Interesting discussion, I am having the mick taken out of me at work at the minute, for taking a night out bag with me when I go up the A9 etc. I’d rather carry something I don’t need, than not have some basic survival kit if I do get stuck out. And yes i do work for a supermarket.
pepsifarr:
Interesting discussion, I am having the mick taken out of me at work at the minute, for taking a night out bag with me when I go up the A9 etc. I’d rather carry something I don’t need, than not have some basic survival kit if I do get stuck out. And yes i do work for a supermarket.
thats commonsense doing a9 work at this timd of year
Many moons ago I was working on a regular contract through an agency, I gave everyone loads of notice that on a certain week / fortnight I wouldnt be doing nights out as wife was ready to drop our second kid.
On monday morning I confirmed with the T/M that they had remembered and set off with £10 in pocket and nothing else.
After spending 3 uncomfortable nights in the cab and numberous calls to the T/M 
I phoned them on Thursday dinner time and told them where to find the wagon and the keys. Never went back to that company and agency werent happy but never got ■■■■■■ around by the agency again. 
Themoocher:
stevieboy308:
Themoocher:
To be fair on this lad, who never had his night out gear.If you work for a company and never done a night out and cab hopped everyday. Why would you have night out gear with you.
Its ok for guys that expect a night out every now and then.
Use the same cab everyday so your night out gears all ready there.Think the problems is he should av told the office to stick the run up there arse.
why tell the office to stick it up their arse?
it’s really simple! anyone doing decent distance day runs, need to accept that it’s going to go wrong every now and then.
everyone’s different, but you’ll know what you need with you to make a night out bearable, so take it. if you like all your creature comforts, but can’t be arsed to lug it in and out of a truck all the time for the 1% you might need it, then that’s the choice you make. but don’t whinge about it afterwards!
but does a cheap compressed sleeping bag, wash bag with wet wipes, socks, duds and a T shirt really take up that much space?
I tramp and out 5 or 6 nights a week so Iv always got my gear no matter what.
But if I was in a job 9 till 5 with no nights out As part of the job Description I wouldn’t carry night out gear everyday cab hopping.If I went in on an morning and knew I wouldn’t make the run.
I would have pair baws and tell the office it ain’t happening.
he never said the run was un-doable, he said he didn’t make it because there was an issue on the m25 and then the m1.
how long are you going to last refusing runs? presumably a run that is normally completed without issue.
i don’t see what the job description has to do with it, no nights out means no planned nights out, once you get, for arguments sake an hour away from base, then there’s going to be a slight chance you’re not going to get back, with a sliding scale ending with high chance you’re not getting back for going 5 hours away.
so if you’re like the op and really need your gear, take some, if you don’t, don’t whinge 
I’m a day driver and use different trucks, whats not practical about taking a bit of kit, just to get you through next day.I take with me every day 1x sleeping bag( small jungle army sleeping bag, great as it packs up really small and is just right with night heater) baby wipes and a tooth brush.Job done!
2 choices go prepared with emergency kit
or enough money for a travelodge
5RRF:
I’m a day driver and use different trucks, whats not practical about taking a bit of kit, just to get you through next day.I take with me every day 1x sleeping bag( small jungle army sleeping bag, great as it packs up really small and is just right with night heater) baby wipes and a tooth brush.Job done!
Me too, except I also take a clean polo shirt, socks and skidders.
Why is the lad unplanned its up to the transport office to get you back if your on days I mean I travel from Warrington furthest south I’d go is Milton Keynes area further than that then their takin the ■■■■ that should be a trampers job.
The only thing you need in an overnight bag is a magnet
Keep her lit!!
Night-and-day:
The only thing you need in an overnight bag is a magnetKeep her lit!!
Assuming you are joking mate…(but not entirely sure when I look at your username )
Problem is some pricks DO actually think like that 
, you usually see them ploughing across the central reservation…eventually 
Not aimed at the op or any other really but why do some drivers go in to complete melt down over a odd night out ,I know some drivers can’t for personal or family reasons but really by the time you’ve showered and eaten there’s not long until it’s getting up time .
