HI ALL I HAVE BEEN READING UP ON TGIS PAGE AND JUST WONDERING ARE THEY STILL TAKING DRIVERS OVER THERE OR DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW I CAN GET THE RELEVENT INFO,I HAVE GOT CLASS 1 AND HAVE BEEN DRIVING HGVS SINCE I JOINED THE ARMY SO COULD ANY ONE PLEASE HELP CHEERS GUYS ,ADY 
Welcome to trucknet Blade. Turn you caps lock off,it looks as if your shouting at people on here. 
If you read the tread it will give you an e-mail addy to contact if your interested/mad enough to go out there. 
rob you wont be able to blow your top when they say were not tippin you today sorry
that diary WOULD BE WORTH READING LOL
i have been know to be loud sometimes but other than that many appoligies,thank you all for the warm welcome it is appriciated cheers guys , yes i am very interested about working in the middle east keep hoping to talk to neil about but iam sure that time will come ,well got to shoot off having a few beers 
and watching the bike racing at donnington will be ack soon take care all ady 
ps where can fine the tread and please dont say on my tyres cheers ady
Not much of a report and pics coming later 
ANACONDA EXPRESS
JUNE 30TH THURSDAY
START MILEAGE 73790
TEMP 44C
TRUCK NO ST658
20 WESTERN DRIVERS
Left HL5 at 10.00 got to Arifjan with no problems and dropped empty trailer and picked up one with
containers on.Mostly americans on this convoy and sorry to say some are not what i call with it.
I decided to do my own thing and let them get on with it still at least crooky was on here.
We left arifjan at 12.15 with the usual police ■■■■■■ and boy were they slow today.Finally got
rid of them at final checkpoint and asked the CS if he could speed it up.we arrived at Navistar
at 15.15 and fueled up then staged in lane 6 while army checked off loads before going over to
the chicken coop to park for the night.
Crooky had already decided to drop his trailer and run back to the apt so as i had forgot my
phone and lead to laptop and cd,s i said i would ride back with him and we would leave
to come back at 20.00.
Got back to apt Brendon there with Bill chatting i collected my stuff had a home delivery
of Hardees then went and met Crooky in the foyer eventually getting back to truck about
10 when i went to bed.
total mileage in my truck 201.8
end mileage 73992
JULY 1ST FRIDAY
START MILEAGE 73992
TEMP 34C
Alarm went off at 05.00 but couldnt be bothered to get up so i borrowed Tims stove so i
could boil some water and have a quick wash in the cab and a cup of coffee.While waiting
to leave spotted an Aidan Doherty Trailer from Tipperary Town so know doubt someone
on here has heard of him.
Temperature at 08.00 was 38c and i was in the shade crooky gave me some ice as no one
wanted to get any for the drivers.We were due to leave at 10.00 but didnt pull out till 10.30
with temp at 45c.started off well enough until we tried to overtake another convoy,well after
about 15mins of speeding up and slowing down the army decided we couldnt pass them
so we dropped back behind them it was a pointless exercise.
We go to Cedar and parked on motorway so humvees could fill up and we could stretch our
legs before moving on to Scania where we arrived at 18.30.we fueled up then parked up and
managed to get to dinner before they shut then back to truck and bed as we were leaving at
04.00 so not a lot of rest as it was gone 20.30
days mileage 420
end mileage 74413
JULY 2ND SATURDAY
START MILEAGE 74413
TEMP 30C
Woke up at 03.00 went for shower then back to truck.left at 04.00 got out of Scania and
discovered i had no brake lights but luckily we stopped before we got through final check
point so i pushed plug back in and they worked ok.got to where we normally have to go off
road into the sand and found they had finished that stretch so no more IWO JIMA as i used
to call it about a 1km stretch of not seeing anything except sand in front of you and hoping
the truck in front is still going.
We started to hear the sth bound convoy on the radio when all of a sudden an RPG took
out one of their trucks so pandemonium reigned for a while.the driver was a TCN and although
the army medics looked after him the medivac chopper would not come out so he had to
ride in another truck until the next camp which we all agreed was wrong if it had been one
of us they would have come out esp as he had 2nd and 3rd degree burns.
We passed his truck about 15minutes later and it was well alight as the army threw an incendiary
bomb under it so the iraqi couldnt get the load or anything.
We got onto Sword which is the name of this section of road and it was very very quiet and
a bit dubious as it is not normally like this so we kept a good lookout as we went through,there
was plenty of tanks and other support vehicles so we think it was a SECOP and everyone was
told to stay indoors.
Got to Anaconda about 08.15 and went through the portable x-ray machine they now had in place.
pulled up to the unloading area and helped others unstrap before going round and having my
containers taken off.went off to reload and got 40ft open sided container full of pallets of old
vehicle batteries great lots of weight.went and got fueled up then round to staging area to park
for night no bobtails there guiding us all so total disarray but that was to be expected with
people that we had on convoy.dropped my trailer and went off to Dfac for lunch which was
not a lot of cop or it was cos i was tired.
