I’ve not done euro before. But I’ve been provisionally offered some work going over for a week. Starting from Midlands, going to Dover then into central Paris. From there it’s all a mystery. My satnav does europe. But I’ve set it to avoid tolls in the UK - been told that I should switch that off when not on the mainland.
Wondered if anyone could give me a heads up with regards to tolls? I
Any advice of where you can park up for the night? I don’t know if I’ll stay in France - they are just saying Euro work for a week. Is getting 45’s in easy enough there?
I’m assuming the truck will have an invertor and some basic cooking equipment. I’ll take pan and my jetboil. I’ll also take my sleeping bag and laptop. Is there anything else you’d recommend I take?
My phone will cost me a fortune abroad - so do companies usually give you a phone? Otherwise how are you meant to get/give info? Cheers. Sam
sammym:
My satnav does europe. But I’ve set it to avoid tolls in the UK - been told that I should switch that off when not on the mainland.
You are RobK and I claim my £5. 
Harry Monk:
sammym:
My satnav does europe. But I’ve set it to avoid tolls in the UK - been told that I should switch that off when not on the mainland.
You are RobK and I claim my £5.
Whether he’s RobK or Colly Kibber maybe we should “Rock” and go with the flow of Eu virgin thread? Sat “beside a vineyard” here I’ve an idle pair of thumbs for a moment.
Vehicle: should be 4.0metres max. Fridges need conformity marks and other certs I think? Should have toll bleeper but if not you need company cards for tolls as well as fuel. Check all docs including your contract of employment. (As agency good luck with that. It must be possible but I’ve not done it myself). Insurance, V5, letter from registered owner giving you (by name) permission to drive it Passport of course, licence etc. EHIC is good idea too.
Apart from sleeping bag, how about a towel, toothbrush, spare socks ‘n’ knickers?
Phone? Doesn’t your contract offer free EU roaming? Thought that was law now?
Cooker? Take one but try to get some nights in a Resto Routier. Don’t want to turn into a crusty hermit festering away in your tin box on the first trip!
Satnavs can give some very peculiar routes so choose a route yourself on a map then see how different the satnav suggestion is. There may a good reason for the satnav route there may not.
You will not be going into “Central Paris”, I’m 99.9999% sure. If you do, get your credit card ready! Coming from Dover you’ll miss the Sunday eve/Mon morn Paris restrictions I think.
Use peages all you want at first. More and more nationals have weight limits and restrictions on them. Nationals are often good roads, but one step at a time!
Parking, food etc are generally better than UK but busy motorways do fill up.
Do Not Park Overnight Near Calais, or other ports for that matter. Even if you have a fridge at minus 30 they will still be in the pallet box on the axles etc etc.
Loads more than that to the job, but the Mayor’s daughter should be here soon with fresh coffee and croissants.
Edit: She was asking after Toby, so I said he was still the same.
[emoji6]
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Avoid the peripherique. This is the Paris inner ring road. Do not go inside of this road. If you do end up on it, it is “priority a droite”, so that traffic on the main road gives way to traffic entering it. Slip roads on both sides too! Fun, fun, fun!
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I must say I never avoided the Periferique with an artic. Never had any trouble with it, as the traffic usually keeps moving, if slowly at peak times. It is a very useful way of getting round Paris, especially if you have multiple drops in the city. Robert
ERF-NGC-European:
I must say I never avoided the Periferique with an artic. Never had any trouble with it, as the traffic usually keeps moving, if slowly at peak times. It is a very useful way of getting round Paris, especially if you have multiple drops in the city. Robert
It’s got it’s uses and I use it, but a newly qualified driver on first trip? Avoid.
Edit. The A86 and N104 will get you around most places there.
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Franglais:
ERF-NGC-European:
I must say I never avoided the Periferique with an artic. Never had any trouble with it, as the traffic usually keeps moving, if slowly at peak times. It is a very useful way of getting round Paris, especially if you have multiple drops in the city. Robert
It’s got it’s uses and I use it, but a newly qualified driver on first trip? Avoid.
Edit. The A86 and N104 will get you around most places there.
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Agreed. The N104 is very useful indeed. I think it’s called La Francilienne or similar IIRC. Robert
ERF-NGC-European:
Franglais:
ERF-NGC-European:
I must say I never avoided the Periferique with an artic. Never had any trouble with it, as the traffic usually keeps moving, if slowly at peak times. It is a very useful way of getting round Paris, especially if you have multiple drops in the city. Robert
It’s got it’s uses and I use it, but a newly qualified driver on first trip? Avoid.
