kitkat:
Rob K:
TC:
Rob K:
Half hour ? You must be a bloody slow reader then because it doesn’t 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 ‘Understanding the English Language’ refresher course
english language and yorkshireman don’t go together
That’s excellent coming from a Haggis Boy.
kitkat:
english language and yorkshireman don’t go together
… capital letters, full stops and Jocks don’t go together neither! 
*Good thing about Yorkshiremen is they don’t have to get on with each other to stick together!
…unless they’ve lost the plot and support Man U scum. 
Another good read, Rob!
marcustandy:
kitkat:
english language and yorkshireman don’t go together… capital letters, full stops and Jocks don’t go together neither!
*Good thing about Yorkshiremen is they don’t have to get on with each other to stick together!
…unless they’ve lost the plot and support Man U scum.
Another good read, Rob!
scottish if you don’t mind please.
Another good read and pic’s Rob K 
kitkat:
scottish
A couple of your fellow countrymen (sorry, countrypersons; one male - one female) are quick to point out to me (on the very rare occaision I make a mistake! ) that it is Scottish not scottish!!
If i require a teacher then i will ask for one.untill then go and bore someone else with your capital’s,full stop’s etc etc etc.
Great read again Rob.
Never a dull moment on your job, wish I had as much variety of areas collected from/delivered to instead of being on a set run all the time 
Paul
So, another week over with.
Tuesday 3 May saw an 0700 start with a Londis, South Elmsall for 0800 and then 1100 up at Dunnington near York.
Tragidy struck before I even got out of the yard with the trailer when a nearside lift axle puncture was discovered so once this was remedied it was nigh on 0930 before I got away.
Just had 7 pallets for Londis which took some finding I can tell you. ‘It’s down near Netto’s and Next’, you would have thought would suffice knowing the overall size of the South Elmsall Ind Est but I couldn’t find the place anywhere and even ended up at the B&Q depot trying to find it. The only road I hadn’t explored was the one between Netto’s and Next which looked like a dead-end at first glance but alas, there it was :
Londis, South Elmsall, W Yorks
Ran from there up the A1 and A64 to Dunnington and arrived there at 1240 where I was promptly told that I was due at 1100 and they were point-blankly refusing to tip me because no-one had phoned them up to let them know I was going to be late. . They seemed to be hoping to get a reaction of out me about it but I just said, ‘ok no problem to me, I’ll take it back’, and that’s exactly what I did.
I can’t remember the name of the place, but as you come off the A64 at the A1079 junction heading for Beverley, there’s a brick built cafe in a lay-by about half a mile down on the left hand side, well I decided to stop there for my lunch but struggled to avoid a full English 
. Somehow I managed and came to a bit of a compromise and had a cheese omelette with chips 
and garden peas instead. I can’t remember how much it was but it was pretty reasonable money, including a pot of tea and free re-fills and I kid you not, even with the omelette folded in half it was well overhanging a normal size dinner plate 
. It was gorgeous too, well recommended and I shall most definitely be stopping there again 
After dropping my trailer back in the yard I was to pick up another one loaded with empty pallets for Allied Glass down at Stourton to tip off, then go round the other side to load for a place called Knighton which is in Staffordshire, see the map here. As you can see, looks like it could be ‘interesting’ getting there (no kidding …).
Tidy M P Burke FH12 at Allied Glass, Stourton :
Tight reverse into the warehouse to get loaded :
That load isn’t going anywhere fast 
:
And so off I went in the direction of Staffordshire via the M62 and M6 down to J15 then via A5182 and A53. It was getting late so it was going to be a lay-by job tonight, if I could find one. I did find one, just over the motorway on the right hand side but it was on a pretty steep hill and I don’t sleep on an angle at home so I have no desire nor wish to sleep on an angle when I’m down the road either. I was beginning to regret that decision to ignore it as there weren’t any more suitable places to park up along the way. I got to a place called Loggerheads (see link) and as I turned onto the B5026 I spied a Co-op store on the left hand side with an area plenty big enough for me to park up for the night. After much messing around trying to get turned round in a side street so that I could reverse in behind the Co-op on my good side in the dark, I finally managed to get the wagon in, although it was leaning to the offside and I sleep with my head on the driver’s side so I had to swap ends for tonight .
