windrush:
I finished work and driving HGV’s 14 years ago but still wake up at 4.30-5am most mornings as old habits die hard I guess?
Pete.
You only worked part-time hours then, Pete?
Steve
Haha, compared to some I reckon! However, when Tom Wibberley said “Be under the tarmac plant at 5.20 am” you’d best be there dead on time otherwise your life wasn’t worth living for a week or two. If Mick (Malmic) reads this he will probably agree with me! Downside of it was that you could still be sitting on the A1 etc at well past 6pm the same day while the tarmac gang got their overtime in. Those dinner plate sized tacho charts came in handy then…
After 3 years being retired I wouldn’t dream of going back down the road, just been reading the weather reports and thought how good it is to be sat in my living room. Miss a lot of workmates, but consider myself lucky to have reached retirement age when I’ve lost some friends over the years. Happy New Year to all retiree’s and those of you still working. Drive careful.
One last trip, take the wife, with an F89, twin spread axle tilt, 32 ton, to Southern Italy via Mont Blanc, week-ended in Rome, reload, return via Month Cenis…using log sheets…
Another thing I miss about trucking, particularly when I worked for the local council on a dustcart, was the craic in the yard in the mornings. 0500hrs, freezing cold, blowing a gale, raining like a good’un…in the mess room with the miserable face on…and there’s always one who comes across the yard in shorts and t shirt, shouting " Morning gentlemen…lovely morning". There was always a full chorus of “fork orf” or something similar…
Hi everyone, I took early retirement a year ago at 63, I just do two or three days a week for Frontier grain at Cranswick East Yorks. Never go more than thirty miles from base and NEVER have a night out, and I love it. So I am enjoying the best of both worlds and it leaves me plenty of time to play with my old ERF EC 10.
I suppose it’s horses for courses, some people will retire and never work again and good on them. But others may need to do a bit to keep the wolf from the door and pay for hols and the like.
What ever your lot is good luck everyone. Regards Tony Hawkridge.
If I could stay here in Portugal and drive for a week,and only a week,I would give it a go,the absence of any traffic here is so obvious,I drove to Lisbon the other week,started off on the newish A13,didn’t see another vehicle for 10 minutes,and that was on the opposite carriageway going north!
It reminds me of UK driving in the 60’s,a pleasure to do so then.
5thwheel:
If I could stay here in Portugal and drive for a week,and only a week,I would give it a go,the absence of any traffic here is so obvious,I drove to Lisbon the other week,started off on the newish A13,didn’t see another vehicle for 10 minutes,and that was on the opposite carriageway going north!
It reminds me of UK driving in the 60’s,a pleasure to do so then.
DAVID
I was very friendly with a chap called Horatio Nelson.( True.He got stopped one night on is way to a football match in Glasgow in a car and the copper asked him his name.Well !!!)
He married Marjorie Stevenson who was the first conductor on the company but Raich Or Crash ( don’t know why) was very well known and he came to work for us delivering vehicles all over the country and always got back on plates or knowing drivers ( particulaly from the brewerys) what time they were on there way back to Burton.When he retired of course many driver’s particulaly worked unsocial hours so being Crash he enjoyed his job and hadn’t a hobby AND he didn’t have a Sat Nav.
Before you chaps mention bad things about Stevo’s Rockets the motors were kept in very road worthy condition and nothing stopped the from running even snow.
5thwheel:
If I could stay here in Portugal and drive for a week,and only a week,I would give it a go,the absence of any traffic here is so obvious,I drove to Lisbon the other week,started off on the newish A13,didn’t see another vehicle for 10 minutes,and that was on the opposite carriageway going north!
It reminds me of UK driving in the 60’s,a pleasure to do so then.
DAVID
I was very friendly with a chap called Horatio Nelson.( True.He got stopped one night on is way to a football match in Glasgow in a car and the copper asked him his name.Well !!!)
He married Marjorie Stevenson who was the first conductor on the company but Raich Or Crash ( don’t know why) was very well known and he came to work for us delivering vehicles all over the country and always got back on plates or knowing drivers ( particulaly from the brewerys) what time they were on there way back to Burton.When he retired of course many driver’s particulaly worked unsocial hours so being Crash he enjoyed his job and hadn’t a hobby AND he didn’t have a Sat Nav.
Before you chaps mention bad things about Stevo’s Rockets the motors were kept in very road worthy condition and nothing stopped the from running even snow.
