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If you’re feeling a bit tired and jaded, why not have a smile with a few haulage work stories.
Believe it or not – all of these are true!
The Grand Tour
The poor shipping clerk sitting at his desk was desperately trying to explain to an irate client why their trailer load of critically important Italian imports was still sitting in Dover 3 days after arrival without a tractor unit to deliver it. The driver had in fact vanished upon arrival in the UK and there were now serious concerns for...
•Haulage Companies - Truckers Headed for the Bright Lights?
Driving for haulage companies might not seem like the most glamorous of jobs, but all you truckers out there should know that you’re in great company! Not all of the world’s rich and famous start out at the top, and there’s more than a few who earned their living from driving before they hit the big time.
Elvis – the King? Or the King of the Road?
Actually he was both, God rest his soul. A year after graduating from high school, Elvis Presley started working as a truck driver for the Crown...
•Driving For Haulage Companies? Then Make That Cab a Home From Home!
No disrespect intended, but driving for haulage companies is a bit like being a snail...you take your home around with you wherever you go. It might not be your real home, but it certainly gets to feel that way when you spend so many hours in the cab. You might not be able to get home and just splodge on the sofa in front of the TV, but that doesn’t mean that those stopovers have to be dull and boring. There are so many cool gizmos and gadgets on the market these days that can help you to while...
•Unusual Stowaways
When you spend the major part of your waking life in the cabin of a big rig (or even a little one for that matter) fulfilling contracts for haulage companies, it can sometimes get a little lonely. To relieve some of the solitude, it’s not unusual for a driver to pick up a hitchhiker to help them while away the time. It’s nice to have the company, and some drivers even forge lasting friendships with people they have met on the road. While it pays to err on the side of caution when it comes to...
•Britain’s Historical Highways
On an island as small as Britain, it’s very easy to stumble across one historic road or another whilst carrying out transport contracts. These ancient Roman roads or old trap roads intended for horse and carriage can tell us a lot about Britain’s history. Here is a selection of my favourite roads in Britain; some of them have a past so interesting that I could almost forgive them for the odd traffic jam:
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to the ancient trackway in England and...
•Rules of the Road on the Continent
Every now and then, there’s a high chance that your delivery work might take you over the waters into Europe. If and when you do cross the channel, there are a few rules of the road that are well worth remembering.
Left is Right and Right is Left
The first rule of doing delivery work in Europe is one that you are hardly likely to forget, particularly as the areas around the ferry ports tend to be littered with signposts pointing it out. However, driving on the opposite side of the road than...
•4 of the More Diverse Deliveries
When you sign up to do self-employed courier jobs, there’s no knowing what you might end up delivering each day. We take a look at some of the more unusual courier work that is out there.
Blood Delivery
It’s easy to assume that every hospital in the country has an endless supply of blood, which will be enough to cover every emergency that occurs. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As smaller hospitals in more secluded towns and cities are likely to have less local people regularly donating...
•Long-Distance Transport Contracts – the Ideal Job For Some
There are many reasons why people consider getting into the haulage industry: a life spent on the open road, the freedom of travelling around the country on various transport contracts, no need to spend all day in an office. But if you’re thinking about getting involved in a career in long-distance haulage then you have to ask yourself one very important question: have you really got it in you? It’s not all plain sailing, so here’s a few things you might want to consider before your first...
•The Anatomy of a Traffic Jam
For commuters and those in the delivery and courier industry, traffic jams are part and parcel of the daily grind. But what are the causes of jams? Now there is scientific research to add to the anecdotal evidence of everyday drivers everywhere.
It’s enough to make your heart sink. You’re on the motorway when the all-too-familiar cascade of brake lights comes towards you. Before long, you’re at a standstill. In this situation, you might feel for the trucker whose load is spoiling, or...
•De-Stressing on Courier Jobs – a Few Techniques
Drivers who get easily stressed are not the best candidates for courier jobs. The job can be tough, and you could find yourself coming up against some challenging scenarios. How do you cope in a crisis? Can you keep a level head? Even the most relaxed drivers get stressed sometimes, so here’s a few techniques to help you keep your cool when working on courier jobs.
