This woman in her piece of cheese car nearly drove into the side of me on numerous occasions going through the roadworks on the M6. I wonder why … ?
Was that a question Rob? Do I win a prize for the folded mirror 
Monday 11 July saw me in the yard around 0630 for my 0600 start 
. Found my trailer which was one of Waugh’s for some reason and it had 6 drops round the north east with Linpac stuff on. Apparently Linpac have got shut of their drivers from Featherstone and no longer run their own motors and Archbold’s have got the contract for the work.
First port of call was the garage not far off the A1/A19 split near Thirsk to purchase some maps. I needed one for Middlesborough area and one for Newcastle area. Fortunately the garage sold the OS county maps so a County Durham was purchased and also a Tyne & Wear one for £5.99 a throw, but something looked wrong with them but I couldn’t fathom out what it was at the time. It was only later when I went to stow them away in my map box that they’re actually significantly bigger than all the others I’ve got (non-comb bound) so don’t fit in my map box 
.
First drop was Leaders Paper Merchants on Stockton St, Middlesborough where I had 6 pallets for them of fast food trays and that kind of thing. They’ve got a tiny “yard” round the back of the place where they wanted me to reverse in, but even though I’m never bothered by a tight reverse I was concerned that the trailer wouldn’t physically screw round into the gap in the space available.
“We have 45 footers in here all the time mate without any problems.” 
Well, I would have never guessed that that remark was coming …
Just in case he was lying - which most of them are - I proved that it was possible and after some shuffling around, managed to get the trailer in. With some help from the guys there we had the pallets broken down and handballed off in about 10 minutes.
Next drop was Morrisons store at Hartlepool. Back on to the A19 and then off up the A689 took me right to the store although I turned too early and ended up round the back of it so had a bit of a detour round the houses before coming back in from the other side. Just one pallet here and that was quickly whipped off by one of the warehouse guys.
Time for brekkie once I’d pulled out of the gate here so went and sampled the customer cafe inside and had a nice bumper breakfast for around £3.50 I think it was. I picked up 3 sachets of tomato sauce for my meal and the Scottish woman on the till said she was only allowing me one sachet and I’d have to pay for the others 
. Never had this before at the cafe’s at any of the other stores. Mind, she was Scottish so it’s no surprise really . Even us Yorkies aren’t that bloody tight . I put the other two back anyway, until she disappeared in the back, then went and got them back again when she wasn’t looking 
.
Belly filled so back to work and the next one was Costco’s at Gateshead which I got to by going along the A179 back to the A19 out of Hartlepool then across the A184. Costco’s is on Mandela Way, here.
Newcastle. I’ve just turned left off the main road which would take me over the Tyne Bridge into the centre of Newcastle.
This was taken here, at the end of Team Street.
Costco Gateshead.
Tipped my one pallet there and took my break as it was lunch time ish. Temp was 33C at this point. Not hot when you considered the temp’s Neil’s experiencing in Iraq, but plenty hot enough for me 
.
Next drop was :
MORRISONS STORE [and store number]
TWO BALL LONNEN
COWGATE
NEWCASTLE
Which, according to my map book, Cowgate is just off the 55 Degrees North doughnut, just over the Tyne Bridge and where it says “Cow.” here, that’s where Cowgate is.
Tyne Bridge northbound.
So, came off at the 55N dougnut, all the way round it and turned down Cowgate, looking for the store. It was extremely tight as I turned down and only just managed to get the trailer round a ‘no-entry’ sign, facing the other way, but I made it in the end. The road was narrow and cars were parked all along the nearside but as I dropped down there was a car parked on the offside, right on a nasty bend and despite a very wide swing, there was just no way the trailer was going to get round.
Stuck in Newcastle.
A few well timed blasts of the horn in a vain attempt at arousing the owner who was hopefully in the apartment block next to it produced absolutely nothing but one of the guys from the building site at the bottom of the road came up and told me that he’d seen the owner of it walk off up into the town early that morning. Great . He also told me that there was no Morrisons store down this road either and that the ‘Cowgate’ store was on the north-west side of town, about 3 or 4 miles away. It was then that I discovered that ‘Two Ball Lonnen’ was actually the road name and not ‘Cowgate’. What sort of road name is that ? ‘Two Ball Lonnen’. Idiots.
