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H aulage is a hard way to earn a living but
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Lorna Thorman wouldn't want to do anything else. She loves driving and gets emotionally attached to her vehicles. Her 5oth birthday present was a Volvo FHt2 Globetrotter, the replacement for her original truck, an ageing FT 2, which she and her husband bought when they started Libra International Transport six years ago. "I cried when we got rid of the old one because I loved it and I could handle it," says Lorna. "I must admit when we first got the FHI2 it took me weeks and weeks to get used to it. As well as having more oomph you've got cruise control. I used to go through the gears, then put the cruise control on and then panic, thinking 'I'm not in control!' It was a really weird feeling but now I think it's brilliant."
Casual driving
Loma and her husband Tony started Libra six years ago when he was made redundant. She had earned her Class r licence 18 years earlier and had done some casual driving work but until then she had mainly been a telephonist. "Women had started to drive trucks and I thought that I'm sure I can do that. At the time I just wanted to get it, I didn't use it straight away except just for short distances," she explains.
I .orna's love of driving goes back to her father, who drove for BRS and London Brick: "As a little girl I grew up around trucks. When I got married my husband was a car mechanic. He went to Dawson Freight as a workshop foreman and manager and we lived on the premises. You've got trucks day and night, which is brilliant. I've always loved driving and this was the next step up."
Her first taste of international work came with trips to Germany carrying car parts from South Wales," she says. "We were able to save ourselves lots of money by buying our fuel out there. Now I couldn't afford to work in the UK D full-time because of the fuel situation."
Today the vast majority of Libra's work is running into Spain as a subcontractor for Milton Keynes-based R&B Commercials. The company runs a fleet of about 20 vehicles on international groupage and logistics. Libra doesn't own any trailers and a typical trip will involve picking up a trailer in Milton Keynes or at DF DS in Dartford and running onto the Continent via the Channel Tunnel. "We always use the tunnel but have tried other ways. We used to do the four-and-a-half-hour ferry crossing but F hate boats! The tunnel is a good idea if only it worked properly," says Lorna, who has forthright views on the varying driving techniques she encounters on the Continent: "Driving on the Continent is more enjoyable than over here. People here don't understand that the motorway is a one-lane road with two overtaking lanes. The French love their horns, the Spanish use the indicators on their cars like optional extras, but the Germans are brilliant and know how to use their motorways."
Thorman feels that nowadays it's
easier for women to get accepted in haulage as the number of female drivers steadily grows: "A friend of mine was working for a local parts company and she thought about taking her HGV. I told her to go for it and she's been
driving for them since last July. I think men accept you more now. A male friend told me: 'Lorna, the hardest thing about driving a truck is getting the seat in the correct position and finding the right radio station,' It's true! Nowadays trucks are much easier to drive,"
But it's not all plain sailing: "I love driving but there is one problem. If you ever spoke to Kevin at R&B Commercials he'd say: 'She can't bloody do backwards you know.' I can do backwards but Tony does it so much more than I do. When I go into a place there are usually a lot of men about and they stand there and watch you, so it just goes totally wrong," says torna.
Trained mechanic
As a husband-and-wife team Lorna and Tony share the driving between them. But, as Tony's a trained mechanic, he takes care of maintenance and Lorna takes the occasional week out to catch up on the paperwork. Lorna holds both national and international CPCs and as a qualified DGSA she is on 24-hour call for R&B Commercials, McKellar Transport of Purfleet and Bedford-based D&G Noble. She took the exam two years ago when the new rules first came in and, like many oth yrs, found it tough going: "It was very hard and expensive. I did my training with Wright Training at Truckworld and they were absolutely brilliant and got me through it."
It was through her work with McKellar that Lorna came into contact with four other husband-and-wife teams doing international transport. "It's like an extended family," she says. "We don't see each other all the time but we send text messages or give a quick shout on the CB as they're going past. You can't drive trucks in France or Spain after to o'clock on a Saturday night so we arrange to park up together and out come the frying pans!"
International work
One aspect of international work Thorman could do without is the situation with refugees at the other end of the tunnel: "It's like Colditz over there, that's the only way I can describe it. The refugees wander down the road by the side of the trucks and you're watching all the time." Lorna had to tackle some potential stowaways just before Christmas. "We'd parked up to have a sleep," she recalls. "I went off to get a drink and Tony was asleep in the cab. When I got back I looked down the side to check the trailer and there were six of them trying to get in the trailer. Two men and two women. One of the men had a baby in his arms and the other man had got a child of about three.
"'We go to England with you?' they said. No, I said. 'But we have babies.' If you call the French police they don't bother. They are hoping that you're going to put them in your trailer and 'bring them over here. They don't want them."
However one aspect of French policing Thorman would like to see imported is the on-the-spot-fine system: "If you've done something wrong and you admit to it then you pay for it and that's it done. I think they need that over here."
Despite all the cross-border problems and the difficulty of making a decent living Thorman still loves haulage and has no plans to retire. "I'll keep on forever but we don't make any money—we just have enough wages to keep us going. Last year we had a week's holiday and only a week in the two previous years. But I love everything about it, the driving and the people you meet in all the truck stops."