Breathe
Breathing techniques have been a long-time favourite of meditation gurus and yoga trainers. They are one of the most...
•Drivers Caught on Camera
From trucks taking unusual turns on the motorway, to drivers packing a year’s worth of delivery work onto one overloaded run, sometimes even the most practised road users get caught breaking the rules – or even breaking their vehicles.
Everyone who has ever driven a car will have an anecdote describing the idiocy of a fellow road user. It doesn’t take much for the minority of drivers who behave poorly – or dangerously – to draw attention to themselves. Some of them are even caught on camera,...
•Driver's Mate You Love to Hate
Some people are heaven to drive with – other's can be hell! If you do self employed courier jobs, here are four kinds of people not to let near your van.
No van is complete without a driver's mate sitting in the passenger seat, and if you do self employed courier jobs and you have your own van, from time to time you may have a driver's mate occupying the front seat. Perhaps you want the company, perhaps you need help with some of your work, or maybe you're doing someone a favour and taking...
•The Best Drive Time Slots
Getting the right drive time tunes can make or break a day. If you are running courier jobs, here are five great radio stations to get your day started.
The radio is a driver’s best friend – it provides news, some tunes to keep you entertained, and lets you know about a snarl up on the M25 before you end up stuck in traffic for hours on end. This is especially true for couriers – when you’ve got a long day of courier jobs ahead of you, you want to make sure you’ve got some good tunes...
•The Strangest Motorway Spillages
As we drive along the motorways, we see lorries of all shapes and sizes going about delivery work. But how often do we know what it is that is being delivered? Unfortunately, every now and then, a spillage will occur. This can be highly dangerous, not only due to the initial risk to the driver himself, but also in terms of traffic congestion, and residue on the road. We’ve unearthed some of the strangest substances that have been spilled from lorries over the years. Fortunately, nobody was...
•Strange Tales of Sleepy Drivers
Whenever you get a group of people together who drive for a living - be it carrying out transport contracts, couriering parcels, or delivering people in a mini cab – the talk is going to turn to the weird and wonderful stories that evolve from spending so much time on the road. Many tales are about the characters they’ve met at truck stops and cafes and many more are about near misses and disasters (always the other guy’s fault of course!). Then there are the ‘strange but true’ (honest!) tales;...
•Hardest Places to Deliver a Load
Each time you travel along the motorway, you are bound to see lorries lining the inside lane. However, what we often tend to forget, is that these lorries do in fact have a final destination. This could be down a narrow country road, up a very steep hill, or even in a place where lorries are not allowed, and yet their delivery work must be completed.
Where People Shall Not Be Moved
One thing not mentioned in the delivery work job description, is what to do when somebody disagrees with what...
•The Best and Worst Transport Contracts
There are good transport contracts, and bad transport contracts – learn more about the main differences between them!
The Best and Worst Transport Contracts
If you are working in the haulage industry, whether you are an owner operator or a salaried employee, you'll know enough about transport contracts to know that no two jobs are the same. You'll have had jobs where everything went right, and loads that you simply couldn't wait to be rid of.
Sometimes it is hard to foresee which one will...
•Special Valentine’s Day Deliveries
When it comes to courier jobs, the only time of year that can rival Christmas in terms of workload is Valentine’s Day. Couriers all over the country take on the role of Cupid, delivering flowers, cards and love to our nearest and dearest. As you might imagine, the poor folk making these deliveries can get sick of the sight of flowers, chocolates and cupcakes, so this Valentine’s Day, why not give them something a little more exciting to deliver?
Struck by Cupid’s Arrow
We’ve all heard of...
•What if the Sex and the City Girls Were Couriers?
My wife has a huge thing for Sex and the City so, when I arrived home from one of my self-employed courier jobs, I wasn’t surprised to see her slumped out in-front of her favourite box set. Watching it with her got me wondering, what if the four thirty-somethings weren’t sophisticated New Yorkers, but rather four down-to-earth couriers holding down self-employed courier jobs in good old Blighty?
