I was wandering, as a newbie driver, What is the furthest distance you guys have travelled on a single haulage job■■?.. And, How long did it keep you away from home■■?..
One shunter at our place new of someone who went to Moscow on a job, which seems ■■■■ scary to me.
S1ckening.Vendetta:
One shunter at our place new of someone who went to Moscow on a job, which seems ■■■■ scary to me.
I’ve been 1000km past Moscow.
Plenty others been a lot further than me though, how about Kazakhstan?
we tipped a load yesterday at bakhty border (kazakhstan-china) but cheated a bit - the russian haulier we work with took it on from st.petersburg, we get to do their basildon to tilbury work 
The longest single trip I’ve done was three and a half days between loading and tipping…
I started on Tuesday morning at the yard in Kirkcaldy. Drove up to Aberdeen and loaded, then started the trip.
Aberdeen to Rosyth, to catch the Superfast ferry to Zeebrugge.
Zeebrugge to Ulm, a 10 hour drive (more or less).
Ulm to Bologna via the Brenner Pass, another 10 hour drive (more or less).
Bologna to Taranto, my final destination. A 9 hour drive.
I got there with just enough time to book in, drive in through the gates, tip and park up just outside the gates again.
The longest I have been away on one single job is 107 days or three-and-a-half months.
I think the longest run I have done is load Leeds tip Rome for Murfits…
Load Telford tip at BMW on the German/Czech border was another regular run
Most time away?
I was away 5 or 6 weeks on a job for JJ72 a few years ago constantly running from Hengelo to Avonmouth with 80 foot long boiler tubes, 2 days to tip then run empty back to Hengelo to relaod and do it all again.
4 weeks away running a super lift crane from Zeebruge to near Antwerp, then working for the Belgium parent company until the crane was ready to come down 3 weeks later
4 weeks away was standard on the road planers but plenty of time off away from home.
Harry Monk:
The longest I have been away on one single job is 107 days or three-and-a-half months.
Three and a half months on one job!! Driving!!..Where did you go, Singapore, Capetown, Vladivostock!!!
Come on then Harry,spill the beans…you cant leave it at that!!
In 1996-ish, Xerox invented the digital photocopier and they needed to train their engineers how to repair them and their sales staff how to sell them.
Because there were very few machines at first, it was decided that the most efficient method was to take a machine on tour in a double-gull-winged exhibition trailer along with several other machines. I had to drive from city to city, set the trailer up and then do rather little for the next five of six days while the show was in town.
While in each place I stayed in hotels with the Xerox bods, always at least four star, and occasionally five star.
The itinery was… Geneva, Zurich, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Moscow, St Petersburg, Moscow (again), Kiev, Bucharest, Istanbul and Belgrade.
I have just dug out some photos and have posted them here. Sorry for the poor image quality, but I took these photos with a 35mm camera, and have photographed the photographs with a digital camera if you see what I mean.
They should give you the idea.
Here I am setting up the trailer. It had hydraulically operated gullwings each side. It normally took me 4-6 hours doing it on my own.
Here it is set up. Once it was set up, all I had to do was to open it in the morning, start the generator and give it a quick tidy then I was off sightseeing for the rest of the day.
And here it is again, in the grounds of Maslak University in Istanbul.
inside the trailer, Xerox girls Anna and Jitka give a lecture. There were about 30 people in each session. From the inside, you would never in a million years guess you were in a lorry trailer, it was a perfect recreation of an office.
On the whole tour, I never had to spend a thing on myself, apart from ■■■■. All my food and booze were paid for and Xerox even paid for me to have a £25 haircut in the hotel hairdressers. An the end of the tour I had saved up £5,000, which was great but then…
About a week after I got home, completely out of the blue came a “thank-you” letter from Xerox with a £500 cheque in it- we went on holiday to Cuba with it.
A couple of other long trips I have done are…
Tbilisi, in Georgia, in the bottom, slightly right-of-centre of the map above the letter “N” of “Armenien”.
I took out an aircraft re-fuelling rig to Tbilisi airport- a day cabbed Volvo F10.
I shipped Dover-Calais, down to Ancona, got the ferry to Patras, up through Greece into Bulgaria, got the ferry from Burgas to Poti and then ran across Georgia. then I flew back via Moscow, where I was arrested for visa violation and held in a detention centre overnight at Sheremetyevo airport with the other undesirables . That trip took 21 days due to delays in shipping and other problems.
Krasnodar, in the Crimea, about an inch above the letter “G” of “Georgien”. I went overland via Minsk, Bransk, Orel, Voronez and Rostov-on-Don. I took everthing needed to fit out a new bank, down to the safe, the tables and chairs etc. Then I reloaded in Moscow. That took six weeks.
Toliatti, which is not on the map but is just past Samara, below the letter “A” of “Russland”. I went via Moscow and Nizhnij Novgorod to the “Avtovaz” Lada factory, the largest car factory in the world, with machine tools. Then I loaded from Moscow again, and that trip took five weeks.
It all gives me something to think about while I am wheeling yet another pair of Dusseldorfers of fruit juice off of the back of the trailer at Lidls which is largely what I do nowadays 
(Edit, to resize photo)
Thankyou for the reponses, appreciate it.
