AndrewG:
I one hit it from Calais to Malaga in the car and its one hell of a slog.
Realistically one hitting anywhere in Southern Europe from the Channel Ports is at best difficult varying to no chance in the case of Southern Italy/Sicily for example.Even at German and old school French motorway car type speeds.The idea of one hitting Gibralter etc from Calais,without severe sleep deprivation,at truck type speeds,let alone Euro type truck limits,sounds like mission impossible.
As for those types of run with a car it takes/took a something which can happily run for extended periods at 120 mph + often closer to 150 mph together with a speed regime which turns a blind eye,to do it comfortably.
On that note,like drink driving,Iāve always viewed higher speeds as being the much lesser of two evils if any,than pushing the boundaries of sleep requirements.
This is bikes but gives an idea of the old school fast continental ātouringā scene.
I am surprised that this thread has reached page three and nobody has mentioned putting a piece of foam on top of the needle. It didnāt matter what speed you were doing in Czecho, Yugo or Turkey back then as you would often get stopped as soon as they saw the U.K. number plates. The fine was sometimes a couple of quid paid in the local currency with a receipt or a packet of cigarettes without a receipt, we just accepted it as being part of the job. What really annoyed me at the time was that non of their vehicles were fitted with Tachographs unless they were travelling into Western Europe.
Carryfast you would be surprised by how little sleep you can get by on when you condition yourself to it. Even now I sleep a maximum of 6hrs a night and often less, itās a hangover from my younger days of running day and night.
Southern Italy and Spain were possible in one hit, plenty of firms did it back in the day and some of them had started out in the Highlands or the West Coast ferry ports and vice versa on the return trip and they did it week in and week out.
The lads from North of the M62 that did Northern Italy or Spain week in and week out also had a lot to do to get that done.
When on the fridges I did one hits from all over the place and quite often when I arrived at customs instead of diving in bed I would end up in the cafe bar slurping latte machiatto and yapping with the other Brits, who had most likely done the same as me. It was the way it was back then, everything these Eastern Europeans are doing in the fancy lorries of today we were doing 20-30yrs ago with less than 300hp, flat top cabs and no air conditioning unless we were lucky enough to have an F12. We still managed to shower and wear clean clothes though!
Quite frankly - show me someone who didnt run bent on euro ' in those days and ill show you my arse
In general , it was the norm` - make the run or donāt make money .
I confess
.
But as we quite frequently see from the prolific numbers of eastern block, parked up with that green 'Ring of Confidence ā looped through their wheels at checkpoints ,
the tables have turned, but practices & times have not changed any
ā¦
As the old saying goes : āpeople in glass houses ā¦ā
AndrewG:
I one hit it from Calais to Malaga in the car and its one hell of a slog.
Realistically one hitting anywhere in Southern Europe from the Channel Ports is at best difficult varying to no chance in the case of Southern Italy/Sicily for example.Even at German and old school French motorway car type speeds.The idea of one hitting Gibralter etc from Calais,without severe sleep deprivation,at truck type speeds,let alone Euro type truck limits,sounds like mission impossible.
As for those types of run with a car it takes/took a something which can happily run for extended periods at 120 mph + often closer to 150 mph together with a speed regime which turns a blind eye,to do it comfortably.
On that note,like drink driving,Iāve always viewed higher speeds as being the much lesser of two evils if any,than pushing the boundaries of sleep requirements.
This is bikes but gives an idea of the old school fast continental ātouringā scene.
newmercman:
Carryfast you would be surprised by how little sleep you can get by on when you condition yourself to it. Even now I sleep a maximum of 6hrs a night and often less, itās a hangover from my younger days of running day and night.
Southern Italy and Spain were possible in one hit, plenty of firms did it back in the day and some of them had started out in the Highlands or the West Coast ferry ports and vice versa on the return trip and they did it week in and week out.
The lads from North of the M62 that did Northern Italy or Spain week in and week out also had a lot to do to get that done.