Wednesday 4 May saw me away about 0830 after a quick wash at the side of the wagon and away down the B5026 to Wetwood where I took a right turn towards Fairoak, Outlands and Adbaston.
This was the road :
Ah… ! Problems ahead as I’m 15’2 …
Problem sorted as I turn right here!
That looks like the place I want, maybe ?
Yep!
Reversed under that canopy on the right hand side to get tipped
From there I was sent empty down to Stone Market at Ryton-on-Dunsmore, which is just on the east side of Coventry on the A423 (see map) where I was loading for Duncton near Petworth in West Sussex for start of business Thursday morning. First though, I had to find my way out of this Knighton place to the A41.
Heading towards the A41 and M54 :
Scenic!
Soon got on to the A46 heading towards Coventry airport and my belly was letting me know it was empty so I was on a mission to track down a snack van that did baked spuds! First lay-by off the M6 was tried but he only did greasy food and I didn’t like his attitude upon enquiring about baked spuds. It was along the lines of ‘baked spuds? Why? You truckers are all fat and greasy and only eat bacon butties and chips’ etc. 
Over the other side of the doughnut I spied another snack van but thinking he probably wouldn’t do them either I drove past, planning to sort some food out later. It was just as I was passing it that I noticed in huge letters on the side of the van ‘BAKED POTATOES’ . Can’t miss an opportunity like that so I did a 180 at the A45 doughnut back along the road I’d just come from, then another 180 back towards the snack van again and pulled up and went to fill my belly. ‘You’re still serving backed spuds yeah?’. 'No, I don’t do ‘em mate’. ‘Well it says so on the side of your van’. ‘No, I’ve never sold them, but if you go over the A45 roundabout and turn left at the next one there’s a guy there who does them’.
Okay, I’ll let you off then as you’ve half helped me I guess. So onwards to the Spud van and a very nice baked spud with grated cheese and beans in a tray for £1.80 was had! Bargain!
Arrived at Stone Market shortly after and here I am waiting in the queue to load :
Stone Market, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, nr Coventry :
Loaded and away :
Uneventful journey along the A46 to the M40 and down to the M25, but I think I might have seen Keith (KW) coming the other way on the M40 about 3pm near Warwick services
M25 anti-clockwise near Heathrow and a nice XF SSC pulling what looks not too dissimilar to a mini oil rig :
M25 > Nothing new here… zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Crikey, flashing blue, red and yellow lights, must stop to have a good gawp at what’s going on here …
Came off the A3 just after Guildford and headed for Petworth. Wasn’t sure what the parking prospects were like in Duncton but carried on away. Went on the 300 mile diversion round Petworth centre which really annoys the hell out of me and having arrived in Heath End - the area I’ve got on my delivery notes - I see no Chandler’s Builder’s Merchant’s anywhere, the place I’m meant to be delivering to. I managed to half pull the wagon up in a bus lay-by opposite a garage just the other side of the bridge and ask for directions there. Turns out the place was only another 20 yards further up the road on the right. I had a walk up to check it out and of course they were closed - was 7.30pm at this point so got back in the wagon and carried on down the road looking for somewhere to park up. I found a few places, but they were the kind that you only realised they were there after you’d passed them .
Believe it or not, I’d gone that far down the flaming road that I ended up at the A27 
. I did a third 180 for the day and retraced my steps, having seen a nice patch of rough ground to park up on where it would be quiet.
Nice quiet spot:
The sign you can see in the pic above:
Thursday 5 May I awoke with a seriously painful migraine and sweating like a pig even though the night-heater wasn’t even on and it wasn’t warm out particularly either. Don’t know where it came from but I suffered with it all day and quite honestly wasn’t in any fit state to drive as I felt really dizzy. Thinking it over I wondered whether I’d been gassed but given the fact that the trailer/load/diesel hadn’t been touched and the night-heater wasn’t even used I find it hard to believe if that’s maybe what it was .
