20: Sitting Down with Carl Kindleysides: Part One

0:03Hello and welcome to Mat's Trucking Group Podcast. This is Mat Ireland host once again and today I'm sat with my good friend Carl Kindleysides, another former trucknet veteran. Carl, how are you? I'm not too bad, mate. Jolly good. Dull old day. Yeah, enjoying your day off? I certainly am, mate, yeah. Yeah, with your nice new hectic work schedule of three days a week. Yeah, three days a week, yeah. Very civilised, yeah. You're getting old, mate. people say i don't do much well well they're right to be fair yeah well it's six hours today and then about three tomorrow so you know i think that'll do yeah exactly we've done we i don't say we've done enough in our time but um people probably argue that yeah absolutely so we'll take it right back the beginning i mean i know roughly but um how and why did you get in a transport what was the interest?

0:57Well, probably like a lot of other people on there who's listening to this. My dad, really. Family. Yeah, he was a driver. My dad started driving when I was about six or seven. I worked for Burroughs. Burroughs of Bressingham. Burroughs of Bressingham, yeah. Yeah, there's a well-known name that's long gone, isn't it? Yeah, local, yeah. Yeah. I do remember he came home one day in his eight-wheeler AEC Timber. Yeah. And I thought, bloody hell look at that yeah that's what I want to do and yeah I just then I just started going with him as often as I could and he obviously changed jobs we eventually got up to Barham's I used to go out with him a lot at Barham's when they had Sid Atkinson's and F7's and that yeah and he started doing Continental so you you know bloody hell yeah Bunker School for some of that too right was that McKay's wasn't it no no he's a bloke in a disc called Freddie Barham he started doing it originally with a F-88 and an old I think that's a two axle looking at the picture I got I think that was a trailer the French two axle tilt with an F-88 and then he had a brand new F-10 flat roof obviously but T-Reg DVG something I don't know flat roof F-10 where was he going with it mostly France or Spain?

2:26No, no, no. He'd done a lot of Switzerland. Yeah. A bit of Italy and a bit of, I think he'd done a bit of Germany as well. But I think that was, from memory, that was mainly Swiss. Oh, okay. So, yeah. What, Floodan ran this way somewhere? I honestly don't remember. Can't remember. Honestly, no. No, I just wanted to get in the lorry and go to Switzerland. I don't care where he picked him. Yeah, who cares? Let's get going. Can you remember where he used to ship out from then? Was it Felixstowe or he'd be down? I don't know. I can't remember. No. I'll have like just one ask yeah we should have asked ask old Naomi well it's not really relevant I suppose no but yeah then he yeah like you said with MacKay's the fawns near Longstraton they had a bit of a reputation and I'm not saying nothing else and he fitted in well there yeah Dad done a lot of Italy well that was another quite well known name on the scene wasn't it MacKay's that was yeah at the time yeah I had about seven or eight I mean when And Dad started there.

3:22He had a 141. And then he got the old, if you're a truck that regularly, you'll probably remember the photos I kept putting up with my dad when it was 142. The old Russell Davis, ex-Russell Davis 142 tag axle. Yeah. You know, he used to go out with a tilt. Occasionally he'd go out with a fridge, but mainly that was tilt work to really. And that was, you know, that was proper work. I wasn't messing about. No, no, get down and get back. on yeah yeah i remember him saying alex said um i wouldn't ever ask you to do something i wouldn't do myself yeah and that's true yeah there was plenty of them at the time but they also like to do a fair bit themselves yeah exactly yeah yeah money money money well that's it you know but and it's just i've said it before as well but so many people were up to that sort of thing at the time it wasn't yeah every man and his dog yeah you're sort of in the minority if you're sticking to the letter of the law.

4:18Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even the bigger companies that you wouldn't have thought. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, every man in his doctor. I suppose it was easier at the time to fiddle and get around, wasn't it? Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely, definitely. So, yeah, that was that. Fair enough. Yeah, so obviously when you left school, we're of an age that we couldn't just go driving straight away. So what do you do in between then? Well, I could, because of my age, obviously 16, you could leave early if you was born before a certain date. I don't know if that's still a thing now. Okay. And luckily I could. Yeah. So just to get out of school and start getting some money, my auntie, she worked in a, basically what you'd call a battery hen farm.

