Rob K:
Yeti:
An interesting read Mr Knapp, good to be reading your posts again.Paul.
I though that was your surname 
This weeks travels saw me with Monday and Tuesday off work, so
Wednesday 27 April had me running empty over to Allied Glass at Knottingley for a full load of glass bottles for Brothers Drinks once again, down at Shepton Mallet in Somerset for 1630, a run I really enjoy.
What started off being a good day quickly went bad soon after Iâd booked in for the collection. There are two warehouses, one on the right where you reverse in and one on the left where you park under a huge canopy. Usually we load in the warehouse on the right, but as there was a wagon already in there loading then I had to wait and there was also one parked under the canopy too, so I pulled up alongside the kerb edge near the canopy and waited my turn.
As Iâm undoing the curtain buckles along the nearside a guy appears and says to me :
âWhy are you parked there?â
âBecause Iâm waiting for the wagon in the warehouse to come out so I can get inâ.
âWhy arenât you parked on here?â, pointing to a tight space next to the wagon under the canopy.
âBecause if I park on there then the wagon in the warehouse will need me to move in order for him to be able to get outâ.
âI said park on here, now do itâ 
âWhatâs it got to do with you where I park? If I want to park here then thatâs where Iâll park, end ofâ.
âWell youâre parked on a bus route!â 
âAnd the problem with that is ⌠? Since when have you been in control of what the buses do anyway?â
âAre you arguing with me? Iâve told you to put your wagon on here, now do itâ, and with that off he walked and I continued undoing the buckles but then a couple of seconds later he says, âf-ing [door handle] headâ. 
Oh dearâŚ
I calmly finished undoing my curtain buckles, like you do, then calmly 
walked over to the cabin where heâd gone in and asked him to repeat what heâd just said. Of course, he had no knowledge of ever having anything to say to me but just to be crystal clear, I raised my voice by a good number of notches and made mention of his head and the glass window having a coming together and just to be sure, suggested that he might like to be pulled through it from the other side too, just for good measure. 
Of course that instantly resulted with him (turned out to be the Transport Manager by the name of Frank (Brook?)) phoned my gaffer up to complain but a lass who worked at Allied said sheâd heard him say what he said and sheâd back me up so in the end nothing more came of it.
Anyway, it turned out that my load was actually in storage up at CT Transport just up the road and I had to go up there for loading. I told the lads there what had just happened and they both patted me on the back and congratulated me for standing up to him and âitâs about time someone did!â 
Left there with 50 pallets on and set off down the A1. The peace and quiet didnât last long though - as I came past the slip on from the A638 an Irish Topliner from Portway Logistics/Distribution (00-LH-3946 I think it was) came tear-arsing round the corner, clearly empty, and sat alongside me with his indicator going wanting me to move over so he could merge. Now I know that bit of road well and when youâre fully loaded you canât maintain limiter speed up the incline after the A638 unless youâve V8 equipped so there was no way I was moving over to let him out for him to come steaming up my inside and leaving me stranded. When his slip road had run out he started blasting the horn at me but I still wasnât moving over. Of course in true Irish style when he came past me on my offside he aired his disapproval. 
him 
.
Apart from that it was an uneventful trip, bar travelling along the most hated piece of the road in the country, the M42 50mph road works where everyone does 40mph in every lane and then brakes to 30mph to go past the speed cams in a 50mph limit.
Had a 45 at Micky Wood and then through Bristol and the A37 for Shepton Mallet. After the A368 roundabout you come to the bottom of Red Hill before the big climb up to Clutton village and this is an absolute killer when youâre fully loaded.
And the speed at that point was :
in 4th low
Arrived 20 minutes before my booking time which was perfect.
Just arriving in Shepton Mallet :
And the place I need to be, to the right of the mini doughnut :
Bit narrow :
After tipping out there I was expecting (hoping for) a night-out there before running somewhere tomorrow morning but alas no, chaos-control had other ideas. I was to run empty up to Chipping Sodbury, Yate to be exact - just north of Bristol for a load of containers from Rexam to go up to a chilled foods place in Bourne, South Lincs.