The Outfits Would Have To Go
Some of the outfits Carrie wears in Sex and the City are quite...
•New Year’s Resolutions For Couriers
There’s not too many among us who don’t, whether boldly or secretly, make some kind of promise to do better, be better or feel better every time New Year comes around. Although most resolutions are made with the best of intentions, it is a sad fact that a large proportion of them go by the wayside even before the streamers and balloons are relegated to the rubbish heap. Anyone who drives for a living, be they long distance lorry drivers or those doing courier jobs, knows how hectic this time of...
•What to Get a Lorry Driver For Xmas
Can you hear the sleigh bells start to ring? It’s that time of year again, and time to start thinking of what to get people for Christmas. But what do you buy for someone who does delivery work, and spends a large proportion of their time on the road? To save you sitting and scratching your head for hours, here are some ideas to get you started.
Hot and Cold
We’ve all seen or heard of a mini fridge, and no doubt we’ve all wished at some point on a hot day that we had one in our vehicle. Now...
•3 Courier Lessons From 'Cast Away'
Most couriers are aware of the kind of quiet heroism that goes on when doing self employed courier jobs. Whether it is tight delivery deadlines, sudden traffic jams, difficult customer demands or unreliable GPS systems, there are a host of possible obstacles that couriers have to overcome every day to make sure their jobs get completed on time and to the customer's satisfaction.
But few couriers have the opportunity to show their skill and dedication like Chuck Noland, the fictional star of...
•Safe Driving Around HGVs
Intimidated by HGVs on the road? Learn more about how to drive safely around them.
Safe Driving Around HGVs
For some people, an HGV is an annoyance when they encounter one on the road. For others, they are a source of fear. It's easy to see why car drivers can be frustrated, as HGVs are big, slow, and unwieldy vehicles to deal with when driving. Yet HGV drivers are just workers doing transport contracts who want to arrive safe and sound – they aren't the enemy on the road!
Most of the time,...
•Postman Cat Amongst the Pigeons
With the current state of the Royal Mail, and all the postal delays, you may feel that a chimpanzee would do a better job than your current postie, and who knows you could even be right. The truth is that animals have been working courier jobs for centuries, and as we’ve yet to see a Saint Bernard on strike it’s likely that they’ll be working a more reliable service than your average postman for many more:
Carrier pigeons, or homing pigeons, are the best known animals with courier jobs and...
•Postman Pat: Why He Should Have Been a Courier
Postman Pat is probably the most reliable, friendly and responsible postman in the world. And deep down, we all wish he was the one delivering our post, particularly given the current state of the British Royal Mail.
His red van and black cat are images instilled in minds all over the world, and come to the fore whenever we post a letter. But Postman Pat is employed by Royal Mail, so even he might be on strike! Unfortunately, Pat does not have his own self-employed courier job, so he has to...
•Lucky Mascots For Van Drivers
For as long as cars have been on the road, drivers have been adorning their windshields with lucky amulets designed to provide them with safety on their long journeys. These amulets differ throughout the world, from the evil eyes of Turkey and the Middle East to the slightly stranger rabbit feet often used as a talisman in Europe. So whether you’re thinking of getting a mascot to guide you on your self-employed courier job, or already have one dangling from your windshield and just want to know...
•Ice Road Truckers
Ask yourself – could you spend three months driving a truck in sub-zero conditions with only snatches of sleep for days on end? Could you drive that truck loaded with 88,000 pounds of haulage companies’ cargo across what amounts to a two inch thick sheet of compressed ice? Could you hold your nerve, inching your rig along towards an invisible horizon while all around you the sounds of cracking, creaking, shifting ice echoes through the cabin? And could you take your haulage work seriously...
•Top Ten Tips For Reducing Fuel Consumption
With the rising cost of fuel around the globe, courier work is becoming increasingly expensive. Drivers and companies are having to pay more and more per trip, which is taking its toll on the courier industry. But there are a few ways couriers can cut down on their expensive petrol consumption when on the road. Here are the top ten tips for minimising petrol consumption whilst on the road.
