The Good shepherd. chapter one.

It should have been just like any other run for Joe. A two day run up north, delivering to one of the more isolated communities. A day to drive up, tip, reload, have a night out, and then return the following day. His despatcher had given him maps and details of delivery points, and where best to spend the night. Joe had only joined the company three weeks ago, and so he was eager to make a good job of it. So far he had enjoyed his time with them, the pay was good, the trucks were clean and well maintained, and everyone was friendly.  Although this was his first time up north, he wasn’t too worried, after all, he had a satnav, a mobile phone, his laptop with Google maps, his overnight kit and he wasn’t afraid to ask if he got lost.

It was going to be a bit of a rough journey, the weather forecast had sounded a bit nasty for the next few days, but Joe had been driving trucks for more years than he could remember, and had seen it all. Snow, Ice, rain, floods and droughts, a little bit of weather wasn’t going to put him off.

As he was checking his load, the Transport Manager, Phil came over to check everything was ok. Phil mentioned that there was a short cut over the top of the mountain, a good road, quiet but can be subject to fog and ice this time of the year, but would save 3 hours over the main road, what’s more, it would bring him out right by the truck stop where he could night out.

Joe set off. It was a routine journey for the first few hours, mostly motorway. The cloud was thickening as he moved north, and after an hour or so, it started raining. The wind was starting to blow quite noticeably, and the rain turned slowly into sleet as Joe approached the exit for the shortcut Phil had told him about. His satnav was telling him to continue for another 53 miles on the dual carriageway, but Joe was not one to sit on cruise control for hours, and preferred to drive the truck. He signalled left at the junction, and turned onto the back road that would take him up over the pass and down into his destination.

At first the road was as good as Phil had said, a gentle climb, wide enough for two trucks to pass, well-marked lines and marker posts at bends, but gradually the road narrowed. The sleet started to turn to snow as Joe climbed, it was starting to settle on the road ahead, and Joe began to regret taking the short cut. After a while it became difficult to see the road ahead, the wind was blowing the, by now, heavy snow across the exposed parts of the road, and the truck was losing traction in places, but Joes years of experience came into play, and he managed to keep it moving. He thought about trying to turn around, but there was nowhere possible for him to spin a 38 ton truck around. His satnav had been telling him for some time to “perform a U turn when possible”  but had now decided that it would just follow the road ahead, and for some reason, it had started to lose signals from the satellites, and at times it went into a kind of confused calculating which left it more than useless.

As the weather worsened, Joe was having difficulty in seeing the road ahead. Suddenly he came to a fork in the road. There were no road signs, and the snow covering made it impossible to see which was the main road. Joe stopped, checked his map and his satnav, but could find no mention of a fork in the road. He put his coat on, and climbed out into the freezing blizzard that was now blowing strong. Walking a little way down each fork, he tried to see which the main road was, but was soon back in the cab rubbing his hands together, and blowing warm air onto them. He had a decision to make, which road should he choose? He chose the left fork. Putting the truck in drive, he moved off slowly. He had gone less than a hundred yards, when he realised he had made a mistake. Suddenly, the front nearside wheel sank into a giant pothole covered by the drifting snow, and the truck came to a halt.

Joe cursed his luck. Getting out and checking the damage, he was relieved to see that there was no damage to the truck but was dismayed to see that the wheel was in quite a deep hole, it was going to be difficult to get out of it with the road surface being so slippery. Climbing back in the cab, Joe tried everything that his years of experience had taught him. He tried the diff lock, dropping the air on the drive axle, he tried rocking the truck slowly back and forth, cursing all the while about automatic gearboxes, and wishing he had a clutch. He got out of the truck and tried digging the snow from under the drive axles, but as quickly as he cleared it, the wind blew fresh snow down onto the already slippery road. Eventually Joe realised he was going nowhere under his own steam. He picked up his mobile, it seemed as though he would have to eat humble pie, and call the boss for recovery. Now as we all know, when you need your mobile phone, it never gets a signal, and on the top of the mountain was no exception. Joe began to get worried. Taking a deep breath, he started to take stock of his situation. He was stuck somewhere on top of a mountain in a blizzard, he had neither phone signal nor any other way of getting help, it might be days before anyone came along this road in these conditions. On the bright side, he had a warm cab with a bunk, night heater and about 200 litres of diesel, a sleeping bag, some food and some chocolate, a kettle and tea. There was nothing for it but to wait until morning. Even though he was likely to be the only vehicle for miles, he was reluctant to get onto the bunk; instead he pulled his sleeping bag around himself, put his seat back and dozed off.

Joe didn’t know at first, exactly what woke him. He might have been asleep five minutes or five hours, it was still very dark outside. He took a few seconds to orientate himself, then, looking around, he realised that it was getting cold, very cold. Not only that, but the silence was deafening. The night heater had stopped. He tried the switches, on and off, turned the ignition on and off, but nothing worked. Now things had just taken a very serious turn for the worse. Without a night heater, it would be almost impossible to stay warm. The engine would run, and put a limited amount of heat out, but with the truck stationary, it would not be very much. Joe didn’t panic, but he was getting more worried, how long it would be before the cold got to him.

Just then a flood of relief rushed over Joe. In his mirror he caught the faint glow of a light, then two. Headlights! Someone was coming! Talk about in the nick of time, Joe couldn’t believe his luck. He waited until the vehicle came to a stop behind him, and then jumped out to greet his saviour. He was greeted by a sight he didn’t expect. Behind him was an old Austin truck, probably late 1950’s or early 60’s. Joe had seen trucks like this one running up and down the main road where he lived as a boy, and it was partially because of those trucks, that Joe started driving them. It had a snow plough blade attached to the front, and snow chains on the drive wheels. Despite the atrocious weather, it looked like it had just come out of the showroom, a deep green paint job, with the name W SHEPHERD TRACTION LTD painted in bright gold lettering on the door. As he approached, the driver’s door opened and an old man got out.

“Got yourself in a spot of bother then drive?” Said the old man.

“Am I glad to see you” said Joe. “I thought I was going to be up here all night”

“Well no bother son, we’ll have you out in a jiffy” answered the old man.

From the back of the truck, the old man pulled ropes and sacks. He attached the ropes between the rear of Joe’s truck, and his own, and put the sacks under Joes drive wheels, then got back in his cab, and signalled Joe to start reversing. Joe was amazed that the old Austin could pull itself back, let alone 38 tons of dead weight truck, but slowly and surely, his truck broke free from the pothole. The old man continued to pull Joe back onto the main road by the fork, before stopping to remove the ropes.

“Right lad, let’s get you down to the town shall we?” said the old man. “Just follow me, I’ll plough a route through for you” and he jumped back in his cab and made his way carefully past Joe’s rig. With Joe following at a safe and careful distance they set off slowly along the right hand fork in the road.