15: Gardener's Hour with Mat and Chris

0:03Hello and welcome back to Mat's Trucking Great podcast. Mat Ireland hosting once again and today I'm joined by my good friend Chris Bradford. Chris how are you? I'm not too bad Matt, how are you? Yeah very good mate, very good. It's a lovely sunny day over here on the east coast of England. Yeah, we're enjoying the same here in Northern Ireland, it's nice for a change. Yeah, yeah absolutely. I've just been out in the garden potting around and I'll get back out there in a bit I guess. Anyway, that's enough of Gardner's Hour. So as I ask all guests, how did you get into truck driving, Chris? Was it a family connection or just something completely different?

0:39Yeah, no, well, I suppose I'm the third generation of my family at it. My grandfather, my father and my uncles, and even my uncles, some of my uncles on my mother's side were truck drivers as well. We've just been brought up with it kind of all my life, you know, so it's been generational, really. you're just surrounded by it so i guess when you're at school that's all that's all you want to do have no interest in education sort of thing pretty much yeah that was it you just you know again it was different times back then and you got to go with your parents sorry my father myself you know but i'm sure there's been lady drivers and you got to go with your parents and you got to enjoy the job and i suppose in a roundabout way you got institutionalized to it before you could realize that there was other things out there you know so yeah i think that's why we're shorter drivers now um because uh people see that there's so many other things to do yeah there's a lot of there's a lot of other better options out there more opportunity than than looking out to the windscreen but yeah i guess i got i got stuck in that that way from the passenger seat really fair enough so so when you initially left school what did you go to do then because obviously you couldn't just go and drive trucks right away could you yeah so and you know the biggest thing and people ask me about getting in the industry is like know what you want know what you want to do so I knew this is what I wanted to do.

1:56So I then, when I was still at school, I was going in the evenings and loading trucks from my father and any opportunity at all to do any kind of steering and shunting and stuff, and then got my education. And truth be told, when I'd done my GCSEs back then in 96, Erlingus, the Erling from Southern Ireland, were taking on doing, like, apprenticeships. and if you'd have got um like a's and b's and i was actually gonna go and try and be a pilot you know as an alternative uh but i got three c's four d's and an e and i just opened it up and went truck driving for me then so i uh i went on to to technical college or tech as we call it and served my time as a as an hdb fitter because i knew ultimately at the end of the day i wanted to run my own I wanted to maintain my own not only that but you wanted to know that you weren't getting shafted by anyone else that was going to be you're going to have to pay to do some work for you so you're you do better understanding a bit more mechanical sympathy and so I served my time as a fitter and while I was serving my time one of the teachers in the tech he was actually the guy that took you for your national and international cpc there was two classes back then so yeah yeah When I was 16, 17, I'd done my national.

3:18And because I was in secondary education, I got that for like, I think it was£80 for the whole course, including the exam entry. Blind. Yeah, you wouldn't do it now, to be honest. No, definitely not. It was multiple choice back then. If I had to actually do it now, I think it would probably fail. Mate, I did mine a couple of years ago, and it's probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. It is just so involved. anyone who anyone who passed the first time i take my hat off to them because it is so difficult in my in my opinion yeah no it's it's very and then every sort of couple of years you have to go for your transport manager refresher course and oh it's good to get kept up to date with things but yeah i've done the national then and when i was 18 i don't international and even at that one i'd done it it was only like 70 or 80 pound it was for nothing like you wouldn't get it for that nowadays but i knew i was going to need it so i had it in the bank if that makes sense stored up Absolutely.

4:13Yeah, yeah. But yeah, done that and then I ended up going and getting some experience. When I left, being a mechanic, I went and done like furniture deliveries in North and Southern Ireland. Then moved on to the Arctic work. And again, that was more like supermarket and wholesale deliveries North and Southern Ireland. And then done some tipper work, done flat shiller work, as the man says, a bit of robin and sheatin. and I got a great education at Sloan Transport. You know, it was very kind of him. He took on a lot of young fellas from the area and we got a great education there, you know. Then went on, do some fridge work and all that there.