Meanwhile, I had to get out of this mess and I was getting increasingly 
off with the car driving plebian’s behind me tooting their horns at me and asking me what the problem was. WELL CLEAR THE OUT OF YOUR EYES AND YOU’LL BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT THE PROBLEM IS, FOOLS. 
One of them came down and said, "oh, can you not get through?', in a patronising kind of manner and that just tipped the boat.
“NO I’M SITTING HERE FOR THE GOOD OF MY HEALTH.”
Of course, there’s never a traffic warden about when you need one but upon closer inspection the yellow line had worn away anyway so the warden wouldn’t be able to do jack all. Typical.
I was left with no other option but to phone the plod.
“Okay, we’ll get someone out to you straight away.”
Two minutes later a traffic warden arrives and confirms my suspicions in that he can’t put a ticket on it because it’s not breaching any parking type rules but is causing an obstruction and after chatting into his radio for a few minutes, tells me that the police had ordered it to be removed 
. A recovery company has been summoned and it’s just a matter of waiting.
I wasn’t in any particular rush so wasn’t too fussed really. About 30 minutes later a recovery truck turns up and after another 20 minutes or so has the car hitched up and was just about to set off when the owner turns up …
I said a few choice words to him and left the recovery guy to discuss payment details with him for the call out and I was on my way to the store on the other side of town, with nearly two hours wasted in a place I shouldn’t have been anyway .
The store on Two Ball Lonnen isn’t a big one and has a tiny gated unloading area. There’s very little room to manoeuvre, not helped by shoppers just wanting to “nip” round you so they don’t get held up. I managed to get in there in the end and they whipped my one pallet off for them straight away.
Next drop was Morrisons at Whitley Bay so straight up the A191 which must have more doughnuts along its length the whole of Circle City aka MK.
Approaching A191/A19 junction.
Had my one pallet off for the them straight away then over to Morrisons at Consett via the A191, A19, A1056 Killingworth, A1 south and A694.
Killingworth : scrubberville.
Last pallet off at Consett without any problems and that’s me done for the day. Back down the A694 towards the A1 and I parked up in a big layby I’d spotted on my way up, near a river.
A694 to Consett.
Layby at Lintzford.
a good read Rob…and some great pictures as well…one day when i learn how to do it…i`m gonna get some pictures up as well…still practising…but getting there…maybe i should buy a digi camera and make the job easier…
Another good read and pic’s rob
Tuesday 12 July saw me starting at around 0630 with instructions to take the Waugh trailer I had on to their yard at Benton Square Ind Est, drop it off and pick up our own trailer which would be empty.
River Tyne underneath the A1.
I’m sure an ex-girlfriend of mine lives round here somewhere … ? 
Arrived in their yard and no Archbold’s trailer to be seen.
Went in to the office and asked in there only to be told that if they’d known I was coming in they could have sorted something out. As it turned out, the trailer was at one of their customers’ premises full of timber . Handy; but they would have it emptied by the time I got down there. They told me to take the trailer I had on down there as mine would need replacing with another one and after checking with chaos-control this was agreed.
While all this was going on I’d forgotten about the defect on their trailer involving the r/o/s curtain ratchet where the teeth had worn away and it wouldn’t stay ‘ratcheted’ up; billowing out like a sail as soon as you set off down the road. They decided that I run down bob-tail instead but this then posed the problem of how to take my 7 blues with me as Waugh don’t have a Chep account for me to transfer them to theirs .
Being the clever bloke I am, I got my 7 blues and sat them on the cat walk up against the cab and grabbed a couple of ratchet straps out of the side locker and nicely secured them round the wagon chassis members. Sorted . I was just about to leave when the guy comes out of the office and tells me to take a different trailer of theirs down to the customer instead . Because I couldn’t hitch up to the trailer with the pallets where they were I had to take them off again and chuck them in the trailer which really bloody annoyed me as Chep’s are not lightweight.
A1058 Coast Rd, trying to get into Newcastle for the Tyne Bridge again.
A167M just before the bridge.
Tyne Bridge southbound and views from.
