27hrs. Loaded in Reading with water samples in my Ford ■■■■■■ van for a SEWAGE treatment works to tip Swindon, Cirencester, Cheltenham then up to tip Manchester for a reload in Dundee and then back to Reading. When I arrived in Dundee the factory was closed but the security gate was 24hrs…“Aich,there you go Lad,its all yours!”…The security guard pointed to a packet of biscuits…“O,thank you very much,dont mind if I do” I said…“THEY’RE NOT FOR YOU,THEY’RE FOR THE CUSTOMER!!!”…The ‘sample’ packet of biscuits was for a production run of 23millon biscuits for the “Huntley & Palmers” factory…I had to drive from Dundee to Reading with “THE” packet sat on the passenger seat…not one biscuit went missing…that was the longest drive in my life…
I’d never do it on my tacho…you’d never get a thanx for it…
I’m recovery too… at the moment I consistently average a 80 hour week.
That’s a hell of a lot less than we used to work.
Longest shift? Same as The Maosters, around 40 hours. Couple of jobs down the road followed by 2 heavies over, one after the other. One of the heavies was a full load of new chipboard worktops, fell over on a roundabout just out of the factory. 26 tons of 12 foot worktops to handball back onto the righted trailer. Whilst we were on with that, a car overturned and hit a bus head on, bus and car to recover. Was a fatality. Then another heavy after that, had been rear ended by a puddle jumper. Cut the mangled tail-lift off, swapped the rear tyre and cut the arch off, back to base.
Thing is, if it’s just driving it’s a piece o ■■■■, providing you can keep your mind sharp (I do sums in me head, what’s 794 divided by 5?), it’s a different kettle of fish when you’re grafting for them hours.
newmercman:
I now regularly do 850 mile days, legally too, the 13hr driving rule helps and so does being able to keep moving all the time, sometimes if I’m jogging on a bit I can stop for a brew and find I’m a little bit ahead of my log book, so I have to wait for it to catch me up
It sounds like hard work, but when you can average these sort of speeds constantly, it’s a piece of ■■■■ really
Do those lorries hold the road well at that speed? What kinds of roads are you allowed to do those speeds on?
Depends on the conditions, obviously if it’s icy then that’s far too fast, but on powder snow that’s a perfectly safe speed, as mad as that sounds, it’s true enough
That day was nice and sunny and super cold, in the minus 30s, so no danger of ice on the road as all the moisture is frozen so the ice ain’t slippery if that makes sense. The road was a dual carriageway with a 110km/h limit and if you’ve seen any of my pictures in the past, you’ll see that the roads are almost empty, so just whack on the cruise and sit back and enjoy the ride Because of the lack of traffic and the vast open space, you don’t actually need to go much faster than 68mph to average 65mph
For the most part, the speed limits are the same for cars and trucks, some states have split limits, but apart from California with it’s 55/70 split, most of the others allow you to do 65mph where the cars can do 70/75mph. Even the single carriageways have decent limits on them, outside of the towns the lowest limits are 50mph, in some states it’s 70mph
FarnboroughBoy11:
This isn’t a competition and a hard man contest about who’s ran bent the most but what is the longest shift you have ever done? it doesn’t have to be logged and if you’ve slept in between it doesn’t count.
What a stupid post and the relpies are even stupidier if its aword im baffled by this forum and its not what i was told it shuold be
Why are the replies stupid? Mine’s not an exaggeration, and I well believe anyone from the recovery world who claims the same.
Up until 2007 we were completely tacho exempt, it was common practice to do London - Edinburgh - Liverpool all on the trot.
Thing is, and I know this will sound arrogant, if you’re regularly doing them hours, your body adjusts to it.
Personally (and everyone’s different) I work off 4 hours sleep a night, if I can get 4 hours I’m alright. Less than that and I’m not on form.
The control comes from knowing when you are alright, and the point at which you aren’t alright.
cieranc:
Why are the replies stupid? Mine’s not an exaggeration, and I well believe anyone from the recovery world who claims the same.
Up until 2007 we were completely tacho exempt, it was common practice to do London - Edinburgh - Liverpool all on the trot.
Thing is, and I know this will sound arrogant, if you’re regularly doing them hours, your body adjusts to it.
Personally (and everyone’s different) I work off 4 hours sleep a night, if I can get 4 hours I’m alright. Less than that and I’m not on form.
The control comes from knowing when you are alright, and the point at which you aren’t alright.
True enough, especially the last part, I never have a snooze during the day anymore, if I nicked a couple of hours on the bunk I would never be able to sleep that night. I sometimes switch from days to nights as work dictates and I find that two to four hours immediately prior to starting the nightshift is more than enough to see me through. However if I do get to the point where I’m in danger of being a danger to myself and others through fatigue, I park and go to bed, ■■■■ the job, never had a load yet that was important enough to risk my life for
Once did Xmas eve ~4 pm through till 28th dec ~8am, I definitely didn’t sleep, cos I got paid straight through . That was a very very short career as a security guard.
As a driver though the longest is 16 hours due to being recovered.
FarnboroughBoy11:
This isn’t a competition and a hard man contest about who’s ran bent the most but what is the longest shift you have ever done? it doesn’t have to be logged and if you’ve slept in between it doesn’t count.
What a stupid post and the relpies are even stupidier if its aword im baffled by this forum and its not what i was told it shuold be
About 6 years ago I was on the agency doing warehouse work. I used to live an hour away from work so I was up at half 4. I did a 6am-2pm and was asked if I could go back for a 10pm-6am. By the time I’d got home from the first shift and had some tea etc it didn’t leave much time for sleep. Something like 26-27 hours. It was really difficult driving home the following morning though with the sun rising directly in front of me, pretty sure I had a few lengthy ‘nods’ at the wheel when nearing the end of the M55 (W bound). Never again.
FarnboroughBoy11:
This isn’t a competition and a hard man contest about who’s ran bent the most but what is the longest shift you have ever done? it doesn’t have to be logged and if you’ve slept in between it doesn’t count.
What a stupid post and the relpies are even stupidier if its aword im baffled by this forum and its not what i was told it shuold be
Why are you here then you ■■■■■??
He’s probably never done International or worked for a sh17e company, Wouilnt dream if doing anything like that again as it was toture and down right dangerous ,but a learning curve it was
Because of the lack of traffic and the vast open space, you don’t actually need to go much faster than 68mph to average 65mph 
and the relpies are even stupidier if its aword 
. That was a very very short career as a security guard.