#1 Plan Your Route
Congestion chews petrol, so it is always best to plan better routes and times for...
•Women on the Road
Traditionally, the trucking industry has been a man’s world, and transport contracts have seldom been entered into by females. But it is now the 21st century, and it is important to remember that women are not only entitled to, but actually increasingly do, work in the haulage industry.
It is estimated that there are 505,000 truckers in the UK, only 4% of which are women. That means that there are 20,200 female truckers in the UK. While the percentage may be low, the figure itself is not too...
•The Best and Worst Roundabouts in the UK
Roundabouts, rotary systems, islands or traffic circles, whatever you decide to call them one thing’s certain, we Brit’s have a love affair with roundabouts. Whilst Americans may not understand them, Kevin Beresford’s book on the best roundabouts of Britain became an instant bestseller here in the United Kingdom. There is even a Roundabout Appreciation Society that meets on a monthly basis in Dorset to discuss all things roundabout-related. On our various courier jobs across the UK we encounter...
•The Roadkill Café – You Kill It, We Grill It
Those employed in delivery work in the United States appear to have a much better deal than us in the United Kingdom. Not only do they rarely have to put up with roundabouts and Victorian road-layouts, but they also have long stretches of freeways and classic American diners in which they can take a pit-stop. However, there is one diner that you may not want to feast on after a heavy day of carrying out delivery work in the US of A….
The Roadkill Café located on America’s famous Mother Road...
•Dekotora - Works of Trucking Art
Dekotora is an emerging fashion for customising trucks that originated in Japan. It’s a craze that’s making motorways more interesting and truck stops brighter places to visit, as lorry drivers increasingly put aside their dull delivery work liveries and opt for artistic haulage vehicles.
In Britain, we are used to seeing lorries with ladies names on the roads, perhaps the occasional delivery worker who has added a neon name badge or fairy lights to his dashboard. In Japan, they go much...
•The Great White Van Mystery
It seems that the humble “white van man” is being targeted by something other than just the clichéd humour of every amateur comedian from Lands End to Loch Laxford. In a strange turn of events, in recent months one suburb in London appears to have fallen prey to a mysterious gang of thieves with a distinct penchant for a particular brand of van!
In a spate of robberies, over a period of three weeks seven vans of identical make and model were taken overnight. The vans in question were Mercedes...
•Is Private Clamping Legal?
Private clampers certainly make carrying out courier jobs that little bit harder, as you struggle against the clock to deliver a parcel, all the while praying that the clampers don’t spot your white van parked on their private driveway or office block car park. However, it has recently emerged that private wheel clamping could very well be illegal and, under UK law, an infringement of our human rights.
According to the RAC, the clamping of cars by private companies could be an infringement of...
•Customised Trucks From Around the World
Stringing a tree with tinsel or spraying fake snow around your double-glazed windows is fairly normal behaviour when it comes to celebrating a religious festival at home. However, if you spend more time on the road carrying out haulage work then you do lounging around in your living room at home, then it’s understandable that you may also want to decorate your vehicle. Here are some instances of customised trucks from around the world.
The Christmas Truck
Some people admit to only feeling...
•A Guide to Lorry Spotting
Try starting a conversation with most people (aside from the haulage companies) about trucks, and they’ll be asleep before you even get to discuss the merits of a mid-lift axle. But it seems that there is a new guard emerging – a breed so dedicated and eagle-eyed, that they are turning the talent of high speed number plate reading into an art form. Well ok, there’s a little bit more to it than that. But what it amounts to is being in the right place at the right time, and being quick enough to...
•Tyrone Malone: The World’s Most Famous Trucker
Possibly the most famous trucker of all time is Tyrone Malone. And his unique haulage work load, known as Little Irvy, is equally famous in the trucking world. While Little Irvy lives on, in a manner of speaking, Tyrone’s life came to a tragic yet ironic end, when he fell asleep on the road and died in a truck accident. Truckers everywhere pay tribute to this trucking legend.
