It's the start of another busy week for the 1,000 plus staff at the company, 650 of whom are drivers. But while most truckers do a 12-hour shift, there are some who are away on the road all week - known as ‘trampers', because they camp out at night in their cabs. One of them is a 5ft 2 bundle of energy known as Tigger. She's one of a small number of female long-distance HGV drivers. Today, she's due to be taking a delivery from Newport up to Manchester. But a catalogue of disasters mean Tigger's struggling to get out of the starting blocks.
The pandemic saw an explosion in the home delivery market. The company decided to get in on the act, with its own local parcel delivery service, using electric vans. Van driver Gary has been in the job a year, after facing some hard times which left him temporarily homeless. With 120 parcels to deliver, he's got no time to waste as he navigates his way round the streets of Llanelli. And there's one special parcel that needs to reach a particularly pampered pooch.
Receptionist Jess is another recent recruit, who joined the company after the global shutdown put paid to her job tracking down lost bags for airline passengers. Lucky for Jess, veteran driver The Donk is on hand to give her a crash course in all things trucking – quite literally – with a day out to the Pembrey Truck Races.