5:06Okay. So she got me a job there and was just basically walking up and down the sheds with a broom, just sweeping the floor. because I got so dusty in that. Yeah. That was basically my job for about a year, year and a half. Then I got into my driving career. Yeah. I think I was about 18, coming on 18. I was with a local Ralph Smith. He had some trucks, seven or eight trucks, mainly Scaniers. He had a F6 Rigid, what was on a furniture contract. And he had two seven and a half tonners. Doing egg work. Okay. Delivering eggs for Daylight Eggs. My place was in Bilstorm, I think. Yeah. And, yeah, I started running down to London.

5:55So you got your car licence and then... Yeah, so, yeah, yeah, I got my car licence. And then at 18, you're allowed, that's right, isn't it, from memory? Yeah, I think you can do it at 17, to be fair. Yeah, positive, you can drive at 17. Yeah. Just how things worked out. Yeah, I thought you could pass your car test when you were 17 and at 18 you could drive a 7.5 tonner, but I could be wrong. That's a long time ago, wasn't it? Mid-80s. Yeah, so you got in your 7.5 tonner. Yeah, and I'd never, you know, I'd never been out on my own anyway apart from down the local town from where I lived. Yeah. Or up-city.

6:30Up-city. Up-city, up-norwich. Yeah. Come on to see. And, yeah, my first drop was I had about 17 or 18 drops of eggs. around sort of North East London all around baptism of fire baptism of fire yeah Walthamstow all around that sort of area down to Barkham and that all those some private houses a lot of little corner shops and Iceland's I used to supply Iceland's frozen food shop yeah what was the truck? I had a little Ford cargo Ford cargo yeah daycare was sleep no daycare daycare There was a job I used to do every week on a Tuesday and a Wednesday. I used to start at Red Hill and go all the way down to Brighton.

7:21I'd done about six drops by the time I got to Brighton. Then I'd turn right and go out towards Dorchester Way and then come back along the coast, finish up in Ramsgate, I think, and have a night out just off the M11 or somewhere around that. vicinity and poodle in the next day and do a little job in the afternoon and then get back on my Londons for the rest of the week. Yeah. So. Sleeping across the seats. Yeah, sleeping in the proper trucking, mate. Yeah. Do you have any curtains? Yeah. I'll show you the photo. Yeah. Oh, brilliant. Yeah. I made some curtains up and that. Yeah. I had all my flags.

8:00Yeah. Oh, it's got to be done, hasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. King of Road. King of Road too, right? I loved it. Yeah. I loved it. Then my mate was working, Bob, he'd be Buffnow. Yeah. I was speaking to Bob, my mate Bob Rudge. All right, Bob. And he said I've had a job at Cartco at DISS, where they were mainly a bulk hauler. But they had some curtain-siders doing deliveries for printers in DISS, magazines. They used to do the TV Times and that for East Anglia, and they used to deliver a free newspaper down in London called Loot. I don't know if I still go. That vaguely rings a bell. A bit like free ads, wasn't it, Loot?

8:38Yeah, that was. Yeah, exactly, yeah. yeah yeah that was a big thing and um i said to bob i don't know i said i didn't really you know i've only done london and he said that's what they want really yeah so i went to see the bloke in the office he said do you know london i said yeah to be fair i know i'm quite well now yeah i know quite well now so um he said hey when can you start so off i went on that yeah still on a seven and a half tonner still on a seven and a half tonner sorry yeah d749 ulg that is an ivico what was the number on that 7914 or something yeah horrible thing yeah proper ratchet handbrake oh yeah no power steering yeah bit of a step down from the uh cargo was it yeah oh massively but that was a massive step up work was yeah you'd obviously do these multi-drops of newspapers and tv times and all that yeah but i was i was going i was starting with the trampers and finishing with them, you know.

9:33Yeah. I'd go out on a Sunday morning and get them on a Friday night. Just sleep with cabs again or still? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sleeping in my day cab. In your day cab, yeah. Sleeping across. I took the passenger seat. It was a double passenger seat. Yeah, yeah. So I took the backrest out. Yeah. And that was brilliant. I just like filled it up with pillars. Yeah. And went to sleep. Had my head up the passenger door end. Yeah. The gear stick was massive and big old sloppy old gearbox like they are, the gear stick. So obviously pushed that forward. Yeah. Yeah. to write in that. Then Carco got bought out by Russell Davis.