Tyrone’s Trucking Life
Known as the ‘King of Truckers,’ Tyrone spent 20 years of his life on the road. For 17 of them,...
•The Best Trucker Movies
Trucking movies form an interesting genre of their own, with stereotypical masculine lead characters played by the likes of Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone. Here is a list of 10 of the best trucking movies.
#1 Convoy
Based on the song, Convoy, by C.W. McCall, this 1978 movie features haulage workers who band together to form an unbreakable convoy, in a bid to defeat the county sheriff. The truckers form an impressive mile long convoy, starring Kris Kristofferson and Ali McGraw.
#2...
•Roadside Cafes For Owner Drivers
After a hard day of courier work on the road, there is little as rewarding as seeing the turning up ahead for your favourite roadside café. But when you’re carrying out courier jobs in unfamiliar territory it can be hard to tell which roadside joints are worth making a pit-stop for. Here is a list of what we feel are some of the best:
#5 – The Quarry Café
Located near to the junction of the A487 and A489, this vegan café is affiliated with the nearby Centre for Alternative Technology and...
•Top Pizza Delivery Movies
Of all the courier jobs out there, pizza delivery must surely be the stereotype. And evidence of this can be found in the high number of movies including a pizza delivery scene. Whether its horror, comedy or romance, pizza delivery boys take first place when it comes to courier workers starring in movies.
#1 There’s Something About Mary
The pizza boy in this movie does nothing to promote the name of courier workers out there. Played by Lee Evans, this pizza boy’s role is to stalk Cameron...
•Top Ten Songs for the Road
Delivery work can be a tiresome job at times, and truckers can sometimes feel a little despondent when they’ve got a long road ahead of them, particularly on their way home. Here is a list of the top 10 songs to ease the burden of the return load.....this list is dedicated to truckers everywhere.
#10 Prisoner of the Highway
This song by Mark Wills will inspire any weary trucker on the road doing delivery work. At the start of any trip the amount of driving hours lying ahead can be a little...
•The Wire Makes Shipping Gripping
It’s difficult to imagine that any crime drama could take the everyday drudgery of haulage work, transport contracts and shipping and make it compelling, but that’s what the second season of “The Wire” has achieved. Following on from the ground-breaking first series, which focused on Baltimore’s drug corners, the focal point of the cult HBO show moves to the dockyards and follows both the trucks leaving the docks, and drug use on the streets.
In a partial move away from the gangland corners,...
•The Most Scenic Roads in England, Scotland & Wales
Courier work can be monotonous, driving the same routes day in day out and delivering the same packages to the same people. So when you find a delicious roadside diner or travel a particularly scenic route on your next courier job it can make the world of difference. These are what we feel are some of the most scenic roads in the UK.
Cheddar Gorge
If you’re lucky enough to have courier work in Somerset then you could find yourself driving the scenic route of the Cheddar Gorge. This route...
•Top 5 Courier Vans
Whether it’s a courier job delivering a single document or an entire van load, the name of the game is to get load X from location A to location B - right? Well yes, but as an owner driver, considering you may spend around ten hours of the day in your vehicle, shouldn’t the van you have chosen to spend more time with than your wife (or husband!) be the very best one for you? In terms of deciding what’s most important for your courier work you need to consider your priorities - comfort, size,...
•Hitchhiking Stories
Hitch hikers were once able to rely on the kindness of haulage companies whose friendly drivers would oblige with a lift. How often do we see hitch hikers on our roads nowadays?
As the number of vehicles on our roads grows at a remarkable rate, the culture of hitchhiking has changed. An AA survey of its members once found that three quarters of drivers would never consider stopping to help someone thumbing a lift. I’m sure the odds feel much worse for those standing at the roadside for hours...
•Who is the White Van Man?
Do you avoid the mythical ‘White Van Man’ when you see him on the road? A scientific survey has shown that it’s unfair to prejudge the drivers of light commercial vehicles on courier jobs and owner driver jobs on Britain’s roads.
