So the first www.lorry-driver.com online driver CPC date has been set for the 11th of February 8am. Drivers Hours and Tachographs. Book in my store  BOOK HERE

On train heading to Bristol for my first Driver CPC class tomorrow(for a company). Feeling a mix of terror and excitement. It’s quite a big step! But an exciting one. As I said to my best buddy the other day this is my whole future taking shape. Normally you never realise how important events are till later but I really do this time, which sort of adds to the terror in a way 😂 But……..I’ve not felt as excited about a job since I first started driving, back then I also knew my future had begun the moment I sat in that bus driving seat for the first time and it’s been a fantastic life. Let’s try and make the rest live up to the first 45 years 😂 I even bought a new work jacket for the occasion! https://lorrydriverdotcom.sumupstore.com/products?category=driver-cpc-courses

  #ThrowbackThursday So I’m preparing to take my first driver CPC on Saturday and I’m doing a short little bit at the start just to run through who I am and to show that I’m talking to them from a place of experience, by the time we get to this picture, not long after the Nolan’s picture it’ll be perfect time to make a joke because let’s face it, working for Nolan’s and HSF in the first five years of your driving career is quite funny! And a blatant ‘been there done that’ without having to utter that bullshit line! I left Nolan’s to follow Dad into agency in North London, back in the days when the only thing stopping you was how long it took to get from one customer to the next. We’d regularly be in say Iceland Enfield at 4am, work 15 hours, then off somewhere to do a night trunk before being back into Iceland next morning! Money was insane. It went dead in January so I rang up HSF and off I went. With another driver for 4 days then to Nijmegen where I got my truck. I lived in St H...

 

So as most of you know my dream job for as long as I can remember has been to be an international truck driver. When my Dad started doing it if he was going somewhere interesting I’d often skive off school to go with him! And later on skive off work! I was never too old to go for a spin with my Dad and never will be, I went for a ride with him last only a year ago and had a great day. Being a weird adult as I am you can probably guess I was a weird child. My childhood car obsession was Italian cars…….nothing weird about that you think…….specifically Fiat Pandas! My Dad had a couple and so yet another parent influenced obsession began. Back in the early nineties they were all over West Wales and I started a business breaking them and selling the parts secondhand in the FreeAds papers! It was quite sucessful! Because of this and because you have to cross a mountain range, I’m obsessed with mountains, Italy was my dream destination. However it was fairly late before I got to go and I had ...

So…….seems I’ve some ridiculously amazingly good news! 😂 Thanks to Avon Commercial Training in Bristol im now an APPROVED CPC TRAINER! How brilliant is that! Go and like their page to say thank you! Going forward we shall be working together to provide training, means I can offer via them the whole range of from CPC to ADR to getting your licence in the first place. Hopefully going to start taking some other courses too but for now just driver CPCs. If you book via my shop it will be guaranteed to be me taking your classes, like that’s an incentive! Also going to be working on their social media so again, go and like them! I can’t stop smiling 😂 Dates to follow when I’ve calmed down and sorted it all out 👍🏻

  #ThrowbackThursday: Growing up with the wonderful father I have, not only was my dream to drive trucks set almost before I could walk but I also came to want a career like his. Jumping all over the place from job to job constantly. Back when we were kids he could leave for one job in the morning and come home from a different one. He wasn’t a full time lorry driver till his late 30’s I think, he started out a mechanic, one of the best mechanics you’ll ever meet. Wasn’t for me tho, driving is for me! As a result, operators who basically only did one type of work didn’t attract me hugely, tho had a great time working for HSF. It was more about a job with HSF coming at the right time. I initially called Virginia as they looked more my sort of company, and it turned out they were. I’ve had 25 jobs in 26 years…….but spent 9 years at Virginia which I think tells its own story. Partly it was because of the sheer incredible variety on offer. You’d as likely find me on a building site cov...

Greetings friends. Just to let you know I’m available as an external transport manager in the Wales traffic area. Happy to do just the standard external TM thing or integrate it with social media promotion for your company. Pop me an email and we can have a chat about your requirements luke@lorry-driver.com   https://linktr.ee/lorrydriverdotcom  

If I you follow me here or elsewhere you will know about my plans to become a Driver CPC trainer. As a way of raising funds to pay for a course I need to do I am pre-selling Driver CPC days. This is a way of helping me out and getting something in return. There is simply no hope of me being able to afford it otherwise what with being unemployed and I’m aware January is probably the worst time to ask but asking I am!  No dates yet fixed of course but the aim is to have all people who’ve supported me this way to have received their days CPC by end of this year. If your CPC is due soon use an already established training company.  I’m actually super excited about becoming a trainer and am really working hard to produce courses that will be fun and engaging, that you’ll look forward to, no death by PowerPoint in a www.lorry-driver.com class! I know as well as any of you that sitting in a classroom for 7 hours listening to someone drone on telling you stuff you already know is a l...

www.lorry-driver.com   Just a little reminder that I now have a shop selling various trucking related items, come visit! 

