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The depot looks like it's in a very scenic part of the country based on your videos.

Enjoyed your video. Maybe you should carry a banana 🍌 to keep yourself fuelled during a long day with an early start.

I’m a trade plate driver. And it’s exactly like this

I’ve driven past that tower so many times in my life, I never realised that it was called the Pennine Tower and it was once open to the public. I presumed it was something to do with the Highways Agency. Thanks for the enlightenment!

Lovely upload.

Hi Chris another great video don’t you just love those remote collections they are a joy you worked that trip well keep the videos coming

Nice video thx

That’s a long day, these are the ones I avoid and prefer the smaller journeys. Nothing more funny to see an old or fat person run for a train and double funny if they are fat and old. I have had my fair share of running to catch the bus or train as one minute late can cause hours of delays for the rest of the day

I have nothing but admiration for the guy, he's not shy of hard work and seems to enjoy the challenge, but it seems very stressful and working 14 hour days isn't really great. If he was on a Tacho he'd have had an even longer day!

I love that back road too 😊 Are you not worried about the vegetation scratching the vehicles with oncoming traffic ?

Seems quite a responsible job, your not just a driver your also a purchaser as well, driving and riding on trains etc is only part of the job. So I’m assuming your company buy cars through you and then supply these to an end sales garage or private/company end user. So obviously your company have to have a lot of faith in your judgement of the vehicle being purchased, a fair bit of responsibility. I use to do vehicle collection and delivery work, the vehicles were almost always brand new or nearly new and purchased by the sales garage or end user beforehand so there were no decisions made by me wether to purchase or not, I had to check it, talc photos, deliver on a truck to the customers address. I liked the job just not the hours 5 days a week, you don’t have a life.

Lovely upload. I love the frosty mornings.

Gold Hill was also used in the 1967 film Far from the Madding Crowd. Sergeant Troy (Terence Stamp) rides with his cavalry troupe down the hill.

Just subscribed. Great channel. Ex-motor trade myself and had my own Motor Trader business once with my own trade plates so lots of empathy when I watch. You deserve more subscribers. Keep up the good work.

I can highly recommend Raynor Winn’s book “The salt path” documenting her walking the south west coastal path. Great video as always 👍

Enjoying your adventures. I used to trade plate in the early seventies for a couple of years. Its changed a bit, in those days we used to thumb lifts back because the wages weren't that great and we could pocket the train fare. Happy Days.

Lucky you got on at Redruth. Train don’t stop Camborne Wednesdays.

The van customer couldn’t spare a few minutes to run you to the station?

Was the petrol station roadworks due to the Bramley, water crisis? Enjoying the video's

I hope you don't think I'm being super critical here but I notice you left the trade plates on the L200. The journey back would be A30, Exeter, A35 from there to Poole and then across to Portsmouth and then Worthing. 300 miles @4.5 hours. That would save you hours on the A303 and the M25 . An L200 barbarian is the single worst 4x4 to drive , thd seats are awful and the transmission is agricultural at best

Im enjoying your videos. Travelling to Cornwall you need to leave at 5.30am or at latest 6am...The traffic going down tk the west country is always bad and you never leave things to chance.. Having collected Volvo xc90's from the top of Bodmin Moor there is no alternative transport in those areas. Always sensible to leave yourself extra time to cope with Cornwall roads.

I really enjoy your videos as your experiences so closely mirror mine. Fortunately I work solely for a specialist used car dealer so have none of the aggro that the full time Trade Plate Drivers have because I can largely plan my journeys within the day. I don’t generally have both a delivery and collection or vice versa. That said, even the best prepared plans sometimes go to pot so my shoe leather occasionally gets a pounding. Off to Torbay from London tomorrow to collect a car so shouldn’t be too stressful. I have deliberately chosen to leave early to give me time to wander around the town and perhaps have a paddle as the weather (at last) looks promising. If I run a little late returning my boss is happy to let me drive straight home and swap for my own car either the next day or when I am next in. 🤞the A303 is not too busy.

It can be a stressful job.

I have a trip on Monday to take the owner of the car sales I drive for to Milton Keynes to collect a car. He doesn’t like using the train so I drive him there. Then on Tuesday I’m doing the same thing to reading.

Seemed to passing a lot of cars on the dual carriageway, you do know the national sped limit for a light commercial is 60mph on that type of road.

M6 toll is £8 you don’t even get a reicept straight away

Hi Chris. Just wondered, when you travel through the M6 toll, do you never set the route to avoid it. I watched the Anglesey one the other day and found that it was 5 minutes quicker and obviously no charge.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park is well worth visiting . Great day out ! If you are in that area again. Just a mile or two off the M1 is Bolsover . Lovely cafe at the castle . Or try the Pump Cafe in the market place . They do an excellent full English !

Another quality upload.

Did you not see the issues in pictures or a video of the car before traveling all the way I would have thought that was the first thing to do

I thought of something interesting (to me) that you could do in these videos. I know you already use maps to show where you're going, but when you're at a point of interest, like that bridge at the start, or anything else interesting you find, why not show a map of the exact location (so others can look for it when in the area). (haven't watched all your vids, so maybe you already do this)

Half way through, when you stay that the first pro of trade plate driving is that you love trade plate driving...that's the main thing. There are many people earning much more than you are who hate what they're doing.