Gingerly set off and arrived at Chandler’s just a few miles up the road bang on 0900 and saw the FLT driver and told him that I had Stone Market on. ‘Just park it up over there mate and I’ll give you a shout when you’re ready for you’. No problems.
Chandler’s yard at Duncton, nr Petworth, West Sussex :
The design of the DAF CF’s means that you can’t recline the seats unless you lift the bunk up and to be honest, with the way I was feeling, the bunk was far more appealing and unsurprisingly, I was on it and fast asleep within 5 minutes of returning to the cab.
I woke up at 1030 to the phone ringing with chaos-control on the other end telling me they needed me tipped ASAP as they had a reload out of Fiege Merlin c/o Lec Refrigeration at Bognor Regis for Gloucester for noon (today) and then up to Halesowen in Brum. I told them that the FLT driver would call me when he was ready and that was that. I wasn’t in a mood to go chasing them about and I was perfectly happy sleeping thanks.
Back to sleep then and 1100 there’s a knock on the door, ‘what have you got for us?’. ‘Stone Market mate’. ‘Have you booked in?’. ‘I booked in with the FLT driver when I arrived at 9am and told him what I had on and he told me to park up here and would call me when he was ready to tip me’. ‘No, we didn’t know you were waiting, you should have booked in’. ‘Not my problem, go sort it out with your FLT man’. ‘Well we’ve been really busy today’. ‘Yeah looks like it - how many wagons are in the yard? Oh, none… Really busy you are, okay’ (words to that effect anyway).
Perhaps if they’d spent less time messing around with their hose and yard sweeping machine they might have noticed I was waiting…
Playing with their toys:
Anyway, tipped and away for 1130 and my Bognor Regis load has been cancelled. Now going to Overland Freight at Sheerness Docks to load reels for Chesterfield 0700 Friday morning. At this point I told chaos-control that I was in a pretty bad way and would crack on with this load as best I can but wanted to run straight in from Chesterfield in the morning and go home to recover. Not a problem they said.
From there I made my way along the A272 to Billinghurst, up the A29 to Five Oaks, then A264 to Horsham and Crawley and on to the M23 for the M25, M26 to M20 J7 then on to the A249 for Sheerness. Running empty I was zipping along nicely and a number of slower wagons were in the inside lane. It’s a pretty steep hill [the A249 off the M20] and I was only just managing to maintain 50mph up it with the cars. On one of the steep bits (upwards) there’s a speed camera and it’s a 50mph limit. The idiot in the Focus in front of me sees the speed camera and starts braking… to under 40mph . Needless to say, how I maintained my professionalism and didn’t ram the fool into the middle of next week I don’t know. Of course with this happening I lost all momentum and torque and was down to 30mph near enough, with all the other trucks. . Just out of interest, does this hill running past Detling have a name, I’d be interested to know what it’s referred to as locally
I’d forgotten about the new bridge they’re building over the river Swale into Sheerness as it’s been nearly 12 months since I was last down here. Work is definitely cracking on and here are some glimpses :
New bridge on to Sheppey
Traffic still chaos though, any time of the day:
Booked in at Overland Freight and was beckoned in to load straight away. I had to point out to the FLT driver that with dumping the reels so far away from the edge he was making it virtually impossible for me to secure them with the roof mounted straps but his answer to that was ‘we don’t bother about strapping them here, just put a couple round the last reels to stop them falling over backwards and go steady’. Having confidence in my own driving 
, I’ll go with that as it saves me messing about.
Inside the warehouse being loaded :
13 reels and 27,720 tonnes on the ticket so it was slow progress enroute up North.