The place I was going was a place called Snug, which is on Stoneygate Lane in Pelaw. Now correct me if my eyes are deceiving me, but would you agree that Stoneygate Lane looks like it intersects with the A184 and there would be a junction of some description there, probably a set of traffic lights 
. Well that’s what I thought too, but alas no. Stoneygate Lane actually goes underneath the A184 and you have to come off at the lights before at Abbotsford Road. A lengthy detour resulted, naturally, as I was expecting there to be a junction there.
I arrived on site and was told that they’d just finished loading me. Eh . The trailer is meant to be empty as I’m loading out of Gateshead for one of our customers. It transpired that Waugh hadn’t informed their customer that I was coming in to collect the (empty) trailer and so they’d just finished handball loading it with rolls of something or other for one of their customers. Needless to say they weren’t happy that they had to trans-ship it all off again on to the empty Waugh trailer I’d brought in, especially as the temp gauge was now reading 36C in the truck and it’s a good deal hotter than that in the back of the trailers I know for a fact.
Trans-shipping the load from my trailer to the Waugh one, whilst I sit and watch .
Meant to be empty …
While all this was going on I decided to nip down the road to the shops to got a stamp for a letter I was sending to Holland and get a bite to eat too.
I stopped here, at the Orange Box cafe for my breakfast.
There is just no other way to describe it. THE BEST BREAKFAST I’VE HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE ! ! ! It was 2 bacon, 2 eggs, 2 sausages, hash browns, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, black pudding, fried slice, 2 slices of toast and a pot of tea for £3.50 and it didn’t come on a normal dinner plate, it was one of those huge round ones which are nearly twice the size. It was absolutely gorgeous and took me nearly half an hour to eat it all, I was bloody stuffed when I’d finished it . Without a doubt, gets the Rob K diamond seal of approval and 110% recommended. There isn’t really space to park up outside the place unless you’re bob-tail or in a shortish rigid, but no fear because there’s an unrestricted Aldi or Lidl bang opposite and having checked the car park out meself, there’s easily room for 20 artics in there in the far corner but don’t all go at once.
They’re open 0700-1400 and do proper cooked meals too, like Chicken/Pork/Beef, veg, pots and gravy from £2.20 so get yoursen’s down there 
Excitement over, I went and retrieved my trailer from Snug and went down to Villa Soft Drinks in Washington to load for Manchester which I was to take to our Birch yard. Had a long wait down there whilst others got loaded but eventually on my way south, with two cases of “samples” nicely stowed in the passenger footwell .
The trailer was leaking air like hell and having had a similar problem before in the past, I got underneath to find the source and found that it was the valve that was leaking air when the handbrake is on. I put the wagon in gear and took the handbrake off and it stopped. I know from experience that this isn’t serious and is due to the trailer being an old type which wasn’t designed to handle the sort of air pressure that the unit is shoving down the yellow line. The garage at my yard confirmed this and said it was okay to run with so I continued to Birch and dropped the trailer off over there.
Thunderstorm brewing ahead as I’m nearing Scotch Corner but it must have blown over as it stayed dry all day where I was.
Night-outted in Asda’s car park at Pilsworth, unit only.
Nice pic’s and read rob
Good read so far.Where’s the rest 
kitkat:
Good read so far.Where’s the rest
Well I’m not a octopus, steam boy .
Rob K:
kitkat:
Good read so far.Where’s the restWell I’m not a
If yer fingers worked as fast as yer mouth,then you’d be finished by now.
Wednesday 13 July saw me waking up to this at 0500 :
Sunrise and the low-lying mist.
Beautiful :
Somehow I managed to snap myself out of the trance of just watching the sun rise and went and found my trailer which was loaded for Walkerpack at Brackmills Ind Est, Northampton and Ford at Daventry, in that order.
An uneventul trip down the M6 and M1 to Brackmills and after searching the estate from top to bottom I eventually found the place down near the land fill site and joined the queue of Salvesen’s and Ford artics waiting to tip off.
One for Malc - see, they don’t allus drive about with the wheels in the air!
Took ages to get tipped but finally I was done and away enroute for Daventry. Stopped for a break at the garage just before J15 and saw these two XF’s for the Seat BTCC team :
I was very lucky in managing to get a pic of this Betz wagon for Ben, but can’t remember exactly where it was taken. Somewhere between Northampton and Daventry anyway, probably on the M1 as I was going northbound between J15 and J16.
