Sat Navs

Colonel:
The difference between us, is that i reseached my loads and would not even consider taking a load that was not going to be tipped immediately on arrival at destination.The fastest way to lose money in this business is having a truck stood waiting on the whims of an importer.

It seems you all have a lot to learn about this business. If you are just a driver for a company then I don’t suppose you mind the waiting. Horses for courses.

I did not realise that this forum was full of people who talk a good story, are prepared to be bossed about by exporters as well as importers, then have the audacity to say it is me writing the tripe. I suppose you are attempting to claim demurrage for the long waiting periods.

So one of you sat ten days waiting to tip in Poland, a very profitable run then. I see I am dealing with experts.

Yes, I think we do have a lot to learn, about a business who’s time has passed. Things are very different now, lots of change in the past 10 years let alone the past 45 you profess to have been in the business.

At least in the current climate a truck waiting to tip is making money as opposed to one who’s owner has parked up in the yard after refusing work.

Nobody on this posting as far I can see has been ‘talking a good story’. Whereas the first place you mention is Baghdad, very relevant to the times I see. You strike me as the sort of driver who invariably sits opposite me on the train and proceeds to bore the ■■■■ off me for 40 minutes with endless stories of the middle east and what not.

Your time has passed, we only have to look at your most active forum to see that, accept it. Its my time now.

So, things have moved on a bit, in your opinion, switchlogic. I would be interested to hear what the truck is earning when it is standing idle waiting to either load or tip.

Baghdad was mentioned because I did this trip regularly and always unloaded the first day I arrived after customs had cleared the load.

If you look at the Middle East threads I have kept pretty much well clear, because it is full of photographes of trucks, running in convoy, parked up somewhere doing nothing. The Middle East was full of this and something that I steered well clear of. After all it was a business to me, not an adventure.

I will reiterate what I initially said and that is that I have always managed to tip my load on the day I expected to and reloaded when I expected to. If this is strange to you then there is nothing more to be said.

I accept that it is your time now and I hope you have as enjoyable time driving the trucks as I did.

IN the begining, this started out a an inquiry
about which sat nav, it has nothing to do with
late deliverys,waiting time to unload etc etc
as for the who has been furtherst what a lot of waffle
A Sat-Nav is a good instrument; to use when it fulfils
the use ,BUT and this is what many people have
agreed,YOU still need to carry a good map with you,

Wheel Nut:
You certainly were lucky then, maybe everyone else was getting lost trying to find Campogalliano or getting stuck in a queue on the tangenziale 5 minutes before the Dogana closed for the day.

It is funny that I remember arriving in Pireaus and not actually being cleared for 2 days, or pulling into Aosta to be greeted by locked offices & bolted shutters. A delivery on wheels in the olden days meant following a Bubble on a smoking 2 stroke scooter to the customer, now the driver goes direct to the drop.

If you wipe the desert dust off your rose tinted spectacles you may remember the queues at Chiasso, the Thursday driving bans and the 3 hour siestas.

Me, I have used a big big box of European maps for 30 years. I have found one now that will fit in my pocket, and talk to me :smiley:

Campogalliano, fond memories of the good food there. Never been stuck on the tangenziale five minutes before the Dogana closes.

Pireus for Anglo Greek was a simple procedure, if the load was paint with groupage then straight to the Hazardous dock and unload the groupage and then straight down to the paint store in Piraeus. Always on the day of arrival. After the customs finished and we dilevered stright to the customer all our loads went to our own warehouse on Piraeus St. Athens and anything that had to be delivered on wheels was done after the warehouse had unloaded you. Having our own office in Bouboulinas St. which was well run by Apostolis meant that everything was organised, something that seems to have passed you by on occasion.

I have been through Chiasso, but not that often as I was never light enough for Swiss. If the grapevine said Chiasso was having problems then I used the Stabio border just before it.

I don’t have rose tinted spectacles at all, I do, however have a lot more knowledge than you think, so please keep on testing me, as at my age I need a bit of stimulus.

Colonel:
The difference between us, is that i reseached my loads and would not even consider taking a load that was not going to be tipped immediately on arrival at destination.The fastest way to lose money in this business is having a truck stood waiting on the whims of an importer.
Research a load my backside, the customer gives the details and you do the job, if it goes wrong and there is a wait after 2 hours you charge demurrage at whatever rate your companny charges it at, if by chance you stand to lose a further load the customer either agress to compensate or provide alternative unloading possibilities

It seems you all have a lot to learn about this business. If you are just a driver for a company then I don’t suppose you mind the waiting. Horses for courses.
A lot ot learn, we all never stop learning in this business as nearly every day something new crops up

I did not realise that this forum was full of people who talk a good story,
you are obviously referring to your good self ■■?

