<div class="bbm_float fleft" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 5px 0">
<script class="js-extraPhrases" type="application/json">
			{
				"lightbox_close": "Close",
				"lightbox_next": "Next",
				"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
				"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
				"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
				"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
				"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
				"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
				"lightbox_download": "Download",
				"lightbox_share": "Share",
				"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
				"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
				"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
			}
			</script>
<div class="bbImageWrapper lazyload js-lbImage" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-single-image="1" data-src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Faa%2Fa8%2Ffd%2Faaa8fd3571eaf8146a8bf0618cf359ed.jpg&amp;hash=e89411d7842c1ddd07324f27be8277a3" title="aaa8fd3571eaf8146a8bf0618cf359ed.jpg">
<img alt="aaa8fd3571eaf8146a8bf0618cf359ed.jpg" class="bbImage lazyload" data-src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Faa%2Fa8%2Ffd%2Faaa8fd3571eaf8146a8bf0618cf359ed.jpg&amp;hash=e89411d7842c1ddd07324f27be8277a3" data-url="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/aa/a8/fd/aaa8fd3571eaf8146a8bf0618cf359ed.jpg" data-zoom-target="1" height="" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" style="" title="" width=""/>
<noscript><img alt="aaa8fd3571eaf8146a8bf0618cf359ed.jpg" class="bbImage" data-url="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/aa/a8/fd/aaa8fd3571eaf8146a8bf0618cf359ed.jpg" data-zoom-target="1" height="" src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Faa%2Fa8%2Ffd%2Faaa8fd3571eaf8146a8bf0618cf359ed.jpg&amp;hash=e89411d7842c1ddd07324f27be8277a3" style="" title="" width=""/></noscript>
</div>
</div>Pauline Swift hadn't always wanted to be a long distance truck driver. When she was eight she wanted to be a professional footballer. By the time she was ten that had changed to a lumberjack or steeplejack, depending upon which day you asked her.  By eleven, she was looking at a career as a coal miner, only to learn that most of the collieries in the country had been closed in the 1980s. At 14, she discovered the internet and managed to find out enough (before her father found out and banned her from using the family computer unsupervised) to declare that she wanted to be a professional dominatrix.<br/><br/>At 16, she left school and joined the army, a move that surprised everyone, including the Royal Logistical Corps, 1st Regiment. The fact that she rapidly learned how to drive everything from an articulated lorry to a self-propelled artillery piece made her a natural for the role of combat driver. She saw action in Afghanistan, and then after nine years she took her release and got a job with a well known road haulage company.<br/><br/>Now, ten years later, she was a self employed owner driver, sole owner of P.Swift Haulage. The fact that her first initial and surname were P Swift meant that the big companies that like to use the name couldn't stop her using it and she in turn used the name to full advantage. Recent changes in the law allowing longer truck cabs for the increased comfort of drivers, and thus increased driver safety, meant that she had bought herself one of the biggest cabs available in EU (and former EU) countries. She'd made some minor alterations and redecorated the interior and now the place felt just like home.<br/><br/>She'd left Calais that morning with a sealed container on the back. She had no idea what was in it, had not read the manifest, had no need to. The container had been bond sealed when she'd picked it up at a warehouse in Oxfordshire before dawn and it would still be sealed when she delivered it to a warehouse in Lithuania in a few days time. European customs officials could look at the paperwork and check the seals on the container if they wanted.<br/><br/>The time spent on the train shuttle had come off her tacho - she'd spent most of it making herself a decent breakfast in the back of the cab, that resembled a small luxury motorhome in its size and facilities (although not in it's decor). But she'd been on the road now for nearly four hours and it was time for a break. Her bladder was telling her, as was her tachograph.<br/><br/>Nearing Dortmund in Germany, she saw a sign for a service area and pulled in, carefully manoeuvring the over-long vehicle into a parking bay. Pauline unstrapped herself from the far-too-comfortable driver's seat and stretched. She spent most of her time driving in Continental Europe and so her cab was set up with the driver's seat on the left for convenience, even though it had UK plates. The signs that read "Caution, Left Hand Drive" were a minor inconvenience when driving in her native country.<br/><br/>She stretched and grasped a bar set into the overhead for just that purpose, took her weight on her arms and lifted her feet, enjoying the stretch, then headed to the bathroom then the kitchen. About fifty minutes later she was back behind the wheel, heading for the exit from the service area when she spotted the cutest hitch hiker. The air brakes gronked and hissed as she eased the thirty tonne vehicle to a halt, just beyond where the goth-looking girl was sticking out a hopeful thumb. She pressed the button that unlocked the passenger door and wound the window down on that side.<br/><br/>"Hey, wohin gehst du?" She called out, over the gentle roar of the idling diesel engine. Where are you going.