I have been in a new 09 registered truck this week which is nice but this one has a twist.
Its a 10 tonner, it looks roughly the same as a 7.5 t but carry's 5 ton.
Its nice and compact and is really easy to get about in.
I have been all over the country in it this week and I have to say I loved it.
Its automatic, so even with a lot of city multidropping it drives like a dream, no clutch or gears to constantly change, leaving you fresh and alert.
The cab is quite spacious and very simple with few gadgets but that's a good thing really because that's less to go wrong.
I had a delivery in Birmingham at parceline.
I got to the security gate and had to look up to see the person behind the glass.
She didn't speak but she did push out a metal drawer, the type you get at a 24 hour petrol station.
I placed my notes inside and she pulled the drawer back, looked through them and pushed them back out with this map.
That was as far as she was prepared to communicate so I set off to follow the treasure trail.
I was unloaded by a really cheerful forkie which was nice seeing as every body else I had met had decided to take a bitterness pill.
I was in Burton next at the famous Coors brewery
I was delivering fridges and the people at Coors were having difficulty finding out where they were meant to go.
On the way out I passed the Coors museum.
Tuesday and I was up north , one of the jobs was a pretty smelly place.
It was a really tiny drive that I had to reverse up and then carry the goods the last few yards because it wouldn't go up all the way.
As remote as it looked,the M1 is just across the field and is only about half a mile away.
The way it works at our place is that they tell me what time they want me to leave the yard in the morning and when you get your notes, that's when you find out where you are going.
I typed in the post code on Wednesday and this is what came up , an AM delivery!
I was making good time but then the M6 fought back and I stopped for 90 minutes at 7 am and it totally screwed the whole day up.
Its not very often that you get overtaken by a helicopter on the ground but this went flying past on the way to my last delivery at ASDA in Chepstow.
Camper van of the day needed a little bit of help getting home.
I was finally home from Wales at 9 pm and this gave me a late start pass for Thursday.
My first delivery was here at John Lewis in Northants.
The rest of today was pretty slow and I was sent home early but with a 4 am start tomorrow I'm starting to wish I had slept when I got in.
I was delivering in the West Midlands on Monday and kept get directed to the M6 toll rd .
It looked very quiet and I didn't see many Lorry's on it at all and I told my tom tom to ignore the toll road and to find another route.
I was interested in the reasons behind the toll road and thought there must be a logical reason why it was built.
In my amateur observations the M6 is swamped with trucks , most days the trucks take up every lane they are legally allowed to travel in.
This causes congestion and accidents.
The M6 Toll connects M6 Junction 4 at the NEC to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with 27 miles (43 km) of six-lane motorway.
The toll road is the Mary Celeste of motorways.
The reason is, the toll rd costs money, and its not like Dartford where you have to use it, the M6 toll road is very expensive @ £9 for trucks.
I see very little benefit to using it because I can get anywhere I want without it.I can drive right next to it and use the same junctions and roundabouts and stare at the white, virgin service and wonder what the point is.
The company that owns it is an Australian company that build toll roads all over the world but the M6 toll has yest to make a profit, in fact if you take its depreciation and its interest payments, it runs at massive losses every year.
I think the road should be opened up to the General public for or maybe let trucks use it for free.
It would slash congestion on the M6 in a stroke and lighten the load on all those a roads that shadow the M6 toll.
There is one flaw in my plan I can see and that is ,it rely's on a commodity in very short supply in most powers that be. Common Sense!
For more Information on the M6 Toll here
Its a 10 tonner, it looks roughly the same as a 7.5 t but carry's 5 ton.
Its nice and compact and is really easy to get about in.
I have been all over the country in it this week and I have to say I loved it.
Its automatic, so even with a lot of city multidropping it drives like a dream, no clutch or gears to constantly change, leaving you fresh and alert.
The cab is quite spacious and very simple with few gadgets but that's a good thing really because that's less to go wrong.
I had a delivery in Birmingham at parceline.I got to the security gate and had to look up to see the person behind the glass.
She didn't speak but she did push out a metal drawer, the type you get at a 24 hour petrol station.
I placed my notes inside and she pulled the drawer back, looked through them and pushed them back out with this map.
That was as far as she was prepared to communicate so I set off to follow the treasure trail.
I was unloaded by a really cheerful forkie which was nice seeing as every body else I had met had decided to take a bitterness pill.
I was in Burton next at the famous Coors brewery
I was delivering fridges and the people at Coors were having difficulty finding out where they were meant to go.
On the way out I passed the Coors museum.
Tuesday and I was up north , one of the jobs was a pretty smelly place.
It was a really tiny drive that I had to reverse up and then carry the goods the last few yards because it wouldn't go up all the way.
As remote as it looked,the M1 is just across the field and is only about half a mile away.
The way it works at our place is that they tell me what time they want me to leave the yard in the morning and when you get your notes, that's when you find out where you are going.
I typed in the post code on Wednesday and this is what came up , an AM delivery!
I was making good time but then the M6 fought back and I stopped for 90 minutes at 7 am and it totally screwed the whole day up.
Its not very often that you get overtaken by a helicopter on the ground but this went flying past on the way to my last delivery at ASDA in Chepstow.
Camper van of the day needed a little bit of help getting home.
I was finally home from Wales at 9 pm and this gave me a late start pass for Thursday.
My first delivery was here at John Lewis in Northants.
The rest of today was pretty slow and I was sent home early but with a 4 am start tomorrow I'm starting to wish I had slept when I got in.
I was delivering in the West Midlands on Monday and kept get directed to the M6 toll rd .
It looked very quiet and I didn't see many Lorry's on it at all and I told my tom tom to ignore the toll road and to find another route.
I was interested in the reasons behind the toll road and thought there must be a logical reason why it was built.
In my amateur observations the M6 is swamped with trucks , most days the trucks take up every lane they are legally allowed to travel in.
This causes congestion and accidents.
The M6 Toll connects M6 Junction 4 at the NEC to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with 27 miles (43 km) of six-lane motorway.
The toll road is the Mary Celeste of motorways.
The reason is, the toll rd costs money, and its not like Dartford where you have to use it, the M6 toll road is very expensive @ £9 for trucks.
I see very little benefit to using it because I can get anywhere I want without it.I can drive right next to it and use the same junctions and roundabouts and stare at the white, virgin service and wonder what the point is.
The company that owns it is an Australian company that build toll roads all over the world but the M6 toll has yest to make a profit, in fact if you take its depreciation and its interest payments, it runs at massive losses every year.
I think the road should be opened up to the General public for or maybe let trucks use it for free.
It would slash congestion on the M6 in a stroke and lighten the load on all those a roads that shadow the M6 toll.
There is one flaw in my plan I can see and that is ,it rely's on a commodity in very short supply in most powers that be. Common Sense!
For more Information on the M6 Toll here