are prepared to be bossed about by exporters as well as importers,
once their stuff is in your vehicle your options are limited especially under the present market conditions

then have the audacity to say it is me writing the tripe. I suppose you are attempting to claim demurrage for the long waiting periods.
I do not attempt I get a fax accepting the demurrage costs otherwise it gets unloaded elsewhere and goods do not get delivered until all incurred costs are covered

So one of you sat ten days waiting to tip in Poland, a very profitable run then. I see I am dealing with experts.
Experts ? I suppose that depends on ones definition of an expert. Until just over a year ago I was driving now I run a depot here in Spain for a Dutch company with over 100 vehicles, am I any good at it ? I do not know I know only that since I have been doing it I have increased their trailer profitability by 8% and by the end of the summer I will be running their whole Iberian operation. So I do not think that I am doing too badly or could possibly be classified as inexpert

Well, well, Vascoingles, I certainly got your hackles up. Pity that you have come with nothing at all to dispute what I have said.

Obvously things have changed since I was an operator, My customers came to me to do their haulage not me ringing round for loads. I was the one who controlled the price, not them. It is the only way to stay in business. If you are still working through the freightforwarding parasite industry then of course you will have problems. If you are working for the Supermarket chains then again you will have problems, but if you work for the blue chip companies, you will dictate how it is done assuming your price is acceptable.

You may well have increased the profitability of your trailer operation in Spain and you are to be commended for doing that, but success will only have come because it is you who is dictating policy and rates.

I have never been impresssed by red ink.

If you feel that anything I have said can in any way be construed as a good story then you are perfectly at liberty to try and shoot it down by providing facts that will dispute what I say. If you cannot, then it would be polite not to be so rude in your responses.

Colonel:
Well, well, Vascoingles, I certainly got your hackles up. Pity that you have come with nothing at all to dispute what I have said.

Obvously things have changed since I was an operator, My customers came to me to do their haulage not me ringing round for loads. I was the one who controlled the price, not them. It is the only way to stay in business. If you are still working through the freightforwarding parasite industry then of course you will have problems. If you are working for the Supermarket chains then again you will have problems, but if you work for the blue chip companies, you will dictate how it is done assuming your price is acceptable.

You may well have increased the profitability of your trailer operation in Spain and you are to be commended for doing that, but success will only have come because it is you who is dictating policy and rates.

I have never been impresssed by red ink.

If you feel that anything I have said can in any way be construed as a good story then you are perfectly at liberty to try and shoot it down by providing facts that will dispute what I say. If you cannot, then it would be polite not to be so rude in your responses.

Hackles up nah no way not you or anyone else on these forums.

Freight Forwarders the only time I use them is if I need a load on a Saturday apart from that I stay away.
One of our biggest customers is a Dutch supermarket chain their complete load rate is not too good but their part load rate is well worth having and when they have their wine actions I can usually sell the loads that we do not do ourselves for a handsome profit, 80% of our work is direct customers with a good mix between Spanish & Dutch customers who will pay top rate prices because I offer what otherwise only a big multi-national can offer delivery or pick up anywhere in the Iberian peninsula on any day you wish part or full load fridge or dry, by using my network of Spanish contacts I can get anything to from anywhere as fast as you wish if you pay the price.
The days where transport companies dictate prices to the extent that they used to are long gone due to the fact that there is too much cheap competition from other lower price countries and customers will always be tempted to try them although they do tend to come back after being let down and that is when the price goes up.

It is possible to fend off the cheap competition with good service. My main competitiors for the contract I had from Midsomer Norton were Davies Turner, Schenkers and Kuehne and Nagel, noe of which had their own trucks. They used foreign hauliers looking for backloads and offered a cheap rate.

I used to transport the aluminium foil that is used in the wrapping of chewing gum and initally this used to go to Baghdad by container via Kuwait. This used to take 21 days and with the intensive heat in the container for this period of time resulted in the foil not sealing, so the customer came to me to see if I could provide a quicker service.

I used to load sunday mornings and deliver the following monday in Baghdad. The shipping manager, Tim Howarth would sometimes call me and say that Davies Turner have knocked £300 off the rate and my response was always the same.

If it is down to money, Tim, then give it to them, but if you want your goods in Baghdad next monday then you have to put them on mine. I had this contract for five years until Sadaam nationalised all the private trading companies and demanded an exhorbitant guarantee to deliver goods to Iraq. Add the fact that at the same time the Shah was deposed in Iran and I decided that the time was ripe to sell up and retire to Spain.

You will no doubt be loading from El Ejido on a regular basis, which is where I lived for three years and at the time had a small investment in a few plastic greenhouses.

that’s a great story!

how does it relate to current events though?

Does it have to relate to current events?, why not accept it for what it was.

When I was just a wee boy, the trees were greener AND bigger than they are today. You could leave your doors unlocked and everyone doft their caps to ladies. :laughing: