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Rikki Chequer, community manager of TruckNet UK, reports on some of the latest topics to be discussed by professional drivers.
Page 22
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A change for the start of this week's round-up of TruckNet UK. Last Saturday saw the annual get-together of members of the website's interactive forums. The TruckNet UK Christmas party, traditionally held late, is hosted at the Longford Hotel in Cannock and is attended by drivers, truck operators and their spouses from all over the country.
The evening is very informal and tends to get lively as the party mood (and booze) kicks in. One feature of the event is a charity auction -this year Oaf, Iveco, Scania and Volvo were kind enough to donate a large amount of goodies to auction off, and combined with a clearing out of the cupboards at Reed towers this meant almost no one got away without buying something.
Towards the end of the evening we had raised £645, when a suggestion was made that we should try to get it to E700. With no items left to auction the prospects of reaching the total looked bleak until one sharp eyed party goer spotted one of the very few remaining TruckNet UK-logoed polo shirts. This was promptly auctioned and pushed the amount over the E700 mark.
The only slight drawback to this item being auctioned was that it was spotted while on my back. And the winner demanded its instant delivery. Cue one community manager minus his dignity spending the rest of the evening wearing one of his wife's extremely girly cardigans (own up. Rikki... you know you've always wanted to Ed). A fantastic evening was had by all. Apart from Truckfest the Christmas party is the only time of the year those using the forums on TruckNet UK get together socially. It is a fairly unusual event and huge thanks must go to the industry sponsors who help make it a great evening every year.
One topic on the forums caught my eye this week: a driver relates the tale of how easy it can be to damage a truck... a coupleof seconds distracted while manoeuvring and a section of the front bumper
is missing. Most of us who have driven for awhile have had a couple of those "oh no" moments: but not many of us are brave enough to say we messed up.