Diary of a spanish fridge driver(sort of)

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EURO DRIVING FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

well here goes then,
this is my first attempt at a diary and I’m not exactly a good story teller as you’ll discover :wink:
sorry there’s no photographs but i bought some new batteries for my camera in one of those pound shops and do you think I can find them in the truck :blush: :imp:

left Malaga tuesday 4th Jan about lunchtime went empty down to Algeciras to load melons off a boat from Brazil, quick forklift driver so away bit pronto. its a long way from anywhere this far down in europe so in 9 hours got as far as manzanares, decent restaurant and free shower.

wednesday 5th left manzanares about 8ish (nobody gets up early in Spain :sunglasses: ) run across the new motorway to just north of valencia easy to find the drop so tip the melons before they disappear for their 3 hour siesta :unamused: run around to the AS24 to fuel up, truckwash and restaurant, easy day today.

thursday 6th was the 3 kings day so no work today, best option go back in the restaurant and sample the various beers and wines on offer :smiley: :smiley:

friday 7th run up to betxi which is on the side of the CV10 inbetween valencia and castellon for a load of clementines, then make my way up the big climb from valencia to teruel get as far as tudela and call it a day only done 7 hours drive but as its friday no hurry on yet.

saturday 8th left tudela about 8ish (see its about the norm) up the AP15 and into beriain for fuel, right to the top in both tanks and the fridge, 1200lts when full does me 3000km. easy run then via sunbilla to vivonne, can’t seem to go past here for some reason :wink: :wink:

sunday 9th after the obligatory coffee I leave vivonne and make my way up to caen, hardly a stressful day :sunglasses: and 4 and a half hours see’s me into the lanes waiting onto for the afternoon sailing

monday 10th we get into portsmouth at 9.30pm sunday night so its straight off the boat and up to spalding to tip which is easy at that time of night. as soon as I’m tipped its off to bed for a deserved 8 hours kip followed by breakfast in morrisons. as soon as my break is up in the afternoon I’m to run empty to dover and get to boulogne

tuesday 11th collect a load of fish in boulogne and get as far as barbezieux in a 9hour shift, they’re building a new motel so the parking is a bit smaller but at least now you have to pay there are less self catering flipflop and sock wearers here.

wednesday 12th get away nice and early need to tip bayonne before midday but just 1km before my exit on the autoroute a minibus has ploughed into the back of a truck which was parked on the hard shoulder, 4 dead in the minibus and held up for 3 hours while they cut them out but the company where i was tipping were ok because all their trucks were stuck too. they washed the trailer out so thats a bit of time saved looking for a wash, run over the border get some fuel at the first oppotunity then load a massive 3 tons of office folders near san sebastian and get down as far as lerma on the A1

thursday 13th just a short drive to my tip and need to park up 8am as I’ve done my 6 x 24 hour shifts

friday 14th after 24 hours break over to guadalajara to load beer (mahou only the best will do) and run down to tip carrefour valencia then quick as possible get to reload in picassent with more clementines,
thankfully these fruit places work strange hours, got a little bit of time left so make my way up the big hill again

saturday 15th a bit more driving needed today but fuel up again in beriain and via sunbilla to wherelse but vivonne :laughing: :laughing:

sunday 16th another obligatory coffee then an easy day upto caen

monday 17th another sunday night arrival in portsmouth so no traffic all the way up to spalding tip in the wee small hours and go to bed no load this afternoon so its 24hours off in spalding, morrisons is across the road so thats me sorted

tuesday 18th over to partner logistics in wisbech load frozen peas for lidl’s in bridgend so across the A14, M6 and down the M42, M5 and M50 not used that route in years. quick call to “thetaff” and find out you can park in the asda in merthyr so park there which is near my parents house who i’ve not seen for a couple of years. ring my dad who picks me up without telling my mum, you should have seen her face :open_mouth:

wednesday 19th early start to get to lidl’s for 6am only to find everybody gets the same booking time :unamused: and when empty make my way to milford haven. I’m due to load fresh fish off a belgian trawler but he won’t be in til 7pm so into the bunk I go for some ZZZ’s. they do all the loading so I keep nice and clean :laughing:

thursday 20th leave at a decent time rather than the belgian truck who loaded and ran through the night make my way to dover off at calais and run up to zeebrugge and park on the bay of the fish market next to the belgian who’s eyes were near the floor :unamused: we’ve both got a 1.30am tip

