Christmas & New Year

It's been a while since I last wrote anything but it has been rather hectic in the run up to Christmas. I found myself with a rather lucrative short term contract working exclusively for Royal Mail, both trunking and local deliveries, for December and a little bit of January.
So if I'm honest, there hasn't been a lot happening that may be of any interest, unless you count sitting in various Royal Mail depots around the country waiting to get loaded/unloaded as interesting.
 I will say one thing though, they have fantastic canteens at all of their depots.

The picture above shows the main work horse for trunking work and the picture below shows the 18 Tonne rigid that was used for local work. Although the delivery offices use 7.5 Tonners for all of their bulk work, as well as the ubiquitous vans.

There has also been a little bit of container work and a few days shunting down on the docks but, again, nothing new or of any interest. 

Having said all that, there are some exciting projects in the pipeline, so keep looking in to see what's happening.

All the best and a Happy New Year.

Shunting

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been on the road, for various reasons, but I'm back with a vengeance. Ok, maybe just a whimper! Last week saw me doing some shunting work for Freightliner out of their Millbrook depot in Southampton. It's simply taking boxes off a train, shunting them to one of 3 places and then bringing loaded boxes back from the quay to go onto another train. Not really riveting stuff but the guys working there were a good bunch and it's not really taxing work, so you could almost run on auto-pilot. 

Millbrook Depot

As you can see, it's a simple case of parking next to the train and the gantry crane will either load a box onto your trailer or remove one.

60's Crane

One interesting fact is the crane in these pictures is nearly 40 years old. 

They were first commissioned in the late 60's when the Millbrook depot was built. I say they, as there are 2 of them, still going strong although they both seem to require a lot of maintenance. Understandable after this long.

So the life of a shunter isn't too bad with an average of 11 hour days quite common, but you're not constantly rushed off your feet. Having said that, I'm not sure I would do this as a full time job as I'm guessing it becomes quite monotonous after a while.

So after having been away for a while, it transpires that I don't have much to say about the first week back. I'm hoping to get back on the road proper soon, so hopefully will have some more entertaining story's to tell. In the meantime be careful with whatever it is that you're doing.

Waiting to get loaded with a 40' box

As a quick addendum to this post. Today I was doing a quick bit of work in London and took the photograph below, which seems to sum up the industry of the East End. Old and Modern. Also note the line of wagons on the left waiting to get called forward into the yard to be tipped. All Eastern European and mostly double manned. A sign of the times for British hauliers and Lorry Drivers. :(

Old & New

Interesting Days with Man Flu

It's been an interesting few days this past week. I felt rough as a badgers arse which didn't help with a nightmare of a sore throat, from Tough Mudder I think, followed by a bad bout of man flu, which is still giving me gyp nearly a week after contracting this vicious disease.
From a driving point of view, even though I have nearly been at death's door on a few occasions, I refused to give in and have been at work every single day. which, I have to say, has had it's interesting moments.

I was doing some general haulage work for a local firm the first few days last week, mostly local work around the Eastleigh area collecting pallets for night trunks and next day groupage but on the Wednesday I was sent down to deepest Dorset, Wimborne, to load some plants for Hilliers. It was one of their suppliers I had to collect from and on finding their large green houses down some un-named country lane, I was told that they were still waiting for the plants and it would be a couple of hours yet. Did that mean they were still waiting for them to grow!!

3 hours later and the smallest tractor you've ever seen, almost like one of those airport tugs that they use for pulling the baggage trolleys, pitched up with a couple of geezers. On the front of the tractor was a huge radio tuned to Radio 6 that was turned all the way up to 11 and on the trailer, I use that term loosely, were a few plants. Now after having sat bored out of my tiny mind for 3 hours this I thought was going to be quite interesting as it turned out that I'd parked next to a potting type shed. However, it wasn't. In fact, the activities that followed turned out to be even more boring that sitting doing nothing, that's how boring they were. And to top it off, on Radio 6 was one of the most pretentious music interviews I've ever heard. 

Anyway, after this flurry of activity in the huge horticultural space located in the middle of nowhere, I decided to go and ask chief potting shed geezer how much longer it would be before the plants I was loading would have finished growing and I could begin to load. He informed me that my load had just turned up on the back of the tractor.

