I remember a driver who was given a job to do in St.Ives Cambs, and the firm who hire him, phoned up to ask where he was, the traffic manager said he should have been there ages ago? When the driver contacted the office, he was asked where the hell are you, he replied Cornwall and there is no firm of that name here! There is in St. Ives Cambridgeshire look at your paperwork. Have you been in a different place than your logbook?
We had a driver who took loads of tarmac to Walsall instead of Sheffield and Birmingham instead of Sheffield, didn’t actually tip them though! Also when the delivery notes were hand written you could easily confuse Macclesfield with Mansfield as the writing looked like a Pidgeon had scrawled it, especially on a dark morning.
Pete.
I heard that one pete wasn’t it shelfield nr Walsall wood ?
I once asked my cousins to send a pick up from uttoxeter to load at rowsley in Derbyshire the driver satnaved and went to a rowsley in ■■■■■■■■
Dan Punchard:
I heard that one pete wasn’t it shelfield nr Walsall wood ?
Not quite, it should have been Manor Lane depot at Sheffield but he read it as Green Lane depot, Walsall! The other one was Northfield ROAD depot at Crookes, Sheffield, he took it as being Northfield depot at Northfield, Brum!! That’s the snag when you run daily to the West Midlands, the brain wouldn’t accept anything different. 
It can be confusing at times though when there are several places with similar names in the same area. Take Stretton, one on the A61 and another just off the A38, and there are a few Middletons around our region as well as a couple of Biggins!
Pete.
The classics, especially now in the era of Sat-Nav would be Blackburn (Scotland)
Brackley instead of Bracknell
And of course the ‘famous’ Polish, Latvian, Willy Betz driver (take your pick) who turned up in the South of Spain rather than Skeggy when given a load for Gibraltar Point.
There used to be a story this way about a lorry driver turning up in Brecon, when he should have been in Brechin.
Dave the Renegade:
There used to be a story this way about a lorry driver turning up in Brecon, when he should have been in Brechin.
That is a long distance bollo*k dropped Dave. Only a couple of fields away - Mansfield and Burnopfield and even further. 
I worked with a Cockney Geaza, He married a real nice Geordie Girl when he was based at Fenham Barracks, He knew everthing about nowt & Nowt about anything , What a ■■■■ he was to work with, Anyway we were up at Glasgow & looking for re-turn loads & he got a load as he thought was for Guisboro, I myself loaded at the same firebrick place at Castle Carry for Middlesboro when The likes of Dorman Longs Steel works were booming, Anyway the Cockney went to Guisboro only to find out that his load was for Gainsboro in Lincs, Oh dear Oh dear, So he never phoned the gaffer he just brought the load back to the Quayside Depot, His excuse was that he didn’t know where Gainsborough was & didn’t have a map, What a Heed the Ball as the sayings went in those good old days Eh , Regards Larry.
Hi all,
My father has told me about three joint motorways drivers in the 60’s,they just couldn’t find the drop in tinmouth (Devon),rang the yard,then the office told them they should all be in tynemouth on the north east around 400 miles away,then to top it all one of them went down a steep hill and couldn’t get back up and needed a wrecker.
Regards andrew.
I recall a haulier out of Libbys at Milnthorpe once ran down to Stroud with a load that should have been delivered to Strood in Kent 
(it wasn’t one of Bewicks I hasten to add 
)
Bewick:
I recall a haulier out of Libbys at Milnthorpe once ran down to Stroud with a load that should have been delivered to Strood in Kent
Well at least he was heading south Dennis Eh, Regards Larry.
When I was a youngster and new to the driving game, I took an artic to Argos Bridgewater instead of, er, Argos Basildon. No sat nav, entirely my fault, I was just driving on autopilot. Only way I avoided a bollocking was volunteering to overnight FOC at Basildon.
I had a hand written note attached to a load of multi drops from my dad, part of it was… Dover, Southampton, Andover, so I asked him if it wouldn’t be better to do both the drops in Dover rather than going to Southampton and coming back.
He got his on back though, before I left he chucked 2 pallets of seed potatoes on the back for Saturday morning delivery near Haverford West, with a reload in Cardiff on Monday morning.
Even if he is you dad you still shouldn’t be cheeky to the boss.
We had a driver on with us that went to Spain cause he thought that’s’ where Milan was, he only did one trip for us.
Jeff…
Newcastle on Tyne and Newcastle under Lyme have had their moments,same as Blyth Northumberland and Blyth Notts.And as for Newport…
We had a newbie driver who got Pembry and Pembrey mixed up (One in South Wales, one in Kent). After searching for the delivery address in S. Wales for some time, some kind plod pointed out the difference. The clanger may just have gone unnoticed but the idiot put in a claim for the Severn Bridge toll.
Whenever you see a truck travelling slowly and the driver with some notes in his hand, you can bet your life he’s looking for somewhere.
Not so long ago,I came upon a Turkish driver standing by his motor with some paperwork in his hand looking lost.
I stopped and asked him where he was looking for,and he showed me his paperwork which had the name of a firm on with the address as:
Bradely Stoke.
There is a suburb of Stoke called Bradely.
I got the number of the firm and rang them,and they told me they were in Bradelystoke,Bristol.
The driver was loading for an agency in Manchester,so I rang them and informed them of the ■■■■ up,and they told me to inform the driver to return to Manchester.
On a similar note, don’t you just love it when Johnny Foreigner parks his lorry on the traffic lights with the hazards on & wanders off looking for directions?
Dan Punchard:
I once asked my cousins to send a pick up from uttoxeter to load at rowsley in Derbyshire the driver satnaved and went to a rowsley in ■■■■■■■■
I bet Roger wasn’t too happy, he usually sits watching the tracker then rings people up when they go off route or sat in a cafe for 46 mins!!!
Hiya going back 30 years i was at a papermill in Devon(you can see it next to the M5) this lorry pulled in from Leeds,
he was in a little hurry. i forget what he said but it was something to say about Devon mill, i asked if he was loading
to Devon mill, he siad when i,am tipped at Devon mill. i said this is’nt Devon mill, he said where can it be this is
Devon and they make paper…sorry i said Devon mill is in Dover. he didn’t belive me and asked the fork truck driver,
he said what i had… anyhow i helped him with his curtains and away he went like a rocket. only to catch a grirder with his
trailer tyres, i think he ripped the wall out of two of the three trailer tyres… bad day or what.
John