worldofceri

I was quite taken by the plates and badges too! No pez station shot so have a trailer shot instead:

Incorrect!

What makes you think they’re incorrect?

Yes, the Sorento is plated at 6.1t train weight! You're supposed to have a tacho for commercial use over 3.5t but checks are rare and many don't bother. There are lots of exemptions however.

It’s paid for though innit? So if work is slack or he fancies a holiday he can park it up without worrying how he’s going to keep up the finance payments.

Yes and yes !

Not exactly stockpiled, but I’ve just bought another one. 76k miles on this.

Last week my Kia Sorento nommed it’s gearbox. I’ve done 130,000 miles in a smidge over two years. Odometer stopped at 188,000 but actual mileage now is 222,000. Engine is fine so I’ll see about replacing the ’box when funds allow.

July 2018. An eclectic few jobs over the next few days: Lovely Mercedes SL collected in Derbyshire and delivered to Stratford on Avon. *** Reliant based trike picked up in Leicestershire and taken to Stourbridge. The DVLA database suggests the guy is yet to get it back on the road. *** The Mini was collected in East Yorkshire and transported to South Wales. Took a bit of faffing around to get off the seller’s drive, which was gravel and sloped away from the road. With flat tyres pushing wouldn’t budge it and the access was too awkward to get the trailer in. I had to unhitch the Kia and drag it out onto the road. Stopped to get a pretty picture outside this nearby church, but this photo annoys me. I’d winched the Mini too far forwards and the trailer is excessively front-heavy. Didn’t really matter with such a smol car, but I’ve tried to get my weight distribution better from here on.

How ruuude. Gove's old enough to be my grandad. Probably.

July 2018. The next Shiply job came up very last minute: Can you do it today? Sure, why not? So, I headed down to ‘white room’ classic dealer 4 Star Classics in Hampshire, and brought back this minty E39 BMW 525i Sport, for a customer in Birmingham. Despite not setting off until late morning I made good time on the way down. Not so much on the way back; Trying to find my way to the M40, I was turned back by the police due to field fires and had to take a long detour. We were certainly having a very warm, dry period. But whilst not so good for the farmers, they were ideal conditions in which to learn how to be a car transporterist. *** Raz the Firefighter became my first returning customer, when he asked if I would take a VW camper down to Devon. His colleague (also a London firefighter but, rather than a garage in Brum for a second occupation, he runs a surf school in Devon) had abandoned his broken air-cooled classic in Birmingham and been lent a small Fiat to take down to the West Country. I would deliver the camper to a VW specialist in a small village right on the north Devon coast and take the borrowed Punto back to Birmingham. Couldn’t resist stopping again for the sea-view photo opportunity. The last couple of miles to my destination were single track and I was surprised to meet a double decker bus coming the other way at just about the worst point – as the road took two sharp turns to cross a narrow bridge. Even worse luck was meeting another double decker at exactly the same place coming back! By the time I’d got back I’d been on the road for at least thirteen hours, and in retrospect charged far too little for the job. All part of the learning curve in the end, I’d charged what I’d thought was reasonable but, whilst my costs were more than covered, I hadn’t enough in my pocket for a long day’s work.

June 2018. A couple more Shiply jobs came through. Both big vehicles, meaning the price didn’t get bid down so far by the guys running 3.5t trucks. The first was a Discovery, to be collected from a village way up in the Derbyshire Peak District. All the roads into the village are single track, which is no drama, but trust my luck to meet a flippin’ artic lorry coming the other way, just as I set off with the Disco on board! Fortunately, my reversing skillz once again passed scrutiny. Destination was just outside Norwich and the customer had rung to say he wasn’t going to be home and could I leave the car on the drive and post the keys through the door?. Of course, no problem Sir. So, with the weather glorious and no deadline to meet, there was plenty of time to stop for a cheeky Capri Sun. Land Rover successfully delivered, I headed straight for the next job. This was an Isuzu pickup to be collected from Nottinghamshire and destined for deepest Wales. My plan was to collect it late afternoon and find a quiet spot to kip in the car for a few hours before heading over to Wales early the following day. I arrived at the collection address near Colsterworth just before they closed – a massive auction site specialising in ex-mod sales. The Isuzu had seen service with the army in Cyprus. Once loaded up, I headed a couple of miles down to Colsterworth services. I nabbed one of the last parking spaces between a couple of artics and switched the tacho to ‘rest’. There was no charge for overnight parking so this would be ideal. Hemmed in by other vehicles, I wasn’t worried for the security of the trailer or the load. Dinner was sourced from the Easy Diner – the estwhile Little Chef a shadow of it’s former self – then I made myself comfortable on the rear seat. At six foot, I have no chance of stretching out across the back seats, but I was in a quiet spot and had a reasonably restful sleep. Tacho rules allow for a minimum of nine hours between shifts, and my plan was to set off as early as possible. Hence it was 4am and still dark when I slipped out of the services and took a B-road across country to join up with the A46 and later the M1 and M69. One of my favourite things about driving is setting off when it’s still dark and most are still in bed. Especially away from main routes where the roads truly are empty at that time of the morning. I’ve been driving for a living for a good number of years now and the novelty still hasn’t worn off. It was a good long run down to the Welsh coast, south of Aberystwyth. Another thing that never gets old for me – having always lived in the midlands – is coming over a crest and seeing that first glimpse of the sea. Even with the early start, by the time I reached the coast, the sun was high in the sky. The buyer of the Isuzu was a cattle farmer. He was disappointed in it’s condition, and not confident of turning much profit by the time he had it registered and mot’d etc. It did look like it’d need a fair bit of fettling to get ready for the road to be fair, but I’d imagine that type of truck would be in high demand in his part of the world.