When on the fridges I did one hits from all over the place and quite often when I arrived at customs instead of diving in bed I would end up in the cafe bar slurping latte machiatto and yapping with the other Brits, who had most likely done the same as me. It was the way it was back then, everything these Eastern Europeans are doing in the fancy lorries of today we were doing 20-30yrs ago with less than 300hp, flat top cabs and no air conditioning unless we were lucky enough to have an F12. We still managed to shower and wear clean clothes though!
Back when I was doing silly things I used to get 3 or if I was lucky 4 proper nights sleep a week. The rest of the time it was an hour or two here and there whenever I could squeeze one in or when on a ferry. When on for HSF doing Smithfield youād tip all customers but one who didnāt open till late and that 2 or 3 hour wait was bliss! Sleep!
raymundo wrote:
Running on log books was the best, just never put anything in at all if running bent as the fine for failing to make an entry was a lot less than making a false entry.
When back in the 60/70ās running on log books, the firm I worked for wanted you to run totally legal, no problem with that, one day running down to Plymouth from London I had honestly forgot to fill the log book out, had all my correct breaks but nothing in the book, that was the very first day it became law that a policeman could stop a driver and check his log book, you guessed it I got pulled by a copper just to have a look, I think I made his day I got done a fiver for an empty pageā¦
I like most other drivers on Euro work I had to run bent some of the time, luckily not all the time and never in Germany, they had no sense of humour, I can honestly say I never ran with the fuse out, what I used to do a lot was keep the driving time tight ie; the card would go in a normal start time but if it was going to be three or four hours loading then out would come the fuse for a couple of hours, when stopping for the evening meal and ā ā ā ā up which you knew was going to be at least three hours I let the taco run for an hours to show a break then nip out and pull the fuse for the next two hours putting the fuse back in before moving off, ok it was a chance you took on being pulled but in keeping it all tight it looked good and you could get an extra four odd hours of driving in before parking up, take the taco out reset the time put the taco back in the morning after four hours kip and away you go, seemed to work for me, I was pulled by the ministry at Dover had all the my tacoās checked and was congratulated on running strait, every one was bentā¦
newmercman:
Carryfast you would be surprised by how little sleep you can get by on when you condition yourself to it. Even now I sleep a maximum of 6hrs a night and often less, itās a hangover from my younger days of running day and night.
Southern Italy and Spain were possible in one hit, plenty of firms did it back in the day and some of them had started out in the Highlands or the West Coast ferry ports and vice versa on the return trip and they did it week in and week out.
Iād guess it depends on the definition of āone hitā.IE weāre not talking about 6 hours sleep,or for that matter any sleep in the description āone hitā.As Iāve said the best Iāve ever done are two hit runs to/from Enna in Sicily door to door including ferry crossings.Thereās no way that youāre going to do that without plenty of 120 mph + running.Trying anything like that at truck type speeds, can only either mean a liberal interpretation of the term āone hitā or silly levels of sleep deprivation to the point of being a total liability on the road. Which is why then or now we generally have night drivers or day drivers not both.
Again, itās surprising what you can do when you are conditioned. One hit, as in stopping for fuel, food and bodily functions from Southern Italy to Calais is very possible, many including myself have done it many times.
My point about 6hrs sleep is that it is the most sleep I ever have nowadays, sometimes I get to a point where I stay up all night in the hopes of getting a longer sleep the following night, or I get a couple of hours and then have to get up, but once Iām up, Iām up, Iām never groggy, I never lay in bed trying to nod off either, I go to bed when Iām ready to sleep and when I hit the pillow, thatās it, Iām out cold. All those years of day and nights in my 20s, both at work and at play have conditioned my brain that way.