10:07Yeah. Linging back to the scan that your dad had. Yeah. Yeah, it was, yeah. Yeah, exactly that. But there weren't any V8s when they bought Carco. No. Yeah, they were sort of impressed with what I was doing because they're all like figures and money and that. Yeah. And they said, have you ever thought of going for your test? I said, yeah. When I'm old enough, yeah. so about another eight months when i was 21 they put me through my test so i went from this ratty old dyke i had homemade curtains in it to a brand that's brand spanking new age 65 imf yeah fl6 and i had a bed in a proper sleeper proper yeah so did they put you through your class one yeah or class two at that time yeah so put you straight for your arctic but you just yeah you just went onto a bigger rigid yeah we're talking whatever would the date be so HB 88, 89 something like that about 90, 91 we're doing 90, 91 yeah because I sort of remember e-regs was when the speed limits came out which was 88 when I put speed limits yeah so FG8 so yeah it'd be very early 90s yeah around that time so I had this FL6 and that was brilliant I was going everywhere same sort of work yeah same yeah same work just heavy yeah I used to do a lot of scot and always used to go out on a Sunday to Scotland.

11:27Yeah. And I absolutely loved her daughter. Yeah. Then they, Russell Divers, they helped towards the demise of Burroughs where my dad worked, as I said. Russell Divers took over all the distribution there. Obel Warehouse was. Well, Obel Warehouse got took over by a company called McGregor Corey. Yeah. and Burroughs was still in there but Russell Divers because they were quite what's the word not lethal but ruthless ruthless yeah ruthless no ruthless is the word yeah they went in there and they undercut Burroughs yeah so that was virtually the end of Burroughs after that right and yeah we was working out of there and that was great because I didn't do any papers then yeah so many little so many companies in there used they used all the storage there yeah There's like about 25 different companies where we've done all the distribution for them.

12:25Right. And I'd sometimes, you know, I might go out with a full load one day or I might go out with 15 drops, different stuff, but all from that site. Yeah. And that was brilliant. I loved that. Real variety. Yeah. And we got a brand new, I'd only been driving five minutes. I've got a brand new FL6 and I got a brand new MAM. Rigid still? Yeah. Another, yeah, another Richard, but that's in McGregor-Corey colours. Yeah. M-A-N. An F90, I suppose, would it have been? No, that was, what did it have on the door? 17, 180, something like that. I'll show you a photo. I've got all my photos. Yeah. Not very good ones, but I'll show you a photo.

13:05Yeah. And that was great. I loved it. Yeah. But when they put me through my test, you know, it's funny because I went out with the driving ancestor, Paul, from Mendelssohn. if you know him. He's got a finger missile, a hand missile. So he's a lovely old, lovely old boy. Yeah. I went out for an assessment with him when I was in a seven-and-a-half tonner. He said, oh, he said, you'll do your test in three days. I said, no. I said, you can't tell them, mate. He said, why not? I said, well, they're paying. He said, well, how long do you want? And I said, can I do it in a fortnight? Yeah, that's fine.

13:40So I sort of basically had a two-week holiday. Good man. But he was sharing the driving with another lad taking his test. Yeah. Yeah, I think some of my fingernails are still in the sink of the lorry. Oh, God, he was that good. Yeah, but I said, that was the Russell Davis thing. I said, we'll put you through your test, and obviously you're going from a small lorry to a bigger lorry. We'll put you on that for a year or so, and then you'll get an article. There's nothing personal. Yeah, just build some experience. Yeah, that's just how they operate. Yeah. and I just got a bit knocked off with it.

14:17Yeah. You know, what an Arctic. I think, I know that he was running FL10s at the time. I don't know why would I want an FL10. What's the radio? Oh, come on. Lovely little French, FL10s. Yeah, I know, yeah, they were. Yeah. Roasting the glasses and that. Yeah. And they said, no, no, no, you carry on. You're doing really well. Yeah. I was one of the top earners, even though I was only in a rigid. so anyway a couple of years previously my sister had married one of the sons at R Perry and sons at Bot Style and my dad was working there pulling continental cargo carriers tilts Felix style so I was speaking to Robert one Sunday he said we're putting his brother, he said we're putting a new lorry on the road my brother's going to drive it so do you want to come and work for me?