4:52And again, I didn't just jump from job to job. I wasn't there five minutes. For me, that was going and learning the craft. You know, it's hard to be, I had to consider a driver who was an all-rounder better than one man who just done one thing, you know, personally when I'm going to employ someone. So I went and I learned curtain ciders, flats, fridge work, tipper work, you know, and it also helped me get a better understanding for the job and maybe a part of the job which I preferred. So for me, that's always been flats, machinery, staff frame and some curtain cider work, which is initially what we do today.

5:27So, you know, it was good to get that education and people to be willing to give you it. You know, it's hard to get those starts in those places nowadays for to gain them skills. Was there any of them that you really didn't like? To be honest, there's nothing I didn't like, but if I'm truthful, Tipper work. I just, I hated the thought of ever putting one over. Yes. You know, and again, a quick story. When I was tipping it, I was always very nervous because, again, back then when I was doing this, I was only 23, and I didn't want to let myself down or the boss. and sometimes we were doing night boats out of Belfast docks up to Miloska, it's only up the top of the hill out of Belfast and you know you're doing your work during the day and doing tipping stuff at night and went to the pile, reversed back up and I was very nervous about lifting the back door off or catching it and I said to the guy on the forklift, or sorry the telehonor, he was pushing it up I says watch me back, he says you're the driver, I'm the loader driver and I was okay back, back, tipped it up, the next time i went up i went i was about 15 20 feet from the pile and i just put her straight up and your man says uh what are you doing what are you doing i says i'm the lorry driver you're the loader driver push it up mate and see the next time i reversed back the pile he hit the horn beeped and i says we're better understanding of who we're both far now mate i says i'm just trying to do the job so are you let's not fall out about it so yeah absolutely and i've i've knocked one tailboard off of my time because i love bulk work and it's just uh such a heart-sinking feeling i was tipping compost and it just it dug in obviously i didn't realize i kept going and knocked it clean off and yeah when i walk around the back of the pile you just see it laying on top of there just yeah oh god you know just then you know you've got to make that phone call yeah that's that's the thing i mean luckily um the guy who i was doing the work for he was a bit obviously a bit annoyed but um then my mate there said well you you done it the other week didn't you to him and so oh yeah i suppose i did so you know it's just it's a hazard of the job you know we're not all perfect we get it wrong don't we sometimes yeah that's if i'm honest that's the only job i would say i was you know i respect everyone for doing what to do but i really respect the tipper man because even my cousin and all done it and he tipped in the same spot as his boss and i'll never forget it his boss tipped he pulled forward reversed in tipped in the exact same spot on flat bit of ground and the next thing is laurie just went clean over on her side and the boss says if you had rung me and told me that happened he says i would find it hard to believe you and you know i was always always that's one thing that made me nervous and i just like i'll leave the lads that enjoy that work to do that work that's not for me thanks yeah yeah that's fair fair enough but yeah so it's interesting that you you uh have sort of gone for the for more the flatbeds and stuff like that because it's certainly a more challenging job isn't it to be honest Again, I guess it's like everything.

8:28People just find the part of life they're comfortable with. And for me in this industry, that's the parts I'm comfortable with. You know, over the years, again, being with my father and my uncles, my grandfather, that's what they done. So it was more what I was used to, even as a child. You know, they done containers and stuff like that as well, fridges. But it was more the machinery, small sides of machinery and flat work and steel. And that's what we done. So, again, I was familiar with it. And like I say, we all have our ideas about CPCs and stuff, but I had a lot of learning before I ever had a license, if that makes sense.

9:10Yeah, yeah. And those were the areas I had learning and experience in. Even though I was only young, starting watching someone, it's amazing how much you can actually pick up by being there. Again, I think that's a problem today. people don't get to be there no that's it so we're losing that that couple of years of learning before we even get a license you know yeah that's it because that's how young people learn isn't it you what you watch and listen and you soon pick it up don't you yeah yeah and again back then things wasn't probably as strict now and you're maybe tipping in a quarry or something like that and oh here jump you in and throw a few gears at her there and you can drive around the quarry whereas now health and safety would have you all in jail you know yeah absolutely so when did you actually strike out on your own then um from from being employed so uh 2005 so again like i say way back in the late 60s 70s early 80s my grandfather and my uncles and all had lorries and then it kind of didn't always work out so they had all took employment and stuff and i was determined that this was something i was going to do and it was i actually had my first lorry bought and paid for we version 1fh we 380 it's been sitting in the shed and while i was servicing the time and stuff had mechanic done it had fixed the brakes i had serviced it had changed turbos had done all this stuff so i knew and physically i couldn't afford the insurance so my birthday's in october and right up until the day before my birthday my cheapest quote was 11 000 pound and i turned 25 and insurance literally nothing else had changed.