Survey Debunks the Myth
‘The White Van Man’ is perceived as a menace on our roads, but ten years ago, the Social Issues Research Centre went a long way to debunking the myth that drivers in white vans were rude and reckless.
The SIRC gathered two hundred van drivers...
•Haulage Companies – Top Funniest Call Signs
Long hours on the road are an unavoidable hazard of delivery work and long distance haulage work, so any source of entertainment (no matter how minor) to fill the silence, is a welcome relief. Back in the days before iPods and twelve stackers, the best fun you could have in your truck with your clothes on, was firing up the CB and getting into some chat with a whole lot of like minded strangers. (Or just friends you hadn’t met yet!)
Back in the 70’s and 80’s, movies like Smokey and the Bandit,...
•Five Outrageous Lorry Stories You Couldn’t Make Up
Whether it is through luck or fate, lorries just seem to keep finding their way to the centre of the most bizarre news stories and urban myths around the internet. Weird and wonderful, strange and terrible, the crazy lorry stories just keep appearing – here are five of the oddest ones out there…
The Lord is Moving to Iowa
Thanks in part to groupage, lorry drivers frequently find themselves transporting full, heavy loads and backloads…but it is doubtful that many drivers have dealt with a load...
•Top Five Most Hazardous Lorry Loads
Most lorry drivers transport ordinary goods to their destination, pickup their backload if they’ve arranged one, and drive back. Most will need some kind of identification, even if it’s only a name tag, or possibly a security pass. Few will need armed guards or refractive armour, but some do, and these are the truck and lorry drivers that transport hazardous and life threatening loads.
5. Toxic and Very Toxic
Many products and items in every day life have toxic elements or chemicals in them,...
•The Top 5 Oddball Lorry News Stories of 2008
Ask the vast majority of lorry drivers and owner operators if the year has been kind to them, and they’ll most likely laugh. Spiralling fuel costs, extra legislation and low emission zones have made the life of the road haulage driver even more stressful than before. So when looking through the haulage news stories of the last 12 months, it would be very easy to focus on the negatives outlined above, but instead I have chosen to look at those news articles which make you do a double take – ones...
•December 2008 – the Top Five Computer Games Involving Lorries
The Top Five Computer Games Involving Lorries
Lorries are an every day sight on our roads and motorways, ubiquitous in modern life and a common sight (and sometimes annoyance) for drivers. A lorry in the next lane is as much a part of road life as cat’s eyes or yellow speed cameras. But these haulage giants have become more than just a part of our road life – they are a cultural symbol and are frequently seen on our cinema and PC screens. We take a look at the latter, and count down the top...
•Cala Galdana – The Mediterranean’s Unspoilt Gem
It’s January. The wind is cold, the rain is cold, the house is cold, and most importantly, we’re cold. What we need is something to pick us up, something that we can look forward to and will carry us through the gloomy winter months. For most people, this pick me up is the great feeling of having booked our holiday in the new year. There’s nothing like the knowledge that you’ve secured your time off on a sunny island in the med to brighten things up. It’s even better if you choose somewhere...
•The Lorry Driver’s Travel Checklist
On a long haul road haulage job, a lorry driver can be on the road for days or even weeks. That’s a long time for something to go wrong with your lorry – and if you are stuck by the side of the road waiting for help and paying for repairs, you and your company will be losing time and money.
Luckily, most common problems with lorry breakdowns can be avoided with some simple, regular vehicle maintenance. Before going on any road haulage job, every lorry driver should make sure that their rig is...
•The 5 Best Fictional Lorries
The world of haulage and lorry driving has never been seen as the most glamorous, despite there being some truly memorable lorries in the world of film and television. Here are 5 of my favourites…
5. Mack (Cars)
No doubt “Cars” was one of Disney-Pixar’s more forgettable animated films, but Mack – a 1980s Superliner who transports Lighting McQueen in the film – just about sneaks into the list for being voiced by the legendary John Ratzenberger.
Ratzenberger, who played the longwinded mailman...