It was suggested that I return through Bristol to get there but I had a better idea in running along the A39 and through Bath instead
Sadly, I didnât realise that Bath is such a bottle-neck in rush hour and was held up there for far longer than I desired. However, I did get to see the coolest house in Britain once again :
Awesome 
Another pic, just before going over the river and hanging a right, out of town :
I soon got up to Yate and as my load wouldnât be ready until the small hours of Thursday morning, parked up in their yard for the night and a peaceful nightâs sleep it was too.
Thursday 28 March saw me up and being loaded at 0630 with 18 pallets for Bourne. Several ways to get to Bourne from here and I opted for the M4, A420, A34, M40, A43, A45, A605 to the A1, round the bottom of Peter Bog Horror and up the A15 as Stamford is a no go area in trucks.
Weâd been issued with new fuel cards this week and weâre now on Fuelserv which is better than UK Fuels as there are more sites about. Iâd noted in the directory that Peterboroâ Services takes the card and pulled in there to fuel up as I was getting low. I knew Iâd put the card in the centre tray on the engine tunnel but after removing my 3 tonne of junk sat in there it was nowhere to be found at first glance. After some prodding about I could see the edge of it but it had slid off the back of the tray and pretty much disappeared under the main dashboard . No amount of fishing would retrieve it and all I succeeded in doing was push it further away
Pretty cheesed off at this (understatement) I belled chaos-control up to let them into the secret and Alan immediately jumped on my case about not phoning him up when I was loaded at Yate - a totally different subject to what I was phoning him up about . Now being in a bad mood about the loss of my fuel card this was the last thing I wanted, especially as Iâd already told all this info he wanted to the Birch depot who deal with the back loads. His argument was that I should phone him as well as Birch and I said - basically - DREAM ON Alan. They (Leeds & Birch depotâs) speak to each other about 30 times per hour on the phone so if you canât be arsed to communicate with each other then tough , not my problem and as such a heated argument ensued. Thankfully it was soon forgotten about and apologies were made both ways soon after.
Alan said heâd resolved the fuel card situation for now, by having arranged with Stibbington Services, A1 Northbound to let me have some fuel so thatâs where I went, literally only 5 minutes drive up the road. Of course they knew nothing about it and on speaking to Alan once again heâd got confused and it was actually a fuel place on the back road into Stamford from the A15 and Market Deeping. Great. A wild goose chase ensued with me trying to make it round the top of Peterborough on the A47, up the A15 then back westwards towards Stamford before my fuel ran out and fortunately I made it okay and the very attractive young lass in the garage was more than happy to help! 
Got tipped at Stir Fry after a lengthy wait then out of Bourne towards Colsterworth and over to Tinsley Bridge, Shepcote Lane, Sheffield for a load tomorrow morning.
The once straight road out of Bourne town :
Wasnât sure where to park up in Sheffield so chose to park up near Menzies Distribution near the airport as I wanted to be in a well lit area having heard that that area isnât advisable to park up in a secluded part.
Now there are two gates in to site there. The bottom gate is never used and is padlocked and chained, often with cars parked up against it and all movements go in and out of the top gate. I parked up opposite the unused gate on the opposite side of the road and feeling pretty tired, turned in early (at 7pm).
At 10.15pm I was awoken from a deep sleep by a pounding on the cab door . I have a pet hate and that is that I really do spit my dummy out if I am woken up by someone (not something) and this was no exception.
Pulling the curtain back and winding the window down ajar I see a guy stood there with blue shirt and tie on which I thought was strange at this time of night. Maybe heâs woken me to tell me that my curtains have been slashed or my dieselâs been nicked
No.
âWhatâs up ?â, says I.
âYouâre blocking accessâ. Eh ?
âAccess to what?â.
âMy yardâ.
âAnd who are you?â.
âManager for Menzies across the roadâ. So I peered out of the nearside window to check the status of the previously padlocked and chained gate and found it to be in exactly the same state as it was 4 hours ago.
âRight. So what am I blocking access to, exactly, then ?â
âThat gateâ.
âBut that gate is chained and padlocked and all the wagons and vans use the top gateâ.
'Itâs a HEALTH & SAFETY ISSUE[/b]'. The next time I hear those words I am going to strangle the person .
âRight, and waking me up from my sleep on my legally required daily rest period to spout non-important babble at me isnât also a health and safety issue then?â
âYouâll have to moveâ.
