YET ANOTHER GOOD READ LIKE THE PIC,S COOL READ
Many thanks for the read and the photos appreciate the links,nearly as good as being on the road,but without the hassles ,thanks again.
regards derek
Thanks for all the replies and kind words, it’s good to know that the 10 minutes 
it takes me to produce this every week is appreciated .
Running Sunday next week with an 0830 Shepton Mallet and then reloading of of Rexam in Yate/Chipping Sodbury for … ? Now then, where did he say it was? Think it might have been Stir Fry in Bourne.
Good read Rob enjoyed that
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
Simply called Detling Hill, as for the A2/M2 running east towards Gillingham it doesn’t have a name as far as i know but i could be wrong.
Sunday 8 May saw me away from the yard about 1700 and a swift run down to Shepton Mallet for the morning with 52 pallets of empty WKD Vodka Blue/Irn Bru glass bottles.
Monday 9 May had me up around 0800 for my 0830 delivery and soon had that off 
. Round to Tesco’s on the other side of town to stock up on supplies for the week and then chaos-control rang with my backload details which was the usual collection out of Rexam at Yate near Chipping Sodbury.
I wasn’t too impressed with going through Bath last time and I’m bored of running the A37 and up the M32 to the ring road so I elected to go via the A361 past Frome and up through Bradford-upon-Avon and round the east side of Bath.
Everything was going well as I was running empty and had a number of tippers of varying sizes in front of me which were pretty much doing 56mph bar the peaks and troughs along the route and I was quite happy more-or-less keeping up with them and keeping the traffic flowing.
We got to the doughnut where you have to turn right on the by-pass round Frome and as you leave the doughnut it drops down fairly steeply into a dip. The tippers were off like rockets down the hill but being the keen-eyed professional driver that I am 
I spotted the tell-tale signs of some florescent markings well down the road on the nearside verge and yep, you’ve guessed it, it was the local ‘safety’ camera brigade on a day out.
I held the wagon back at 40mph all the way down the hill from the doughnut and smugly grinned to myself as I went past knowing that they haven’t lightened my pocket of £60 and got their grubby mitts on my licence .
Now the intention was to head up towards Trowbridge and then take the left fork up the B3109 to Bradford-upon-Avon but I detected a 17 tonne GVW weight limit so without thinking about it, sailed past and pulled the map out for an alternative route which, from where I was, wasn’t going to be easy (last time I was down there the A36 was closed long-term for some kind of repair work heading into Bath, not sure if that’s still the case or not?).
After a few minutes thought, I realised that it was 17 tonnes gross vehicle weight, so as I was running empty my total weight was around 13 tonnes so therefore I was okay to go through Bradford. So off up round and eventually through Trowbridge as I couldn’t find the road I wanted on the route it was taking me and down into Bradford where I remembered just how tight it was having last been through there in an 18 tonner rigid. I think a few of the locals were a bit upset but hey-ho, life goes on.
Soon arrived at Yate…
Very steep A46 out of Bath towards the M4
…and got preferential treatment of being pulled to the front of the queue to load with plastic meat trays. I had to call round to one of their other warehouses to load two final pallets at Gent Transport and Warehousing just down the road towards Bristol.
Gent Transport & Warehousing
Nice Irish FH12 with the driver catching up on some sleep seemingly
I was on my way up the M5, M42, M1, M18 to Thorne for what was actually an AM delivery today (now 1230 and I’m still in Gloucestershire…).
The plan was to join onto the end of the M180, coming off at J1 and run up the short stretch of A614 into Thorne, over the canal and then take a right turn onto Church Street, along there and left onto Coulman Street (top right) where the Food place was I was to tip at - Grampian Count(r)y Foods. Sadly, before getting to the bridge I was pre-warned of a 7.5 tonne weight limit at all times 
. Now considering that entering the town from the north end and off M18 J6 is a 14ft something bridge then I can’t go in that way because I’m running at 15’2.
No time for messing about so carried on regardless and would point out these fact to the local constabulary should they take it upon themselves to draw this weight limit to my attention. So I got into the town centre and then discovered that Church Street is a one-way street in the opposite direction. 
. In the end I had to go up Kind Edward Road and in that way.
