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Most of you will probably be aware, or know, what HGV is an abbreviation for, but for those who don’t, it’s Heavy Goods Vehicle, also knows as LGV, which is Large.
Traveling, to and from Wales during the night and the early hours, meant the motorways were mainly occupied by articulated lorries (HGV’s) as show below. This created somewhat of a fascination to me, simply because of what they were.
After I left the Royal Mail in 1987 I occupied nearly two years in the print industry. I won’t go into the reasons of how that came about.
In December 1989 after ignoring the urge for a number of years, I decided to go for my HGV license.
To obtain a Class One License, to drive an articulated lorry, you were required to take the appropriate medical. After I had received the necessary license and passed the medical, I initiated a week’s holiday. During that week I attended a four day intensive course to learn how to drive an articulated lorry. The Friday was occupied with the test.
It was interesting, the remonstrations which were verbally thrown at me, as others loudly objected, that I should even consider such a move and that I was even mad to consider or attempt such a thing. I can smile all these years later, but at the time it was incredibly intimidating, and it took everything I had to stick by my decision and follow it though.
Back in 1989 I had to find just over £1,000. as I paid for this privilege out of my own money. Therefore; this was a huge incentive on my part to pass, as I wasn’t in the position to retake the test if I failed.
Apart from the actual driving part, you also had to study the HGV highway code, and you were also expected to have a good knowledge of the normal Highway Code.
Although, you were not expected to be a mechanic, class one lorries have a cab, which has to be connected to the trailer, therefore; one was expected to have a somewhat general knowledge of how things operated and functioned ie airlines, weight etc.
Having owned a couple of Ford Escorts whilst at the Royal Mail, and always having maintained them myself, which was party due to costs. Additionally, if the car broke down and it was nothing serious, there was a chance I could fix it. Therefore; I was at least somewhat familiar, with how a car functioned mechanically.
This in turn, meant I had a notion of an idea, when the instructor spoke about checking the oil and water on a lorry and making sure all the relevant lights were functioning as they should on the unit and trailer. One also had to have an understanding that the air pressure was in proper working order. Lorries operate via air brakes and not brake fluid as cars do. There was also a whole host of other intricacies one had to be aware of.
During the lessons I adapted to the vehicle reasonably efficiently, although I did have two issues to overcome.
Back in 1989 lorries were a little different, and one of the issues was with changing gear. One therefore had to revert to what was known as ‘double the clutch’ which applied to vehicles which didn’t have ‘synchromesh’ gearboxes. Also, most large lorries have more than 4 forward gears and some have what are known as splitters, which makes it eight gears.
My other issue, was the 40ft trailer behind me, which needed a lot of clearance at junctions and bends. ‘But hey’ we all have to learn.
On the day of the test, I knew in my own mind I had no option other than to pass, as I didn’t possess the resources to retake further lessons and another test. Thankfully; I did pass, but to use a term, it was by the… skin of my teeth.
Interestingly; out of the four of us who took our tests, I was the only one who passed, which did amaze me a little.
Going back to my previous comment regarding remonstrations. When others discovered I had passed, they were absolutely stunned.
This, therefore; was also my ticket out of the print industry, which I had occupied for just under two years in.
As I was to discover in the HGV world, passing your test was one thing. Getting a job to drive such a vehicle, is quite something else. However; in the end I managed it. This was the start of my 21 years driving HGV’s
It is one of those jobs which you to have to have a natural tendency to want to be involved in. It’s not a 9 till 5 position and apart from driving an articulated lorry, you are also carrying a very heavy load on a trailer.
This required a totally different technique of driving to driving a car. Once you’re out on the road, you’re on your own, and you have to change your way of thinking completely, or at least, I did.
For the first year of driving, I really wondered if I’d made a terrible mistake, by going into this industry. But something inside of me, told me to persist and I followed that feeling and I’m very grateful I did.
Driving in winter when it’s snowing and foggy and driving rain, causes you to have to develop tremendous concentration. Unfortunately, some car drivers think they are immune to weather conditions, and therefore, when others do silly things you have to be prepared for it.
Therefore; if a car skids in front of you whilst your on a motorway, because he or she is using their phone and not paying attention to what’s in front of them (yes… I’ve seen it happen) you pull your lorry onto the second lane of the motorway and then suddenly… ‘Bang!’ as the car which was in front of you, hits the car in front, which is stationary because of a queue of traffic?
As I also learnt and which I was sort of aware of, there’s a bit of an international lorry code between drivers. The most obvious one is flashing your headlights when a lorry overtakes you; to let the driver know he has passed you and can safely pull in, in front of you.
A number of companies had the pleasure of my company in the early years, ranging from the major supermarkets, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s - which was then Safeway’s, and Asda, as well as, Boots the Chemist, BOC, Christian Salvesen and a couple of General haulage companies.
My first involvement in the industry was with a one man contractor based near Southend, who contracted to the Scottish haulage company, Hayton Coulthard. The company became more prominent in recent years due to the son of the company becoming a successful Formula One Driver… David Coulthard.
I also worked for a meat pressing company for about six years, which involved supplying meat to major food companies, (Pukka Pie’s of Leicester was one example and Anglo-Dutch Meats of Eastbourne was another) who then supplied the major supermarkets.
My final appointment was with the logistics company Wincanton. This particular contract was with the high street store Argos. I was with them until the middle of 2010.
One of the Distribution Centers for Argos was situated in Basildon, and they were responsible for the stores in the south and East Anglia. The covered everything from Great Yarmouth all the way down to Portsmouth in Hampshire. They were also responsible for the whole of London.
If you were to draw a straight line on a map from Great Yarmouth to Portsmouth, and then where London is, push the line outwards to just beyond the western side of the M25 so the line formed a slight outward curve, that would give a slight idea of the coverage Argos Basildon was responsible for.
Being involved with Argos meant I got back at a reasonable time every night. As I started on the 7am to 9am window I could be finished by 6pm. This was rather new to me, and also being Argos, I had to adhere strictly to the driver’s hours
As Argos covered the entire county they needed ways of supplying different areas, thus; the Distribution Centers catered for this. When I first commenced with Argos, the next nearest Distribution Centre was at Daventry. I did smile some years later when I discovered, they rented the building from the Royal Mail.
Most of Argos’s goods came from China, and therefore they arrived in this country via container. Nearly all the containers arrive through Felixstowe Docks and were collected via outside contractor hauliers.
Towards the end of my time with Wincanton, Argos had brought some of the shops which had belonged to Woolworths and they also purchased some of Littlewoods stores known as Index.
Although Argos was rapidly expanding, (to me and a few others) they hadn’t really planed for this, and their transport side was having trouble handling everything. They did manage it, but it wasn’t without issues.
I left Wincanton in 2010. The company was still good to work for, but the politics of the business was getting in the way. Additionally; the roads (to me) were getting really busy, and especially the M25 as this was the main outlet for Argos. It was now becoming somewhat of a burden keep sitting in stationary of queuing traffic as the M25 was being widened.
Trying to get to the Canterbury store in Kent for 9pm on a Friday evening was an endurance test, especially with trying to get back to Basildon before midnight.
Being responsible for those big lorries in London was getting to be interesting, and a few of us were questioning ourselves about how things were going.
I had enjoyed my time driving these big commercial vehicles, but I decided it was time to say goodbye to driving, and concentrate on something a big more comfortable.
I was very aware that websites were now commanding a lot of attention, and therefore I decided to discover more about them.
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