Got well and truly stuck today, the A40 was a total mess with lorries pulled over due to lack of hours and one had broken down and his wares were being hand balled onto another. Water pipe burst just outside Baker St Tube Stn, I got stuck just after the Shepherds Bush junction and no other way out. Took 4 hours to get to Farrington Road (4.07 driving). Looking at the size of the hole when I was going past it on the way home I don’t think it will be fixed very quickly so tomorrow might have to be a different route to my delivery.
The Mess
The usual scenario, one man working and the rest looking on along with a number of curious tourists
A40(right side) just before Shepherds Bush exit, as the remainder of it towards the City was closed
Hope i never get sent to that dump
When I saw ‘Baker Street’, this was my first thought;
youtube.com/watch?v=Fo6aKnRnBxM
Brilliant piece of music.
Tiger.
I got stuck in that too!
Took me 4hrs 43mins driving time to do 27 miles, Had to stop in a Pizza Hut car park to get my break in. Very friendly staff even gave me a free big bottle of Pepsi after I told 'em I’d been stuck in it for so long.
When I got to my drop (building site) I was in a foul mood, not one of the workers on site spoke passable English, out of what must have been 40 or so people, in the end I just told 'em I was going to park up, watch a dvd and to come get me when they’d found someone who could communicate, took them another 37 minutes to find someone who spoke decent enough English to sort the load out!
Ah well, I knew it was all going to go wrong when I got in and was told it would be “one drop, 40 miles away, then home on 9hrs pay”
Ended up being a 8hr 3 minute shift so only got 57 mins extra after all!
I agree cracking song, I got stuck on the elevated just after the Paddington junction. No other way to leave this thing as the next exit is 7.5T only, few lorries had to do the hard shoulder bit due to lack of time. The best bit was Delice de France, one of its lorries broke down just on top of the Edgware Rd flyover. They had another lorry in front and were hand balling stuff to it so it could carry on with the deliveries. When I finally got to the ‘hole’ in the ground I was diverted round the back of Regents Park. Cracking day, left Heathrow at 09:30 and got back at 16:00, with just one delivery/run.