10:49I turned 25 the next day and my insurance came down to£5 ,800 and I said, right, I'm ready to get going. So that was October and we'd done a few other bits and bobs and we just waited for the start of the financial year, which was April 25, or sorry, April 2005, and that's when I started. Wow, so it's been 21 years then? Yeah, yeah, it's been a lot of uphills and downhills. As the man says, I spent a lot of whiskey under the bridge since then. So you started off obviously just with the one truck. Yeah. How long did the version one stay with you? So literally the version one we started, like I say, April 2005.

11:32By September 2005, I had a little version one FM bought that my father drove. Come back, he was in the office doing a lot of planning and organizing for a different company who I actually worked for. That was who had done the furniture for him. And he came back on the road. You know, a lot of it was local stuff. It was traction only around just basically northern and southern Ireland. And then as we built it up, we built it up. We had a lot of English work and we subbed the English work out. Then the company we were working for, it was TDG at the time. Yes. And they, I think, they lost a few of the contracts in northern Ireland.

12:09Southern Ireland was a slightly different department. and then was it Deftersangl? Norbert Deftersangl bought them out in England, possibly? I can't remember what happened to them, to be honest. Yeah, it kind of, when the work dried up, we ended up doing a lot of work from over here and that was what the supermarket deliveries and wholesale deliveries were. They lost a couple of contracts over here and they decided to close that depot. So again, doing the regular work for them during the day, we were doing other work at nighttime and then we just built up the other work we had because again 2007 2008 remember that sort of recession and a bit of a crash yeah that kind of put an end to them over here and we just had to branch out doing other things so yeah um the english work we had we then had to go and do it so it's actually funny story the very first driver we ever had was chap called ever le mans and he come to us brilliant guy and he left us he says look I just don't do overnights and he never did and for respect to him we've been in contact all these years and actually in January this year my father took that well and I've ever been in contact Iversh is Chris I've always wanted to come back to you is there a job that can I do your father's job that he's kind of retired and I was like yep come on back so he's actually come back to us now after all the years yeah so so he's back doing what my father done so he's a great guy good mechanical hands on him and it's a pleasure to have about the place so we're really glad he's back you know it's good i hope it says something about me that the guys that have left are happy to come back even after all that time so well i think it does really because i've always if you weren't very good to work for they wouldn't want to come back would they yeah but again we respect the fact that everybody has to have the work-life balance that suits them and you know again at the time and we've always been in contact and as soon as there was a job ready for him i would have had him back but it just wasn't there you know but now it is a nice back so we're glad to have him back you know excellent so so you went you had the two trucks um yeah by the end of the end of the first year and yeah sort of yeah so then we went to three we had a flat top 420 12 speed i thought i had some pop an fh version one so the three version ones by the end of year two and we stayed like that for for quite a long time no desire to have any more back in my father's day or sorry my grandfather's day he had he was like five or six you know bad him than had and at the time the work then come the english work built up and we kept going and it took for each truck in england you nearly had to have one in northern or southern ireland feeding it tipping and loading while he took a load out there so we ended up with six trucks uh by the end of year six we had six trucks of our own four days that was subbing to us full time and about 19 trailers to keep the whole thing running um and we run we run like that to be honest we run like that right up till 2017 if i'm honest you know so in 2017 it was as anyone can tell you in this job it can be very very stressful and it was and we had a lot of you know realistically over the years we had But we were very lucky to have very good drivers with us.

15:26Only a couple. And I wouldn't have said they're bad by any standards, but you could tell the difference between a good one and someone who wasn't pulling their weight. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, we were very blessed to have good drivers. And 2017, I had a bad, well, not a bad testicular cancer. And that sort of made me wake up to the fact of what am I doing this for? And, you know, everybody wants to be the proud guy who knows everything and does everything. but to this day like I'm 46 I'll be 47 this year I still speak to my mother for advice because she's the wisest woman I know and my mom turned around and goes here what are you doing this for and that was my wake-up call I was just like I don't enjoy this job the stress of it it's getting to be a bit much I want to go back to doing the thing I love doing which was the trucks you know yeah so we cut back to we got rid of a lot of like you say deadwood customers again we're all guilty of it from time to time of working to be busy and we're not technically making money.

