:

Meanwhile while I’m here in the uk I fill my time heading here and there, training in my home gym keeping fit, trying to stave off the effects the driving lifestyle, also having renewed my interest in live music, I go to music festivals and watching gigs on a weekend, or sporadically flying out to European cities and seeing bands there, with Iron Maiden tickets at the Benfica stadium in Lisboa next year already booked. Hopping on a plane on Friday/Saturday morning from East Midlands to Faro for the weekend and flying back on Sunday night I after spending time sampling the local lifestyle or chilling at the beach is my favourite thing, and it beats sitting in my local pub listening to the same old stuff.

I’m currently pondering the possibility of flying to Australia either before or after Christmas for a month and continuing a journey I started 30yrs ago when I lived in West Australia, by flying into Melbourne and driving from Melbourne up the east coast to Brisbane, and back to Blighty via Singapore/Penang

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Jolly to Scotland, over to N. Ireland and waiting at the moment for a boat to Germany to deliver in Poland.

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That’s why I don’t do general but do containers now , as I was getting fed up getting soaked strapping up loads or fighting curtains in gale force winds