12: Humanitarian Aid Haulage

0:01Hello and welcome to Mat's Truck and Great podcast. It's Mat Ireland hosted once again and today I'm joined once again, although for the first time on this particular podcast, Tomasz Oryński, I think. Tomasz Oryński, that's me. Oryński. Hello mate, how are you? It's good. Don't feel wrong, I've been living in Scotland for 18 years and some people never learn to pronounce it. the thing is before we started i think i just about had it nailed and then i try within 30 seconds i've got it wrong i do feel you perfectly because now i live in finland and everybody got very strange names to me and i'm the same yeah fair enough mate fair enough so let's go sort of back to the beginning as such for the benefit of new listeners how did you get involved in transport it was like i always traveled as a hitchhiker in poland in my teenage years and I really loved riding on trucks and how I involved myself it was that my friends had a small company and they were complaining to me how expensive sending stuff by courier is and I already had a car and I told them you pay me half of that and I will drive it to for you to there and back and that's how it started then they bought a van which I was occasionally driving and then I came to Scotland and with this van driving experience I got a job driving a sprinter van for a laundry place in Glasgow and then like just advanced to class two and then I never did class one actually for another 15 years because I always was lucky to have really good and interesting class two jobs but then finally I upgraded to class one and I'm driving all over Europe.

1:45All right cool that was obviously all in Poland. How did you end up coming to the UK then? That was also a bit random thing because I was graduating to become a physics teacher. I studied physics. Right, okay. And the rules back then was that when you passed all your exams you had two years to write your dissertation. Yeah. And I wanted to earn some money and of course it was like 2004, 2005, 2006 everybody was going to Britain to make some money because back then going to Britain was really a good improvement in terms of salaries. So I went there hoping to work for maybe six months and then come back and finish my degree.

2:30But they changed the rules. Ah, typical. And they said, I was sitting in Scotland and flying to Poland every couple of months to speak with my dissertation supervisor. And once he said, oh, you need to go to the dean's office because they really want to speak with you. I went there and they told me, actually, the rules have changed and you don't have two years anymore. Now you have only one year. And because you are 18 months into your dissertation, it's like invalid anymore. And you failed. Flipping egg. They said, like, if you want, you can like repeat your last semester, but also the program of the studies and that.

3:06So to repeat this last semester, I would actually have to go back to the university for another like 18 months and do all like differences in the courses because the curriculum was different back then. And I was like, that's not fair. Yeah. And I said, OK, you know, screw that. I learned what I learned and I don't want to be a teacher in Poland anyway. And then because they like removed me from the students like community, I was no longer formally a student. And back then we still had a national service in Poland. And then the army wanted me. And I was like, so first my country is shuffling me on my studies and now they want me to serve for this country.

3:49And I was all when the Polish army was in Iraq, which I was very hardly opposed. So I said, OK, I'm just staying in Scotland. Fair enough. So what made you get into driving then? Well, I liked it. I was always fascinated by trucks and I always I'm not this kind of person. that like to sit in the office and be involved in the office politics and do some dull job. So I've been driving for a few years. Then I've been a translator and interpreter for the Scottish police as well. And then I went to study because the silver lining to all this university story from Poland was because I finished all my exams, but I just didn't get my degree.

4:36So I formally did not graduate. And in Scotland, for European Union citizens back then, the first degree was free. So I eventually finished completely different studies in Glasgow University. And after that I was okay, now I'm a proper graduate person, I will get a proper job. I ended up working in the office, I ran away screaming after six months and came back to Hebrides College when I started my driving career in Britain really. and that was the best driving, like the best career move ever. Yeah, yeah. So when did you do your test then? For trucks in 2005, I think it was. And then during COVID, I started doing my C plus E.

5:24But of course, there were some delays and like in Scotland, it was impossible to do. so I actually ended up doing that in Poland and passed first time with not a single minor, which I was very proud of. Congratulations, yeah. And since there, I started to drive first with trailers like the wagon and drag and then moved to Artics as well and been there ever since, yeah. Yeah, so we've talked about Hebrides haulage before, but for the benefit of those that haven't, just give us a little rundown of what that job entailed because I always found it quite interesting, really, and the possibilities there would just be great because also at the time you were doing a little bit of writing for Truck and Driver magazine as well, weren't you?