âIâll have to do nothing!â. You never use that gate and I can testify to that because I used to be on for MacFarlanes on nights where I delivered here nearly every day of the week and that gate has never been used so donât give me thatâ.
âWe have between 500 and 1000 wagons in and out of our site every night (yeah whatever!) and health and safety for my employees is my number one priorityâ.
âYou know what? I couldnât give a about your health and safety issues and priorities!!! All I know is that youâve woken me up for no reason in the middle of the night and Iâm pretty âpeevedâ off about it so Iâd appreciate it if you go and do one and tell someone who caresâ.
âIâm going to have to call the police then and also look your companies number up to report youâ.
'WELL IâLL SAVE YOU THE JOB! THE REG IS MV04LUR AND THE PHONE NUMBER IS 01132538716, HERE, IâLL WRITE IT DOWN FOR YOU!
This went on for a good 10 minutes and he just wouldnât go. In the end he said that he was going to instruct all his drivers to beep their horns loudly at me when they drove past to ensure that I had a broken nightsâ sleep. I was beyond the point of wanting to smack someone, I was ready to kill someone and I am known for my fiery temper when pushed too far. Have to say thanks to Jim for allowing me to chew his ear off about it after the guy went as I just couldnât back back to sleep with being so wound up .
This country is beyond a joke. I chose my places to overnight pretty well usually, ensuring that Iâm not parked in a clamp zone, on private land, not in a dodgy area etc etc and like this example above, you find somewhere where you think youâll get a good nightsâ sleep and not be harming someone but no, allus some JOBSWORTH to stick their fat beak in.
As it turned out, after getting off the phone I fell asleep pretty quickly and slept undisturbed until morning and upon doing a walk round check before I set off, I didnât notice anything untoward. Definitely another place to cross off my list of places to overnight.
Friday 29 April saw me round at Tinsley Bridge Co. for a full load of what looked like leaf springs but on asking the FLT driver he said they were air pocket springs which didnât make any sense to me. Anyway, they were bloody heavy and 16 pallets tipped the bridge at just over 43 tonne.
I had another collection to make and this was 1 pallet from William Cooks Pre-Cast on The Parkway, next door to Makro where a pallet weighing in at half a tonne was put on. With me in the cab as well that would be me pretty close to 44 tonne.
I was to deliver them to a place called Arvin Meritor HVS Ltd on Rackery Lane in Llay, near Wrexham in N Wales. A look at the map book showed the A57 Snake Pass to be the obvious route, but with 28 tonne on your back . Going all the way up the M1 and across the M62 looks a bloody long way round to me so I decided to go on the Snake Pass, having a half-decent amount of horses under my DAF to get me up and over (430).
Trying to get out of William Cooks :
And some competition behind :
I hope those things have got bloody good brakes because Iâm sat on its rails here :
A number of shots of the A57 follow, for those that donât know the road. Not an ideal road choice when youâre running at 44 tonne :
Ladybower reservoir and the turning for Bakewell :
Pulled into a lay-by to let all the traffic past before the big climb, which was greeted with toots and waves of thanks from the majority of them :
At the summit at last, phew! Now I have a problem. Iâm driving a DAF and DAFâs have utterly exhaust brakes to the point where you could stop the truck quicker by opening the door and putting your foot on the ground, like we did as kids on our bikes with no brakes . Guess Iâll have to go down here reallllllllllll slow then :
I bottled it just before the next corner in this pic as I could smell the distinct melting brakes smell and I still had a long way to go before reaching the level ground of Glossop village so I pulled into a non-existant dirt lay-by and gave the brakes 15 mins to cool off some as it seemed a sensible thing to do.
Soon found Meritor in Llay and had my load tipped off after a bit of a wait :
These look like axles but I didnât bring them :
Foreign MAN 460 Roadhaus whose driver was mightily peeved off that the FLT driver had stopped loading him to unload me :
This is what I had on :
Once tipped there I was on the Ford collection run which is great if everything goes according to plan. First collection was from Wrexham industrial estate about 4 miles away. Auto Thane was the name of the place - just had 2 pallets to pick up from there.
Over to a place in Winsford Ind Est to collect some more pallets, just near the Linpac depot on Road One, then over to Warrington to collect a final two pallets. Took all that over to our Birch depot and got tipped off.