Edit. The A86 and N104 will get you around most places there.
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Agreed. The N104 is very useful indeed. I think it’s called La Francilienne or similar IIRC. Robert
Aye useful for testing out your suspension 
Mazzer2:
ERF-NGC-European:
Franglais:
ERF-NGC-European:
I must say I never avoided the Periferique with an artic. Never had any trouble with it, as the traffic usually keeps moving, if slowly at peak times. It is a very useful way of getting round Paris, especially if you have multiple drops in the city. Robert
It’s got it’s uses and I use it, but a newly qualified driver on first trip? Avoid.
Edit. The A86 and N104 will get you around most places there.
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
Agreed. The N104 is very useful indeed. I think it’s called La Francilienne or similar IIRC. Robert
Aye useful for testing out your suspension
Not many roll overs on that stretch tween A1 and A4.
No drivers falling asleep there.
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Gutted to say someone ‘with more experience’ is going to do the job. Which I am really gutted about. I’ve just got back from a 14 hour and 45 minute day so am broken. However I will focus my energies on trying to get a Euro run. This is something I was really looking forward too - and whether good or bad would have been an experience I’d never forget. Onwards and upwards - it will happen at some point. I’ll just be more prepared when it does.
The agency have tried to sweeten the deal with a weeks night work… No thanks.
sammym:
Gutted to say someone ‘with more experience’ is going to do the job. Which I am really gutted about.
I’m saddened to here that, slightly because I was hoping for euro tales from a newbie also slightly because the newbie tales would have been funny even though you would have learned something from it and as I said, experience is everything in the trucking world (coming from a VERY experienced ‘multi drop’/long-iish distance driver and I’ve learned my lessons)
sammym:
I’ve just got back from a 14 hour and 45 minute day so am broken.
Pathetic, I used to do 14-16 hour days in a Sprinter van and never complained… I did however have a caffeine count higher than a red blood cell count at the time!
sammym:
However I will focus my energies on trying to get a Euro run. This is something I was really looking forward too - and whether good or bad would have been an experience I’d never forget. Onwards and upwards - it will happen at some point. I’ll just be more prepared when it does.
The agency have tried to sweeten the deal with a weeks night work… No thanks.
This is where I must delete the rest of the post because it breaches the forum rules… Read them!
sammym:
Gutted to say someone ‘with more experience’ is going to do the job. Which I am really gutted about. I’ve just got back from a 14 hour and 45 minute day so am broken. However I will focus my energies on trying to get a Euro run. This is something I was really looking forward too - and whether good or bad would have been an experience I’d never forget. Onwards and upwards - it will happen at some point. I’ll just be more prepared when it does.
The agency have tried to sweeten the deal with a weeks night work… No thanks.
Best thing to happen tbh!
m_attt:
sammym:
Gutted to say someone ‘with more experience’ is going to do the job. Which I am really gutted about. I’ve just got back from a 14 hour and 45 minute day so am broken. However I will focus my energies on trying to get a Euro run. This is something I was really looking forward too - and whether good or bad would have been an experience I’d never forget. Onwards and upwards - it will happen at some point. I’ll just be more prepared when it does.
The agency have tried to sweeten the deal with a weeks night work… No thanks.
Best thing to happen tbh!
Honestly though, how is anyone gonna learn without doing it? This week is my second time in Glasgow in my life yet I’ve learned things like, don’t park on that green bit outside ‘grill on the corner’ and leave a pallet on the floor so no one blocks your tail lift. Might sound daft but until you’ve done it, how will you know?
sammym:
Gutted to say someone ‘with more experience’ is going to do the job. Which I am really gutted about. I’ve just got back from a 14 hour and 45 minute day so am broken. However I will focus my energies on trying to get a Euro run. This is something I was really looking forward too - and whether good or bad would have been an experience I’d never forget. Onwards and upwards - it will happen at some point. I’ll just be more prepared when it does.
The agency have tried to sweeten the deal with a weeks night work… No thanks.
.
Not surprised this NEVER happened. Get ready for the next chapter,’ how I nearly, went to (country of choice)
Ghiabox:
m_attt:
sammym:
Gutted to say someone ‘with more experience’ is going to do the job. Which I am really gutted about. I’ve just got back from a 14 hour and 45 minute day so am broken. However I will focus my energies on trying to get a Euro run. This is something I was really looking forward too - and whether good or bad would have been an experience I’d never forget. Onwards and upwards - it will happen at some point. I’ll just be more prepared when it does.