6:10And I can remember an article in there with your little daff, with this little cab top sleeper, with a really short wheelbase, wasn't it? The writing for Truck and Driver is maybe a little bit too much to be said. They wanted to interview me because they thought that the job is interesting and I was I also I do some like freelance journalism on the side and I was like desperate to make a break into the like English language writing and I offered what if I write you a reportage instead of this interview and they agreed so I wrote this reportage for them but of course it was just one off but yes so that was there and yes I used to drive this DAF CF which was seven and a half meters long 18 tonner with split gearbox four over four with this pony fantasy sleeper roof which i actually really liked because it was big enough to sit up comfortable in it and you had this clear separation between the working area and your accommodation area so i really liked it no fair enough and for like two nights per week it was sufficient yeah and of course it was all to save on length because back then the ferries in scotland were really really expensive now it's kind of better i think but back then every inch of length was was costing a fortune so they were having having this like top seat pickups right okay and the job i was based in glasgow and this company goes like when no truck went before basically so no major holier or or courier company is going to those really remote areas and then you have some like big volume carriers like dr mcleod for example they like full trailers for tesco and whatnot but this particular company they do mostly like small volume transport so you may be delivering like two pallets of cattle feed to a farm then a mini tractor then a washing machine to some lady then a machine part to a local like quarry so you could have everything on the truck from like load of 10 pallets to basically an envelope with two screws in it so yeah yeah job that was never boring and it was taking you to the most beautiful corners of of scotland like visiting eryskai was one of my favorite place there was this small building company that had this like little little building on the top of the like cliff or the mountains overlooking the the bay with the beach and the terminal for for the bara ferry it was fantastic going there i really loved it so and it's a great company to work for the boss is really a man who loves his job and and he takes care of the trucks maybe like if your radio speaker is as rattling a bit he won't be fixing that but when you tell him something important is broken it will be always done instantly it's this kind of the boss that when the truck comes back from the service he takes this like tension key and he checks every screw himself personally so they do them they don't have them like that anymore too often but yeah it's a good place to work the work is not for everyone because it's a hard graft a lot of physical handball and stuff like that but the places you go reward you for everything yeah and it's going to be a case of no two days are ever going to be the same are they it's not like reg sort of regular work is it as such it's you just never it's potluck as to what what and where you're going to get and go yes and you are really dependent on the weather because like skybridge can be close to the lorries because of the wind or ferries may be cancelled and you're stuck on the islands for even a few days i've been stuck for a couple of days once but some drivers were stuck for a week sometimes or whatever so yeah it's a job when you're close to the nature and you also feel like a part of community because that was this great thing after working in the office doing this stupid excel sheets and reports that nobody ever cared to read yeah then you are ending in this job and you bring this like washing machine to this elderly lady and she is genuinely happy to have this new washing machine it gives you the the work satisfaction you will never get from any big corporation brilliant yeah that sounds like my kind of job really yeah absolutely so so you obviously finished with hebrides where did you go from there actually i that was when i had already my my class one and And we were already thinking about moving to Finland.

10:56Yeah. And Hebrides College, they got this wagon and trucks, but you don't get much experience with them because they are on regular trunk routes. I've been driving just once in Blue Moon. I was given the trailer. So I wanted some more experience before we go because I knew that in the new country, it would be hard for me to find a job without the language. So I wanted to get as much experience as I got. So I started with agencies and also some direct jobs for some customers. I was basically like a freelance tracker, so to speak, over 2022. Yeah, fair enough. My last job in Scotland was doing whiskey tankers, distilleries and back, night trunking, just the trailer swaps, but it was really nice.

11:45Yeah, sounds all right. And you ended up emigrating to Finland? Yes. Yeah, and how was that? Because that's quite a change. I mean, I love Finland. I think it's a fantastic country. But again, it's different to going there and actually living there. So what did you think when you first arrived there? Well, we had this comfortable situation. We moved because my girlfriend got a very good job here. So we had at least this security. My first experiences like trucking wise were not very good because I ended up in some like cowboy company that was taking advantage of the newcomers that were not really familiar with the rules and they weren't members of trade union yet.

12:30So luckily, I just slammed my doors and went home after less than two weeks because of the condition of their trucks but some people who worked for them for much longer were never paid properly and neither was I but it was just a couple of hundred euros so I cut my losses short because I was not accepting the condition of the vehicle they wanted me to drive then I ended up in the local food distribution company which was a great company but the most dual job i ever did it was basically load the trailer drive 20 minutes unload the trailer load it with empty boxes back to the first place unload the empty boxes load i i'm sure i did more miles on the electric pump truck than yeah that sounds that's like a retirement job for when you're kind of done with driving and You just want something easy just to put a few pounds in the bank with your pension, I think, by the sound of it.

