Short 2 week diary

[gogzy]

Well where do i start, probably with my first day back after a week off.

Monday morning i start with a local delivery with a loaded trailer from base in Erp and take it to Campina in Veghel, short run (about 10km). first problem arose with me not really having a clue what to do with a 3 compartment tank when under pressure (been on single compartments on my last trip) anyway a quick message back to base Erp and withing a few mins ive got a walkthrough explination on what to do with the tank. 3 hours later im tipped (glucose is slow to tip when its thick)

Take trailer back to Erp and drop it at cleaning, then head over to the trailer park and find my next trailer then head out to Alko Reasearch in Roggel, collecting a load of corkys creambase whatever that is, (mayby Fiona will be able to tell us? LOL), Nice and easy bottom load with this and within an hour im loaded and away to my delivery point for the next day.

I head towards my delivery point in Hessisch Oldendorf in Germany, park up on the road outside the factory for an early morning tip. i get 12 hours off so 0700 im up and away in to tip at this place. Probably the easiest unload you can do is gravity and this was one of them. open a manlid, dump the trailer suspenion, jack the trucks suspension right up and leave until empty, an hour and a half later 25 tons of corkys creambase has gone.

Now off to a cleaning place in Hamm, if your from Bradford you might have heard of this place as its your twin town in germany

here it is

one cleaned i drive 1.8km down the road to Brokelman to load up something (i have actually forgotten what it was probably palm oil or something. never got pics as its close enough to a self load there, pain in the japs eye.

Loaded and off we go towards Unilever in rotterdam…. out of germany and into holland we come

one i get to rotterdam i do all the business i have to do then drop the trailer where they want it and park up in unilevers car park for the night before i have to go down the road and pick up my other trailer. not bad for a parking space though?

next morning i grab my trailer and head down to europort to get the tank cleaned. once cleaned i park to let the pools of water dry up. as im doing so i spot this next to me (tag axles are pretty rare out here but i do know this is a brit motor)

dried and on the road again further round rotterdam to load at IOI oils…when i pulled i wish i never…at least 20 trucks in front of me.anyway i report in then go and sit in my truck for 2 hours while i wait for my buzzer to go off. while im sitting here i spot this going by, talk about overhangs LOL

once loaded i head down to nuess to drop the trailer then pick up another and head up to Wilmar in Brake (just think of playing call of duty and going through the wee german villages and youll get an idea of what this place is like lol)

once up there i get cleaned (4 hour wait for that) and i then got loaded an hour and half wait for that.
from there i head back to Unilever Rotterdam to drop the trailer. Though due to my holdups at Wilmar i run out of hours 100kms from Rotterdam so had to call it a night somewhere.

(sorry for the lack of pics in this last bit i just wasnt with it for a few days)

Up bright and early the next morning to drop and swap at Unilever,
I then head round to Den Hartogh in Botlek to get the tank cleaned, disinfected and then a cold flush. certainly does wake you up when you stand around when the tanks throughing out this much steam lol

while in there i had this pop round and sat behind me (he got shouted at for cleaning his truck outside lol.

anyway went round the front to go take a shower and also let the tank dry, think id sat there for about half an hour when i get told i didnt need to dry the tank for what i was carrying lol. Again more driving around rotterdam to get to Continental Juice BV, what a pain in the backside it is to get booked into this place, first you book yourself in with the computer, then you sit and wait for your buzzer to go off. go collect paperwork/seals etc then drive round to the other side of the docks, once there you have another queue to go into to get weighed and also the tank inspected…then theirs more waiting…then you eventually get loaded which takes no time at all, it took longer to get my cmr than it did to load the trailer. 7 hours after arriving i leave and head back towards erp to get my truck repaired and take my 24 hour break.

Sunday morning i leave Erp heading for macon, uneventful drive, never even got stopped by anyone on the way down

Monday morning and i start about 9am and head into macon for my 11am tip, again no pics here, was probably stilll asleep.
this is a pump load so again manhole open, pipes connected and they pump it out for me.
one unloaded i head towards luxembourg to do a trailer swap to head back down to Macon.

Pulled into Brecham service, got fuel and waited for 3 hours for the driver to turn up, eventually pulled the card and let the office know i was calling it a night. he arruved 10 mins after i pulled my card but as Brecham as packed all the time it woulda been hard to swap trailers as i was parked in the truck parking and he was before the fuel lines at the entrance.
During the night some ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ hit my truck and broke the top mirror arm on my volvo (i sleep like a log so i never felt a thing) i was lucky that the driver who i was swapping with had some ■■■■■■■■■ tape so wrap a bit round it to do me till i get back to erp on thursday.

so back down to ECKES Granini in Macon for a 1930 unload…chancing my luck here by turning up at 1800, but they took it and i was unloaded by 1900. drive round to the local tank cleaning place and its shut and doesnt open till 0600 so i park in the local honda garage next to maccy ds just so i could use their wifi.

0600 comes and im round at the tank station…nobody thier and still shut…0630 comes and still no sign of life…0645 and boom everythings on and open so in we go. wash the tank, no need to dry as i had a 170km journey to go so it would be dry by then.

once out of cleaning ive to head to Saipol in Lezoux, i had a choice of going via the motorway through Lyon during rush hour…or take the scenic route

have a guess what one i took?
the best 2 and a bit hours ive had on the whole trip. some of the roads were just amazing, some were tight as hell and i hit a 14% downhill grdient in the fog

once loaded in Lezoux i head towards lux via the backroads again (though a completly different one thats suitable for a loaded tanker lol. i head as far north to luxembourg (fueling up again) as i can but only make it as far as Loisy and have to pull into a service station to park, it was about 2030 when i parked up so you can expect the place to be rammed, and it was but i was lucky to get a space on the way in right next to the forecourt…round a bunch of fridge motors

up early the next morning to head towards Lux and as i get mayby 10km from the border we hit the traffic…at least the french did something good, slow lanes for trucks…brilliant in traffic jams i think we skipped about 6km of traffic thanks to them. pulls into lux, gets fuel/tobacco etc.