15:11I said, we're family and working with family. Yeah. Yeah, go on then. All right, then. So even though I'd signed a contract at Russell Davis, that hadn't expired. That was still running, if you know what I mean. Yeah. He's paying back. I said, I'm off. I'm not giving you any money. Yeah. So, yeah, I went off to Paris and there we got the first look. The first actual Arctic. Straight onto an Arctic. G102 VGV, Scania High Cab, 113. 360. Yeah, steel bumper one, isn't it? G? Yeah, yeah. The old original ones, yeah. So we was pulling tilts. That was a bit of an eye-opener, wasn't it? After Curtainsiders.

15:53Yeah, yeah. I didn't have enough fat on me while I was doing it, I'll tell you. No. I think, and I'm sure I've said it before as well, but I think a lot of people have again, quite a rose-tinted view of tilt trailers. Yeah. I'm glad they're in the past, really. Yeah. They look good going up a road with a tilt. Yeah. But stripping one down. Especially in the summer, all the summer or winter, really, isn't it? But the gentlemen at Continental Cargo Carriers, a lot of their reloads ended up being steel. Yeah, so in through the roof. Scunthorpe, Rotherham, Gate 13 at Sheffield. Yeah. That place, that sheerness.

16:27Sheer stress. And nobody would pull the sheet back for you with a crime. Yeah. They'd sit there and watch you or have a tea break while you stripped a roof, while you, you know, worked your nuts off, stripping a tilt out. but was it scumford rod and wire or something was it what are they called I can't remember now it was a rod yeah I can't remember yeah I was quite lucky because when I was on your route that was a trailer change it was all loaded for you so you just had to go and strap it all down and then when I was pulling for Norfolk line so it made it that's what they did end up doing that yeah yeah so obviously that made it a lot better yeah that's a lot easier to strap a load and that is to strip a tilt out definitely sit there for seven hours loading it then put it all back together then put it all back together yeah while you've got your card out yeah allegedly allegedly yeah so that's what they told me they used to do yeah yeah that's just how it was but that was a great job yeah we I was there two years and then Robert said the boss he said we're getting a couple of new lorries I said oh right yeah I thought I didn't know what he was talking to me for yeah I didn't have the oldest lorry and I didn't have the newest lottery.

17:40Yeah. He said, you can either have a 143 top line, a streamline as well it was. Yeah. Or you can have one of them new, they'd only been out about a year. Nobody, we didn't really know a lot about them. Or you can have a 420 FH version one, obviously. Yeah. 420 FH Globetrotter. Mm. I said, oh, that's a dilemma. Yeah. I said I don't know so I always spoke to my dad he said it's got to be a V8 I said yeah but that ain't as easy as that is it I sat one of my mates he was on triple C and he had a 420 glue trim and that's a CD trim with all that yeah my favourite ever truck CD trim version 1 XL glue trim yeah lovely lovely motors and I said yeah it's got like electric seats in it and you can stand up and you don't have to get down to the bunk like you do in a free series scan.

18:40Yeah. But in the end, I just went for the scan. I wish I'd have gone for the Volvo, to be fair. Hindsight's a wonderful thing, I suppose. Yeah, that is, yeah. So that was 1995. Yeah. We ended up with a brand new V8 420 manual, obviously, streamlined. Yeah. And that's also a time when there were some proper characters down Felix, though, wasn't there? Oh, yeah. For the various... because you had IRF, Triple C and Portbridge and all the other infamous firms and some proper infamous drivers as well, really, wasn't there? And there's some blokes you'd think, I'm sure he had been asleep since the last time I saw him.

19:20That's it, yeah. Simply like a round trip and scotches. Yeah. I heard allegedly there was one bloke, he used to do like a scotch or whatever and he'd get back about midnight right after round trip and then he'd go and get a fridge and go and do the markets. Get back about nine o 'clock in the morning and then just go straight up and do another Scotch. Yeah. You know, Newcastle, go up north and that. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of them blokes. They were all legends in their own way. Yeah. I think they're all catching up on the sleep still now. I think they are, yeah. If they're still with us, unfortunately.

