The Dream Lives On

I moved to Brett's transport, where I am now, into their office and inevitably after 10 happy years the marriage ended. This of course was the chance that I needed to go back on to the road and to follow my dream again of tramping and general haulage at its worst! I found it so hard to do it alone after being double-manned for so long and having an old FL10 didn't help. I forgot that you need a hammer and a crowbar to make life easier. I had to go and buy a new map because so many new roads had been built in the 3 years that I had been off the road but for me the old magic was still there and I began to remember the thrill of having the cab to myself again, to be able to listen to some good music and be alone with my thoughts. At Bretts, we do up to 10 deliveries a day to NDC's and Cash and Carry's throughout the whole of the country, and we backload anything that's available. I eventually progressed to a Scania 113 and eventually to my present 124 but I still wake sometimes in the morning on a lorry park to the rumbling, familiar sound of a V8 starting up and the nostalgia starts! I've seen so many changes in the last 21 yrs on the road, some for better and some most certainly for worse. There is far less physical hard work now but the old camaraderie has gone. The respect we once had from people in the street has gone and we are now something to be tolerated....a necessary evil. Drivers no longer help each other and are more concerned with helping themselves. However, I still think that I was privileged to come into this industry while it was a good place to be, to meet so many nice people, to learn so much and to have so many happy memories.