Medway Bridge
Finally glad to see they’ve got this bit of road finished on the A2 at Gravesend - used to be a right old bottle-neck
The M25 was the usual stop-start story all the way to M11 and then steady away up the A1 to Newark for the A617 to Mansfield where I’d had enough for the day, still feeling atrocious and lay-by’d it just before Mansfield centre for the night.
Friday 6 May saw a 0615 start and still got the migraine and dizziness . Can’t have got more than a mile down the road when I thought I was going stupid. You used to turn right at a doughnut on the A617 to go through Mansfield and out the other side but the sign was saying A617 straight ahead. It would appear that a new road has been built . Here are some pics :
New A617 by-pass :
A fun bit of road where everyone tries to get in front of the truck before the island on the other side of the junction
Arrived at D S Smith Converters at Daneswood Ind Est, Clay Closs just after 0700 and waited my turn to get tipped.
Czech 420 R-series :
My turn after the Grigg’s has finished tipping :
Large bog rolls for big bums
Once tipped there I was feeling a bit better and Dave asked me if I’d load a Shepton Mallet from Allied Glass at Knottingley for Monday as he might just put my name down for it so as Dave’s a good lad and looks after me (not that any of the others don’t) I agreed as it’s kind of enroute.
A1 northbound was slow going for miles north of the M18 …
Here’s the reasons why…
The loading bay at Allied Glass; it’s a bit tight
Soon had the load on and back to yard, fuelled up, paperworked up and finished up for 1500 and away home.
Don’t know what was going on, but some kind of protest by the Asian folks was happening in my street - they had drums going and all sorts
Edited
Nice one Rob, enjoyed reading that and a nice touch with the map links.
nice read m8
Just out of interest, does this hill running past Detling have a name, I’d be interested to know what it’s referred to as locally Question
As far as I know Rob, it’s known as Detling Hill & the A229 is Bluebell hill which I think it the highest point in Kent.
Kentish local information supplied by a carrot cruncher in the fens of east anglia
Toytown:
Just out of interest, does this hill running past Detling have a name, I’d be interested to know what it’s referred to as locally Question
As far as I know Rob, it’s known as Detling Hill & the A229 is Bluebell hill which I think it the highest point in Kent.
Kentish local information supplied by a carrot cruncher in the fens of east anglia
Thanks . What about that long drag up the A2/M2 from the Medway river heading east
Dunno about that one Rob, will ask my cousin when I speak to him (lives near rochester). No dount somebody here will know before that though
I only know the other two well from my days of tipping around Kent & Sussex & reloading Sheerness, rochester or rainham
Great read Rob
Two observations for you,
1-
Is it just me or does the two Londis trailers (if you glance at it quick) appear to be sat flat on the floor
2-
The Factory down the country lane, They really don’t want people to go past that barrier do they ?
two barriers within 6 foot of each other, Whats that all about
good read again
Discopete:
Great read RobTwo observations for you,
1-
Is it just me or does the two Londis trailers (if you glance at it quick) appear to be sat flat on the floor2-
The Factory down the country lane, They really don’t want people to go past that barrier do they ?
two barriers within 6 foot of each other, Whats that all about
There’s a zebra crossing in between them.
Rob
Premier brands at knighton is a right pain in the ■■■ job to get to i go there regular
I find it easier to come off the M6 at 14 then go A5013, B5405, A519, A41 then 1st right and up the lane to the factory
simon
SimonRS2K:
RobPremier brands at knighton is a right pain in the ■■■ job to get to i go there regular
I find it easier to come off the M6 at 14 then go A5013, B5405, A519, A41 then 1st right and up the lane to the factorysimon
Right too right. The road was much better coming from the A41 end that’s for sure. I shall go that way in future if I have that drop again.
A good read again Rob
Excellent read again Rob.
I’ve not been on that new road in Mansfield yet, didn’t even realise it had been opened until I drove over it the other day. Any road to avoid Mansfield is a big plus in my book ! Car drivers round there always seem in a red hot hurry - perhaps they cant stand the place either!!
Keep em coming.
Calv