20:01Yeah, some of them aren't, unfortunately. No. But they have really nice blokes. I mean, I still know I've been to some of them now, and they're the loveliest blokes you could meet. Oh, yeah. There was one chap who used to work for us called Steve Satchel, an old handbag, and he just – if you needed something there at a specific time, you'd just get it. He had an old Turbo Star. Yeah, I remember. Do you remember that? A creamy colour one. That's it, yeah, cream and maroon. Yeah, horrible. Yeah, and I remember him coming up. He'd come back in the office. He said, oh, I got a bit worried because he was coming up the channel to bypass and um and he was doing about 60 ish and this copper with his speed gun obviously saw him pulled him in and uh he gave him his taco and this copper looked at his taco and he went oh i have to get my gun recalibrate because your taco's saying you're doing 56 or i had you like over 60 he said oh yeah you better go and get that checkmate he said the old heart was going so so car back in straight out to phoenix so yeah he but yeah he He would decide no matter what time he got back, he'd be wherever he needed to be in the morning, like a week in for 8 o 'clock or something.

21:07He was up there. But most of them sort of people were owner drivers, weren't they? Yes, yeah. You know? Yeah. They were doing it for themselves. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I mean, they were days as shibbies. He was on Portbridge. They had all them beautiful 143s. On the yellow with the stripes. Yeah, they looked lovely. Absolutely stunning. Pulling them scabby old Portbridge drivers. yeah you had the Freeman brothers Carl and Tim and yeah the prof Dave Mortimer the professor yeah all that lot that was yeah really I learnt a lot you know I did learn a lot there yeah and hopefully I'll never forget it because that was like probably one of the best times of my life yeah in my driving career yeah yeah you know there was people there who wouldn't speak to you but most of them as well as cracking on and not really wanting to stop yeah they was as i said earlier that they was all really nice blokes and most of them were funny as well yeah oh definitely you wouldn't for you just think that how do you stay awake and why are you grumpy yes yeah you wouldn't have any sleep wake up how come you're still smiling yeah yeah that was great um yeah all all things come to an end at perry's i uh i remember saying to robert i said if i if i ever do get a new motor can i go abroad yeah and he said well think about it because all the trailers we were pulling from still felix they're all dutch trailers yeah mainly tipped and loaded in germany and holland i thought well it won't be too much to do that but that that never happened and i asked him three or four times when i had that the 143 yeah m986 cdx are still about somewhere if anybody knows where it is yeah ah we have to do a bit of detective work yeah yeah that was blue and white last time I saw a picture of her anyway I'd get going on at Robert nah it ain't worth I said alright then I'll go and find someone and we'll do it yeah so I left there yeah and uh I went to a bloke called James Baker just down the road at Mendelstom yeah doing similar work yeah doing tilt work for a different company called auto contacts yeah you know just doing the normal stuff and then i started uh i've done the first trip abroad with one of his drivers can't remember where we went somewhere in germany then i've done a trip with the boss himself and then i used to do uh groupage or whatever to birmingham on a monday uh load for germany monday afternoon get down to Dover and have a night out that was when you could park next to where all the shops and that are in the old bus park yeah allegedly have night that's a great word allegedly yeah it covers so many things I think we're beyond the statute of limitations I think I think we're yeah I used to crack on down to Ingolstadt to the Audi factory yeah used to do that in a bit quick in nine hours in a nine hour drive with a good couple of breaks in there yeah of course tip that and usually used to load paper from memory about 50-60 kilometres up the route back up to England and then finished a week off just doing a creepiest job around the UK and that was great but you know all the time I don't know how many days I run proper but that wasn't many and the reward wasn't That was all right, but that wasn't great.

24:50Yeah. So I thought, well, I'll have a look about. And I happened to be speaking to one of my old mates. He was a H. Frost from Stanton driver. Yeah, yeah. He worked on Continental Cargo Carriers when I was on it. Derek Palmer, a lovely bloke. You couldn't wish to meet his really lovely bloke. Yeah. And I was speaking to him, and that surprised me, because when he was at Frost, he was known as Dicab Derek. Yeah. and I said oh what are you doing now he said look Frost he said no no he said I'm working for this bloke up the road I'm doing like Poland what bloody hell you're not a die cab there no so yeah he said yeah he said it's brilliant he'd love it and I said is there any job school he said well I'll ask so the boss rang me up he said are you married I said no he said have you done continental I said I said I've done a bit bit of Germany.