13:32Maybe. But this job was mostly actually young boys from the army and newcomers without language. So it was a starting job, but still my hourly rate was better than this whiskey job, which was like night shift ADR in Scotland. So that tells me something about conditions in Finland. and then I wanted to change it to drive tankers again but I quit the last job too early because I was dying of boredom and I just wanted to have a rest and reset my mind before starting the new one but that was when Finland closed the borders to Russia and they had to move the drivers that were going to Russia to do the route I was promised I ended up without a job and it was really tough times in Finland so I was unemployed for a year and the like equivalent of job center sent me to full-time Finnish course so I've been actually going to school like every day for several hours it was fun experience and I speak some Finnish now so I can like communicate on the very basic level yeah and after that I got a job for a removal company doing I was supposed to do the trunks to Spain and then I had a car accident and I was recovering for three months so that job was as well as gone and that was when we spoke last time and I have to say something that you were kind enough to tell to your listeners that if someone has a job for me to contact me and your podcast was works great because I had a new job before you even published it so some someone was clairvoyant and listened to us talking i before i thought you're going to say they heard the podcast and offered you a job but um not quite i got the job like a day before the podcast came out fantastic excellent so i i work now for a company that mostly transport machinery and some special kind of loads all over europe and also they do humanitarian help to Ukraine regularly.

15:36And tomorrow I'm going for the first time to Ukraine with them. Right. Okay. Because I'm aware of the company that you're working for, because I've seen them obviously in Finland, but also I've seen them everywhere. I think after we last spoke, I think I then did my Greek trip and then there was one of them. I sort of pronounce it Hoisk, but that's probably... It's Hossika. Hossika. Yeah. It's a guy's name, actually, yes. Yeah, I knew I'd be absolutely destroying this company name, the same as what I do with any European company name. That's a very British thing to do, isn't it? We sort of will say how it looks and get it woefully wrong.

16:17But, yeah, I think I was in the south of France. I see one parked up. I've seen them in Spain and all over the place. My first trip, they sent me to Basque country. Ah, perfect. So they were sitting around the bus. so so so when you did that did you go overland did you get the ferry like direct to germany or which what route did you take to get down oh it depends it's all depends sometimes we go to the baltics and poland uh sometimes uh we go on this really long ferry to lubeck or travel yep and we actually got another depot there but it's mostly like when you get to to europe you stay in Europe for several weeks.

16:56So part of the trucks are working in Nordic country, bringing trailers to ferries, then the trailers go on their own and other truck picks them up. They also do this express freight, which means they line up the trucks all across Europe and the trailer is just passed from one truck to another to get to the destination as quick as possible. So, yeah, it's a very nice company. I was actually, I was hearing so many great things about this company. I was trying to get to them for like two years since I first sent them my CV, I think. And I'm there now and I'm actually quite happy with everything. It's a great company, great atmosphere.

17:36The equipment is nice and I can't say anything wrong. Yeah, you can't beat it. So you're about to leave with your third humanitarian load. Whereabouts are they going in Ukraine? Is it all to Kiev or whereabouts it goes to? It's Varys. My first trip was to Ivano-Frankivsk, which is like a couple of hours. You just go to Lviv and then like another hour south. My second trip, which was over Easter, I went as far as to Vinnytsa, which is like central Ukraine. And now I'm going just across the border again in this like top left corner of Ukraine just tucked between Poland and Belarus. So it will be a very short trip into Ukraine this time.

18:21Right. Have you felt in danger there at all with what's going on? Or have you not seen any signs of fighting as such? Well, I've seen signs of fighting, yes. When I was in Vinnytsa, there was this government building that was drawn just like two days before I arrived. I was not allowed to take any pictures or they were even like, don't look at this because there's like SBU the security forces of Ukraine will come and see what are you doing but yes, there was a building the government building I will not give you details for obvious reasons but the government building was bumped and like 8 people died I was told and all buildings around that were had the windows replaced with plywood wood and you can still see some debris scattered on the street.

