Long Days Late Nights

The sun never sets on a long distance lorry driver. That line, from a well known documentary, holds true whatever the size of the truck. It came back to me recently while thinking about the hours drivers once put in when the rules allowed a little more room for manoeuvre. The further back you go, the easier it was to rack up serious mileage: lighter traffic even a decade ago, higher speeds, no speed limiters and simpler ways around the regulations. Most people who have sat behind the wheel will admit to having done it at least once.

Starting from Braintree

Based in Braintree on the A120, roughly 25 minutes from the M11, I was well connected to the motorway network and could spend a decent share of my driving time at cruising speed. The worst part of any trip was always the stretch from the M11 back to Braintree on the old A120. An early start, beating the traffic to the M11, and I was away.

I used to plan a day’s work on an average of 60mph, so in four and a half hours of driving I would aim for a maximum of 270 miles. From Braintree, that covers a fair swathe of the UK. The proof was a job I ran to Carmarthen. Braintree to Carmarthen is around 265 miles, so in my head it was possible to get there and back in a day, provided I averaged just over 60mph. I priced it as an empty return and, if I remember rightly, did it three, four or five times. I dare say I put in a ten hour day or two, but not having a speed limiter was what made it work.

A few memorable runs

Plenty of other decent days out stick in the memory, and this is not about blowing a trumpet, just remembering the love of driving.

Braintree to Exeter to Birmingham and back to Braintree. Quoted as empty return jobs to both destinations, they just about fitted together. It saved a day in the week, which meant another job could be done.

Braintree to Larkhall to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Barton Park Lorry Park. That was a busy one. A full load of sunbeds to Larkhall, always priced as an empty return, then lead rolls loaded for home delivery from David Park Transport in Newcastle, followed by an hour back down the road to Barton Park truck park near the A1 and A66 split at Scotch Corner.

There were, I am sure, a few day trips to Newcastle-upon-Tyne as well, which again is a fair day out.

Over to you

What I would like now are genuine memories of long days behind the wheel. I am well aware of the days international drivers put in during the 1970s and 1980s, and I once spent a very genuine afternoon with a couple of well known Irishmen whose stories about what they got done in a week to and from Belfast genuinely blew my mind. If you can keep the anecdotes to your early days in the fleets’ little flyers, that would be ideal, but big truck stories are always welcome. Just do not turn them into a fisherman’s tale. Comments are open below, and photographs are always welcome by email.

As for the title, it comes from a sticker I had made up and kept on the inside of my driver’s door in a few of my trucks.