Here’s a rough outline of a typical trip for me back then, ship out to Calais on Sunday night, dock at 1am or so and go to bed. Get up after a few hours kip and go into the terminal for ablutions, coffee and croissants, hit the road, first stop would be Peronne services for a pee and a coffee, then around Paris on Le Periferique, down to Fontainebleau and then RN6 down to the Algerians north of Auxerre for a bite to eat, back on the road down to Chalons/Macon/Bourg for tea and then a mad dash up to the tunnel, through the tunnel into Italy and an obligatory stop for a latte machiatto on the Italian side. From there a slow ride down the hill to Turin and then on the A4 to Milan with a stop in Novara services for another latte and a sandwich, then if you were doing Milan you had an hour or so until you got to customs and a chance for a few hours kip before opening time at 7am, if you were going further you had to push on a bit, but you could do Modena/Bologna/Verona/Vicenza before 8am easily enough. If you were going further, Prato/Florence/Ancona etc you needed to spend less time in bed in Calais, Rome/Pescara and you drove straight off the boat, Naples/Salerno/Bari/Brindisi you just couldn’t reach in time to clear unless you had come through Swiss and run down through Belgium and Luxembourg on Sunday evening.
Coming home you never had the deadline for customs as you could arrive in Dover or wherever whenever you liked, so it made the southern cities possible to do in one hit.
It happened week in and week out.
Hearing all the stories on here, which are impressive as I don’t think I’m made of that stuff…
Couple that though with what has been said on here about wages not being what they used to be, I’m a bit confused.
Are you saying that the hourly rate used to be better, or that you could get away with working more hours?
toby1234abc:
Carryfast, you don’t half talk a lot of Betty Bullox, your posts are unreadable and make no sense at all, you should be on Pre Mod and not allowed to post until the moderators
Have apapproved your rubbish that you put up on here .
I know I sprout a lot of Bullox but not has bad as your random and boring junk .
Get a life man and grow up n
But you’re big enough to admit it, unlike some …
Then us mods would actually have to read all his ■■■■■■■■ to ensure it was within the rules.
If I remember correctly it was fuse 19 to switch off the limiter and fuse 21 took out the tacho, with it on rest use to have a rolling break in the Volvo f10/12’s and had a switch on the fuse for the limiter in an old SK merc but that took out the EPS so it was bad when you hit a hill fully loaded you couldn’t change down till you switched the limiter back on,
Running bent in the 70’s/80’s/ was my forte,ended up in court a few times,no great problem and I was paid rather well and of course Europe well that was
something else.One hit wonders,well I overheard a few on the ferry and it must have caused memory loss since overhearing them boasting about a massive
drive from some Southern point in Europe they seemed to forget that I had been in a bar/restaurant with them on the way up,well oiled and a long sleep
before we moved on but some did do it but not as many as you might believe.My final long hit was oranges from Spain to Liverpool,get there as fast as you
can so off I went,arrived in Liverpool…just park over there driver we’ll tip you tonight…and that was the last time I put myself out.40 years plus on the road,
first 25 running bent almost every day and now almost 20 years running straight…God it’s knackering.Do remember visiting a truckstop in the USA,they had
about 7 shelves full of ‘keep you awake tabs’ that was a surprise, never actually found the need for ‘speed’.And one handy hint I do remember from one chap,
take a short nap…get undressed,get into bed, sleep for 2 hours then when you get up your body thinks you’ve had a nights sleep, strangely does actually
work.And just in case anyone wonders if I actually did it…I wrote the instruction book or as my buddy calls it a pamphlet…Don’t Go Without It.
Great days,great FUN and that is what is missing today.
newmercman:
Here’s a rough outline of a typical trip for me back then, ship out to Calais on Sunday night, dock at 1am or so and go to bed. Get up after a few hours kip and go into the terminal for ablutions, coffee and croissants, hit the road, first stop would be Peronne services for a pee and a coffee, then around Paris on Le Periferique, down to Fontainebleau and then RN6 down to the Algerians north of Auxerre for a bite to eat, back on the road down to Chalons/Macon/Bourg for tea and then a mad dash up to the tunnel, through the tunnel into Italy and an obligatory stop for a latte machiatto on the Italian side. From there a slow ride down the hill to Turin and then on the A4 to Milan with a stop in Novara services for another latte and a sandwich, then if you were doing Milan you had an hour or so until you got to customs and a chance for a few hours kip before opening time at 7am, if you were going further you had to push on a bit, but you could do Modena/Bologna/Verona/Vicenza before 8am easily enough. If you were going further, Prato/Florence/Ancona etc you needed to spend less time in bed in Calais, Rome/Pescara and you drove straight off the boat, Naples/Salerno/Bari/Brindisi you just couldn’t reach in time to clear unless you had come through Swiss and run down through Belgium and Luxembourg on Sunday evening.