I was wandering, What is it about such long haul jobs that attracts some drivers■■?.. I have read on these forums a few times that the money is NOT all that great, but that isn’t a factor, so what else is it■■?..
Any comments■■?..
I earned very good money doing that job but it was love of travel, especially foreign travel that motivated me to get my class 1.
Left home on August 8th, not home until late Xmas eve, been on a little job to Dublin for 9 days, then straight out on tour with The Police, then changed trailers at Carnforth just before the last 2 gigs, left Carnforth 17th Oct for Barcelona, finally finishing in Manchester, grand total of around 4months 3 weeks away.
Harry Monk:
A couple of other long trips I have done are…
Tbilisi, in Georgia, in the bottom, slightly right-of-centre of the map above the letter “N” of “Armenien”.
I took out an aircraft re-fuelling rig to Tbilisi airport- a day cabbed
I shipped Dover-Calais, down to Ancona, got the ferry to Patras, up through Greece into Bulgaria, got the ferry from Burgas to Poti and then ran across Georgia. then I flew back via Moscow, where I was arrested for visa violation and held in a detention centre overnight at Sheremetyevo airport with the other undesirables
Krasnodar, in the Crimea, about an inch above the letter “G” of “Georgien”. I went overland via Minsk, Bransk, Orel, Voronez and Rostov-on-Don. I took everthing needed to fit out a new bank, down to the safe, the tables and chairs etc. Then I reloaded in Moscow. That took six weeks.
Toliatti, which is not on the map but is just past Samara, below the letter “A” of “Russland”. I went via Moscow and Nizhnij Novgorod to the “Avtovaz” Lada factory, the largest car factory in the world, with machine tools. Then I loaded from Moscow again, and that trip took five weeks.
It all gives me something to think about while I am wheeling yet another pair of Dusseldorfers of fruit juice off of the back of the trailer at Lidls which is largely what I do nowadays
(Edit, to resize photo)
Harry i take it you where on for Kepstowe then?
Tried to get on with them ages ago…late 80s early 90sn no luck though…thats the way it was then!1
S1ckening.Vendetta:
Thankyou for the reponses, appreciate it.I was wandering, What is it about such long haul jobs that attracts some drivers■■?.. I have read on these forums a few times that the money is NOT all that great, but that isn’t a factor, so what else is it■■?..
Any comments■■?..
for me, its the sense of adventure and almost danger and hassle i guess, i enjoy doing the eastern block, this year i did russia for the first time, i would go again tomorrow if i was asked/told. the worse the roads and hassles, the more i love it, i get a real sense of achievement (which is something i didnt get on bulk haulage round the uk). its also the fact that there are so few brits out there too (which can be a real bonus cos a lot of them just moan and groan about everything!), but your out there doing something completly different than sitting on the m25 being late or trying to get home. im like kindle, i have had about 4 days at home since about july (im struggling to remember), although its all been western europe for the last few months (and swiss)
harry monk, i take my hat off to you, and im also very jealous of where you have been (i always think i was born too late!)
bullitt:
Harry i take it you where on for Kepstowe then?Tried to get on with them ages ago…late 80
s early 90sn no luck though…thats the way it was then!1
I was, and I got the job through a friend, which was pretty much the only way to get a job there. Kepstowe stopped giving interviews or doing articles in the transport press because every time they did, they were so inundated with phone calls over the subsequent few weeks from literally hundreds of drivers wanting a job there that it got in the way of work.
For me, right place right time. I bumped into somebody I hadn’t seen for years who was subbing for them, I was only doing casual work at the time so I was available when they needed someone to do a motor show in Kiev a month or two later.
I was nervous because it was over twice as far as I had ever been before but I did the job well and so I was in the door. Never ever will I forget standing at the Ukrainian border at three o clock in the morning, with the soldiers, the watchtowers, the Kalashnikovs and the cropped eared guard dogs. It was like being in a James Bond film.
Without doubt they were the best firm I have ever worked for, and the money was fantastic.
euromat:
for me, its the sense of adventure and almost danger and hassle i guess, i enjoy doing the eastern block, this year i did russia for the first time, i would go again tomorrow if i was asked/told. the worse the roads and hassles, the more i love it,)
That’s me, that is!
Harry Monk:
euromat:
for me, its the sense of adventure and almost danger and hassle i guess, i enjoy doing the eastern block, this year i did russia for the first time, i would go again tomorrow if i was asked/told. the worse the roads and hassles, the more i love it,)That’s me, that is!
im glad im not the only one!!!
Harry Monk:
I shipped Dover-Calais, down to Ancona, got the ferry to Patras, up through Greece into Bulgaria, got the ferry from Burgas to Poti and then ran across Georgia.
Harry,interesting choice of route to Burgas…Where do you go across the border into BG ?
I’ve bought property at Harmanli,which is south of Haskovo/Plovdiv on the E80,Suicide alley,about 40 clicks north of the Turkish Border and I’m toying with the idea of driving out there using the same route…'ish as you did…but Brits out there reckon that its easier to come down through Romania and over the river at Ruse.
I understand that coming in through the NW corner,Serbia ? is not a good option ?