16:27So we cut out a lot of deadwood and we just went back to the three trucks and a couple of subbies and friends of mine who have trucks and I help them and they help me. And we just keep our own customers all happy. And that's kind of the way I've been running for the past, well, to now really. I've had no desire again with this lady there, Amy Leeson has her own truck and she's subbies out in the UK and she helps Gemma and the two of them work out there and me and Ivor work at home and a couple of subbies help us do the north-south work when it gets busy So how many trucks are you running at present then?

17:06Technically still just the three but we'll have the little version one which was the second Laurie ever bought I kept it, it's in the shed the engine tree built on it we'd like to get the time and the money to do that up just to have that to go to truck shows and we'll have a wee round magnet that i bought for my partner crystal she she wanted one so i found one at a good price we'll have it again i haven't touched it i just bought it i got it at the right money it's sitting in the corner of the yard but there's only really three working you know fair enough so you touched on jemma now jemma warren is quite a well-known social media face isn't she uh how did she come did she did she approach you about the job or did you know funny story we had known each other for a long time and through another podcast down in somerset there we'd been friends we'd ended up doing a few nights out and going out to dinners and stuff and charity events through that podcast so we ended up with sort of knew each other that way and i actually lived in canner below chippenham in wiltshire i lived out there for a couple of years because it was easier to service customers.

18:15The majority of our customers was Wiltshire, Devon, and Cornwall. And it was easier to be out there. Plus, when we lived out there, even if I was away, I could still be home technically passing the house and in the house two or three nights a week. So it just made sense. So that's what we're doing. And then when I moved back to Northern Ireland, I'd actually just bumped into Gemma and Gardano services and we're just chatting away. And she was having a break and I was too. And I says, oh, here, you aren't thinking of a change. And she says, well, I might, but it would have to be the right job. And I says, well, there's what we'll have if you wanted to think about it.

18:51And there was no hassle. I knew it would work. The truck's out there. You know, it's in the yard that we were in. So there's premises and all that was already out there. So we just, it was an easy switch to make. She's happy enough to do the job. And she's very confident and she's very capable. so again I just let her work away with Laurie there's work when we started I says look I'm very sorry I've never had a lady driver before how would you like me to communicate and she was like yeah what do you mean I says well some people like messages and be left alone some people like to be talked to I don't know it's all new to me what would you like to do she says look it's fine just whatever watch out my stuff and there's there's times I might need to speak there from one week to the next day and another day.

19:37I could be on the phone 10 times in one day. But no, she's a very capable person, and it's a pleasure to have her working here. Excellent. So take it, she just does the tipping and loading in England and then ships the stuff back over and you then deliver it. Yeah, yeah. So again, that in itself, just the shipping of the trailers compared to the running, even though you would go out on a Sunday night and back in on a Thursday or a Friday night, depending on what you needed for your weekend breaks, that two sailings a week per unit, like even when you take the cost of having to rent the yard that you use out in England, it's still saving you£800 a month just from two sailings a week, one out, one in.

20:20So there's a lot to be said for it as well. I can understand why a lot of big firms actually do it and have their bases out there. Yeah, it makes more sense, doesn't it, really? Yeah, yeah. Plus then you can run your, you know, people might want to hear, but you can run the card to the maximum. You're not having to run it within the 12-hour margin to meet a boat or to get on a boat. You can run a 15-hour that day to get a trailer to the boat, you know, and things like that. Yes. The flexibility of work that you can cover without having to make a boat, if that makes sense, as a runner. Oh, definitely.

20:57The problem is because it's quite a short distance by sea, it really sort of messes things up, doesn't it, if you're on there. Whereas like the Harwich Hook boat, for argument's sake, if you're on there first, you can get a nine-hour break in on the boat without even having to split your break. So then if you do that, that works perfectly. But like with the Irish crossings, what is it? It's about three? It depends on where you're going. It depends on which route, doesn't it? Hollyhead, Dublin, it's three or four hours if you go. And we tend to use Liverpool, the Birkenhead, the Belfast boat, more so because, again, we're covering a lot more of the southern counties.

