This fictionalised autobiographical account is the story of a young man starting his career in road transport. In the late 1940s Shay leaves school as soon as he can to become a trailer boy on an Atkinson truck that is noise, cold, and limited in speed. The driver, Fred, is one of the old school, a transport man through and through. In those days lorries were less able to cope with bad weather. This book includes a vivid account of the terrible winter of 1947 when twenty miles an hour was an achievement and the powerful vehicles were dangerous to handle.