25:48He said, come and see me. He said, I've got a new, not new, he said, I've got another truck on the cards, what I'm looking at. So I went to see him and I started for him about three weeks later. Yeah. I think my first drop was Cologne, no, Coblenz, sorry. Yeah. I think it was to Coblenz and I had a F-16. Not a bad mate to start with. He bought a F-16, yeah, that was an ex. John Thier. John Fairweather's, yeah. E-12 SVG, which, as John said, is the first F-16 in the country. A couple of people have disputed that, but I'd believe John because he's straight as a dolly. Yeah. So that was quite an old one when I had it.

26:34A fellow bought it off John. He used to drive it for him. He stuck a tag axle on it, so that was a very long unit. I mean, when I was hooked up to a trailer, I could stretch my arms out and I couldn't touch either I mean that must have been horrendous that was bound off on fuel in a solo let alone with a massive cap like that yeah I drunk it yeah I drunk it yeah but went up a hill though yeah went up a hill mighty fine yeah yeah so we've done I've done a Kaplens I've done a Berlin and I remember I got back one week and he said how do you fancy going to Athens bloody hell yeah so really he went yeah yeah he said another one of our drivers is going yeah all right then yeah i said i'd love i'd love to but yeah that's that's handy to follow someone and get the gist off that's it so uh yeah he went off in his uh that was an ex-demo l17 pwt he had personal plates on his laundry that was an ex volvo demo metallic blue and there's me and me f16 buff on franz mass buff had tilts yeah i had three drops around Athens and he had two in Thessaloniki yeah which way did you go did you go down Ancona or further down do you remember oh yeah we went Ancona yeah to Patras Patras yeah the long boat yeah 24 hour boat yeah we got down there and that was great because we got on the boat and there was there was about eight or nine of us yeah there was a driver from Europa down at Hartford Way yeah yeah called Elvis yeah and he talked like Elvis He was a funny old boy.

28:12Yeah. There's some old boy who'd just come back to driving. He had a Eurotech. Yeah. I think he was an owner driver. I can't remember the others, but there's about at least eight of us. Yeah. All around his table. And like you say, the silent is a 24-hour silence. Yeah. A few bears. Yeah. You can imagine. Yes. So then the hard work come when I get off the boat. Yeah. And, bloody hell, go into Athens. Yeah. So, oh, he'd done that. Anyway. Yeah, my dog's just turned up. Sorry if you hear any funny noises. So, yeah, we'd done Athens, and I had two or three collections from a reload from around northern Italy, Verona.

28:56I only remember Verona, but there was another two collections. Yeah. Two of them were Frenchman's depots. Yeah. Anyway, I'd done that and come back, and the boss said, what do you reckon? I said, well, that's great. Yeah. That was absolutely amazing. Yeah. So, yeah, carried on, done a bit of mostly Germany. I spoke a bit of German. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I've done other places, Switzerland. Anyway, he replaced all his lorries. He had two of these X-Demo Volvos, V1s, and my 16, and he got rid of them, and he bought five 420 CD Globetrotters. Yeah. Version 1s, obviously. N-RED, I know. Yeah.

29:40all their private plates on them because vulva was so busy putting them out at the time he said right he said i've got three coming this week and three coming next week yeah and two coming next week but yours is one of the two coming next week so that's fine i don't mind waiting yeah he said well i sold your f16 so if you take one of the old one of the old regs just for a week yeah and when you get back you can jump in your new you're back spanker yeah oh lovely so what am i doing and then france man's had a regular job down to muttons in swiss tip tip load of groupage at muttons and then go into uh strasbourg yeah another france man's depot and pick up a load out of there and come back and that is a regular job yeah loads of people done it and that was a lot of that must have been an everyday job as well yeah i had this job down to muttons yeah Tipped Murtons, reloaded Strasbourg and back.

30:35But we got down to Murtons and tipped. The bloke said, okay. So I went round the back to pull the flap down because that was on a tilt, and there was still half a trailer in there. So I said to the bloke, no, you tip everything. No, no, no. He said, you speak to the chef. So I went upstairs and said, speak to the boss. He said, oh, you've got two deliveries. You've got one in Zurich and one somewhere else. Well, that's not the plan, yeah, but that's what's happening. So I rang my boss up. Yeah, yeah, that's fine, no problem, don't worry. so I'd done the other two deliveries and said run up said oh Strasbourg now said no there ain't nothing in Strasbourg there's nothing in Strasbourg there's nothing in Strasbourg to pick up so well France matters surely there's a loop somewhere between Strasbourg and Calais so I sat in Mutton's for a day and eventually got a phone call oh we got your reload bearing in mind I was in somebody's motor what he'd cleared out of because he had his new lorry then I'd only took a bag with like three days worth of clothes with me.