19:12I've also seen some, when I was driving, I've seen a military base that was badly bombed, but some time ago, I guess. And also I've seen some privates, like the commie blocks kind of buildings that were clearly bombed. so yes you can see the truck but you know when I it's I want to stress it because if you look at this like internet today it's full of propaganda from all sides and you can often see people doing movies from Ukraine when there's this bustling nightlife and they said what war when people like going to the pub and restaurants and everything when I first came to Ukraine with my own car which we can talk about later I ended up in Lviv and I drove through whole Lviv from north to south through the city center and I've seen this like it looked like Krakow like a party town like nicely dressed girls and open restaurants and like vault couriers delivering food on this electric bikes and everything and it looked perfectly fine as long as we were in the car and then I arrived to my destination I met the soldier who was taking the car from me and I told him like I'm really hungry can we get and grab something and we walked 500 meters to some nearby restaurant and during this first walk in ukraine 500 meters i've seen like two young boys one was maybe 20 20 something and he had no legs he has prosthetic legs and the other had no hand and really scarred face and there was also some little girl on the baby buggy and she had no legs and she was like carried on by some very young girl that could probably be her sister but someone told me that it's often that like parents are died and like all their siblings or cousins are taking care of the kids that survive so this war is is it's always close you you can you can feel it yeah yeah i I think it sounds like the mentality there of the people is much the same as what the British and I presume the Germans as well in World War Two, where it's a case of don't let it get you down, just sort of carry on as normal as best you can.

21:33And I think a lot of it as well, the mentality changes to this could be my last day on Earth. So I'm just going to enjoy it. You know, get out there, have some drinks, have some nice food. Just don't worry about it. It kind of has the reverse effect of striking fear in people. they become more, I can't think of the word, certainly not gung-ho, but a bit more carefree as such. So, but I mean, I'm not sure if that's it. I was going to say, I've never lived in a war zone, so I wouldn't know. Yeah, that's what I wanted to say. Like, it's probably not for us to speak. And I was told that it's more like, you know, we have this floor for four years.

22:13We cannot be like stressed all the time. Can we go and have a drink with the friends? sometimes it's just this. I don't know if that would be okay, if I can plug something here, because after I did this trip with my car, I did this podcast in English, which was basically a reportage, and the second part of this podcast is basically interview with this Ukrainian people. And I think instead of we trying to make out what they think, if the listeners are curious, they can go there and listen to them directly. I think that would be than if we try to speak for them. Absolutely. So we can maybe link it in the description.

22:53Yeah, definitely. I'll put links on all the social media everywhere as well. Yeah, what I would like to say, if that's okay, rather like how to help, because that's something we can talk about and that's something I feel I have something to say. I would not really like to say what Ukrainian people feel because I would just make a fool of myself, so there's no point in that. Yes. This episode of Matt's Trucking Great podcast is kindly sponsored by KLM Transport Services Limited. KLM offers vehicle transport, light haulage and also vehicle storage based in Exeter. For more information, please visit www.klm-trans.co.uk.

23:37Thank you very much, KLM, for your kind support. so how how can we how can people help if they want to yeah maybe if it's okay i will start from the beginning because uh this big war started i really wanted to help you know i'm polish i i my country is just across the border and we have common history with ukraine sometimes difficult but it's it's very close and there were this convoys going from britain and i wanted to join I even offered and some friends were putting me in touch but then I spoke with that was the first lesson I got because I spoke with my friends who were volunteering on the ground in Poland particularly Martina my very close friend who lives right at the border she is a journalist and you know there was like a million of Ukrainians coming this first month it was just enormous movement of people and I spoke with her and she told me apparently don't send us stuff because when I got a family with poorly dressed kids that are cold, we have this whole huge warehouses full of humanitarian help that is floating from all over Europe and it's great, but there's simply not enough people to sort it.

24:54So if I need like size 12 shirt or jacket for this little girl I won't be going to this big warehouse trying to find that. I just need to go to the supermarket and buy it for her because she's cold. So she said, at this stage, we need money. So I decided not to go with the convoys. And instead, as I was working as this freelancer, tracker for a genesis, and I usually was doing three shifts per week, I decided I will do four shifts per week and I will donate this money from extra shift. So every two weeks I was donating to Ukraine and every two weeks I was donating to some other charity causes because back in Poland, everybody rushed to help Ukraine and some of other needs were forgotten, so I tried to do that and this is the first lesson if you want to help, you need to first speak to people and I can give you a story that some people really want to help and there was this British guy who loaded his camper up with some baby products and he drove all the way, he got in trouble in Germany because he was overweight, then he broke down in Poland and some Polish people helped him to make the van running.