Went up and had shower at the marines toilet block then went back and hooked up leaving
again at 04.00 in morning so went off to bed.
mileage for day 258 kms
end mileage 74671
JULY 3RD SUNDAY
START MILEAGE 74671
TEMP 48C
Alarm woke me up at 02.45 had ■■■ then got dressed and wandered over to the green bean cafe
for a takeaway coffee and went back to truck where the army was hooking up to their trailers
and we left on time at 04.00.Got to be lead truck which is good and bad and had Crooky
behind me.nothing much happened till we got past the main part of Baghdad and we had to wait
on the road for an IED to be blown up which was neat to see but couldnt get pic as we didnt
know when the detonation would happen but it was good to watch.
We arrived at Scania at 08.15 which was too late for breakfast so we went into Joes cafe for
coffee and some cereal.went back to truck and we were leaving at 14.00 for Cedar where
we were gonna stop for the night why we didnt just run straight there i do not know.
mileage from Anaconda staging area to Scania was 246.2kms.
decided to play golf till 12.15 then went for lunch got back to truck temp at 13.00 was only
43c not a real warm day.we left for Cedar on time and fueled up outside which again dont
know why as we all had enough to get to Cedar still thats the army for you.
Arrived at Cedar at 17.45 finally got staged up about 18.15 leaving at 05.00 so carried
on playing golf for a bit before retiring.
total mileage 455.5
end mileage 75126
JULY 4TH MONDAY
START MILEAGE 75126
TEMP N/A
Got up and went for shower about 04.00 got back and army turning up to hook up to their trailers
supposed to leave at 05.00 but they had trouble with bobtail so it wasnt till 06.30 that we finally
left but while we were waiting the army went and got brekky for everyone which was nice of them.
cant really say much more about this leg of trip didnt stop at border so straight through to arifjan
got unloaded and back to HL5 got on bus and waited nearly an hour before leaving and getting
back to apartment.
no end mileage
Welcome to TruckNet UK BLADE 918 
Another good read neil
just read the lastes and neil another stunning read and hi to all and thanks for the welcomes ady
STOP PRESS
Its over meeting at 8am this morning PWC were successful in their appeal against the suspension.therefore we have been given notice that our last day is 25th august.
But the good news is i wont be here then as my R and R starts on the 15th so i will be home then for good and will still be paid up to the end
To all the guys that have been in contact with me about coming over i am sorry it hasnt worked out for you.
Neil
What a dam shame I thought you had it worked out. Stay safe until the 15th, I like many others will miss your stories thanks for a very interesting read.
so what it be next neil it just wont be the same will it the motorways of the uk but good to things are nearly ok just keep ya head down till home time
oh ■■■■
Will miss your diarys.
As for being safe.You maybe better off staying there.
At least you have some top guys protecting you’s.
8 days to go flying back by BA so will be slightly inebriated
well here it is my last day in kuwait and they still tried to send me out on a local mission 
i am all packed except for this laptop and will hopefully be rising into the sky at 6am uk time in the morning.
not to sure how i feel at this moment in time as to wether i will miss it or not,it has certainly opened my eyes to a situation that i used to just see in the media.
will i return if IAP get the contract back probably if it is a cast iron one and not just for a month or two and the conditions were the same.
i have some more pics for you to see which i will sort out when i am sitting in my comfy chair on my computer at home.
finally i would just like to say a VERY BIG THANK YOU to all of you that have viewed my report and for all the kind comments that you have posted.
once again MANY THANKS
neil46
Have a safe trip home Neil. I think I can safely say that all of us at TruckNet are very glad you have made it safely through to the end of the contract. Looking forward to seeing the pics.
Yes have a safe trip and thank you for sharing your experiences with us.
Are you going to consider writing a book on them.
Have a safe trip home Neil, and take it easy for a while, all best for the future mate,
Flying with BA
yes BA im afraid no food or alcohol due to strike.we got 2 bags containg fruit biscuits and choccy for the flight.
anyway i am back and as promised some more pics.
this was one of the trucks on our convoy going south it was hit by an RPG but the TCN got out ok with just some minor burns.
no funeral directors here they just stick them on the roof. 
i do have some more pics but havent downloaded them yet and back to work tomorrow for 3 days then a week away with wife and family so will do some in the next week or so
anyway hope you liked
neil46
hi mack
wasnt happy with my load so took pic in case it fell off
not what you know but who.this is GENERAL JOHNSON who is the main man in iraq he came along for the ride with 2 colonels.
a few fellow drivers. L to R. hayden,terry,terry,phil and andy.taken in the local chinese.
was a hell of a wave
spare trailer tyre
spare truck tyre
airline connectors we called them GLADHANDS just leaked most of the time 
this was the rations tent and where we kept out coolbox and utensils.
this is OMAR an egyptian who was in charge of the rarions tent.
this is JOHN from scotland .
new slant on a zebra crossing
Good pics neil
yep nice pictures neil,what does the future hold out have your old company said anything about working else where as a driver , or even perhaps mentioned wait and see how the new firm works because if they are cheaper labour and have a limited grasph of english/american -english , then some how there will be big problems all round,