Trade plate drivers are not allowed to call off a delivery unless the vehicle is unroadworthy for a reason.. The company are the only people who can abort a delivery ... OK ! In this case there were circumstances ref the monies being transferred but the company must be the people to abort the delivery. As a driver, you do what you have to do, and that's drive..(I fully accept that your company may allow you to make decisions but if I'd done that I would have no job the following day.. However, I applaud you for not going any further because you needed to get back, hopefully you got paid for the trip (an abort as we call it) so that would be full expenses and the mileage or hours. I really an loving your videos ... I loved being a TP driver. Just a shame the money isn't better

Glad your video popped up on my feed. There was a time I considered doing this job.

Just picked up your channel by chance and am enjoying the content. Originally born in Lancashire, but have spent the past 73 years in Zambia ((Northern Rhodesia) and South Africa.

I've only recently found your channel but I'm loving the videos. Great storytelling of your travels and fascinating insight into a profession I knew nothing about. I've got to commend you on the production quality too! Keep up the great work!

If you work exclusively for them then under HMRC rules they should employ you

My first vehicle moved as a trade plater was, as you might expect, a disaster where I did more learning than earning! I hitched from Hoylake, Wirral to Warrington to pick up a brand new road sweeper, which I took to Bolton Council. It was a miserable March day, I was cold and wet, I had no clue where to wait for a ride, but I did learn quickly! I managed to get a ride with a trucker and made my next mistake, I didn't check out where in Warrington so I ended up in Warrington miles from where I needed to be. My next mistake was not knowing Warrington Birchwood was a new town layout, with roads that didn't have pavements and pathways that had signs to the various districts that only a local would know. I had a long walk around the road network that was typical of a new town, and I used the road signs as my guide. I drove to Bolton without incident, found the council depot, crossing over a railway line on the way in. On my return journey back home I started to walk across the railway bridge and thought "bollocks to this" and walked back to the railway station and caught a train to Liverpool, then Merseyrail to Hoylake. The train fare used up most of what I earned that day. I lasted only a few months doing this, and even though I'd learned a lot I didn't fancy doing it in the winter and I wasn't at all happy with how little I took home for the amount of work I did!

Best company to work for is ECO motive Blaby by far !!!

I'm sure this wasn't what's known as a Friday Afternoon Fraud, where it's hard to check payment status before banks reopen the following week.

I worked for a company for over two years as a trade plate driver. Some drivers worked all week, others just a few days as they were retired and topping up their pensions. Decent job to start with but the cracks started to appear due to poor management. I left after being totally disrespected by one of the directors. I actually felt victimised and should have taken it further after I left but I never got round to it, I was just happy to leave. Ended up an ADR courier for a fantastic company, really great people, great working conditions, great money but poor health meant I reluctantly had to give it up. Not sure what I’m going to do next, depends on my health I suppose. Life too short, you never know whats round the corner.

I am from Leicester and it has been a family standing joke for decades that Market Harborough is really in Northamptonshire but ended up in Leicestershire by mistake. This was because the Leics / Northants county boundary does a few contortions around there. More recently, Market Harborough has become something of a London commuter town and we don't want that sort of place in Leicestershire!

I think that K-X St Pancras is 2 stops from Warren St on the Victoria Line via Euston.

I was a Trade Plater for many Years after leaving the Army Starting with HGVs Then i worked for a few months for a company who were basically CROOKS and there customer service to the dealerships in my area was shocking.I started then as a sole trader with my own plates and thats were the Money is 4k a month clear wasn't un common and built a good reputation in my area but not all roses as some customers are not to be trusted,but the good ones are who appreciate you are well worth keeping.Cutting overheads i was always with my Plates out and got some unbelievable Lifts and gathered a lot of like minded trade platers as contacts and what we call the buddy system to help each other out.I retired due to health reasons in 2019 but never regret doing it

If it wasn't for trade platers the trains would be empty !!

Hi Chris great video a wild goose chase but that’s part of the job isn’t it doesn’t always go to plan at least you got paid

Interesting video, many thanks for filming your journey. My 'cursed' destination is Pembrokeshire.... I've had 2 aborted jobs that were destined to go to the same place! I love being able to have a browse around new places before I catch the train home....

Don’t they ask for detailed photos and description before arranging collection?

Trade Plate Driving or Delivery Driver (Same as a Trade Plate Driver but for jobs where you don't need plates) is OK as a retirement job or part time, but as a full time career I wouldn't recommend it, mostly long hours for low pay.

When you do this type of work , you always phone ahead to see if the customer is A) going to be there. B) that the customer with the vehicle can meet you at the nearest station. C) that if there is any doubt as to the state of the vehicle (especially as its 2nd hand) that its able to be collected and D) work out your route the night before to ensure you can get there. As regards setting a record for collections the furthest distance away from home. Sorry !but not evem close! I had to get from my delivery in Aberdeen to Troon. Collect a car that wasnt available to collect despite speaking to the customer the day before to establish it was available to collect , to then go back to Glasgow to collect a car that then wasnt even back from the customer (who had it on loan) to then travel home by train back to Bicester to get my car to drive 50 miles home. I got home at 5am the next morning. And all for £10.50 per hour at that time.