If towards the end of the week you go to a job (not the 1st client of the week you`ve worked for), while out on the road you figure out that its likely you may run out of time before your due to get back so you phone the office and inform them of the impending situation, and you ask them to arrange for you to be brought back once you run out of time… sound familiar ■■
A good ruse to use it to tell the client that your on a 6th shift, and cannot do a night out without being week ended, as theyre not likely to figure out your lying, but I know you will get a better response and its highly likely they will react better as they wont want to loose the truck for 1-2 day while you have your weekly rest, and by the time I`m back in the yard the TM on shift whom I told the fib will have gone home, and his oppo will know little or nothing about what I said. Though walking into the office the following morning for the start of next shift has produced some confused looks from the staff behind the desk
Telling the client that Im on a 6th shift for them has also in the past ensured that Ive not been given the jobs that could result in a night out
Dan Punchard:
Not aimed at the op or any other really but why do some drivers go in to complete melt down over a odd night out .
Just what I think. Nights out are part and parcel of trucking.
No offence to you day men, (I’m gonna get some flak for this 
sorry) but I have always thought that they are just playing at it.
I know things have changed, (thankfully)but once over when men were men we slept across the engine cover on a padded board with no night heater, every bloody night, now driver’s like the o/p are belly aching cos they have not got a sleeping bag for ONE night out in God knows how many years in a designated sleeper cab .My heart bleeds for his pain
Why can’t some drivers accept that’s it ok to ask for more comfort, wages,safety etc. instead of putting everyone down who complains ie me one time I broken down in a Renault day cab. Rang the manager (a man who thought padded seats in trucks were for pansies) told him I would be on a night out and needed hotel he said no. What about no bed in the cab I asked. Your going to be sore in the morning he replied. ■■■■.
The older drivers are dying out now so you complainers will soon be in your coffin (unpadded of course) …joke.
.:
LASHHGV. Rang the manager (a man who thought padded seats in trucks were for pansies)
Quite right, I take the suspension seats out of every truck I drive, and replace it with an old fish box. I also hammer a few nails through it for extra discomfort, because I 'm a real trucker. 
I would like to know if his base is Warrington, why was he at Trowell? odd way to go from the M25
jjmorris1960:
Matrix sign on m1 sead m6 shut at j12 to 13 so i was originally heading for the A50 before realising i was so far into my 15 hours.
. 
Obviously , the whole day was such fun , the time just whizzed by & slipped away from you
1 night out in a million years…no sleeping bag…nobodys fault but your own carelessness. 9 hours for boredom/sleep with the night heater up full,learn from your mistakes,and take a bag the next time,and stop being a wooooose. my 1st heater was a campinggaz wee 1 ring can cylinder,and when it was too Baltic to see out the window for ice on the inside,i sat it behind my legs for 10 mins whilst driving every now and then,back in the days when men were men,and sheep were nervous…
I used to be a “day” driver, different truck every day. I had a bag in the boot of the car which had a sleeping bag a pillow, 24v kettle and some coffee sachets! I’d throw it on the bunk every day just in case, hardly extra effort is it. Should point out I only needed it twice in a year but it was born out of experience, I.e. Been stuck on a night out with nothing but a hi vis coat for a pillow and a non functional night heater due to it not been used for ages. If your driving a day cab with no bunk then yeah I could perhaps begin to understand, but to me if you jump in a sleeper cab then the clue is in the name, it’s not a 9-5 job and if your running such tight margins it takes very little to find yourself out of time.
If I take on a job it is on the understanding I will not be sleeping out. My personal life means a night out is not an option. If I even think it will happen then I wont do it. And if things go wrong then the company will need to send another driver out. I am a day/night driver not a tramper. If I get given a sleeper then that is the companies choice of buying one. Not to justify leaving me stranded in a layby in the middle of (zb) nowhere. A night out is not part and parcel of trucking unless specifically stated as a possibility in my opinion