21:40The sprint just saves you that extra bit of driving time. Yeah, especially going up to Scotland to swap over. It's a long old slog up there, isn't it? It doesn't even work for us. And to be honest, the furthest north customer we do is Dumfries, and it actually makes more sense for me to ship the trailer into Haitian and run up around and come back down than it does to run away to Cairn Ryan and come back down to Dumfries, you know. Right. No, fair enough. Yeah. Again, everybody has their own way of going mad and that way suits me best. Yeah. Well, that's it. You just do what works for you, don't you?

22:16Yeah. Other things will suit other people, won't it? That's it. This episode of Match Trucking Great Podcast is kindly sponsored by QDUK. QDU offer one of the largest ranges of truck accessories in the UK and Europe, partnering with well-known brands such as Hadley, Nedking, Truck Chef, Strands, TomTom, Lightfix and many more. Shop online at www.qduk.limited.uk and use a discount code TRUCKINGGREAT for 10 % off your next order. Thank you very much QDU for your support. We really appreciate it.

22:56yeah it's been i mean it's been quite a sort of tough old few weeks uh as as we record this the the price of diesel was dropping i mean mine's dropping another 5p next week um but it's it's been really really tough for for small companies isn't it yeah i'm not gonna lie like uh march there march was on the verge of putting my light out and i had to reinvest some of my own money back into the business to keep it above water. And again, it's like I said, you know, on phone calls we've been having off the record, the costs, even though people have fuel surcharges and you had your rate up, it went up that fast.

23:37You could not physically keep up with the rise, you know. So we, again, when it comes to some of the rates there, I just don't want a fuel surcharge on it. I had to take the time very quickly over then a few weeks in March to go to the customers and negotiate. Look, we need people that are going for 12%, 15%, 20 % fuel surcharges. I had like, no, folks, I need the base rate up. I need the base rate up 8 % and we'll go for a 12 % fuel surcharge. So when the fuel comes down, I'm still 8 % ahead because the cost of your tires aren't coming down. And that's all equated to price of oils and lubricants and stuff like that.

24:16your service and you know all those things are way through the roof now and you just can't manage it all within a fuel surcharge i don't believe but look everybody's like i say everybody's oh my god you know yeah yeah so with regards to the maintenance as well um you obviously do as much as you can in in-house to to keep the costs down yeah so again like i say way back at the start i knew where i was wanting to go so sometimes this job isn't always about what you can make it's about what you can save so again there's days there like even two weeks ago we're very glad that Ivor's back and Ivor's very handy guy as well and like I've been offered jobs and it wasn't worth my while sending it out so me and Ivor was able to do a lot of inspections a lot of maintenance and stuff that day and I'm I saved more than I would make by sending him out so between you know even if I'm doing it on my own but again you have to be wary of some jobs like if I was to do a clutch by the time I strip it out do it go and get the parts bring it back and then the fact I don't have the computer to recalibrate it I'm in the two days whereas you could take that to a guy up the road here private guy specializing for Robbie and Davey Bird they could have that knocked out in six hours do you know what I mean so sometimes it's about time over cost yes yeah absolutely for some something like that yeah it's just not worth worth bothering with is it?

25:39No, but again, for your general maintenance, your own, you know, your wearing tower items, your brakes on trailers and you know, wiring and stuff like that would do do 90, well 85 to 90 % of that in-house, but again doesn't pay for me to invest in a brake tester, so I'll go to another company, we'll get our brakes tested and that, you know things done that way and stuff just, it can't, you know especially when you're looking at it anywhere from £70 an hour to£100 and something an hour for depending on the garage you go to i'm i'm well enough paid for doing seven hours in the shed you know what i mean i wasn't going to make that money that day if i went out in the truck plus i'd have incurred to cost the diesel so i'd rather you know people think i'm mad i'd rather sit in the house and burn my diesel wisely than run out just to be busy you know so and iver sometimes he looks at me and he goes like is there nothing you want me to do i says iver you're making me money by not wasting my diesel sit there yeah and there's days there too when jemma if she you know again i'm a believer in you do your job uh i worked at companies too over the years where the more you done the more you got to do but i'm just like there's your work jemma and she'll maybe be finishing a thursday night and i'm a believer in that's a benefit for you oh she says what do you want me to do on freddy is i'm going to pay you to sit in your house because there's no point in you running up the birkenhead to lift the trailer because i haven't got your other one shipped out it won't be there to Saturday evening ready for you on Monday morning.