friday 21st guess who got tipped first :sunglasses: belgian driver wasn’t happy but after tipping at silly o’clock go across the road to steam the trailer out and load frozen pork for chalon sur soane. get some fuel before leaving belgium and get to chalon about 2pm, nice quick tip and down the N6 about 15 mins sees my card done for the day

saturday 22nd and sunday 23rd in a routier just south of chalon on the N6, getting rare to find them open on sundays now

monday 24th over to st. etienne to load tiles :open_mouth: for montpellier what a nightmare of a place to find, who puts factories up in the mountains :imp:

tuesday 25th parked about 25 minutes before montpellier so tip nice and early then have to run empty down to girona to load pharmaceuticals. 23 pallets and only 2300kgs :sunglasses: run across the N2 and get to a truckstop just after zaragoza

wednesday 26th a good day ahead so a 10 hour drive with such little weight sees me do just after zaragoza to an hour short of lisbon, nothing of any interest to report just driving

thursday 27th I’ve got 2 drops of pharma around lisbon both are open early so I’m empty by 9am local time then up one of the numerous new motorways in portugal to figuera da foz for a load of tuna get a couple of hours back towards spain which is a bonus

friday 28th start nice and early (well early for spain :laughing: ) need to get to malaga by 4pm so I’ll be first to tip after their 3 hour siesta :unamused: as soon as I tip the tuna its around to the truckwash then park up in mercamalaga and 5.30pm get picked up by SWMBO :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

start back on friday 4th feb loading clementines for spalding deja vu or what!
hope you like it, next one will have pics as soon as I find those damned batteries

2

welshboyinspain:
start back on friday 4th feb loading clementines for spalding deja vu or what!
hope you like it, next one will have pics as soon as I find those damned batteries

Good read,James.So is this the start of another mega bounce around ? :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

3

Love these Euro diarys, excellent read but we need PICTURES!!! :wink: :wink:

4

Sir +:

welshboyinspain:
start back on friday 4th feb loading clementines for spalding deja vu or what!
hope you like it, next one will have pics as soon as I find those damned batteries

Good read,James.So is this the start of another mega bounce around ? :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

no john, short trip this time need to get back to the doctors for results, just been given entry into the diabetes club :cry: :cry:

5

bullitt:
Love these Euro diarys, excellent read but we need PICTURES!!! :wink: :wink:

next one I promise, as long as i find those bloody batteries :imp: :imp:

6

I know you like clubs James,but being in that one isn’t what anyone would like.Strange that there’s a lot of it around these days,along with allergies and such.

Find the batteries■■? Buy some more from the peseta shop.Have you got roots in Cardigan (Ceredigion?)

7

its not the case of buying more, I had them and now they’re hiding and I WILL FIND THEM :imp: :imp:

8

Peseta shop ?, how about one of the thousands of Bazaar Chino’s ?.

Quite impressed with some aspects of your diary. Looks like your load factor is around 90%. However, in 24 days you have only really done 2 round trips to the UK. In my time at it, we would of done 4 round trips tipping Barca or Madrid and reloading Murcia in that time. What i’m surprised by is the amount of the work you are doing that must be sub contracted. As a small company most of that work you must be subbing, my experience of that sort of work is that if you eventually got paid, it was hardly worth doing.

9

Ex Haulier:
Peseta shop ?, how about one of the thousands of Bazaar Chino’s ?.

Quite impressed with some aspects of your diary. Looks like your load factor is around 90%. However, in 24 days you have only really done 2 round trips to the UK. In my time at it, we would of done 4 round trips tipping Barca or Madrid and reloading Murcia in that time. What i’m surprised by is the amount of the work you are doing that must be sub contracted. As a small company most of that work you must be subbing, my experience of that sort of work is that if you eventually got paid, it was hardly worth doing.

the load factor is high because the boss doesn’t like empty running.
although only done 2 round trips its paid well, you might have done 4 trips but its the profit that matters not the volume isn’t it?
the only sub contracted work was the tiles to get from chalon to girona. the loads up we work for the pack house owner, the fish is direct for the boats owner who lives in zeebrugge and his 2 sons are the captains of his 2 trawlers and the beer is for my bosses brother who works on the beer doing just national work.
oh the other subbed work is the pharma buts thats for ND and all our trucks work for them at some point in the month because they do a lot to all the RDC’s in spain especially the big DIY chains

10

Quite agree it’s all about profit. I figured you would be working direct for the exporter or for the UK importer on the fruit. That would be the best paying part of the job. It would seem to me that you would be better doing more of that rather than running out to Milford Haven to load for Belgium. Export loads from the UK to Belgium pay peanuts, no matter who you do it for. I think i know what is profitable and what’s not. Think about it, 4 main contractor loads down and 4 main contractor loads back a month, means you can have a nice villa on the beach and not have to work too hard in your old age.