6 Trolleys

Yup, the load that I had patiently waited 3 hours for consisted of 6 trolleys, which could have easily fitted into the back of a transit van. 

The rest of the week was a little bit more entertaining. I was back on boxes (containers) and the first day involved going through Dunkirk, the one in South Gloucestershire, to make a delivery and the second day proved to be another tight squeeze at a house move.

Dunkirk

 

Told you it was tight.

And.........unload

Students and Flitting and Stuff

It's been a bit of a slow week as far as driving goes with Monday and Tuesday dedicated to other parts of my working life. Wednesday saw me doing some multi-drop work for a paper company, something I haven't done in a very long time and it's still as rubbish as I remember it used to be. Thursday was some general haulage work in the local area and today see's me back on boxes in Bristol with a load of bananas and the usual parking carnage as there's only 3 bays but about 10 wagons waiting to tip.

A packed mini

Can we fit anymore in?

Anyway, what did happen this week was my daughter moving out, albeit into student digs so I suppose that doesn't really count as permanent, and onto the next stage of her life. She'll be studying Media at Brighton, so it was packing the car on Sunday morning and setting off for the hour or so drive to Brighton. And when I say packing the car, I mean packing the car. I suppose a mini is not the best vehicle but we managed to get it all in. By the way, that's where the flitting part comes in, an old Scottish word for moving house.

Yes, we did put the roof up, but it was pretty cramped in there. Anyway, 1 child down, 2 to go.

The other thing that's happening this week is the build up to my first Tough Mudder. I'm actually quite excited and will be taking part in the London South event. We're trying to raise money for our eldest, all donations welcome, in order to buy a new tricycle for him and his buddies at Stuarts House Care.

Take care and drive safe.

Sliding in Ampthill

First of all I'd like to apologise for the photo's in this post as they're not really that interesting to look at. However, as you read on, you'll hopefully realise that I was a bit busy trying to stop a 44 tonne artic from jack knifing and/or crashing into a large skip full of waste metal, so taking photographs wasn't exactly my number 1 priority.

I had a 20' box for a customer in the Ampthill Business Park. On arrival, the customer told me that the delivery would be at their storage place, which was just around the corner; however, as they were digging up the road in the front, I'd have to go the back yard. He said he would show me the way and I was to follow him in his car. First mistake was following the customer blindly without checking the complete situation myself.

After a tricky manoeuvre through a car dealership car park and past several workshops with various types of vehicles abandoned out the front, we came to the entrance to the yard. it was pretty tight and I was just getting out of the cab to have a look when a chap on a forklift turned up and said for me to jump on and he'd show me where to position the lorry. As we ran down, with me hanging on to the side of the forklift like a man possessed, I saw that the yard was a mix between a scarp yard and builders yard. So lots of mud and old skips and things abandoned everywhere, however, there did appear to be a concrete surface that would take the weight. It was down a slight slope and then a sharp right back up the side of the units where the box would be tipped. Rather than drive up the last slope, the idea was to turn left at the bottom of the first slope and then reverse up the second. Ok, this is achievable. Second mistake was to shorten the trailer at this point, as the corners at the bottom of the yard were tight so I thought it'd be easier to turn and reverse.

After shortening the trailer, I trundled down the first slope and went to turn left. Except that the unit turned left but the trailer kept on going. I'd lost traction on the mud and the drive wheels on the tractor unit just spun up. 

Slippin' and slidin'

I came from the left of the picture, with the intention of turning left and then reversing back towards the camera position.

Lovely concrete

The idea was to reverse back up this slope with the back of the trailer roughly where the green forklift is.

Unfortunately none of this happened. I had to unhitch the unit after the first slide, bring it round and re-couple to try and reverse back up the first slope. It wasn't having any of it. Because I'd shortened the trailer, there was too much weight, which believe it or not, went against me in trying to get traction. Even the diff lock didn't work. Thankfully, the chap who gave me a lift on the forklift and his buddy, turned out to be the guys who owned the whole industrial estate and they'd been doing some work in that particular yard. They couldn't have been more helpful and understanding. As for the customer............. less said about him the better.

