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This post is from our Recession Road series, part of our .

We're in Scotland! As we pull off the road to savour the moment, we join a few truck drivers, tourists and caravanners lined up in the lay-by facing the "Welcome to Scotland" (Failte gu Alba) sign. The obligatory truck-stop smell of frying bacon fills the air.

Long-distance driver Ken Campbell is coming to the end of his rest break. The Forfar-based company he works for manufactures ladders, and the drivers take them to customers "from John o' Groats to Land's End and places in between", he says.

But they have suffered from the downturn in the building industry, and at Christmas its factory workers and drivers were asked to reduce their hours to a four-day week.

"But we've still got a job so you can't knock it," says Ken, who is married and lives in Forfar, in Angus.

They recently returned to a five-day week, so does he believe things are looking up?
"No, it's picking up but I think it's a bit of a false dawn. I don't think this is finished yet."

You can read an explanation of our Recession Road series here. Words: Paula Dear; Images: Phil Coomes.

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