One past me the other day,in the back of his car was a full weeks worth of shirts and ties hanging on his door frame hook,i imagined his wife packing the attire,and saying now Digby,this blue one is for mondays breakfast meeting,the pink one for the evening meal,and here`s a change of undercrackers.
How many miles per week do these guys travel?
My dad is the MD of his own company and sort of his own sales rep as well, he has a passatdrobe and does easily in excess of 1500 miles a week.
Tony perhaps i can help with this conundrum bothering you.
Firstly I will just say that I have a HGV1 licence gained whilst in the RN many years ago. When I left I joined the company I am still with on the distribution section but being a bit of a gobby guy when a sales reps job came up I went for it and the SD must have seen something in me to take me on I have now been on the road many years and now cover Northern Europe.
My schedule this week is after a day at the factory drive to Harwich for the ferry to Holland.
Tuesday meetings with distributors in Rotterdam, Almere. Arnhem.
Wenesday, Druten, then to Gelsenkirchen, Aldenhoven in Germany
Thursday Antwerp, Aalst in Belgium then to Calais for the ferry back to the Uk and finally home to Shrewsbury, I would expect to do about 1200 miles.
In the following weeks as a result of this trip there will be a minimum 20 loads leaving our factory for Europe driven by possibly some of the members on this site as I know KW has been few times for shipments to Belgium.
But back to the question yes I will also have shirts hanging on the back as it saves packing them in a suitcase (dont do pink though) I was given this advice many years ago by one of the drivers in our team who also had his shirts on hangers in the back of his cab 
So if any of you see a red Volvo (car) in Holland or Germany or on the way to Calais next week with shirts hanging in the back it may be me so give us a wave, maybe the next delivery you take to Europe may be as a result of me getting the orders. 
And yes I still keep my licence indate and occaisionaly one of our UK drivers may let me have a drive in the factory just to show that not all “sales reps” do not understand the problems you have on a daily basis.
Hope you will still let me stay on the site!!!
Crispie
Are there any tax incentives for the trips,can you get allowances for mileage,wear and tear on the car,a clothing allowance from HMR&C.?
My pub landlord also has a job, he is an area rep for a large hotel group, he is on the road at 6 in the morning and covers huge distances, often sleeping in the hotels he visits. I know he has had 3 new cars in the past year because of the excessive mileage. When he stops, he is still at work doing paperwork.
My neighbour opposite me, leaves home on Monday morning and she gets home on Friday evening working as a sales rep for a publishing company.
Toby.
Finally returned back home near Shrewsbury, 1185 miles covered this week having been to Holland Germany, Belgium, then back trough France to the ferry this morning.
Answer to your question re HMRC no we dont get any allowances for clothes we used to get £7.50 per day for lunch without reciepts but the tax man stopped this we now just use the company CC. I have a Volvo car which is changed every 3 years or 60K miles whichever is soonest, I pay for my own private mileage which means I pay less company car tax but it is fully serviced as part of the lease, so I am very lucky as the tax I do pay would not cover me running my own car.
Orders taken as expected will result in 20 30 loads out of our factory over the next 2 months to Central Europe so some of you shipping out there you may be taking a load from us so many thanks.
I know some of you frown on using the Return loads section of certain trucking magazines but I can vouch for the advert on page 117 in October Trucking (yes I still even have truck mags) the middle one give Andrew at Huntingdon a call as it is our factory and this company do the UK freight for us (great company) we have plenty of work for the UK and Export.
We also have between 80-100 containers mainly from the USA delivered to several of our warehouse around Huntingdon and Peterborough so we keep the container guys busy.
Thanks for taking time out to read this. all sales reps are as bad as you think in fact when i discuss this with several of my friends they are quite envious that I can drive one. I am sure if it was possible to have more open days so that the general public could see and understand the detailed workings of the transport industry there would not be so much animosity about.
I know the Stobarts recent TV programme may have had a lot of critisism from within the industry but it has proved a hit with Joe Public.
Anyway enough now to get ready for next week off to Sweden and Norway not in the car this time.
Now to relax with a cup of tea and T&D
An ex Portuguese girl friend of mines Dad was a load finder,going around looking for new work for the transport firm,in Portugal,a lot of time is spent entertaining prospective clients,which tends to add to the weight gain.The owner of the restaurant would give two receipts for the meal,one was artificially higher for the boss to pay.
In Greece,the police gets wind of the tax man on his visits,they tell them the road is blocked,by the time they arrive at the house,they have had time to switch around the tax return books for the tax man to inspect,one book is the true one the other is the one for the tax man to see,an untrue account book,so the governement does receive a lot of revenue in Greece,the whole street has now switched their books,due to the warning.