First day of driving work after the Kosovo trip (well, actually, I did a day a few weeks ago, but I was only a driver’s mate in a Sprinter instead of the class 2 driving I’d been promised).
Arrived at NYK Logistics at 06:15, and got given my truck - a well-looked-after Scania 53-plate, and the paperwork - the usual checksheet, declaration forms, anti-hijack procedure , and run details. - take an empty trailer up to Brackmills (Northampton), and bring a full one back. There were also two other drivers doing the same trip, so we were going in convoy.
After scraping off the ice, hitching up the trailer, we all started off up the road to Aust to fill up with diesel, then we set off up the M48/M4.
Once we got onto the A419/A420, I hate to say it, but I really started to miss the Eaton twin-splitter gearbox - I got a bit fed up of forgetting to dip the clutch to move the splitter…
Only one minor incident on the way over, as an idiot car driver decided to try to overtake me on an on-ramp which was going down to 1 lane, forcing me onto the hard shoulder. Oh, and I made a car slow down on a roundabout a bit more than I intended when I tried to maintain momentum by pulling out and when I went to accelerate away (only slowing him down a little bit), I got low range (1st) instead of the high range (4th) that I’d intended, and virtually stopped right in front of him. Oops.
Got to Brackmills, reversed the trailer in blindside with only 1 shunt , refilled my washer bottle that had run out on the way over, picked up the new PC World trailer, and pulled out. One of the other drivers had a problem with his seal that took ages for them to resolve, so after I’d got the remainder of my 45 minutes break, I set off on my own, while the other two drivers waited behind.
I pulled on to the M40 at J7, and the traffic promptly ground to a halt - a number of police cars, ambulances and fire engines went past on the hard shoulder, so it was obvious that it was an accident. All 3 lanes were blocked, as we didn’t move for an hour. Eventually I left the M40 at J7A and continued on the rest of the journey.
I decided to be lazy on the way back, and took the A34 rather than the A420. Dropped the trailer in the warehouse (again, reversed in with only 1 shunt ), and clocked off.
I still haven’t recovered from the fact that they’ll give me, an inexperienced agency driver, a truck probably worth £50k, and contents probably worth in excess of half a million…
423 km covered.