Coming home you never had the deadline for customs as you could arrive in Dover or wherever whenever you liked, so it made the southern cities possible to do in one hit.
It happened week in and week out.
Blimey that time schedule lost me after Paris.Is that saying leave Calais around 3-4 am then get to Milan more than 24 hours later ?. 
Let’s just say that the last run I did home from Monza my card was cancelled because they couldn’t believe the time difference between fuel stops between Italy and France.Also managed to use around 15 gallons of fuel between Basel and Kehl.Left Monza around 6 pm and got home early following morning.Having wasted around 1 hour trying to get my card unlocked on the helpline number. 
Evil8Beezle:
Hearing all the stories on here, which are impressive as I don’t think I’m made of that stuff…
Couple that though with what has been said on here about wages not being what they used to be, I’m a bit confused.
Are you saying that the hourly rate used to be better, or that you could get away with working more hours?
Most no-one was hourly paid. Many were on trip money or a percentage of the vehicle earnings. Where I was it was day rate, but that was “negotiated” by each driver. Generally if we “did a bit” then booking 8days pay for 6days graft was paid out to us. If we got tired we slept, if not we went on. !0 or so hours on a card often meant dinner time. If not too much wine consumed and feeling ok then just a quick hour or so to make tomorrow easier. Being in a group meant wed gee each other up a bit I think, edge each other on sometimes. Always the French after dinner mantra "1 cafe calva 50km. 2 cafe calva 100km. 3 cafe calva doo-doos". No-one thinks it was safe or sensible, but twas a good craick!
Carryfast:
newmercman:
Here’s a rough outline of a typical trip for me back then, ship out to Calais on Sunday night, dock at 1am or so and go to bed. Get up after a few hours kip and go into the terminal for ablutions, coffee and croissants, hit the road, first stop would be Peronne services for a pee and a coffee, then around Paris on Le Periferique, down to Fontainebleau and then RN6 down to the Algerians north of Auxerre for a bite to eat, back on the road down to Chalons/Macon/Bourg for tea and then a mad dash up to the tunnel, through the tunnel into Italy and an obligatory stop for a latte machiatto on the Italian side. From there a slow ride down the hill to Turin and then on the A4 to Milan with a stop in Novara services for another latte and a sandwich, then if you were doing Milan you had an hour or so until you got to customs and a chance for a few hours kip before opening time at 7am, if you were going further you had to push on a bit, but you could do Modena/Bologna/Verona/Vicenza before 8am easily enough. If you were going further, Prato/Florence/Ancona etc you needed to spend less time in bed in Calais, Rome/Pescara and you drove straight off the boat, Naples/Salerno/Bari/Brindisi you just couldn’t reach in time to clear unless you had come through Swiss and run down through Belgium and Luxembourg on Sunday evening.
Coming home you never had the deadline for customs as you could arrive in Dover or wherever whenever you liked, so it made the southern cities possible to do in one hit.
It happened week in and week out.
Blimey that time schedule lost me after Paris.Is that saying leave Calais around 3-4 am then get to Milan more than 24 hours later ?.
Let’s just say that the last run I did home from Monza my card was cancelled because they couldn’t believe the time difference between fuel stops between Italy and France.Also managed to use around 15 gallons of fuel between Basel and Kehl.Left Monza around 6 pm and got home early following morning.Having wasted around 1 hour trying to get my card unlocked on the helpline number. [emoji38]
Yes that’s what it’s saying, Milan is 800 miles from Calais, give or take, so a 50mph average makes it a 16hr drive, which means 24hrs door to door is a piece of ■■■■, plenty of time to stop and eat and even time for a little snooze.
50 mph average ■■? have to be doing some really wild speed to average that for 16 hours so maybe your memory has ‘mellowed’ with age 
Ffs, this is like sitting on the boat on a Saturday night on the way back…
Who did what who did it quickest…
I’m sure most people who have posted on here have done much more than enough than should have been done, did I ? Yes and enjoyed every blooming minute of it…
But at the end of the day the fools are / were us, as now the rates are STB and double man Spanish / Italian etc " lorries" albeit running on RO or BG or SK plates are doing the job for half the price that we all used to do…and brag about…and so it seems still do !!!
them days are long gone unfortunately…
I can never remember averaging 50 m.p.h. between Bourge-en Bresse, going over The Blanc and getting to Aosta in the eighties.