After much messing about at Grampian, generally getting in everyone’s way and having to move the wagon far more times than my patience was designed to put up with, I was finally tipped and out of there.
Tipping at Grampian Count(r)y Foods, Thorne
A call to my mate Keith found that he was headed in the same direction so we decided to meet up in Donny and go for some beers.
Keith and I parked up in Donny Town Centre, in the middle of the red light district….
Cheap beer night at Wetherspoon’s, pint of Guinness and Fosters for £3 - can’t go wrong, so we consumed far more of those than we probably should have done . Had a two-for-£5.75 meal offer which went down nicely and then back to our motors to sleep it off when the pub shut.
Tuesday 10 May had me up at 0530 
and on the road for 0600 heading for Allied Glass at Knottingley for another Shepton Mallet.
What’s with the light arrangement here ?
In fact never mind the lights, how about a visible rego plate 
Soon had my next load of glass on and found out that chaos-control had cocked up the order numbers. Turned out that the order number I had was booked in for 1530 which meant a nice leisurely drive down but I’d been told by chaos-control that it was booked in for 1300 so needed to be away from Knottingley at 0720 at the latest to get it their in time - 5hrs 40 mins door to door including a break.
I got down near Derby and the phone went saying that the guy who was picking up what was now the 1300 load had only just arrived at Knottingley and it was now heading towards 10am so could I swap the order numbers on the sheet to read the one for the 1300 booking . Alright then, I suppose so. Bang goes my leisurely day 
.
Everything was going smoothly until I got on to the M5 where I was instantly blown into the ditch by a £200-per-week-and-a-tin-of-polish Richard King 144 460 Streamline doing well in excess of 60mph on the flat. Of course, I forgot that speed limiters are an optional extra when equipped with Northern Ireland plates even though the company is based in Lancashire iirc .
Took a 45 at Michael Wood MSA; correction: TRIED to take a 45 at Michael Wood MSA but guess what, couldn’t find a space anywhere in the truck park, not because it was a busy time of the day, oh no, it was full of CARAVANS.
So many in fact, that you’ll notice I’m parked facing in the opposite direction with having to drive round in circles for so long trying to find a caravan-free space. I got fed up after a couple of minutes and upon seeing another two venture in from the motorway, I pulled across in front of them and told them to get the out and use the EMPTY car park instead of using their 25ft combination to take up valuable 60ft artic spaces in the TRUCK park. Some of them didn’t like that and took it into their heads that they had some kind of superiority and divine right to park in the truck park but the old couple in the 406 above some found themselves on the rough side of my tongue 
.
Went into Shepton Mallet via M5 J23 and through Glastonbury for a change and I noted that it is in fact only 5 minutes longer than going via the M32, through Bristol and the A37, and is in fact a much ‘easier’ drive in terms of steep hills and such like.
Couple of pics of the B3136 which cuts the corner from Pilton on the A361 straight into Shepton Mallet.
After a bit of a wait to get tipped at Brother’s Drinks I was away for their Farmlee yard on the other side of town near Tesco’s to load 26 pallets of WKD for Mansfield Brewery 1000 Wednesday in, er, Mansfield.
I couldn’t be arsed running up there tonight and it’s a big no-no for me to park in these alleged secure truck stops and MSA’s with high value stuff on, so I parked slap-bang in the middle of the main Shepton Mallet town centre car park for the night which is pretty well lit too.
Wednesday 11 May had me up at 0530 for the usual morning things before getting going and was pleased to see that my load and curtains were still intact . I was on the road just a few minutes after 0600 after getting a nice snap of this Den Hartogh’s FH12, a company I was planning to work for at one point.
Den Hartogh’s FH12 globe
Travelling up through the roadworks on the M5 just after Avonmouth I spotted this strange combination, pulled by a DAF CF prime mover with an extraordinary short chassis, not dissimilar to those use by car transporters. I’ve seen these used by Salvesen’s with Dunlop tyre boxes on too.
Arrived at Mansfield Brewery a few minutes after 1000 and there was no waiting about here, the FLT driver had my 26 pallets off in about 15 minutes.