Hope it’s okay for you Ben? I only just caught it :
This was another pic of a Betz wagon but I didn’t quite get the timing right :
Arrived at Daventry at 1250 and had two drops. One was for ‘B’ building which is where all the small Ford spares items are stored as I had some dashboard bits for them and the other was ‘D’ building where the replacement exhausts are stored. ‘B’ building go on lunch at 1300 and there was a wagon waiting so I went round to ‘D’ as they go at 1330 and thought I’d get the exhausts off first. The problem was that they were tight against the head board and no amount of jiggling them about would free them so I had to tip ‘B’ building first but they were now on lunch until 1330.
I basqued in 33C heat outside for a while chatting to another driver who was piloting a puddle jumper and because I was feeling generous today, I let him go in front of me . What I didn’t realise was that he had a full load on for them and I only had 4 pallets so it’s no wonder he had a smile from ear to ear .
Puddle-jumper I let in front to tip before me:
My turn next and I soon had my 4 pallets off then back round the system to come back in again at ‘D’ building to get my exhausts off. Perfect timing - they’d just gone to lunch now too . Serves me bloody right I s’pose .
Loaded 22 empty stillages to go back to Arvin Meritor’s at Blackpool.
Once out of there it was break time.
Interesting artic combo :
Left Daventry mid afternoon northbound for Blackpool and arrived up there and parked up just before 2000 . It’s been years since I’ve been to Blackpool and I mistakenly thought that the M55 was only a “couple” of junctions past the M62 but how wrong I was. A lot further than I thought and the M55 itself down to the airport is a bloody long haul as well. I hadn’t had anything to eat for a while and was getting peckish so I was pleased to see my favourite supermarket Morrisons just down the road at the next junction where my food stock was replenished .
Proof that Rover driver’s hold you up. This one was doing well less than 50mph on the M6 :
Nice looking Topliner for Karlos (and limiterless of course as well) :
Parked up for the night in Meritor’s yard :
Nice one 
Yeh nice Coles and Sons Scania, although hav’nt seen the front of this one. only the back want to see what they have done with the front as its the new shape one.
Great read so far look forward to the rest
GOOD READ AGAIN ROB
Thursday 14 July saw me doing a trailer swap at Meritor’s where I’d night-outted. Once sorted out I belled chaos-control who gave me instructions to go to a location in Chorley which I cannot disclose for a load for Daventry.
Security checks complete and on my way southbound via a stop at Hilton Park services for a break.
Saw this rigid car transporter parked up with what appear to be a load of plod cars on board :
Nearly said something when this Magnum pulled up alongside but decided not to; live and let live and all that. He couldn’t be arsed parking straight and parked slap bang across two bays even though trucks were queueing up along the slip road waiting to get in and get parked .
Left there after 45 minutes and continued on my way to an undisclosed location in Daventry where I dropped my trailer and picked up another one for Somerfield at Wellingborough (Ken please take note ).
There was a major hold-up on the A45 after Brackmills and at first I thought it was this :
But it actually turned out to be a combine harvester holding everything up :
Strange shape double-deck trailers in the yard at Somerfield :
Tipped and away from there in around 90 mins and back to Daventry to drop the trailer.
I never knew Asda had their own container line but it would appear so :
On closer inspection it’s sporting a WHMU number, so maybe the box actually has more to do with W.H.Malcolm of Brookfield who seem to pull them about a lot :
A night-out was had in Daventry where two of the other Leeds drivers were parked up - Mick and Brian, so we had a chat like you do before calling it a night.
Nice pic’s and read rob
Yes seen somerfields pulling them funny shaped trl’s out of East Kilbride and
Dumfermline. As for ASDA container’s,WHMG have been pulling them for some time now. Good read m8.
Enjoy reading your diaries mate .
Do you use a proper digital camera to take your photos or are they taken on your mobile phone?
yep we have a few of those in our yard used for trunk runs only for obvious reasons.
Good read and pictures again… nice one
uvox82:
Enjoy reading your diaries mate
Do you use a proper digital camera to take your photos or are they taken on your mobile phone?