26:05And then he went to Ukraine. He knew nobody. He just arrived to Lviv and then he went to a supermarket and he found out that all these products he just brought all the way from Britain, he can buy in the supermarket in Lviv at half price. So this is the most important thing. If you want to help, you need to get... Do some research. And you need to speak to people who know what's needed. Yes, yeah, yeah, fair enough. So that was my first contact with this humanitarian help. Then when I moved to Finland, I moved with my own van, and I needed to drive this van back to Poland because it was like in stage of being converted to a camper.

26:46Actually, our move went so unexpectedly that I flew to Poland and my friend was just doing some electric works. I said, okay, is the van drivable like now? So I'm just taking it from you. And actually, till this day, I got some cables hanging, like tied with cable ties because he never finished. And as I had this van in Finland, I contacted on Twitter some Ukrainian people I knew. And I said, listen, I got this van. It's going to Poland. I can take a ton of humanitarian goods for you, but not to Ukraine, because my passport was actually not valid. so I couldn't go outside of the European Union when I could travel with my Polish ID.

27:29So they loaded it and I delivered it to the humanitarian distribution center in northern Poland for the Ukrainian trucks to take it further. Then when I came back to Finland they asked me if I can drive a car for the Ukrainian army. So I drove this car again to the Ukrainian border and someone took over from me at the border and then i've been busy with all these adventures we already spoke and now i'm back with hosike and and uh and they are doing this humanitarian help but it's it's a completely different story oh no actually though i was once more with my own car because i mentioned i had this accident and i was re-ended in this car yeah and the insurance says it's not worthy of repair but i had this car since new it was 16 years old like it was perfect mint condition i really cherish this car and i didn't want to scrap it so i spoke with the insurance company they told me like for 200 euros you can keep it yeah and while the mot was still valid because i was told because there's some like construction element is bent i won't pass a new mot with it right so in the last days of mot i drove it all the way to ukraine to to this soldier which i was put in touch by some friends and they really need this car because they operate in this like drone warfare and they are doing this they are not actually like the front light unit but they are providing information for the others so this car is not doing actually combat duties but it's like doing like delivery on the second lines like like reconnaissance or something like that maybe no no i mean like like just logistics support i would say okay i believe there's drones to the batteries to a drone some documents because army is a lot of bureaucracy and so on and now if i may say because it may come handy if someone wants to give a car to ukraine as well they desperately need all kinds of cars but again You have to find, you cannot just drive there.

29:44You have to find someone who will take this car because also the various type of cars are needed by various units. Like my car can be very handy in this unit. It will be useless in another unit because it was a small city car. Yes. So you need to first find contacts or contact some biggest charities that do that. And then like army takes pickups and big vehicles. but the personnel cars which also are needed on the front line they are not formally taken into the army there are some NGOs that take them as donations and then they loan them to soldiers it's a lot of bureaucracy involved and of course you need to properly import it as the humanitarian donation so you need to know what are you doing or you need someone who knows what they are doing to help you Yeah, fair enough.

30:39So I guess the humanitarian work that you're doing for Hoseke will just continue indefinitely. Well, as long as it's needed. Let's hope it's not indefinitely. Yeah, that'd be nice, wouldn't it, to stop. I mean, the whole world seems to be kicking off with one another at the moment. And as always, it's always just the civilians that really suffer. yeah that's true especially if the country invading you is country like russia that's it's just basically a terrorist country and they attack civilian targets just to like in hope to break people's spirits and stuff like that so so yes they need everything so this work is completely different so like i'm doing that as part of my normal driving duties it's like considered one of the jobs i do like last week i was carrying a big cables and now i'm carrying humanitarian help to ukraine although of course only volunteers go to ukraine yeah they they won't force the driver to go there if the driver don't want to although finnish people are very like supporting of ukraine very friendly so they have no problem to find drivers that would be willing to go and there is this like network of uh associations and ngos working in finland some like society of ukrainians in finland and and stuff like that but also finnish humanitarian ngos that are aiming to help ukraine and there is this big like umbrella organization that organizes all this humanitarian helps and hosike provides them basically with trucks and drivers and we ship there so sometimes it's like my first trip i was delivering a full load of some like hand sanitizers and other like chemicals for a hospital yeah which company are companies are donating because they overstocked doing covid right and this soon expire so if they see we won't be able to burn through them because it's more than we need yeah and they donate it to Ukraine because in Ukraine they need everything and instead of going to waste it will be used there.