Mansfield Brewery
After pulling out I’d phoned up chaos-control to ask where I was back-loading from and they advised they’d advise chaos-control at Birch (who deal with the back-loads) that I was empty and they’d phone me up with the details. As I was feeling a bit tired I jumped on the bunk a few minutes afterwards (at 1130), set the cab phone ringer volume to ‘high’ and promptly fell asleep, with the night heater on low (a terrible combination…) with the idea that when the phone rings it would wake me up.
The plan would have worked well, had the phone actually rung so imagine my horror when I woke up bright-eyed and feeling completely refreshed at 1530[/b] 
. Luckily, I was releaved to see that there were no missed calls on the cab phone, phew .
Of course I didn’t waste any time phoning Leeds chaos-control up and mentioning that I was still sat here waiting for my next load details.
Alan answers the phone and says to me :
‘Are you tipped at Shrewsbury now?’.
‘Shrewsbury??[/b]’.
‘Yeah’.
‘I’m at Mansfield’.
‘Mansfield??[/b] Why are you there still?’
‘Still waiting for my next load details from someone’.
‘Right okay, let me phone Birch’, and with that the phone went dead.
About a minute later the phone rings and it’s Danny from Birch :
‘Hello mate, how come you’re still at Mansfield?’.
‘[tale repeated]’
‘I phoned you up before 1200 with your load details’.
‘Nope, you didn’t, because I’ve been in the cab since I was tipped here’.
‘Oh, I’m sure I phoned you up’.
‘No, sorry, wasn’t me, I can tell you that for sure’.
‘Okay. Go down to Stone Market at Coventry, you want a load out of there for Shrewsbury. Do you think you’ll get it off tonight?’.
‘Unlikely as it’s 1530 now and I’m still in Mansfield’'.
‘Okay, what about 0730 tomorrow morning then?’
‘Yeah that shouldn’t be a problem’.
Beezer.
Down the A38, M1, M69, A46 to Stone Market and 20 tonne of stone soon loaded up for Shrewsbury. I called at the fuel bunker at Shareshill just off the M6/M54 and dieseled up then away down the M54 towards Shrewsbury. Not knowing Shrewsbury at all and remembering that the roads leading to the town centre were never designed to accomodate artics I decided to lay-by it tonight and found a suitable lay-by after the M54 becomes the A5. This was soon a decision I regretted. Even though I was virtually parked completely on the verge - as far away from the carriageway as possible I was still getting the rocking effect by passing wagons 
. I contemplated moving and finding somewhere else to park but in the end I couldn’t be arsed and put up with it. Once I’d fallen asleep I didn’t wake up until the alarm went off at 0630 in the morning, but that’s the last time I’ll be lay-bying it for sure.
Thursday 12 May saw me in Shrewsbury at 0730, at A Edwards Bertram Ltd on Betton Street to be precise, a builder’s merchant’s. The usual early morning ‘vans-everywhere’ thing was of course happening here just like it does at every other builders yard round the country first thing so getting my load off was pretty time-consuming to say the least and not helped that the surface of the yard was just rough ground which meant that the FLT driver was understandably going frustratingly slowly everywhere .
Finally got away about 0900 and back to Stone Market for a 25 tonne load for Roman Way garden centre on the A5 at Potterspury, just north of Milton Keynes.
Some pics for Pat of his home town (Towcester) :
After much dawdling along through Pottersbury looking for this garden centre I saw it appear on the right hand side and just managed to get the wagon through the gates . They wanted the stuff round the back of course and this necessitated trying to negotiate the wagon round an access road which clearly wasn’t designed with deliveries in mind. Despite my best attempts and using all the ‘road’ available to me it just wasn’t happening as you can see :
Roman Way Garden Centre at Potterspury - not artic friendly
Can’t get any further over to the left hand side to get the trailer round :
And again trying to get back out :
Trying to get out of the exit was a challenge in itself too, having to go the wrong way round the one way system
From there chaos-control sent me down to Kodak at Hemel Hempstead which is apparently one of our yards but run by Exel, work that one out .
The directions given were spot on and here I was loaded with 14 pallets for Superdrug at South Elmsall, West Yorks.