heres part of the queue into lux.

once done in lux im heading up through belgium towards Nuess (dusseldorf) but not long after leaving Brecham my sat nav decides to take a hissy fit when i ignored its directions due to their being a huge traffic jam,after about half an hour i eventually got it to play ball with me im just glad i sort knew what direction to head.

once in germany i passed this place, shame their wasnt a pair of these signs lol

I do what i have to in Nuess, then pick up a loaded trailer for Mars in veghel (yes the place where mars make their chocolate)
Get the trailer to veghel get the seals checked then told to park it up around the corner. on the way out im given 3 huge bags of twix (its take 5 weeks to get any freebies)
once thats done its solo back to Erp then clean up and pack up my truck for its next victim.
on friday morning i give the truck a good clean and then send it off to the garage to get fixed.
then we fly home for 8 days off

also meet the van den bosch strays 6 of them are running around the yard.

[brit_pete]

A great read and fantastic photos , you are having a great time it seems
the Campinia factory in Veghal is a old customer I used to visit ,we unloaded
10000 litre containers all 25,000 litres,that was a great job, looking forward to
your next post

[gogzy]

Campina in Veghel is a good tip, it just takes forever with the glucose. but i mean you dont have to do much while its unloading, just make sure the pressure isnt too high and you can usually walk outside the factory and have a smoke in that time.

[merc0447]

Life of riley gogzy, great diary

[coffeeholic]

gogzy:
once in germany i passed this place, shame their wasnt a pair of these signs lol

Ah, you are now a proper Euro driver having made the schoolboy joke about that German town, we’ve all done that.

Next time see if you can get a shot of the sign for the town just up the road from Titz called Wankum and you’ve hit the double.

Good, interesting read, hope you do another diary

[gogzy]

too slow coffee

[lycanthrope]

You didn’t mention phoning me 15times a day because you were so bored !

[coffeeholic]

gogzy:
too slow coffee

Good man.

[timmo]

great diary. i like the pictures of titz!!

[kindle530]

Continental Juice? Is that the same place as this? im sure it is, i could check my diary for the address

i loaded there a few times

frozen orange concentrate for Somerset, park outside the gate, there were allways more tankers than curtainsiders there, you book in, get given a

and wait for it to buzz,
iirc its down the road, just past one of your depots.
Last time i loaded there i had a weekend out at a services on the M5 with all my mates, ready for a Monday tip

[gogzy]

its down Schiedam area of rotterdam down by the docks

[chopsticks]

Good write up/pics there Gogzy, looking forward to the next.

[newmercman]

Nice one G

I have one thing to add… windscreen wipers

[gogzy]

newmercman:
Nice one G

I have one thing to add… windscreen wipers

lol

[total_madness]

Great bit of reading mate and some nice pictures too

[rob_k]

Good read and nice piccies . So how about some info on other stuff, like how you’re getting on with the languages eg. buying “stuff”/food etc, and what’s involved driver wise with the stuff you carry? Do you just connect pipes, open valves, set pressures and stuff and let it get on with it, or do you have to open the tanks up and get inside and wash them out yourself when finished, or do you never touch that and it’s all contracted to cleaning companies? And how are you finding driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and driving a LHD? Have driven LHD trucks over here but never driven on the ‘wrong’ side of the road like Europe.

[gogzy]

well rob just for you since you asked

Languages i seem to be getting on fine with them, well holland is easy enough since most people speak english, so not really learning much dutch though. german i have a basic grasp of it due to learning it in high school, french well that involves alot of hand signals, belgium/lux are just like holland aswell. belgium more so than lux though.

it all depends on what site we are on, some companies have thier own pipes that we connect up, othe rcompanies want us to use our own pipes, but most of the time its as simple as connecting the pipes (making sure that its tight) opening valves (or a manhole if its agravity unload) and just watching it (if your pressurising the tank), a gravity feed generally doesnt need watched like a hawk.

Glucose is a right burger to unload, the thicker it is the slower it comes out. 29ton of the stuff took 3 hours under 2 bar of pressure,

everything else isnt much of a problem to unload, palm oil/ coconut oil / sunflower oil / palm stearing all smell odd
Fresh orange juice smelt nice
Corkys creambase (whatever that is) had a nice smell to it aswell.

once unloaded you close everything up and head towards a cleaning station, usually the office tell you where the nearest cleaning station is to you or to where your reloading so you get sent to them, once you get their you have to open all the manholes/compartments etc, the last thing you do is open the bottom valve just incase you have some residue left and you wait till your physically in cleaning before you open it.

once its in cleaning thats left to the cleaning guys (who are usually a good bunch at most places) so you just stand back for about 20/30 mins mayby longer just depends what youve had on and what your getting on next, just glad i dont do the chocolate, that takes over an hour to clean.
now depending on the weather/time available you might get the tank dried but if youve got time youd just sit out front and let the weather dry it.

as for driving on this side in a lefty its not a problem for me tbh, i did a bit last year for a company (most of you know who) so its just getting used to being in a lefty and driving down some rediculous roads in holland lol,i want a trip to the uk though in the lefty i did enjoy the lefty in the uk which may sound odd. lol

[rob_k]

Nice!

And what sort of money are you taking home?

[gogzy]

ive still to get my first full pay, i only got my basic in my first month which was about a grand after tax

basic is £1380 before tax

[rob_k]

And what do the Dutch VDB drivers think of you all nicking their jobs? Is there a lot of hostility and suddenly nowhere to be seen when you need a hand with something or need some advice?