#ThrowbackThursday; Stena & Virginia

Hello all. This throwback Thursday a picture of two of my favourite vehicles. The Scania was my first brand new lorry. Before it I was driving a V8 R500 and many thought me a bit nuts giving it up for an R440! Fact is despite my history between then and now I’ve never actually been bothered that much by big power, to me it was all about giving up a 4 year old lorry for a brand new one. I’ve also been unashamedly a lover of new vehicles, old trucks are interesting but I don’t want to drive one every day! And I imagine many that think they want to wouldnt last 50 miles! Common ailment in this industry - rose tinted specs!

Also in the picture is my all time favourite ferry, which is saying a lot when you consider I’ma ferry nut! Virginia used to have this parcel run from UKMail. We’d arrive and park on bay in the afternoon/evening, have our rest then leave in the early hours to head to Holyhead for the HSS. Only ever a handful of trucks on them as they were expensive so only suitable for really time sensitive work. Get on, have breakfast, go out and stand on little outside area on rear and watch at it powers up, it’s a magnificent sight to see. Engineering genius. It also meant we were tipping the parcels in Dublin less than 9 hours after leaving the hub in Birmingham. It’s very sad that the move away from fast but fuel hungry transport led to the demise of these way before their time but that’s how it goes..

One of my favourite trucks for it being my first new one but also because it was really good looking, the V8 before wasn’t colour coded so lots of black plastic And because I just know that someone will ask this is the one I put on its side in a ditch. You can tell a lot about who you’re working for when the shit hits the fan and the way Virginia handled that was perfect. It’s also an example of what I was saying the other day, don’t bullshit. I rang Ray at Virginia up and told him I fucked up, and apart from a short interview back at office for insurance I never heard another thing about this monumental f**k up. So new drivers - be honest and learn from your mistakes, it can save your job.

Thanks for donations all and new short video up.

www.buymeacoffee.com/lukevernon 

https://linktr.ee/lorrydriverdotcom 

Virginia https://www.facebook.com/111989085543220/

http://www.lorry-driver.com/2011/12/worst-ever-day-of-my-driving-career.html