Shunter at Kodak, Hemel Hempstead with a black-eye :
Don’t know if my fellow wagon driving colleagues who are based at this depot were all having a bad day but I was pretty annoyed to find that all three of them who I saw arrive while I was being loaded all completely blanked me when I waved a ‘hello’ at them, like you do when you see another driver from the same company. It’s really not difficult just to wave a ‘hello’ back is it Miserable with a capital F.
I was going to run up to South Elmsall with it tonight but shortly after I had my mate Keith on the bell again telling me he was planning to stop at Northampton for the night so as I wasn’t booked in until 1000 tomorrow morning I elected to join him once again.
I already knew where to park as we’ve stopped there numerous times in the past. Head for Super Sausage over the river, go past it up the hill and turn left into Grafton Street Ind Est and park up in the red light district near Quorn Way where there are still a good few units that don’t have ‘private land’, ‘no parking’ or ‘clamping’ signs on them - one of them being in a dead end right at the top of the Ind Est, behind the Gulf garage.
I figured out a long time ago that the safest places to park up in town centres are always the red light districts because there are allus folks about well into the silly hours of the morning - obviously the prossies themselves and also those after business so the chances of having your load pinched or having dodgy characters snooping around is pretty slim. There are allus exceptions of course, but I base that on my own experiences. One mustn’t forget that these areas are usually regularly frequented by the local constabulary too to catch those seeking ‘business’ so to me that’s another bonus too.
Often by speaking to the prossies directly they will tell you where’s okay to park and where’s not, albeit with the kind offer of ‘business’ at the same time which of course I politely decline, but thank them for their offer . The down side of it is that you might get a couple of knocks on your door but they’re usually only light taps rather than the incessant thudding you get from jobsworth’s like security guards and the ‘you can’t park here’ brigade.
Whilst waiting for Keith to arrive I was sat in my wagon on the phone to another mate and I noticed a white premium and trailer kept driving past the end of the road and then appeared behind me, went past and kept on doing the same thing over and over again. Strange. I won’t mention which company it was but one member will know straight away who I’m referring to. Given that he was circling the red light district repeatedly I hardly think he was lost . This went on for a good couple of hours and made me wonder how the company in question actually makes any money. I mean, surely he had deliveries to do or whatever, or be on a daily rest if overnighting
The “lost” driver
That sorted out we headed for the town where the local Wetherspoon’s was soon found and of course Thursday night is curry night ! Curry of your choice with rice, chapatti’s and a naan for a fiver with samosa’s being a quid for 3 if you want those. Now I’m not a ‘curry’ person and in my entire life have probably never had more than half a dozen of the things . Tonight was going to be different though and on recommendation from Keith I went for a Lamb Rogan Josh with some yellow coloured rice, the aforementioned chapatti’s and naan plus I got some lamb samosa’s too. I wasn’t holding out too much hope for liking it but in actual fact it was scrumptuous and really enjoyed it . I shall definitely be trying more curries in the future that’s for sure!
Once again, far too many beers were consumed and we left around 2230 heading back towards our wagons but ended up making a detour to The Welcome for a last pint. What a mistake this was. There were a good few other drivers in here and we soon found ourselves driving the table and on a lock-in 
. Can’t remember what time we left but it wasn’t late, it was early .
Friday 13 May saw me away at 0700 and up the M1 heading for Superdrug. I was in a pretty good mood and feeling fine and dandy after the previous night but that soon changed as I was approaching J19 for the M6. I was already too close to the wagon in the front really and was ready for pulling out round it but I had a Vectra at the side of me. There was nothing in front of the wagon in front of me for at least 400 yards and nothing behind me for about the same distance too. The Vectra positioned himself alongside the non-existant gap between me and the artic in front at 300 yards to the M6 slip and put the left hand indicator on. No problem to me, he wasn’t getting in there as their wasn’t a gap and what about all the empty road behind me and in front of the artic in front of me . After sitting their indicating for a split-second he just pulled straight in front of me . I couldn’t believe it, that was the closest I’ve ever had from another vehicle at speed. To give you a picture of how close it was, look at this pic from my last weeks diary :
Where that black Focus is behind the Augustin’s artic was how close I was to the artic in front of me, ready for pulling out. The Vectra pulled into a gap that size at 56mph . Holding the horn down and holding the full beam on just didn’t do it justice but I didn’t see red, nor purple, I saw that colour that is beyond both of those - the sort that just pushed you past all boundaries and you just want to kill them . Very luckily for him he was going in another direction and on a clear road where he could get away but if the traffic had been at a crawl I won’t write down what I would have done 
.