Now stupidly thinking theyâd have a load for me to run back to my yard with I was pretty damned annoyed to find out they had a collection for me from Exel/Kelloggâs at Warrington at 0500 Saturday morning to tip Asda ADC Wakefield for 0900 Saturday. Quietly stewing to myself I set off on my way and would see if there was any chance I could get loaded tonight and do you know what the answer was, with it being Exel Logistics managed
Youâre wrong The lads in the Kelloggâs bit are superb and it was no trouble to them at all to pick my load for me and load me up whilst I patiently waited. I was very pleased and impressed and have emailed them to say thanks - itâs rare to experience this kind of generosity these days.
Security were in a bad mood though. An Irlamâs artic driver hadnât bothered taking a swing to get round the tight corner up to the gate house and had taken out part of the wall and umpteen signs plus wrecking all the nearside tyres on the trailer :
Thanking the lads once again I left and headed for the yard when I took a paid night out.
Saturday 30 April was meant to be an early start - 0600 - so I could get over to Asda, get tipped and back again, fuelled up and off home early, but I slept in and didnât wake up until 0845 when I needed to be at Asda for 0900. I made it for 0910 and for some reason they wanted their cornflakes at the front of the yard where all their own wagons go rather than round the back which I thought was strange. They didnât have a bay available so I was parked up in the lay-by outside and they would call me. 1015 came along and I was close to spitting feathers so went back to the gate house to ask how long. He contacted the shunter and he said heâd forgotten about me. Well cheers. 
I was pulled in onto bay 8 and tipped reasonably quickly and paperwork to follow only took another couple of minutes thankfully (could have been worse, could have been at Morrisons RDC).
Jonboy 100 taking his 80th shunt to try and get it on a bay 
:
Bloody trolley drivers
Out of there at 1130 and finished and out of the yard for noon.
Off Monday but Tuesday sees an 0700 start for Pontefract and Dunnington nr York then porbably a Shepton Mallet for Tuesday morning.
rob i used to that brewery when i was on for city its a great drop if you get there the night before go to the right and in the other gate you can park there over night its nice a quiet to
alix776:
rob i used to that brewery when i was on for city its a great drop if you get there the night before go to the right and in the other gate you can park there over night its nice a quiet to
Brewery ? Where you on about ?
your first drop in sheppton mallet did you get any alcho pops
alix776:
your first drop in sheppton mallet did you get any alcho pops
used to go there with city aswell alixâŚ
oh yes lots of it⌠
Good Diary, enjoying reading too!!! good pictures 
Ben.
Nice photos mate. Many many places Iâve been
Great read Rob and pictures too,shouldnt you be paying Archibolds for the pleasures of a weeks travel.â â ?
regards derek
trucking482002:
Great read Rob and pictures too,shouldnt you be paying Archibolds for the pleasures of a weeks travel.â â ?
regards derek
And why does everybody call them Archibolds?
Great read ROB wi ll be waiting for the next instalment .great post and pictures.
brit pete:
Great read ROB wi ll be waiting for the next instalment .great post and pictures.
Good read again mate!, I have to find 1/2 hour a week to read your adventures!
TC:
Good read again mate!, I have to find 1/2 hour a week to read your adventures!
i concurâŚ
Half hour ? You must be a bloody slow reader then because it doesnât even take that long to type it !
ROB, a good post is like a good wine taken slowly and everydrop is
tasted and enjoyed,this means that you posts are worth enjoying,this is what TC means,
I know what TC means too 
It doesnât matter how bad my week has been, I know I can read about your escapades and just know you will have beaten me.
Keep it up Rob
By the way Archibolds is like Stobards, thats how we say it down here 
Rob K:
Half hour ? You must be a bloody slow reader then because it doesnât even take that long to type it !
Its not that I am a slow reader, it just takes me that long to understand your drivell!
TC:
Rob K:
Half hour ? You must be a bloody slow reader then because it doesnât even take that long to type it !
Its not that I am a slow reader, it just takes me that long to understand your drivell!
Everyone else seems to manage alright. Perhaps you need to take an âUnderstanding the English Languageâ refresher course
Rob K:
TC:
Rob K:
Half hour ? You must be a bloody slow reader then because it doesnât even take that long to type it !
Its not that I am a slow reader, it just takes me that long to understand your drivell!
english language and yorkshireman donât go together