See page 1 uvox, it has my camera details on there for you .
Friday 15 July saw an 0800 start from Daventry where I picked up a trailer loaded for Tesco Middlewich for 1115.
Had some problems at Daventry trying to close the r/o/s door which I thought was strange as I had the same trailer yesterday and it was working fine. It was clear that something had hit the door latch and it was now about a quarter inch out of line from it’s holder and normal body weight behind it wouldn’t locate it. I went and found the shunter and quizzed him about it.
“Well, I might have caught it on one of the loading docks last night, but I’m not sure.”
Ahhhh, read : I did catch it on one of the loading docks last night and tried to cover it up.
Anyway, we managed to get it closed again with the use of a flat-blade screwdriver to prise it in but he wouldn’t let me take it with me so that I could close it meself after tipping at Tesco’s. Hmm, will worry about that later.
Who can spot what the problem is in these two pics :
These Zeetank glass Scania units don’t hang about and I’ve yet to see one running at less than 60mph on the flat - this one being no exception. These were all taken in the space of 20 seconds so it gives you an idea of the speed it was moving :
Arrived at Tesco’s at 1100 on the nose and went and booked in and got on bay 6 as instructed. On returning to goods-in I had a word with them whilst handing in my keys.
“I wonder if you kind folks on site here may be able to give us a hand if I need it after I’m tipped?”
“Go on … ?”
“Well, I’ve been having some problems with one of the latches on my trailer doors and …”
(interrupted) “No mate, we don’t get involved in stuff like that.”
“Oh. I don’t know how I’m going to get round this then as I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to close the trailer door on my own.”
“Not my problem mate.”
"I never said it was; I’m just asking for a little bit of assistance that’s all. Would the guys in your garage be able to help me then?’
“No mate. They’ll be too busy dealing with our own vehicles. It’s not our problem. You’ll have to sort it out yourself.”
“All I’ll need is to borrow a flat-bladed screw-driver or something like that for 5 seconds and I’ll be sorted.”
“You’re not listening to me are you. IT’S NOT OUR PROBLEM.”
“Okay. Fair enough. But if you can’t help me close the doors then I won’t be able to leave site until they are.”
“Once you’re tipped and have your paperwork you have to leave site immediately.”
“Yes, once someone’s helped me to close the trailer doors. I’m not asking for the world, I’m asking for a few seconds of help from someone.”
“Look, if you don’t leave site immediately, trailer doors closed or not, we will get the police in to physically remove you and your vehicle from site, understood?”
What an attitude . Unbelievable. Or is it . This is Tesco we’re talking about after all.
Anyway, I vented off some steam at my mate Jim on the bell and the good lad came up with some suggestions as to how to secure the door using straps but luckily it didn’t come to that as an oldish Stobard’s driver saw me struggling to get the door shut and came over to have a look himself. He came back with a flat-bladed screw-driver from his cab and I was sorted in no time. Thanks drive’
As a result of these shenanigans with goods-in there, TESCO WILL NOT GET A SINGLE PENNY OF MY BUSINESS EVER AGAIN[/b] be that a supermarket or one of those Tesco Express forecourt garages and if I need a supermarket and there isn’t any other choice but Tesco I will pay over the odds elsewhere instead of giving them my business. Utterly disgusted at their attitude.
From there I ran empty up to Birch to drop the trailer off and put a defect in for it then had my lunch. After that I ran up to Macaws at Nelson for a full load of pop for Morries at J41 and gave two of our other Leeds drivers a hand with their loads and straps too before I left while having a natter.
Got over to Morries just before 1800 and straight under the canopy and 26 pallets unstrapped and tipped in 10 minutes. Whilst waiting for my notes in my cab one of the Birch drivers was there waiting for his notes having tipped before me. I had a huge argument with him a couple of weeks ago where we nearly came to blows because he’s an ignorant get and won’t flash or wave us Leeds boys down the road. The vast majority of the other Birch lads are sound and we all get on as one, but there’s allus a few bad apples.
I had to laugh to myself when my signed notes appeared in the window and his were still nowhere to be seen as I left site. I only had to drive 10 minutes up the road to our yard and he had a good hours drive back to his so that nicely finished off the week on a good note .