27:03So take the benefit. You're getting paid for your day off. Have your day off. You know, this is the part of the job that suits you. The days that I need you to push on, that's the part of the job that suits me. So, you know, it swings and roundabouts, but there's a lot of companies out there that don't believe in giving the driver any benefits. So that's not the way I work in a game. I'm hoping that that's the very reason maybe I ever come back after all these years, you know. Yeah, well, it works two ways. because you're going to be more motivated as a driver to get your work done to potentially have a day off, and you're going to be grateful for that day off.

27:39And so you're going to be willing to do that extra bit for someone who appreciates what you've been doing. Yeah, no, no, and that's it. The thing about doing all those jobs over the years wasn't just that I was getting experience about what I was doing. It was I was watching people be bosses. I was learning to be a boss, and I was learning the things that I didn't like as much as the things I did. And you were like, I've reacted this way because he's been an absolute to me, whereas I don't want a driver to be that way. You know, over the years I was, you know, very driven and I thought I was going to have X, Y, and Z and I wanted the best of this, that, and the other.

28:19But I was like, you know what, I just want to enjoy the job. I want other people to enjoy the job. I want people to want to go to work on a Monday. so let's let's we we all talk about this being a lifestyle well let's make it an enjoyable lifestyle not a miserable one absolutely you know so you know i just leave jamming to do her thing and the same with ivor and he'll ring you at the end of the day ah that's me right up oh okay right here's tomorrow's uh oh i'll maybe nip down and tie that load down this evening and i'll get right up early tomorrow that's fine like on thursday past there ivor called in on the way up where we we do for a couple of companies in the last and he passes them going home and he pulled in tied his load all down left early friday morning he was right up for dinner time and he still gets a full day's pay and i'm like yeah there you go you have your friday off you have your long weekend you're not starting to half seven on monday morning enjoy life this is what it's right and he the place the place he come back to me from he had to work every saturday and he goes he says i'm literally 30 pounds down and i have and i don't have to work saturdays i have friday afternoons off if i work hard and I'm saying if you do the extra bit during the week ever I'll give you another 50 quid yeah do you know what I mean I want I want to enjoy the job and that's more what it's about for me now yeah yeah too right so speaking of enjoying it with regards like the maintenance and things like that do you actually enjoy getting in the shed and getting stuck in or do you just see it as a sort of necessary evil just to keep keep your costs down okay no I do enjoy it I do enjoy it because again those are those are little skills that not everybody has now as the man says what i learn when i serve my time and what i can do now isn't enough to say open up as a workshop for outside work but it's like i can do what i need to do to keep me on the road and i enjoy those days because it's not just that it's like in the past like some of my trailers and all would be older trailers and they do get a bit of a hammer and with all the shipping we do and that's just part of the job but i actually got pulled in by the vosa at buckley at the top of the 55 and it was an old trailer and the guy pulled me in and he actually said to me he says that's a lovely i had the black lorry at the time he says that's a lovely looking lorry he says shame about the trailer i says ah it looks great doesn't it and but that was all right the the he come out of the wee golden again and he said the exact same things to me and i said sure do you want to just send the mechanic out and i wasn't being cocky i wasn't being confident because yes a lot of the times when you get pulled in it's all about your attitude as much as theirs oh definitely and the wee mechanic guy come over to me and i had absolutely everything on the phone all the break tests the mots the inspections sheets the whole heap because there is sometimes i like i say there's other outside providers that would do a bit of maintenance for me because i can't i couldn't physically do it all myself yeah so i had it all on the phone i showed it to the mechanic and he went i says you can't agree with me but he just pulled me in because he didn't like the look of this but i says there's it there it was literally only mot the wednesday before i says everything's legit and he says look i have to crawl in underneath this mate and be seen to be doing my job i said that's fine that's that's what you're here for and he crawled in and as he went through every axle i was calling out to him new slack adjuster two new brake chambers two cam bar bushings, it has a new pin here and he come out the front end of the trailer on his wee board and he went, you know your trailer and I go, I have to know every single piece of this equipment, so it helps me understand and again, when you know you're getting pulled, like I have no issue with any of the trailers I send out there and I just leave it to Gemma and she's been pulled many of the time and we've never had an issue, so it just gives me a better understanding of my equipment than I, and I enjoy having that wee bit of knowledge and confidence in what we have, so.

