I had the misfortune to be sent to Central London three times this week.
How anyone would want to drive there even in a car on a daily basis is beyond me !
I found the heart of our capital has the following delights for the HGV driver.
Near constant traffic jams.
Traffic lights / roundabouts every 100 yards or so
If you stop for more than 2 seconds to try & work out which way to go or if your stuck behind a parked car which you can’t get past you soon receive a angry blast of a horn from the tw*t behind you.
Absolutely noware to stop & take you breaks. I ran between 45 mins to 1.5 hours over my 4.5 hour limit simply because I couldn’t find anyware to stop.
Used to be doing deliveries in central london minimum of 3 times a week when I was driving Sprinters (based near Brum), I hated it at first, but tbh eventually you get used to it and know what to expect, where to avoid, what lane to be in at which junction and it all becomes a lot easier. But i’d still swear when I got into work to find I was down london again. So much easier in a van though as you can just nip down any road to escape the traffic, can’t go doing that in a truck.
andy187:
try delivering on oxford street with 40 footer !!
Even better try delivering around Kings cross in not only a 40 footer, but left hand drive and french registered (bloody roof out jobs too) we used to have to do it because the kermits refused too, .w… (enter your choice of swearword)
Central London used to be one of my regular haunts but I loved it - yeh, I know, I’m weird
As for stopping places for breaks - I found a solution - give the power to the parking enforcement bods
I nicely explained to them what my problem was (place to take break) and, on every occasion, they directed me to a convenient but illegal place to park for an hour. They told me to put their badge number in the screen along with the reason and I would not get ticketed - worked every time
Loaded a car transporter on park lane, opposite the dorchester hotel in the coach parking spaces, turning one round to put on the peak was fun seeing as its one way and they don’t stop for anyone
I used to do it with an artic car transporter, many a time i had to go on the wrong side of bollards or traffic lights to get the peak round, all good fun. then on top of that you would be unloading and when you came back for the next car some ■■■■ had parked right behind the ramps.
Before the parking Gestapo became multi cultured and the wardens actually spoke English, we used to do a lot of oil deliveries to little factories owned by people called Costa or Mehmet Most of these premises seemed to be in the cellar of a house and the deliveries were normally scheduled for 6.30 or 7am.
It was good fun to see all these irate savverners going red and screaming because we had blocked the road and wouldn’t be moving for another hour.
They used to call the police, and if they came, they wandered down the street putting tickets on the cars & checking tax discs
Central London used to be one of my regular haunts but I loved it - yeh, I know, I’m weird
As for stopping places for breaks - I found a solution - give the power to the parking enforcement bods
I nicely explained to them what my problem was (place to take break) and, on every occasion, they directed me to a convenient but illegal place to park for an hour. They told me to put their badge number in the screen along with the reason and I would not get ticketed - worked every time
I agree, i love driving in London. I used to volunteer for the central run when i was on agency as nobody else would want them. Great place to drive, a bit like Italy and Greece, just do your thing and everybody else does theirs and it all works.
K.Adams:
£8 just to sit in traffic. It took me on thursday 2hrs to do 2.8miles its a F***ing Joke.
I was on PAYE and paid by the hour so if I got held up - every day - I was being paid for doing nothing - no stress
If I got held up too much and had to bring back a delivery or two - tough - I only had a day cab. - there was always the next day to deliver it.
I do Smithfield and Covent Garden Markets two nights a week , london is a lot easier at night its mostly just black cabs and limos cutting you up rather than joe public…and after doing the markets you are heading out and homeward bound before all the mayhem begins with rush hour ,which now seems to start about 5am
i used to regularly deliver 60ft steel piling into central london during the day, didnt mind it ,just used to spend my time perving at the scenery, must admit though it is a bit daunting the first time you get a delivery address of chancery lane or portland place,probably the most interesting was one off sloane square, 60ft piling bars for some arab shiek who wanted a swimming pool at the end of his garden next to his sauna and gymnasium, and he only visited england 3 times a year apparently
i don’t like it.
but we have 30 trucks go in there every day and not many down there seem to know what to do with a spanner,they do however know how to charge.
and strangely every job we send someone to takes 3 hrs for them to get to,and we started going ourselves when one of our guys managed to get to the job in 2.5 hrs from coventry and the local boys still hadn’t turned up.
towing out of there is hard as they just take any room you leave in front for braking space,and you nearly ride over them.
I don’t mind London.
Usually we have only one or two drops, most are Crane off, so there’s not much room to manoeuvre.
I have done a full load into the Queens Tennis Club, which involved reversing all the way back out onto the A4, just before Earls Court, but I just didn’t let it stress me.
Go in, do job, come out.
took a 40 footer across clapham common and up to elephant and castle before travelling down old kent road (no monopoly jokes please) then exited via peckham high street
around mid morning and believe it or not the only traffic jam was on peckham high street at a set of traffic lights, a few bikers almost ended up squished though lol
My first ever driving job on agency was kitchen delivery in a puddlejumper into central London. Talk about thrown in at the deep end as I had never driven a puddlejumper before.
The drivers mate’s face was a picture when I said “If I havn’t got the hang of this by Union Corner then we are in trouble” He asked what I meant so I told him it was my first time.
- yeh, I know, I’m weird 
- give the power to the parking enforcement bods 
Most of these premises seemed to be in the cellar of a house and the deliveries were normally scheduled for 6.30 or 7am.
but I just didn’t let it stress me.