32:58And my second trip I mostly carried some heavy stuff like generators and industrial heaters and also some hospital equipment and now I'm carrying basically the complete hospital like like hospital beds some equipment some uh rehabilitation devices for physiotherapy or whatever and it's going to a hospital that will be helping uh veterans who were injured during the the fight for freedom right okay that's my first my my third trip now and i'm going with with this equipment the truck is loaded basically to the roof as i said it's a complete hospital starting from hospital beds ending with like a vials of insulin for children and and chairs and fire extinguishers and air conditioning units like complete hospital and the truck is loaded that that mardo from habitus college could come and learn a few things because i never seen my truck being jumped to the roof so much they actually spent a bunch of guys like like 10 guys or something they were handballing the stuff for several days they first went to rauma to get some equipment then they were loading something in our yard and now uh yesterday actually there is this another logistic center in uh on the old skids of helsinki i'm not to tell where exactly it is but it's in the helsinki area and like 10 guys were loading that several hours i arrived at five and i've been giving them little hand but i'm not much used because i don't speak ukraine so So, you know, they speak between themselves.

34:42It's quicker if I just get out of their hair. Yeah, yeah. At five and we finished at midnight. So my truck is now parked there because, of course, I ran out of my driving time. So, of course, if any Vosaman wants to ask, I was volunteering during my free time. Yes, of course. It was good, yeah. But incidentally, you pointed out to me as well by a text a while ago, when you're on humanitarian aid work, you're taco exempt. is that correct? Or not quite? Not quite. It's actually the legal side of that is such a terrible mess because that arrives for some emergency relief. Yeah. But what we do is like commercial holdage of the humanitarian aid.

35:33So the actual humanitarian aid is donated for free, but formally speaking, the company is paid. I'm paid as a driver to drive it. So it's like a higher reward. Yes. So in Europe, we have to stick to tacos. Yeah. In Ukraine, in theory, they are now following this European, like, Tacorus. They switched from this, what's the other one? AETR. Yeah, they switched from that to European standards. Yeah. But there are some, like, bylaws. I'm not familiar with that. But basically, if you say I'm with humanitarian help, they will let you go. So in humanitarian transport in Ukraine, I'm trying to stick to my taco as much as possible.

36:20But it's not very possible, to be frank. I can tell you exactly why. Then it will be like I won't get into any trouble. And then when I go back to Europe, of course, I stick to taco again. I always, when I went too much over TACO or something, I take the full 24 hours break after I get into Poland again. And I got some documents confirming that I was doing this humanitarian help. And of course, I got all printouts from the TACO when I explain every single issue I had. So, for example, during my last trip, we spent 12 hours on the border. it was like the same border I went last time but took us almost three times longer, it's unpredictable so when we crossed I was into my 17th hour of my shift we went to the nearest truck stop we parked up and we were welcomed for free because they don't charge trucks with humanitarian help I went there for 9 hours, get a proper sleep and then we drove and we had to be in our destination next morning.

37:27Yeah. Because there were a bunch of soldiers to handball it off. Yeah. Like, not really soldiers. There were some other military. I'm not even sure who they were. But, like, there were people to handball the stuff and we had to be there on time. But as we were driving through the night, so my plan was there just to drive there, park up, and it takes them hours and hours to handball it out so I could have my break and even sleep if there need be. But this time I was driving with this logistic coordinator who was going in the small van behind me and she said we have to stop because there is some drone alarm where we are going.

38:05So we actually parked up on some gas station illegally as well but they say it's a humanitarian transport. They said okay just park here where the delivery tankers are coming so you are okay to park here and I slept for five hours and then at down when the sky was clear we continued to drive so again my taco was completely you know messed up yeah was not not not good but you know if there is a drone alarm i think it's an emergency enough to break your taco rule yeah i i would tend to agree to be fair yeah so then then i arrived there and they handballed the small stuff then i had to drive to another place because forklifts were waiting for this like industrial stoves and generators and everything and then they invited me to like a hostel for for construction workers in the building companies so i have to drive across the town to park up there in secure yard and then i went to sleep because yeah it was about time i was on my legs like for 24 hours with just this four hour sleep so it's it's a completely different thing to your normal everyday duties but let you know you are doing the job that it's needed so yeah so what does the future hold then you're obviously very happy at Hoseka you've got no no plans of leaving you're just hoping to keep keep on trucking with them I presume yes I really like them the job is interesting we carry all the weird stuff like transformers this big cable drums, armored vehicles, farm machinery.