31:40Yeah for a quick Swiss and bag Just for a quick Swiss and bag, three day job move into your new lorry Thursday load Friday, off you go Sunday or Monday in your new lorry so I didn't take hardly anything with me so right I've got my pen and paper out, where am I reloading? I had three collections around Milan Jesus Christ Are you sure? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, two collections at these places, and the third one was Franz Mouset Milan. Yeah. Done all that, got the paperwork sorted. I said, what am I doing with this trailer? He said, well, do you deliver it? I said, no, I'm not delivering that. I said, I'm meant to be up yesterday.

32:20So I rang my boss up. What's going on? So I told him, hang on, I'll ring you back. Yeah, yeah, can you go with that? Yeah, all right, fuck it. Jesus. three-day trip my backside so my first drop was in lisbon from milan from milan the first drop was in lisbon in portugal yeah my second drop was in coimbra yeah in portugal yeah and the third drop was in porto in portugal that's a nice little run if you had all your gear yeah if i had me yeah well i mean you're driving from one side of europe to the other yeah and that was that was amazing yeah and i was like oh bloody hell all these pants and stuff and that was there was a football i can't remember if that's a world cup or a euro or something and um at the time i used to drink loads of coca-cola yeah i remember i stopped in this one of the garages in france well get a six pack of coke and i said buy a six pack of coke get a free football t-shirt right Oh, that'll do.

33:24Yeah. 18 cans of coke, please. That's my wardrobe, sure. Yeah, that's my wardrobe, sorted for a few days. So, yeah, three nice, lovely football T-shirts to wear. As we all know, you're a mad football fan. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, mad for the football. In good.

33:44This episode of Matt's Truck and Great Podcast is proudly sponsored by Creasy Drainage. If you're dealing with blocked drains, flooding or drainage problems, Creasy Drainage is a team to call they provide professional drainage services for homes and businesses including drain unblocking, repairs, septic tank emptying and CCTV drainage surveys. They're known for fast response times, honest advice and getting the job done right the first time For reliable drainage services you can trust check out Creasy Drainage the details will be in the show notes Yeah so we'd done anyway we'd done that and that was great sat in Porto for two days again for a reload you just think, Franz Manz, I had all over Europe, you'd sit there for a day or two, you'll be alright I ended up going down to Coimbra and I got photos again, I had to load some old trucks and engines and chassis the chassis on the bottom then the engines with the cabs on top of them, I think they were like the old Bullenose Bedfords and that sort of thing.

34:50I'll show you the pizza. Yeah. And so spent all day loading that. Lovely bloke where I was. He took me out. He took me to a restaurant and said, that's on me. So I think that's where I had my first ever steak burger because the bloke said, you know what you want? I said, chips. Anybody who knows me will know chips. And can I have steak? Yeah, what size? Large. And I'm not joking. and I must have had an Alan Parrish 12-inch blade and that was hanging off. That was massive. I thought, there's no way that's stank, stank. That's got to be a bit of horse. Yeah, that was nice. I liked that. That was good.

35:31Anyways, I'm getting distracted. Come back. That was tipping in Coventry. Tipped out at Coventry. Got back to the yard. Mallory had been to Germany two times, Holland once. There was bloody grease stuck off of boots on the mat in the centre. Oh, God. You know, on the floor, so I get another mat. So it was meant to be roughly a three-day round. No, it was a three-day trip. Three weeks, pretty much. That was something, yeah, two, two and a half weeks. I can't remember now, but that just took forever. Yeah. But when I got back, the boss said, how'd you get on? I said, well, apart from having a motor with nothing in it.

36:08Yeah. He said, if I had my own lorry, I said, that was amazing. That was, you know, driving across Southern Europe, I said, I've never been to Portugal. Yeah. That was brilliant. Yeah. He said, do you want to go again? I said, as long as you give me a bit of time to get my stuff together. Yeah. So I had my brand new FH. Mm-hmm. I had stuff in it, you know. I had all my gear in it. Yeah. And I'd done about three Portugals. And every time I'd done that, I was waiting for a reload. And my governor said, can't keep sending you there if they're going to park you up for a day. Yeah. Fair enough. So I'd done a couple of three Spines.