Tony
Tony - shame on you! As if those of us who travelled to and from school as kids in the late fifties on Stevo’s Rockets would even CONSIDER making a rude comment!! (and yes - they always got us there in the snow, sadly!)
5thwheel:
If I could stay here in Portugal and drive for a week,and only a week,I would give it a go,the absence of any traffic here is so obvious,I drove to Lisbon the other week,started off on the newish A13,didn’t see another vehicle for 10 minutes,and that was on the opposite carriageway going north!
It reminds me of UK driving in the 60’s,a pleasure to do so then.
DAVID
I was very friendly with a chap called Horatio Nelson.( True.He got stopped one night on is way to a football match in Glasgow in a car and the copper asked him his name.Well !!!)
He married Marjorie Stevenson who was the first conductor on the company but Raich Or Crash ( don’t know why) was very well known and he came to work for us delivering vehicles all over the country and always got back on plates or knowing drivers ( particulaly from the brewerys) what time they were on there way back to Burton.When he retired of course many driver’s particulaly worked unsocial hours so being Crash he enjoyed his job and hadn’t a hobby AND he didn’t have a Sat Nav.
Before you chaps mention bad things about Stevo’s Rockets the motors were kept in very road worthy condition and nothing stopped the from running even snow.
Tony
Tony - shame on you! As if those of us who travelled to and from school as kids in the late fifties on Stevo’s Rockets would even CONSIDER making a rude comment!! (and yes - they always got us there in the snow, sadly!)
Steve
Crash told me once that sometimes they delivered a few parcels but on the way Cubley
I think they moved a piano and with the help of a couple of strong passengers they were loading it through the rear emegancey door but it dropped to the ground and the ivorys were all over the road.They got to Ashbourne on time and on the way back it had all been cleared up and not a word was said.
I would liked to have worked till I was eighty but due to circumstances at work I finished at seventy five retired and glad to see the other side of life I now eighty and happy with my lot!
I came off the road in 1986 after 20 years ont road,and went shunting full-time,apart from a few weeks in early 1994 when I was made redundant at MFS and went back on tankers. I still miss driving now and again but no way would I go ont road int UK now,too much hassle,too much H and S,no camerarderie,too many buggers spying on you.
I was always an early starter even though I didn’t get paid early start money.I remember asking one of our Chesterfield drivers what time he reckoned he’d be at Monsanto Newport and he said 0600. I said “I tell them you are coming”. When I started at MFS on nights regular it was 25% loading on the basic rate,a lot of money then,and less traffic to deal with.I couldn’t deal with the traffic now.
I think anybody who drove int 60s,70s and 80s had the best of it,I certainly enjoyed it most of the time,and would do it all again if clock could be turned back.
There’s some good videos on you tube type in fleet drivers videos a lot will take you back in time or road transport 1960 or Middle East ,I’m 52 still driving and would like to finish but I can’t it’s in my blood I wish I could go back to the 80’s everybody helped each othe no backstabbing no it’s my load or I got there first no vosa checking you ,no trackers,cameras to much big brother nowadays cheers John
Like most of you out there I did nothing else but drive from the age of 21 to 65 years old, and like most of you I enjoyed every day of it otherwise we would not be on TruckNet. But if I had enough money I would do up an ERF with an E14 ■■■■■■■ and have it painted to look like new. I would then park it on our front drive and keep it nice and clean, and every morning I would set the alarm clock to go off at 6 am and look out of the window and admire my nice clean truck and say to myself ‘‘Thank God I’v not got to drive you today’’ and go back to bed.
Tea cup:
Like most of you out there I did nothing else but drive from the age of 21 to 65 years old, and like most of you I enjoyed every day of it otherwise we would not be on TruckNet. But if I had enough money I would do up an ERF with an E14 ■■■■■■■ and have it painted to look like new. I would then park it on our front drive and keep it nice and clean, and every morning I would set the alarm clock to go off at 6 am and look out of the window and admire my nice clean truck and say to myself ‘‘Thank God I’v not got to drive you today’’ and go back to bed.
“FANTASTIC” That will keep me smiling for the rest of the day, cheers and all the very best to you and yours for this new year mate, Harvey
Those dinner plate sized tacho charts came in handy then…
That will keep me smiling for the rest of the day, cheers and all the very best to you and yours for this new year mate, Harvey