I was that wound up by it that I just had to ease off to calm down and pulled into Leicester Forest for a coffee and stop for 15 minutes. Did me a world of good too and was okay after that but that one was the worst I’ve ever had for cutting in close without a doubt.
Anyway, suitably calmed and happy again I carried on up to Superdrug at South Elmsall where I was straight under the canopy and had my 14 pallets of film off in about 10 minutes and the notes were waiting for me in the booking-in office after fastening the curtains back up.
Pulled out and had a snooze for a while then heading round to Pearl’s cafe on the A638 which has already been documented here.
Pearl’s cafe :
From there I went over to Selby via the A1 and here’s the latest progress with the new Ferrybridge interchange :
From the A1 northbound :
And from the M62 westbound :
I was loading recycled cardboard rolls from Rigid Charta Paper Ltd in Selby, on Denison Rd and these are for delivery to Ontime Packaging in Quedgeley nr Gloucester for 0830 Monday and as I’ll be taking them that means another Sunday evening run. Not too fussed by that as it will mean another early finish on Friday and I want to be back early anyway as my wagon’s in for service next weekend.
Rigid Charta Paper at Selby
Good job the wagon hadn’t just been washed…
Once loaded there it was back to the yard and finished for the week.
I see ianyng has seen sense and bought some new motors for his Italian work - good lad 
Another good read rob 
Have I??
News to me Mr. Rob!!
Anyway - it’s a Daf.
ianyng:
Have I??
News to me Mr. Rob!!
Anyway - it’s a Daf.
Exactly. ie. it’s not an Iveco.
Are you happier in this job, Rob? Cos I haven’t seen any rows or anything like that for ages now in your weekly reports!! Or is it you’re not dealing with so many prattish security guards?
By the way, I know exactly what you mean about the rocking in the laybys!! No matter how far from the road you park, you’ll be rocked. But I have always had a good nights sleep like that lolol
Calv:
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
Another good read Rob!
Who do you reckon’s got the best reputation (to work for) from all of the bigger transport companies in Leeds??
Good read Rob, nice pic of Richards wee scanny
Very good read and pic’s Rob
good read rob seem,s like u had easy week this week lol few tight turn,s in the builder,s yard
TheBear:
Are you happier in this job, Rob? Cos I haven’t seen any rows or anything like that for ages now in your weekly reports!!
Nah - it’s not that.
The auto-censor on here is working overtime, and every other sentance that Rob types is being automaticaly deleted just to be on the safe side!!
Good interesting read as always
Rob K:
(last time I was down there the A36 was closed long-term for some kind of repair work heading into Bath, not sure if that’s still the case or not?).
Nope no problems there as far as i know !
LIKE ever one that has all readyposted yes a nice read with some good pictures to enjoy as well, ta mate,
I agree.Rob’s ramblings are fantastic.
But what strikes me as funny,is the white Premium in the pic.I seem to know that from somewhere… and before anyone asks,no it isn’t me,as I’m in chaos control at the moment.
Ken.
sorry TWINGO LOVER but the truck only does 56 flat out as its my old motor so yours must be doing around 52 -53 or less dispite what the tacho tells you
for my 200 quid and tin of polish id rather actually be doing 56 than 50 mph and the driver got an apple for getting the truck back early
seen as your obviously on 700 quid week dragging the job out to get the hours in
Excellent post rob, really enjoying them. Somehow my exploits on the mainland are never that interesting.
alix776:
sorry TWINGO LOVER but the truck only does 56 flat out as its my old motor so yours must be doing around 52 -53 or less dispite what the tacho tells you
for my 200 quid and tin of polish id rather actually be doing 56 than 50 mph and the driver got an apple for getting the truck back early
Why does it have N. Irish plates? Was it bought here or is it just to hide the age.