a NMM said you got used to it in the 80s ā¦well mostly, I was on a regular ish ,start Monday at 4am run south down to Oldham to deliver returns then of to S Killiingholm unload wagon ,run to outside London put trailor and wagon on bays go in put lines in order ,away to the can for a wash /shower ,always a quick load and be on my way north to Cairnryan to catch the early boat . I would arrive about 5-6am , split outfit shunter put drag on hook up ( I was never fast enough at reversing in so they said drop trailor and hook up drag on deck),always first on and down to get full breakfast ,wash shave (or if it had been a hard run get on and fall asleep ower the steering wheel ,an hour or so zzzzzzzzzā¦unload at Larne and start the multi drop round the shops so I would be in a bar at about 7pm Tuesday . If unlucky it was off the boat head for Dublin or limerick wae all the customs crap etc that brought ā¦empty and thrash back to load for the late boat at midnight in the north then as far as I could go usually would make my unload at Manchester(stallybridge)Wednesday am then take a proper breakā¦kin nuts I know but it was the way it was done ,did this until I woke up one night and did not know where I was ,couldnāt remember anythingā¦then a week or so later at night I saw "The Beast " in my case an elephant in the middle lane ā¦not good when traveling at warp speed. anyway at home my auld boy gave me the talk telling me I had been lucky and to take the warning otherwise I would die in my sleep. Jacked the job took a local one but went back to the darkside later on .
it looked real to me at 2am going warp speed down the hill past Tebay. Took a while on the hard shoulder to shake myself awake /calm down. laughing now but at the time FFS. jimmy.
newmercman:
All those years of day and nights in my 20s, both at work and at play have conditioned my brain that way.
Ironically Iāve not driven a truck since the end of the 1990ās but as youāll see by some of the times of my posts on here my body clock is still zbād after 15 years of permanent nights.
But I feel knackered just reading about some these exploits of our international running fleet.It even makes the military look like a bunch of wimps.On that note no wonder they seemed to have preferred using the tunnels than the passes running to/from Italy.Probably on the basis that they wouldnāt know anything about falling asleep and hitting something head on but they would have time to wake up going off the side of a mountain.
newmercman:
All those years of day and nights in my 20s, both at work and at play have conditioned my brain that way.
Ironically Iāve not driven a truck since the end of the 1990ās but as youāll see by some of the times of my posts on here my body clock is still zbād after 15 years of permanent nights.
But I feel knackered just reading about some these exploits of our international running fleet.It even makes the military look like a bunch of wimps.
A lot of us donāt believe you are real, and are just some weird Google experiment into artificial intelligence!
newmercman:
All those years of day and nights in my 20s, both at work and at play have conditioned my brain that way.
Ironically Iāve not driven a truck since the end of the 1990ās but as youāll see by some of the times of my posts on here my body clock is still zbād after 15 years of permanent nights.
But I feel knackered just reading about some these exploits of our international running fleet.It even makes the military look like a bunch of wimps.
A lot of us donāt believe you are real, and are just some weird Google experiment into artificial intelligence!
Some say Iām actually a drone pilot for the RAF and soon to add the control of self driving cars and trucks as part of a multi task 24/7 shift pattern.
newmercman:
All those years of day and nights in my 20s, both at work and at play have conditioned my brain that way.
Ironically Iāve not driven a truck since the end of the 1990ās but as youāll see by some of the times of my posts on here my body clock is still zbād after 15 years of permanent nights. [emoji38]
But I feel knackered just reading about some these exploits of our international running fleet.It even makes the military look like a bunch of wimps. [emoji38]
A lot of us donāt believe you are real, and are just some weird Google experiment into artificial intelligence!
He isnāt real, itās RikkiUKās alter ego, it exists purely to rack up interest and satisfy his warped mind.
Donāt believe me, well have you ever seen them both in the same room?
I rest my caseā¦
[emoji3] [emoji3] [emoji3] [emoji3]
newmercman:
He isnāt real, itās RikkiUKās alter ego, it exists purely to rack up interest and satisfy his warped mind.
Donāt believe me, well have you ever seen them both in the same room?
I rest my caseā¦
[emoji3] [emoji3] [emoji3] [emoji3]
You can bet if I was Iād arrange a test match between that Volvo F16 and a V8 Scania to Sicily and back.Iāll drive the Scania and Switch can drive the Volvo then weāll do an engine tear down and rebuild competition between Bking doing the Volvo and CAV doing the Scania.
jimmy.