11

Ex Haulier:
Quite agree it’s all about profit. I figured you would be working direct for the exporter or for the UK importer on the fruit. That would be the best paying part of the job. It would seem to me that you would be better doing more of that rather than running out to Milford Haven to load for Belgium. Export loads from the UK to Belgium pay peanuts, no matter who you do it for. I think i know what is profitable and what’s not. Think about it, 4 main contractor loads down and 4 main contractor loads back a month, means you can have a nice villa on the beach and not have to work too hard in your old age.

4 loads down and 4 back and not have to work too hard :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:
when i had the coil carrier it was JUST legal to get 3 trips in, don’t forget malaga is a lot further than barca or madrid, even the doule man teams would work hard for 4 trips
at the moment the loads out of the UK to spain are either crap pay or sewn up. last year the fridge was pulled by the bosses son and he used to do fish from scotland to spain which paid well but the trawlers aren’t going in there at the moment so we do what we can to get back but the boss won’t do low rated jobs so its bit by bit to get back and keep the earnigs up and as part of my wages are paid on percentage i’m not complaining :smiley:

12

Thanks James a nice read and looking forward to the next one with
Pictures when you find the roaming lost btys in your cab ,

13

Good luck to you. Certainly more interesting than banging in 4 round trips a month. Just curious, what sort of annual km’s are you notching up ?.

14

Ex Haulier:
Good luck to you. Certainly more interesting than banging in 4 round trips a month. Just curious, what sort of annual km’s are you notching up ?.

my truck is 3years and 4 months old and has done 520,000km so thats about 13,000 a month?
i still don’t see how you can bang 4 trips in a month, malaga to the M25 is 3 tachos so you’d be up high on your fortnightly hours and low on your weekend breaks. mind you us johnny foreigners don’t work as hard as you brits :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

15

What’s Malaga got to do with it ?. We used to do mainly Madrid and Barcelona. 4 a month was the norm. I admit that someone else used to tip and load it in the UK while we got a break. Quite normal to ship on the morning boat on a saturday, tip Madrid on monday morning and load Murcia on monday evening. It was considered a doddle if you didn’t load until tuesday. Always better to load salad from Murcia rather than citrus from Valencia. Lighter loads and much longer season.

16

salad is the load to get, the fuel economy is much better and you can fly up the hills :smiley: :smiley:

17

welshboyinspain:
well here goes then,
this is my first attempt at a diary and I’m not exactly a good story teller as you’ll discover :wink:
sorry there’s no photographs but i bought some new batteries for my camera in one of those pound shops and do you think I can find them in the truck :blush: :imp:

left Malaga tuesday 4th Jan about lunchtime went empty down to Algeciras to load melons off a boat from Brazil, quick forklift driver so away bit pronto. its a long way from anywhere this far down in europe so in 9 hours got as far as manzanares, decent restaurant and free shower.

wednesday 5th left manzanares about 8ish (nobody gets up early in Spain :sunglasses: ) run across the new motorway to just north of valencia easy to find the drop so tip the melons before they disappear for their 3 hour siesta :unamused: run around to the AS24 to fuel up, truckwash and restaurant, easy day today.

thursday 6th was the 3 kings day so no work today, best option go back in the restaurant and sample the various beers and wines on offer :smiley: :smiley:

friday 7th run up to betxi which is on the side of the CV10 inbetween valencia and castellon for a load of clementines, then make my way up the big climb from valencia to teruel get as far as tudela and call it a day only done 7 hours drive but as its friday no hurry on yet.

Good read mate… the only Question i have is does your boss pay your fines … when do you have a weekend break ■■?

saturday 8th left tudela about 8ish (see its about the norm) up the AP15 and into beriain for fuel, right to the top in both tanks and the fridge, 1200lts when full does me 3000km. easy run then via sunbilla to vivonne, can’t seem to go past here for some reason :wink: :wink:

sunday 9th after the obligatory coffee I leave vivonne and make my way up to caen, hardly a stressful day :sunglasses: and 4 and a half hours see’s me into the lanes waiting onto for the afternoon sailing

monday 10th we get into portsmouth at 9.30pm sunday night so its straight off the boat and up to spalding to tip which is easy at that time of night. as soon as I’m tipped its off to bed for a deserved 8 hours kip followed by breakfast in morrisons. as soon as my break is up in the afternoon I’m to run empty to dover and get to boulogne

tuesday 11th collect a load of fish in boulogne and get as far as barbezieux in a 9hour shift, they’re building a new motel so the parking is a bit smaller but at least now you have to pay there are less self catering flipflop and sock wearers here.

