I'm still obsessed with the fuel price, foreigners driving here for free, fuel in-efficient Euro 4-5 trucks and the government's inability/reluctance to do anything about any of these. All of which I think I've covered before.

I attended a 'Scania and the Environment' lunch last week which was attended by Theresa Villiers MP [the Shadow Transport Secretary who recently attacked VOSA], the MD of Scania (who was 2 hours late - how convenient!) and Peter Roberts - the man behind the Drivers' Alliance website.

I was able to ask Theresa what methods her party had in mind for charging foreign trucks and the best I could get from her was that 'they were considering a number of options'. I suggested putting a small charge on the ferry ticket and she replied that 'they were considering a number of options'. She then had to rush off to catch a train. I was however, happy to note that Dick Denby gave her a lift to the station.

I left the lunch wondering what the funny smell had been. I think it might have been bullshit.
Peter Roberts seemed very genuine and I will certainly look at his website and do what I can to support him. I would urge anyone reading this to do the same.

Also it would be nice to know if anyone actually reads this stuff. Feedback of some kind would be good.

John English has been trading for 20 years, mainly international work but more recently in the UK. He runs 4 Scania artic trucks, all unmarked white, and his drivers are all British drivers with around 20 years' experience.

What's changed?

I apologise. It's been a while since I last blogged, but if there has been a downturn in the economy I haven't noticed. Since my last blog I have bought a brand new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, and taken on a number of new work commitments. The work is a mixture of contract and spot hire.

What is different is that before I was searching, almost begging for work, and willing to  reasonably cut my standard rates to obtain it, where now I seem to able to demand my price and terms.

I am unsure what has changed within the industry. But work is flowing inwards, new customers are accepting that for the first 3 months I want paying 7 days from invoice or my vehicles stop turning up. I quote a rate that 6 months ago would have included ferries, now I get the same rate but ferries paid.

None of this has happened by accident. I have been trying for years to increase my rates and improve the terms under which I carry goods. And argued long and hard with my clients But have always been rebuffed. Now it seems that something in the industry has changed. I can demand my terms and they are accepted most of the time.

At the time of typing I have one customer whose account is overdue by 14 days, and that's it, everyone else is paying up on time (that one customer was  my first major customer and has always paid late, but paid well and never argued against interest on the account if over 28 days late). A situation I have never found myself in before.

If this is recession give me more of it.

Paul McBride runs a small courier business running 5 light vehicles on urgent deliveries throughout Europe

A couple of weeks ago there was an unexpected parcel waiting for me when I got home, after the usual interrogation from the rest of the family as to "what have you bought now ?" I came to the  conclusion that the best idea would be to open it and see what it was !! I was surprised to find a truckers Sat Nav, which apparently I had won in a competition in Commercial Motor.

I was always told "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" so having never used one before I thought I'd better give it a go and see what happened when I used it on some of my regular runs.

On A-roads and motorways it was brilliant, giving distance to next junction, speed, lane guidance, weight limits, bridge heights and even altitude, however when I strayed onto the B-roads and smaller roads of Exmoor the gaps in the mapping data became apparent. This model allows you to set vehicle type and dimensions, so I did ( Truck & Trailer , 44t, and measuring  60ft long and 16 ft high, exactly the same size as a load of straw ).

One journey it guided me home via a right turn from a single track road onto an A road  that would need a couple of shunts in my Land Rover followed by a single track road that nobody uses unless they live down it !! Another journey it didn't like the route I was taking so tried to reroute me several times, once under a 12' bridge on a single track road, then through a 17 tonne limit, and later through 2 7.5 tonne limits in the centre of Barnstaple! Fortunately I ignored it and drove the way I knew otherwise the local news would have have a field day.

The problem I have now is knowing what it can do on roads I know how can I trust it on roads I don't know? Maybe the answer lies in common sense, a good pair of eyes and another fortunate competition win I had last year  - a Truckers Atlas. I suppose you can sum the Sat Nav up as a really good try but the mapping data needs more work yet .

Denis Fuller is a owner-operator based in the south west, running a single truck on livestock and agricutural haulage