This conatiner job is great. I’m all over the country from one end to the other.
Yorkshire moors
Down near Brighton
Leaving Milton Keynes at dawn
Perkinski engines at Peterboroughslavia
My favourite place though, is home. Liverpool docks watching the ships come in like they have done here for hundreds of years.
And it never ceases to amaxe me when i watch two mersey tug pilots pull a big container ship into a berth. Although by containership standards this one is small.
Security is very tight at the docks and because our yard is in the docks i needed to undergo security checks, vetting, car details, logbook etc. I now have a car pass and a security badge etc… The Customs and Excise also have Radar machines to scan trailers and containers, sniffer dogs and god knows what, mostly looking for drugs. All they really need was someone who could actually read as its all labelled up, even with the destination of them. Doh !!
Back out on the road, i like to keep away from the office as much as i can. Luckily for me i have some parking at home. And nice neighbours!
You can’t beat going home for your dinner. I realise that not everyone is as lucky as me and some are stuck for somewhere to park up or get a break/meal or whatever. Now the Highways Agency actually spent 40 grand of our money on a survey to see the needs for truckers stops. This was in 2005. It was completed and never published. Why? I’m not sure, but i did email them and ask, they told me they would get back to me pronto and i’m still waiting to hear some 6/8 weks later. Here it is if anyone else wants to have a look and ask. Anyone fancy doing the Freedom Of Information request before i do?
ha-research.gov.uk/projects/index.php?id=870
Anyway, at least they did give us some sort of truckstop booklet, even if most of the places in it are absolute crap !!
Anyway, here’s a goodun. The Halfway house, just near Stoibarts at Crick.
£5 to park gets you a £12 ticket !! Good home made food and they are pasionate about it, all locally sourced produce too. Showers, toilet etc. Downside is that there is only room for about 15 trucks. You won’t get in to park if you need flood lights and a football pitch to do a manouvre !!
I stopped at the Stockyard recently too. I did have a photo but there is no light there so all you can see is a few small lights. Good stop though even if you do need wellies and a torch. I heard some guys say there was girls about knocking and asking if you wanted ‘any buisness’ so i shot off to my cab and waited with a £20 note in my hand and no one knocked. I woke up bolt upright in the drivers seat about 3am, shivering and freezing cold. I must of nodded off about midnight waiting. My £20 note had gone !! I jumped out like Jackie Chan looking about, i needen’t of worried though, it had just fell out my hand and was on the floor by the accelerator pedal. 
Anyway, back to the Halfway !! I’m starting to ramble here.
Its a nice bar. The guy on the right in the white tee shirt was a top trucker/bloke. He is from Doncaster way, he’s been on the trucks for years. He ran a pub for a bit and it was no good. His missus has a good job so he doesn’t really need to work. He’s on agency now at the same company for about four months and does about 6/7 hundred quid a week. He’s had enough of artics and is now on rigids. We only spoke for five minutes so i didn;t catch his name, i had to leave him as my mate came in. You have to be a bit careful in there too. The women from the rest of the country may all want to be footballers WAG’s but down here they want to be lorry drivers WAG’s. They come from Rugby/Northampton and Leicester to bag one of the good looking wealthy truckers.
Now moving on North to the Birmingham area, we all know it can be a nightmare to get some where to park, right? Wrong !! Whilst you lot are looking i’ve found a nice council operated park. £6 gets you a ticket, floodlighting, CCTV, 10 pubs or more (including a Weatherspoons for grub) a chinese a kebab shop, an Indian etc… A sports centre next door to get a shower too.
Going into Weatherspoons with your towel and wash bag gets you some strange looks !!
But its nice and clean !! The people are actually used to trucker there and they’re all in the pubs.
The guy on the right was a top bloke. I bought him a pint and started out on my trucker stories. I got as far as …“and so i told them, no way, i’m pulling out and i have to take a legal nine hour break”…abd the ■■■■■■■ nodded off !!
The other two guys spoke a foreign language or local dialect, i’m not sure which. All i could make out was …“flob a lob a lob”
Now there is stuff going on which should worry us all that drive trucks. Enforcement. Yes, Enforcement. We are getting much more of it and its everywhere the whole country over. Down in Essex they have this gang out.
Now they have a ‘shoot to kill’ policy out.
Actually, one of my mates ‘Old Ted’ tried to take a 17 ton Scania through a 7.5 ton limit and they took him out with one shot.
We still put down flower for him. Of course i expect Essex council would deny this happens !! One man however is prepared to stand our corner and not be silenced !!
Thats a sneak preview of a coming edition, don’t forget. You heard it here first !!
Closer to home, VOSA are out in force near me. The M57/A5036 known as ‘switch island’, there are VOSA everywhere around there and its a popular route into the docks.
These guys are no fools.Here they are carefully checking if the names on my tachos match up !!! VOSA actually use ‘intelligence’ on which hauliers to pull up, so whilst they all sit around the above junction and the routes to and from it hauliers with ‘intelligence’ all use the M62/A5058 as a route into the docks and bypass them completely !!
Anyway, its late for me and i’m not sure if posting on a work related forum counts as ‘other work’ for the WTD purposes so i’m off to bed. Goodnite !!
) I had acquired a very broad accent myself.