The agency have tried to sweeten the deal with a weeks night work… No thanks.
Best thing to happen tbh!
Honestly though, how is anyone gonna learn without doing it? This week is my second time in Glasgow in my life yet I’ve learned things like, don’t park on that green bit outside ‘grill on the corner’ and leave a pallet on the floor so no one blocks your tail lift. Might sound daft but until you’ve done it, how will you know?
Youre right that the best way to learn anything is to do it, agreed there. But someone with little truck experience, even less artic experience and self confessed no Eu experience its gonna be a steep learning curve! Maybe a better experience to get some Eu driving in a smaller vehicle first, or get a few mile under the wheels of an artic first, rather than learn how to drive a fully loaded artic in a strange environment? Not an impossible task, to do it all at once, but not the preferred option I`d say.
When people are “chucked in the deep end” we always hear of the successes, people rarely talk about the failures. The poor drowned souls are not talkative!
It was quite normal though back in the day, especially where I lived, east Kent, for drivers to start doing continental work almost as soon as they had passed their HGV1 (and this was when you didn’t have to take a HGV2 first). I know someone who passed their test in the morning and was on their way to Italy in an artic the same afternoon.
Harry Monk:
It was quite normal though back in the day, especially where I lived, east Kent, for drivers to start doing continental work almost as soon as they had passed their HGV1 (and this was when you didn’t have to take a HGV2 first). I know someone who passed their test in the morning and was on their way to Italy in an artic the same afternoon.
I too know someone who was driving artics into Europe, before they were old enough to hold an HGV licence, without bad consequences. Don’t think that idea should be copied though!
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Ghiabox:
m_attt:
sammym:
Gutted to say someone ‘with more experience’ is going to do the job. Which I am really gutted about. I’ve just got back from a 14 hour and 45 minute day so am broken. However I will focus my energies on trying to get a Euro run. This is something I was really looking forward too - and whether good or bad would have been an experience I’d never forget. Onwards and upwards - it will happen at some point. I’ll just be more prepared when it does.
The agency have tried to sweeten the deal with a weeks night work… No thanks.
Best thing to happen tbh!
Honestly though, how is anyone gonna learn without doing it? This week is my second time in Glasgow in my life yet I’ve learned things like, don’t park on that green bit outside ‘grill on the corner’ and leave a pallet on the floor so no one blocks your tail lift. Might sound daft but until you’ve done it, how will you know?
As I pointed out in the other thread, we don’t send even experienced drivers out on their own abroad. Send them with someone else for a few trips until they are comfortable with everything.
Just small things like getting on the train, it’s a bit awkward especially as a new pass, but watch someone do it and then have a co-driver giving advice the first time, is much easier all round.
albion:
Ghiabox:
m_attt:
sammym:
Gutted to say someone ‘with more experience’ is going to do the job. Which I am really gutted about. I’ve just got back from a 14 hour and 45 minute day so am broken. However I will focus my energies on trying to get a Euro run. This is something I was really looking forward too - and whether good or bad would have been an experience I’d never forget. Onwards and upwards - it will happen at some point. I’ll just be more prepared when it does.
The agency have tried to sweeten the deal with a weeks night work… No thanks.
Best thing to happen tbh!
Honestly though, how is anyone gonna learn without doing it? This week is my second time in Glasgow in my life yet I’ve learned things like, don’t park on that green bit outside ‘grill on the corner’ and leave a pallet on the floor so no one blocks your tail lift. Might sound daft but until you’ve done it, how will you know?
As I pointed out in the other thread, we don’t send even experienced drivers out on their own abroad. Send them with someone else for a few trips until they are comfortable with everything.
Just small things like getting on the train, it’s a bit awkward especially as a new pass, but watch someone do it and then have a co-driver giving advice the first time, is much easier all round.
Definitely the best way.
Taking SammyMs post at face value, I wonder how many companies doing Eu work would even consider sending an unknown agency* driver away, let alone a new pass? It seems they have covered their needs now, but I wonder what was going on there? At our place we have a few younger drivers starting on the Eu work we have. The drivers have been doing UK work so are OK with vehicle size etc. Not double manned, but sent out "in convoy" at first: two trucks, (one with an experienced driver) going to the same places, seems to work OK. Then a few runs on the easier runs before being let off the leash. With mobile phones its possible to give instant advice on routes, safe parking and all the rest of it.
*Agency drivers can be good or not, I`m referring to an unknown one.
After starting the thread from the bottom, I had to check if the OP was asking for advice on getting to Camp Londra, or at least Yugoslavia 