O.K. who used to do Timbukthree in one hit. 
newmercman:
Carryfast:
newmercman:
Here’s a rough outline of a typical trip for me back then, ship out to Calais on Sunday night, dock at 1am or so and go to bed. Get up after a few hours kip and go into the terminal for ablutions, coffee and croissants, hit the road, first stop would be Peronne services for a pee and a coffee, then around Paris on Le Periferique, down to Fontainebleau and then RN6 down to the Algerians north of Auxerre for a bite to eat, back on the road down to Chalons/Macon/Bourg for tea and then a mad dash up to the tunnel, through the tunnel into Italy and an obligatory stop for a latte machiatto on the Italian side. From there a slow ride down the hill to Turin and then on the A4 to Milan with a stop in Novara services for another latte and a sandwich, then if you were doing Milan you had an hour or so until you got to customs and a chance for a few hours kip before opening time at 7am, if you were going further you had to push on a bit, but you could do Modena/Bologna/Verona/Vicenza before 8am easily enough. If you were going further, Prato/Florence/Ancona etc you needed to spend less time in bed in Calais, Rome/Pescara and you drove straight off the boat, Naples/Salerno/Bari/Brindisi you just couldn’t reach in time to clear unless you had come through Swiss and run down through Belgium and Luxembourg on Sunday evening.
Coming home you never had the deadline for customs as you could arrive in Dover or wherever whenever you liked, so it made the southern cities possible to do in one hit.
It happened week in and week out.
Blimey that time schedule lost me after Paris.Is that saying leave Calais around 3-4 am then get to Milan more than 24 hours later ?.
Yes that’s what it’s saying, Milan is 800 miles from Calais, give or take, so a 50mph average makes it a 16hr drive, which means 24hrs door to door is a piece of ■■■■, plenty of time to stop and eat and even time for a little snooze.
That’s what I’ve been saying.In which case it’s obvious that we’re talking about runs that need to have proper daily rest periods within them and the authorities have taken the nuclear option to make sure that people comply with the rules.IE a ‘little snooze’ ain’t goint to cut it when we’re dealing with that type of distance covered at truck types of average speed.While it’s difficult to understand why you wouldn’t just do that run under the usual protocols and regime of correctly placed 45 minute breaks and an 11 hour daily rest period all more or less within the similar overall 24 + hour time frame that you’ve described.Especially in the case of carrying on much further into Southern Italy. IE there was never any chance of anyone doing those types of run on a proper ‘one hit’ basis.With everything else seeming to be a based on a strange messing around with the rules taking silly short breaks here and there and not enough sleep,for no reason at the end of the day.
Brescia sells the magnets on the counter
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Taking to a chap he said if your running hanging your running bent
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Running bent RUNNING BENT 
I’ll have you know all my 2 daily log books were 100% 
raymundo:
50 mph average ■■? have to be doing some really wild speed to average that for 16 hours so maybe your memory has ‘mellowed’ with age
No read it again, I said a 50mph average would take 16hrs, so doing it in 24 was a piece of ■■■■, a 40mph average would take 20hrs and a 33.3333mph average would take 24hrs to do that 800miles, I was trying to simplify it so you could work it out for yourselves. It seems i overestimated my audience lol
On the other side of the coin, the last trip I did shortly before coming to Canada was to Alicante and I ran 100% legal, it was among the worst trips I’ve ever done, not only did I discover that I would need a map, as half of the roads I used to run were now not open to lorries and there were new roads all over the place. Anyway, back to running legal, it was ■■■■■■■■, I used to stop when I was hungry, thirsty or tired and it worked well, running legal I had to stop when the clock told me to stop and running 4.5hrs, 45mins, 4.5hrs, 9hrs off meant a 6am start had me parked up at 4pm my time, try getting a meal in a routiers at that time!
a pretty standard week for us was load Lowestoft on Monday ship Dover and clear on Tuesday if you could at Aosta,if not it was aprillia on weds and tip Latina load Bari/brindisi on Thursday tip Evesham on sat and go home. Could I do it now? I don’t know. Would I want to? Not a chance it was different times and that was the way it was done. I’ve got a nice steady well paid job now with a great boss who has done the job and understands the problems 
