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Page 48
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So what's It like working on Commercial Motor? Our very own technical desk guru, Colin Barnett, outlines a week of driving, eating, more driving and, er... more eating.
• if you would like to feature in Working Week please fax your details to features editor Patric Cunnane or Micky Clarke on 020 8652 8912 or phone 020 8662 3678.
PHOTOGRAPHY by TOM LEE
MONDAY
There's no such thing as a typical week. The scenery could be anything from an industral estate in Slough to a five-star hotel in Nice. Although the foreign travel is pleasant, a normal itinerary is airport-hotel-factory or test track-airport. This week, though, the furthest point in the diary is Hereford.
It starts, as most weeks do, in the office, I try to be in by 08:00hrs which, although a leisurely start compared with my previous life, is relatively early for the publishing business. Not through any great excess of dedication, but because the 25-mile drive from Sussex into CM'S base at Sutton on the fringe of London is a damn sight easier if I can beat the Mum's Army in their 4x4s. Having left for home earlier than the production team last Friday means that a pile of page proofs is waiting on my desk, and dealing with these is easier if it can be done before the office fills up and phones start ringing. The rest of the day is spent actually getting some writing done in between phone calls.
TUESDAY
Today Is the beginning of a 7.5-tonner test using CM's Welsh route so the afternoon will be spent at the former military test track near Chertsey carrying out the objective testing. Using the same
facilities every time helps to ensure more consistent results. With the variety of different types of scenery available at the test track, it's also an ideal venue for the essential photography.
With the figures and pictures In the bag we head west for an overnight stop at Newbury, but the day's work Is still not over. An hour spent in the hotel car park means all of the cab's features can be explored and noted. Technology nowadays means that you're never really away from the office, so there's time for a quick check on today's e-mails and voice messages, before a relaxed meal and an earlyish night.
WEDNESDAY
ihe secret of a successful run around our Welsh route is timing. The target is to get through Hereford just before the lunchtime rush starts and negotiate the crazy crossing of Cheltenham just after. This means leaving Chieveley services soon after 08:00hrs, depending on the size of the queue for the dilapidated HGV pumps. The Md run is uneventful, and as the test truck has a fuel flow meter and a decent sized tank we don't need to refuel at our first stop at Magor, which marks the transition from the motorway to the Aroad fuel-result sections.
So after a quick loo break and leg stretch, it's onwards to the unmissable landmark of the Celtic Manor Hotel and the turn north towards Monmouth. The first of two timed hill-climbs comes immediately after Monmouth. We're lucky today, with no slow moving traffic to baulk us, and a satisfactory result is achieved. Once over the top we celebrate with a tea break at the truckstop near Symonds Vat. The run through Hereford is only hampered by a car transporter trying to turn round in a side road, not helped by car drivers ratcheting into its manoeuvring space. After the tech° insists on a seat swap with the factory driver, the only drama comes when the queue behind a cyclist on our second hill climb, out of Wantage, causes us to abort the timing. Back at Chieveley, refuelling and a coffee beckon before the clash to get home before the M25 stops for the evening.
THURSDAY
It's that Slough industrial estate today! Only 60 miles from home, but the traffic on the western side of the M25 means it could easily be a two-hourjourney. Today's task is a brief driving impression of a CNG-powered van, so we start with refuelling and photography at the Slough Transco depot. More glamour! With no serious fuel measuring needed we head north to the A40 and ad lib a route up towards High Wycombe, returning via the M40 and Slough's Farnham Road before a quick diversion to check out one of Colnbrook's greasy spoons.
As the job's done by 14:00hrs there's time to get back to Sutton to catch up on the accumulation of press releases and to make sure the first of next week's technical pages are working through the production system.
FRIDAY
Back in the office at 08:00hrs, ready to catch the first off-peak train to Victoria for a press conference in central London. PR companies worry about journalists starving to death, so it's the obligatory lunch followed by a walk back to Victoria and back in front of the waiting computer by 14:30nrs to write up the story.
Much of the week's progress seems to be governed by traffic, and trying to get cleared up and away by 16:30hrs is a final attempt to beat the jams. The question is often asked: What are the best and worst parts of the jobP And the answer to both is the same—the driving.