32:11Absolutely Because the DVSA do seem to pull more trucks from the north and the south of Ireland. I think in not so much my experience, but what I've seen just in passing and when I've been pulled in by them as well. But I guess a lot of it goes back to some of the old reputations from back in the day. Yeah, that's the truth. If you looked at my old version ones, my very first truck was registered in Northern Ireland. Yeah. And I got pulled, you know, when I was doing North, South, it wasn't really an issue. But when I started to do the English work, I was getting pulled in that lorry twice a week, every week.

32:51Yeah. And the other lorries were English rage. And if any of the guys went out, and I'm sorry that this might come across as, you know, the stereotypical thing, but they weren't getting pulled. So if you notice every lorry I have since then either has a kind of a personal rage or it's got an English rage. Right. And we don't get as much hassle. And that's the truth. Yeah, yeah. It's just an observation, isn't it? Yeah, it's just my experience. The way things have been, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, and another thing with regards to the recent events as well, there's been quite a few protests in Ireland, haven't there, with the cost of fuel.

33:28Yeah. Did you get involved yourself? I did. I'll be honest, I went down. I knew quite a few guys in the southern Ireland and a load, it's not within my jurisdiction. I did. I went down the road and I've come across the first one in Dundalk and I stopped with the gays and I stayed there with them, you know, for 24 hours, give them a bit of support. Because everybody talks, like I say, this job is a lifestyle. You know, I talk about camaraderie within the job. And, you know, there are people that's still in this job. It's a different jurisdiction, but transport is not just a national thing. It's an international thing.

34:03And we all need to stick together. So, you know, I go down and show them a bit of support and say, they look like, I know this technically doesn't affect me, but if it affects you, it affects us all. And the same then, there was a protest in Northern Ireland. And to be honest, I got held up that day, and I went to join the one at Sprucefield, but it was kind of over before I got there. So, yeah, the police had all the tractors and stuff pulled in. Yeah, I understand what people are saying, that it will or it won't have any kind of effect, but there comes a point in every man's life where he has to stand for the things he believes in.

34:45Whether or not you agree with the way people make a stand, that's another thing, but there comes a point where people are passionate about those things and they're just right, I've had enough, and if this is how I feel, I need to get my point across or I need my voice to be heard. Sometimes this is what happens. Anybody that does get involved in it for enough support you, anybody that chooses not to, I'm not going to radicate you for it we all have our choices to make and that's the way life goes Yeah that's it, absolutely because it does sort of raise an interesting point because obviously non-truck driving and non-driving people can take quite a different view on it can't they because I was chatting to a Dutch friend of mine just the other day because Extinction Rebellion blocked I think the A12 at Utrecht in the Netherlands and caused absolute chaos and he was sort of asking my opinion it's like well you know I think it's good that people do get out and try and raise their point, but sometimes just affecting normal people at the same time can be a bit counterproductive because you just don't get the right people on your side, do you?

35:51Yeah, 100%. And say even the likes of the demonstration there, that there were sort of, again, over here, it was kind of organised a bit better in Southern Ireland, up in the north here. It was kind of just a post somebody put on Facebook because nobody wanted to ever admit taking responsibility for organizing it. And it was kind of poorly put on, but people still turned up. You know, there was a bit more of a demonstration or display up at Ballygolly at the roundabout there. But again, you know, yeah, ultimately everybody needs to speak, but there comes a point where people just will not listen to you.