wednesday 12th get away nice and early need to tip bayonne before midday but just 1km before my exit on the autoroute a minibus has ploughed into the back of a truck which was parked on the hard shoulder, 4 dead in the minibus and held up for 3 hours while they cut them out but the company where i was tipping were ok because all their trucks were stuck too. they washed the trailer out so thats a bit of time saved looking for a wash, run over the border get some fuel at the first oppotunity then load a massive 3 tons of office folders near san sebastian and get down as far as lerma on the A1

thursday 13th just a short drive to my tip and need to park up 8am as I’ve done my 6 x 24 hour shifts

friday 14th after 24 hours break over to guadalajara to load beer (mahou only the best will do) and run down to tip carrefour valencia then quick as possible get to reload in picassent with more clementines,
thankfully these fruit places work strange hours, got a little bit of time left so make my way up the big hill again

saturday 15th a bit more driving needed today but fuel up again in beriain and via sunbilla to wherelse but vivonne :laughing: :laughing:

sunday 16th another obligatory coffee then an easy day upto caen

monday 17th another sunday night arrival in portsmouth so no traffic all the way up to spalding tip in the wee small hours and go to bed no load this afternoon so its 24hours off in spalding, morrisons is across the road so thats me sorted

tuesday 18th over to partner logistics in wisbech load frozen peas for lidl’s in bridgend so across the A14, M6 and down the M42, M5 and M50 not used that route in years. quick call to “thetaff” and find out you can park in the asda in merthyr so park there which is near my parents house who i’ve not seen for a couple of years. ring my dad who picks me up without telling my mum, you should have seen her face :open_mouth:

wednesday 19th early start to get to lidl’s for 6am only to find everybody gets the same booking time :unamused: and when empty make my way to milford haven. I’m due to load fresh fish off a belgian trawler but he won’t be in til 7pm so into the bunk I go for some ZZZ’s. they do all the loading so I keep nice and clean :laughing:

thursday 20th leave at a decent time rather than the belgian truck who loaded and ran through the night make my way to dover off at calais and run up to zeebrugge and park on the bay of the fish market next to the belgian who’s eyes were near the floor :unamused: we’ve both got a 1.30am tip

friday 21st guess who got tipped first :sunglasses: belgian driver wasn’t happy but after tipping at silly o’clock go across the road to steam the trailer out and load frozen pork for chalon sur soane. get some fuel before leaving belgium and get to chalon about 2pm, nice quick tip and down the N6 about 15 mins sees my card done for the day

saturday 22nd and sunday 23rd in a routier just south of chalon on the N6, getting rare to find them open on sundays now

monday 24th over to st. etienne to load tiles :open_mouth: for montpellier what a nightmare of a place to find, who puts factories up in the mountains :imp:

tuesday 25th parked about 25 minutes before montpellier so tip nice and early then have to run empty down to girona to load pharmaceuticals. 23 pallets and only 2300kgs :sunglasses: run across the N2 and get to a truckstop just after zaragoza

wednesday 26th a good day ahead so a 10 hour drive with such little weight sees me do just after zaragoza to an hour short of lisbon, nothing of any interest to report just driving

thursday 27th I’ve got 2 drops of pharma around lisbon both are open early so I’m empty by 9am local time then up one of the numerous new motorways in portugal to figuera da foz for a load of tuna get a couple of hours back towards spain which is a bonus

friday 28th start nice and early (well early for spain :laughing: ) need to get to malaga by 4pm so I’ll be first to tip after their 3 hour siesta :unamused: as soon as I tip the tuna its around to the truckwash then park up in mercamalaga and 5.30pm get picked up by SWMBO :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

start back on friday 4th feb loading clementines for spalding deja vu or what!
hope you like it, next one will have pics as soon as I find those damned batteries

18

welshboyinspain:
salad is the load to get, the fuel economy is much better and you can fly up the hills :smiley: :smiley:

Broccoli, Lorca to Morrisons Bradford, 3 cards easy :open_mouth:

Ross :wink:

19

Good read that pal,nice one. :wink:

Give us a bell mon as I’m back in work I could be in spalding that night.

20

Thetaff:
Good read that pal,nice one. :wink:

Give us a bell mon as I’m back in work I could be in spalding that night.

I’ll text you monday think I’m tipping greencell (again :laughing: )