I had what I thought was a decent agency booking for three days last week: class 1, a few locals in the morning then a run out to Gloucester in the afternoon to swap an empty trailer for a full one (of books, it turned out) and come back. It was in Ashford, near Heathrow. When I got there I saw a 13-plate DAF at the front and thought “oh, is that what I’m driving to Gloucester”. No such luck.
It turns out that they have two X-reg DAF 95XF’s which they use on the out-of-town runs because they reserve the new-ish ones for jobs that go into the LEZ, and they’re both rustbuckets which are falling apart. Both have manual gearboxes, and I don’t mind that (I did some training on a manual artic, but this was my first on a 40-tonner) as long as it’s not a crash box, but they were as stiff as hell and frequently failed to go into gear especially in low range. The first day they gave me the one that doesn’t normally go to Gloucester, and it didn’t couple properly (you have to get out and knock the fifth wheel handle to get the jaws to close). The excuse: “it’s 14 years old, you can’t expect it to work like a brand new truck!”.
Anyway, I got it out to Gloucester, swapped over with the full trailer, then started back and about a quarter of the way up Birdlip Hill it overheated, and it put a “STOP” warning up on the dashboard, so I pulled over and put my hazards on (this was about 6:30pm last Wednesday). I called the boss; when he didn’t pick up I called my agency who got someone to give me a ring; they gave me the number of their fitter who handed me over to a recovery company. I was sat there for 90 minutes and by then the engine had cooled down a bit. The recovery guy said “nurse it up, slowly”. So that’s what I did, and we made it up there. He couldn’t tell me what exactly was wrong except “it’s old”.
Next day, they gave me its “sister” truck “Michelle” and I took it out and I could hear rattling and rubbing noises coming from underneath. I pull over and tell them I don’t think it’s safe to take all the way to Gloucester so they tell me to come back, and they give me a choice of that one or the one that broke down. I chose the latter as at least it was all stuck together properly. On the way back I obviously avoided Birdlip so I took the A419 through Stroud instead. I didn’t know that there was another huge hill on the way out of Stroud and this one is a windy two-lane, not a sweeping three-lane. I get to the top and the heat gauge is just below the “stop” zone, so luckily there’s that lay-by at the top and I pull in there for a cool-off (not 90 mins this time though).
Then yesterday, they gave me Michelle again and assure me they’ve had it looked over by a fitter and it’s safe. Another of their drivers tell me that the noises are because the rubbers on the cab mounts are missing. He also asked me if I’d defected the steering problems on the other truck, and I said “no, I ran out of space after I mentioned the gearbox and brake problems” (I’d had a hint of them but only once and not enough to make a detailed defect, unlike the other two issues) but he’d had to stop driving that one because it was so dangerous. Thing is the bosses swear by them; they say they’ve had them from new and they can supposedly pull any load without a fuss. Anything the driver complains about, the excuse is “it’s an old truck, mate!”.
Generally around London we’re pretty spoiled for decent trucks because of the LEZ. I do know of a few operators around Staines area who have some older trucks that they reserve for non-London jobs – I had the agency ask me several times to drive an ERF for a marquee company and I refused as I don’t know what to do with a crash box as I’ve never seen one (they’ve now moved out of area). This is the first time I’ve seen a company use ancient tractors to do a long run on a regular basis, and they weren’t fine examples but battered old junk that should have been scrapped years ago. (The newer trucks they run aren’t in particularly good nick either.)
Anyway, the company was recently taken over by Geodis so perhaps they’ll invest in some new kit fairly soon, although their other depot near Heathrow uses a contractor (which has a fleet of smart MANs). But I was pretty staggered to see anything this old used near London and especially something in such poor condition. I had a good mind to walk out, but just settled for never accepting a job at this place ever again.