While Tesla make all the noise with their ridiculous ‘Semi’ Nikola just gets on with it.  Be interesting to see what US drivers think of the European cab. They are calling it a day cab! It’s just being used on day work I believe. Going to be really interesting to see how it works out. PGT Trucking Purchases Nikola Tre Battery-Electric Semi-Truck to Offer Sustainable Shipping Solutions Aliquippa, PA, January 5, 2023 - PGT Trucking Inc., a multi-service transportation firm offering flatbed, dedicated, international and specialized services, announces the purchase of their first Nikola Tre battery-electric vehicle (BEV) semi-truck, becoming the first flatbed trucking company to actively grow its fleet with zero-emissions equipment. PGT will immediately utilize the Nikola Tre BEV on a select customer account, primarily operating on local, dedicated routes. “Our customers have expressed a need for sustainable shipping solutions, and we are working to align ourselves with their green ene...

So as you may have seen I’ve been writing much more recently, I love it and I’ve had some really great reactions to these stories of my past so here’s another one! Videos will continue but I’m pivoting more and more to writing, hopefully going to do a lot more for Truck & Driver and possibly other magazines, watch this space! Always open to constructive criticism or offers of assignments. #ThrowBackThursday. So just before Christmas I mentioned my time at Davies Bros, my first driving job. They ran buses and also had their own European tour department, and this was what I was aiming for. I passed my PSV at 19, back then you could get it at 18 but only drive local service bus routes till you are 21. When I turned 21 they started easing me in to coach work with London Express trips. Basically they ran a coach daily from West Wales to London, you’d park up 10 hours then drive back. Needed to be two drivers and the most I think I ever remember taking down was about 6 people, so the wri...

So, I’ve some news. I’ve booked myself on an RTITB Instructor Academy Train the Trainer course at beginning of February. Basically to learn how to construct and hold training courses, in my case initially to be able to hold Driver CPC courses. So by mid Feb I should be able to start holding them! Exciting! It’s rather expensive, though not when you consider the income that can result from it. If I can’t get the Job Centre to pay for it I’ve some ideas of how I can raise funds, watch this space! So an exciting start to the year! #Exciting! Without wishing to sound big headed I think I could be a really good trainer. I’ve a huge amount of passion for subject, am very knowledgable about it & absolutely love teaching people things, up to now via videos. My provisional plan is to hold them in different locations all over country and offer some options you don’t get anywhere else, so potentially overnight courses for night drivers, or early starts so we can finish early and your whole da...

  CULINA GROUP ACQUIRES LEADING EUROPEAN TRANSPORT BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL ROAD FERRY Culina Group, the market-leading provider of shared-user FMCG logistics services, has announced an agreement to take over International Road Ferry (IRF) as from Tuesday 3rd January 2023. The terms of the agreement, including consideration, have not been disclosed. International Road Ferry is a major player in the transport market with offices in Rotterdam, Grubbenvorst (Venlo), Felixstowe and Thetford and specialises in unaccompanied transport between Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland both full loads and part loads.  The business has over 25 years of experience in the unaccompanied transport to and from these markets and their knowledge, local offices and short communication lines guarantee first class and reliable customer service. Culina Group has significantly strengthened its position in the European Logistics Sector with this acquisition.  International Road Fer...

There was never any doubt which truck would be number one in my top 3 was there. The good ship Lady Michelle. I’ll never not love this truck as it was probably the vehicle that most of my dreams came true in, and some dreams I didn’t realise I had until the big Volvo popped up! As you’ll remember I was in a 2010 Scania R440 Topline. When those 2 440’s came so many people thought I was mad giving up an R500 V8 for a 440, but that I did. It was the first new truck ever allocated to me and moving into a box fresh truck is wonderful, everything works and no one has farted on the bed, yet and it’s automatic. Plus I’ve never been bothered about power, somewhat ironically as it turns out of course. Coming up to Virginias 30th birthday I joked with Dad that I should ask for a big power lorry to celebrate the anniversary, but wasn’t serious as I thought it unlikely…….but then one day in the yard Sean told me that they had a 750 coming and it was for me, I nearly fainted! It was sort of surreal,...

Here loading fruit in northern Italy Happy new year friends! The good ship Michelle* will always till the day I shuffle off this mortal coil be my all time favourite truck, for so many reasons. However when it comes to a league table (not that I’ve thought beyond 2) this beast is second. There was just something so fantastically right with this truck, air all round, 580 horses and it looks like that, I mean come on it’s simply beautiful. And let’s face it a big power Scania hooked up to a Chereau fridge is a little bit iconic in the transport world, possibly more than any other truck & trailer combination. A combination that built so many transport companies. I took her on her first run, to Italy where this is taken reloading fruit for home in 2016 for Whites Transport Services Ltd (*Michelle is my FH16 750 at Virginia International Logistics)