•More Lorry Driver Urban Legends
I’ve written about lorry driver urban legends before, but they just keep cropping up all over the internet. I’m not sure quite why lorry drivers and their vehicles often seem to be at the centre of these kinds of stories – my theory is that it’s the lorry drivers themselves who spread them while running haulage jobs and return loads all over the world! Perhaps it is just that many urban legends take place on the road, and lorry drivers make for convenient and plausible participants. However...
•10 Ways Owner Operators Can Cut Their Fuel Bills
If you read any lorry-centric news sites at the moment, you’ll be aware that times are not exactly good. Fuel prices are higher than ever, there are taxes to enter major city centres and to top it all off the whole world is suffering from an economic downturn. The big companies will manage to get through this, no doubt, but what about the independent lorry drivers – the owner operators? It’s going to be a struggle for some of them undoubtedly, but cutting down on unnecessary expenses can allow...
•Return Loads and Groupage – Maximising Haulage Efficiency
With the price of fuel rising dramatically, the haulage industry faces some of its toughest years in recent memory. Owner operators and haulage companies are looking for ways to keep their businesses afloat as running costs rise and the economy weakens.
There is nothing that can be done to halt the rising cost of fuel – what matters is that you make the highest return on every haulage job that your company runs. Improving the efficiency of your company can take many forms, but two of the most...
•10 Lorries in Harmony
To some, trucks and lorries may seem functional, but not exactly prime inspiration for songwriting. But maybe that’s why you’re not a multi-platinum selling artist, because all of these artists have managed to find their muse in the form of the humble HGV or the owner operator’s job…
69 Eyes – Truck On
While some have used the lorry as a metaphor for life, Finnish gothic metalers 69 Eyes talk no uncertain terms about the lorry as means to deliver loads from one place to another. Things do get...
•Haulage Pirates – The Rise of Diesel Rustling
The rising price of fuel has already caused many woes for owner operators and haulage companies in recent months. Protests have been held by lorry drivers around the world, worried about the effect that the spiralling cost of diesel is having on their businesses. Now, people in the haulage industry are finding themselves the targets of a new kind of crime – diesel rustling.
As fuel prices increase, diesel is being nicknamed “liquid gold”, and it is unsurprising that thieves have taken to...
•Alternate Fuels For Lorries
So, we all know that the price of haulage fuel in the UK is ridiculous at the moment, with lorry fuel costing 50p per litre in the UK as compared to 25p per litre in mainland Europe. It really is a rip off bleeding us dry.
With many owner operators and haulage companies struggling with the increased strain on their budget, is there an alternative? Well the good news is yes, but the bad news is that some of the strange and wonderful haulage fuel sources aren’t exactly widely available...
•Lorry Drivers in Film…5 Villains and a Hero!
Those of us who work in haulage companies sometimes wonder what we’ve done to deserve such a villainous portrayal in the film world. Especially in B movies and horror films, it seems that every time someone runs into trouble on a deserted highway, the bad guy inevitably turns out to be a lorry driver…
The Driver, ‘Duel’ (1971)
The lead character in this movie (Steven Spielberg’s debut film as a director) makes the foolish mistake of aggressively overtaking a tanker truck on a deserted...
•Heroic Lorry Driver Stories
Perhaps it’s because of their no-nonsense attitude, or maybe it is just because there are so many of them on the road, but when they aren’t busy working on various haulage jobs many lorry drivers seem to moonlight as have-a-go heroes. Whenever a member of the public is hailed as a hero for rescuing those in danger, more often than not it turns out to be a lorry driver, or so it seems, and in the best stories, the lorry plays as big a part as the driver in the rescue.
The Dog Whisperer
Les...
•What The Future Holds For The Haulage Industry
So, the Low Emission Zone has now been in effect for three months and fuel prices are continuing to rise. The freight industry is most certainly in crisis – as shown last month, when one haulage company presented a coffin representing the bankruptcy of many smaller firms and the loss of road haulage jobs to parliament. While LEZ has reduced the number of high emission haulage vehicles entering London (no surprise, considering the hefty fines required otherwise!) it certainly hasn’t made our job...
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