36:27And you find the case, too, in every form of discussion or debate. sometimes the people don't like the person saying it it's not what's being said and i find that a lot of the time if you were to write it down and say read it they might have a different outlook on it but i don't like it i don't like what he's saying because i don't like him yes you know unfortunately that's a lot but yes you know you have to be very mindful of of how you go about it like again the the demonstration at spruce field it was just like a rolling demonstration it was a complete roadblock from what i heard again i didn't get there in time to take part but you have to be very mindful that just around the corner is a hospital just around the corner from that is the air ambulance you know and it's a bit hypocritical to stop anyone from the availing of those services when as as a whole the haulage industry has done great things to provide kind of funding and sponsorship and money raising events for the likes of the air ambulance you know so yeah you want to make a point but ultimately the you know you will you will win more favor by being nice to people than you ever will be being mean you know absolutely yeah 100 percent um i mean speaking of this bit of a tangent from sponsorship as such but you're also quite involved with the drifter style show are you not well to be honest yeah that's that it was david henning that the show has always been David's baby.

37:50Yeah. He started this polishing book company and he decided he would do this and he'd run around a few of the friends and ask for a bit of help and support. And I was absolutely glad to take part. It's not just me. There's William Hearn, who's actually would be sort of head judge, as I would call it. There's William, there's Richard Green, there's myself and Gordie Spence. and we just you know to be fair to David he does 99.99 % of it himself and we just turn up and do what we're asked you know so again judging can be the tough part because you're always hated on but look here everybody again everybody's their own idea what's right and you just try and do things as right as I see them but again I have my way of going mad, Willys' his way of going mad, Ricky and Gordy.

38:47So between us all on a points-based system, you end up getting a good, well, we believe a good average. So yeah, no, that's been very much David's idea and I love to see that kind of a show happening here and I'm happy to support David in any way I can to make that happen, you know. Oh, absolutely. I don't know how anyone can judge at that show because it's just, the standard of cleaning there is just mind-blowing. It really, It really is. It's so difficult because, again, the first year or so, the thing about it is we kind of know everybody or 99 % of the people that's going. And he's like, oh, you set the standard really high.

39:29And I was like, well, we didn't do anything. We started at the first truck and that guy had his cab polished and his wheels polished. And you move, you know, that's the standard. And you go to the next one and he has his tanks and his wheels and his exhaust done. So that's a new standard. But the time you get to the end of it, it's completely on another level. And you've nobody to blame but the competitors. We're just judging their efforts, you know. And it's very hard because, again, it never was to be about the amount of money that anyone spent. You know, I believe it was, you know, David's like he's a clean freak and that's what his business is.

40:09And it was just about being clean, you know. And in my head, it was more, well, not everybody has a massive budget, but everybody can afford a bag of rags, a bit of quick detailer, and some elbow grease, you know? Yes. So if it was just down to being clean, well, then that suits everyone's budget. That comes back more to effort than budget, you know? And it is amazing to see some of the fantastic trucks and the lengths people go to. It's really good. and personally for me the truck shows have always been about the people like i've said you before you would attend swede fest that is my most favorite show and i have never won a washer at but i love it i love rob and michelle and all the guys down there that put that show on it is fantastic for me that for me that's what a show is about if that makes sense and again it's all for me it's all about meeting the people and helping the people and you know i've seen over the shows going to different ones myself and competing against other guys well never once were you know i went to jay tyler and i was running out of polish he gave me polish he beat me that year but he still gave me a little end of some polish you know yeah sorter has beat me on many occasions but mick would come over chris lemmy or ladders yeah no problem work away because it's just to me it's fun it's exactly you know yeah that's that's the whole point of it isn't it and yeah i mean i i did my first ever weekend at swede fest last year because i've just never got around to actually taking a truck there and it was just like i say such a great time it's so much fun chatting with people and whatnot it was absolutely blind and i'll definitely be back this year for the weekend in a truck um yeah just hopefully i'll be there i wasn't there last year because we had another function and unfortunately that function happens to fall they always do it the same weekend so the year before we went to the show last year went to the function this year i'll go to the show again yeah uh but i do love the show i love the attitude of it i love the laid back i love the venue and i love the food i love the food so yeah you know it's great it's just a great week show i love it and i think it says a lot about the two shows swedefist and drifterstall the fact that like your travel from northern ireland to to rural Suffolk for a show and people a lot of Irish and Dutch whatnot go to Swedefest and also Drifter Style, there was what two or three from Sweden?