Eddie Stobart: Trucks and Trailers

Episode 1 (1x1)

Uitzenddatum: Sep 24, 2010

The distinctive Eddie Stobart brand makes the company one of the most recognisable haulage firms in the world. Every single day, Eddie Stobart drivers cover the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back three times over. The firm employs more than 5,000 people, who work around the clock to make a delivery every 4.6 seconds, as well as running two ports, two airports and countless freight trains. Mo Goulding has been a Stobart trucker for 34 years, and he is a company man through and through. He takes great pride in his reputation for getting deliveries made in time, but his planners have failed to take into account a blockage on the M25 that forces him onto London's notorious North Circular. It looks as if Mo is about to commit the cardinal sin of trucking - failing to deliver his load on time. Over at Eddie Stobart's Widnes port, near Liverpool, 800 containers a day arrive to be offloaded. At the heart of the company's port operations are massive gantry cranes, which are capable of transferring cargo to the trucks in record time. Crane pilot Andy Kujawiak is racing against time, at a height of 60 feet in the air, to strip 30 containers from a freight train onto a fleet of waiting lorries. It is no easy task, and one false move from Andy could lead to devastation. Elsewhere this week, planner Gary Fox demonstrates one of the key pieces of technology that has kept the Eddie Stobart company leagues ahead of the competition. Attention to detail is key to keeping profits high, and as a result GPS tracking devices have been fitted to each truck to monitor each driver's every move. The team of planners back at base is now privy to every break taken by drivers - as well as every instance of bad driving. Tensions rise when Gary spots Mo breaking the rules, and proceeds to offer him some unwanted advice. "Some drivers don't like the GPS," Mo admits. "It's like a spy in every cab - like Big Brother.".