39:48There's a lot to learn for me because they got maybe 50 tracks, but over 100 trailers, and some of them are like transformers, like extendable this way, extendable that way, opening roofs, sliding sides, whatever. Every trailer is different, so I'm still learning. Of course, there is a lot of new stuff for me also, how to secure the loads. I've been never using chains before, for example, so that's a new skill for me. And yes, the company is great. The staff is very friendly and the job is never boring. And I'm happy to do like really long several weeks on the road and then have a month off. And then again, several weeks on the road and a month off.

40:38So that's how we spoke with the boss. That would should be great so yeah and also it's nice because in finland it's pretty acceptable to park your anyway like everywhere when it's legal to drive you can park there basically so uh i live in helsinki the company is over two hours north but i live in helsinki where we have two ferry terminals yeah so whenever i come from ferry i can even take a split rest and and go to go home for the rest of the night. Sometimes when there is like no jobs, I'm parked at home and waiting for another trailer to come to one of the ferry terminals because I got Vuosari on the east of Helsinki.

41:20Western Harbor is literally 20 minutes drive from my home. And then also Hanco, which we use extensively, is just two hours from me. So I'm really good placed. So whenever there is a chance, I'm parked at home. and sometimes I even park on my street because I don't want to park in front of anyone's windows, but there's like a playground farther down the street so I can park there and not bother anyone. But when I go to this like rear steer platforms, I don't want to drive it into a small road. So like 10 minutes walk from me, there is a small industrial estate I can park there as well. Oh, perfect.

41:59So if you're having like a month off as such, are you cab hopping or do you keep the same truck? how does it work every time so far i got a different track right okay all in a fairly good condition now i have one of the oldest which was like not great so like don't don't get me wrong everything important works fine it drives brilliant this this v8 scania from i think 2014 it used to be a flagship it's probably it's some limited edition and it's like scandinavian specification so it's very well insulated and got double glazing and everything better than half of the british homes yeah it sounds right it has this uh air conditioning unit on the roof and everything but like the cup is worn like the the the cupboards are not staying up because this like gas struts are worn and some lights are not working so it's not great for living but because I'm going to Ukraine now regularly they tend not to send the newest truck there not only for of course like the risk related to the Russian invasion but also because the roads there are some roads are good, some roads are terrible but the worst is when you drive on the road and the road is really great and then suddenly it isn't I don't mean it isn't great it's just suddenly there is no road and especially if you drive at night it can be terrible so last trip we had to replace the tire because the tail was damaged and and things like that but driving in ukraine is is also a very different different experience i'm still shocked and i learned to drive in 1990s poland so i've seen something but Ukraine is just beyond anything I've seen before like I've been in the traffic jam recently and of course people were overtaking me on the hard shoulder and on the left side and then the truck in front of me blocked hard shoulder so a bus came on the grass and he almost ended up in the ditch but he managed to save himself and then he thought maybe going on the grass is a stupid idea so he went to the left side on the road and starting to drive on the hard shoulder on the left, like against the oncoming traffic.

44:24So I was a bus full of people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's speeding to such extent that, you know, when you've got this like speed camera thingies, which not send you a ticket, but they just display like a smiley face and sad face if you go too fast. Yeah, yeah. So there is a speed limit is 60. If you go 74, it still gives you a smiley face. Fantastic. It sounds like the driving hasn't changed since I last went there, and Russia was just the same. It was just wacky races. You'd pull up to a set of lights, and before you knew it, I've been undertaken on the hard shoulder by buses, by trucks, cars, and, yeah, they just go try and get round you whichever way they can.

45:08I don't know what it is about getting that far east, and the driving standard just really does plummet. I was going to say it's nice to hear that it's not changed, but for safety's sake, they could do a bit of improvement, I think. But I have to say I was impressed. In some village, a guy, it was a block post because they got these military slash police block posts regularly in the country. Yeah. And a guy came from the side road and he should give way, but he didn't. So he braked very harshly and he ended up straight in front of me. I had to go around him, barely made it. And the policeman like sprinted from this blog post and starting running at him, waving this like, I don't know how it's called in English.