Had a phone call from the my agency today.
Looking to put drivers on the following job.
Start at Sharston in Wythenshawe, go to Wrexham and change trailer, down to Bristol, tip or change, I don’t know which, then back to Sharston. Its a total of 362 miles according to Maps Google. I’m not convinced that it can be done in 9hrs driving time without much to spare.
Any thoughts on this.
Well, you wont know unless you try!
My concern is that if I try it, and I run out of hours, it’s night out with no night out gear. Same scenario for the other drivers. Forgot to put in my post that this company who i worked for a couple of weeks ago, has limited their vehicles to 52mph.
Well the easy answer is to take night out gear isn’t it! Sounds ok to me. Any hold ups just use a 10 if you have one
switchlogic:
Well the easy answer is to take night out gear isn’t it! Sounds ok to me. Any hold ups just use a 10 if you have one
yea, i agree with luke… Brizzle and back from Manchester CAN be done in 10, with time to spare!
if in doubt take your gear, and prepare for a night out!
B…
No problem on nights, Our lads do Wrexham to Chorley down to Newport up to Droitwich then back to Wrexham.
Smokey & the Bandit are doing 1800 miles in 28 hours, on the telly right now. 
So it should be a breeze 
martinviking:
Smokey & the Bandit are doing 1800 miles in 28 hours, on the telly right now.
So it should be a breeze
roughyed:
Had a phone call from the my agency today.
Looking to put drivers on the following job.Start at Sharston in Wythenshawe, go to Wrexham and change trailer, down to Bristol, tip or change, I don’t know which, then back to Sharston. Its a total of 362 miles according to Maps Google. I’m not convinced that it can be done in 9hrs driving time without much to spare.
Any thoughts on this.
Depends on what day of the week, today for example the M5 is a car park near Bristol heading South and will be bad tomorrow heading North especially in the afternoon.
Local firm had a standard night time run, Chippenham up to Widnes, trailer change, then down to Lichfield, another trailer swap, back to Chippenham. M4 M5 M6 so similar stuff.
Last time I did it is on the printout as 664 k’s (412 miles), done in 4.25 driving then a 45 minute break, then another 4.20 driving (with other work for the trailer swaps). Started the shift at 18.00 Friday evening, finished 5.30 Saturday morning. Did this one a few times as an agency driver. It was a nail biter as to whether you’d get to the services by 4.30 and then get home in the next one but I didn’t go over (just). Then they changed it to allow for a more complicated trailer swap (we had to do some shunting) and they insisted drivers take a second 45 minute break to permit ten hours driving if needed. They paid for the second break (very generous) which was often 20 minutes up the road from home and all I wanted to do was get home and go to sleep!
kvin:
Local firm had a standard night time run, Chippenham up to Widnes, trailer change, then down to Lichfield, another trailer swap, back to Chippenham. M4 M5 M6 so similar stuff.Last time I did it is on the printout as 664 k’s (412 miles), done in 4.25 driving then a 45 minute break, then another 4.20 driving (with other work for the trailer swaps). Started the shift at 18.00 Friday evening, finished 5.30 Saturday morning. Did this one a few times as an agency driver. It was a nail biter as to whether you’d get to the services by 4.30 and then get home in the next one but I didn’t go over (just). Then they changed it to allow for a more complicated trailer swap (we had to do some shunting) and they insisted drivers take a second 45 minute break to permit ten hours driving if needed. They paid for the second break (very generous) which was often 20 minutes up the road from home and all I wanted to do was get home and go to sleep!
We still do.
Do able. I mainly work freelance and day jobs. I ALWAYS carry a rucksack with a night out survival kit. Just in case. For the sake of carrying a slightly bigger bag from car to truck.
One container job I used to get from time to time was, Seaforth to Chippenham tip then back Seaforth, dont recall it being a problem, but I would have flat sticked all the way 
We regularliy run Mold to Avonmouth at full 44tonnes in around 3:45 to 4 hrs and we don’t rush about. My motor is limited to 83kph too do I’d say you would do it easy with a ten shift.
Had a job on Thursday, the planned job was given 14 hours 20 minutes, I completed it in 14 hours 30 minutes so for the day I got paid, £208, not bad
Watched smokey & the bandit, absolute quality! Love that eastbound & down tune.
Best Line in the film. Whilst East Bound & Down is playing.
Sally Fields says
“They can see right down into the car, you know that ?”
Burt/Bandit says “Well, So what ! That’s why I used to love to drive those Trucks Darling” “Spot those Beavers” Class ! Lol.
8.5 hours drive on a Friday !!! Done today 
I used to do bromborough to avonmouth in 3h50, then back to Wrexham in 3h20 in the day, although there were times when it took a lot longer, but on nights we have a driver who does Wrexham to Nuneaton then on to malborough and back in 1 night.
Think positive, but carry a sleeping bag just in case!
Well, i did the run yesterday.
Started 11.30 am, left the yard at 12:20PM, arrived in Minera at 13:45, had to wait for some stuff coming to the depot. Left at 3pm, kept to the speed limits on the A483 and A5. Got caught in 2 2mile crawls to the roundabouts near Oswestry. Stopped at Stensham services for 20 mins, arrived Bristol, opposite Culina, at 7pm. Left at 20:45, and did a fuel stop at Hilton park on way up. Arrived back in Sharston at 00:25, finished at 00:45. Total of 607km’s and 8hrs 8mins driving.
Now here’s where it could go wrong. Long tail backs on M6 north towards the M54 due to the V festival and it streched right back down to M5 to about J2. Around j14 north of M5, there was the aftermath of some incident involving a police car and another car. When i passed it, both vehicles were on separate recovery trucks and on the hard shoulder. The queue for this was a 2 miles and standing.
While I was in Bristol, another lad had done night out after having a blow out at West Brom the day before. No night out gear or anything. He’d arrived last night at 6pm and left at 8pm, with just 3 and half hours left on his duty to get back to Sharston.
He told me that N R Evans had quit doing the run because of the hours problem, and Morans have now started it last week.
Not a bad trip, got a nice new DAF 95, a pleasure to drive and so quite and comfortable coming home last night listenng to Pete Waterman palying some great soul classics on Smooth FM. I’m back in there today at noon.