skell790:
What’s with the blue vans you occasionally see broken down on the '25 with men with machine guns standing about?Are they full of cash money?
I really cant see one of their drivers replying ‘Yes’ to your post 
I do the M25 regularly … not seen any armed guards or blue vans. Where abouts is this? Not that I’m planning a heist or anything (not now all communications are read at least)
Various range of Post Office and Group4/G4S armoured trucks, loaded with lots of loverly cash 
I am on the dustbins, they cost about 3 quid to make but they are only on the wagon 15 seconds then we have to give em back 
green456:
I am on the dustbins, they cost about 3 quid to make but they are only on the wagon 15 seconds then we have to give em back
Sir +:
I thought I was doing quite well with 20 odd tons of Bailey’s. Also to the doors with Dell PCs/peripherals - sometimes security from Holyhead to Germany,sometimes not.No idea of value,but wouldn’t want to pay out if they got ‘lost’.Billybigrig-where are you? Couldn’t put one of your loads on the back of a Transit pickup
I only do low value long distance trunking these days. I’ve seen the light
Harry Monk:
Ferdy from TopRun used to take full loads of gold bullion… in a tilt.
Blimey, hope the BAG never saw him. “vare are zee straps”
Harry Monk:
I’ve done a few Boeing aeroplane engines too, dunno what they’re worth but not cheap I wouldn’t imagine.
Incidentally, not many people know this but “Boeing” stands for “Bits Of Engine In Numerous Gardens” which is why we had to take the new ones out.
Phone call from Agent coming down Jubilee way with a second hand 747 engine for Schipol one day;
“Ah Derf, don’t forget you have to go into the western docks and clear customs before you ship out…”
me: “it’s going to Schipol, what’s all this about T-forms?”
agent: “It’s going on an onward flight to Malaysia, anyway all aircraft parts go on T-forms. If they ask, I’ve told them it’s only valued at £700k, that way I don’t get stung for export duty if it goes ■■■■ up.”
me; “only 700k?? what’s it really worth?”
Agent; “ummm… around £7.5 million!”
That was the steadiest I ever went around the roundabout at the bottom.
ME! Simple!
Derf:
Phone call from Agent coming down Jubilee way with a second hand 747 engine for Schipol one day;
“Ah Derf, don’t forget you have to go into the western docks and clear customs before you ship out…”
me: “it’s going to Schipol, what’s all this about T-forms?”
agent: “It’s going on an onward flight to Malaysia, anyway all aircraft parts go on T-forms. If they ask, I’ve told them it’s only valued at £700k, that way I don’t get stung for export duty if it goes ■■■■ up.”
me; “only 700k?? what’s it really worth?”
Agent; “ummm… around £7.5 million!”That was the steadiest I ever went around the roundabout at the bottom.
I’ve done a lot of aircraft engines, and it’s fascinating stuff.
An airline, such as Virgin for example, own their aircraft, but they don’t own the engines, they lease them. When an engine is due for a service, it isn’t serviced in situ, they take it out of the plane and slot a newly serviced engine in to save downtime- they are only held in with a couple of pins. Then the old engine goes back to the UK factory for service.
Before a newly serviced engine is fitted to a plane, they put it on a test rig at the airport where it is to be fitted and run it on full throttle for 8 hours, then take measurements and do checks etc.
I once took one to Bratislava, in Slovakia and when I got there they said “Park over there, we’re running one on the rig at the moment, yours is only here as a back-up in case that one fails the test”.
Eight hours later they came up to me and said “That engine passed the test, you can take yours back”. So I went all the way to Slovakia and back and never even opened the curtains.
£40,000 worth of compressors, just two 400cfm compressors completely on show going out on hire, just chained down on the bed.
Early 90’s I was on a job pulling full loads of b+h cigs each trailer was valued about 1.5 million broke down once fully loaded 3 police cars there in no time plus we had to carry a sign in cab if the police tried to pull us the sign said high value load I will follow you to the nearest police station .
Harry, if i’m right in guessing you live on Planet thanet, I’m sure you’d have seen MK airlines flying into Manston fairly regular in the early 2000’s. I won’t say too much about them as a quick google search will tell you all you need to know, but I used to move quite a few second hand engines from other airlines / salvaged airframes for them…
But yeah, absolutely enjoyed the AOG work I used to do and very fascinating as you say.
Best thing I used to see was when I was loading veg from the inbound MK flights at Manston when it was raining. The 747 on the apron used to spin up it’s engines ready to taxi back out, a huge vortex of water used to be sucked up off the tarmac and you could see it funneling into the engines and sprayed out the back
A l c:
Early 90’s I was on a job pulling full loads of b+h cigs each trailer was valued about 1.5 million broke down once fully loaded 3 police cars there in no time plus we had to carry a sign in cab if the police tried to pull us the sign said high value load I will follow you to the nearest police station .
‘I recognise you as a police officer…’ etc
You didn’t happen to work for Freightliner, by any chance?
Early 90’s, used to pick up Harley Davidson bikes on pallets wrapped in cardboard from Heathrow in a tautliner, double stacked!! ■■■ pants all the way up too Leics when they moved in trailer. 
Derf:
Harry, if i’m right in guessing you live on Planet thanet, I’m sure you’d have seen MK airlines flying into Manston fairly regular in the early 2000’s. I won’t say too much about them as a quick google search will tell you all you need to know, but I used to move quite a few second hand engines from other airlines / salvaged airframes for them…But yeah, absolutely enjoyed the AOG work I used to do and very fascinating as you say.
Best thing I used to see was when I was loading veg from the inbound MK flights at Manston when it was raining. The 747 on the apron used to spin up it’s engines ready to taxi back out, a huge vortex of water used to be sucked up off the tarmac and you could see it funneling into the engines and sprayed out the back
I do, Manston is a fascinating airport, they scrap aeroplanes there and set fire to them regularly to train fire brigade crews for crashes etc, it’s quite normal to drive around the planet Thanet and see a huge pall of black smoke rising from some old MK cargo carrier which has just been set on fire!
So far, Mr Harry Monk has the biggest willy with a massive £110,000,000 load. Well done Harry!
Any advance on £110m?
last week picked up 15 honda fireblades at 14 grand a pop and 5 quads from the factory in swindon to be taken to bibys at clitheroe for them to take em to shops
The most expensive thing i ever handle was a mamouths tusk from Freeland near Oxford to the Baribcan in London.Me being young and naive ask the usual how much is it worth simple answer priceless if you break it leave the country said my boss
Did a 40ft box with £35million of silver from Jp Morgan in Carmolite street near blackfriars bridge, to southampton. Two of us under ■■■■■■, no stopping all the way to the quay crane. Makes you over analyze every ■■■■■■■■ on the road, thinking you’re about to be turned over
my daughter was with me for two weeks 