After about an hour, we managed to get the wagon towed out of the yard the way we'd come in, turned around and back up to come down the road at the front of the delivery unit.

More than enough room

As you can see, there was more than enough room to reverse into the front of the delivery unit in the first place. Also, the road digging on the left of the picture wasn't exactly huge. The corner of the green forklift from the previous picture can just be seen, so you get an idea of what we were trying to achieve.

Lesson learned were, don't always blindly follow your customer, they don't always know best. Check the ground before driving on it and don't shorten your trailer until the last minute.

Take care.

Dull Croydon????

Well after the exiting delivery to Ann Summers, it was actually a very boring 70's distribution centre but full of scantily dressed lady's working in the warehouse. Yeah, I made the last bit up, my dreams didn't materialise unfortunately. Instead it was your normal warehouseman who couldn't give a flying monkeys what was in the brown boxes that were being unloaded. 

Ann Summers Warehouse

Anyway, back to today. I'm in Croydon. I know, not the most glamorous of places, or dull as my better half puts it, but it was certainly challenging. Having said that, Croydon Airport has a fantastic terminal and hotel, both of which are Grade II listed buildings, so maybe not that dull. Made doubly so by me being late to start, which therefore, made me hit all the rush hour traffic coming up the A23. So when I got to Factory Lane, eventually, I was none too impressed when I came across another one of our wagons parked on the side of the road. He'd made the same mistake that I had and sailed passed the tiny entrance which was our delivery point. Now conjure up in your mind a picture of old style London industrial areas that are all twisty, tight and not designed for modern 44 tonne artics and you're probably not a million miles away from what Factory Lane is like. 

Croydon Airport Terminal

Factory Lane with a tight reverse

After some questioning of the locals we discovered that the delivery point was behind us and there was nowhere ahead of us to turn around. Cue some rather tight blind side reversing into a waste disposal site with lots of irate commuters, who obviously use this road as a rat run, queued up behind me. Bad enough with one wagon, but there were two of us, so doubly annoyed commuters. Secretly I did have a slight smile inside at their frustration.

Tight squeeze

So, we about turned and set off around the corner to where we'd been told the gate was. And we sailed right passed it again. Screaming to a halt as we realised our mistake, the other driver jumped out to investigate and discovered that their "yard" was only big enough for one vehicle to reverse into at a time. So, another about turn and we lined up for the assault into the yard. My problem was that the other chap had go in front of me, so my tip time of 0730, it was now 0900, was going to be well and truly missed. Oh well, nothing to do but wait, which is why you find me typing this whilst parked on double yellows in a very dodgy and tight London industrial estate.

Double Yellows ready for a parked artic

If anything, it has taught me one thing though, maybe it's time to invest in a truck sat nav. I've always resisted them before, relying on my trusty map and a lorry drivers instinct, with the odd bit of help from google maps on my phone, to get where I need to go. But today I went the long way round to get to Factory Lane, while the young chap in the other wagon who was behind me coming up the A23, followed his sat nav and got her before I did. So if I invest in one, maybe it'll be sat getting tipped first next time instead of taking angry looks and car horn beeps because of my parking.

Sex Toys???????

Today was a brief run from the yard up to Swindon, although the timing couldn't have been worse with the usual M27 / M3 morning traffic becoming a real headache after 10 minutes. By the way, you can check the traffic situation on any English motorway here, Traffic England and for North of the border, Traffic Scotland. 

Anyway, the 40' box was full of musical instruments and once they'd been hand-balled off it was an easy run back to Pentalvers in Southampton to have the empty box off loaded. 

Pentalver's Yard, Southampton

A quick call to the office to get them to send me through a VBS number so that I could load a box for tomorrow and then off to Transfer Area 3. 

Now, we all had to learn how to drive at some point and we all struggled with reversing an artic with a 40' trailer, but I have to say I saw the worst attempt at reversing in nearly 20 years. Reversing into a slot in one of the three transfer areas in Southampton is pretty easy, but this chap was making such a mess of it that drivers on either side were stood agog and dumb struck at the sheer incompetence. I can only say I was so aghast at how bad his reversing was that I completely forgot to get a photograph. I really hope I was never that bad!!!

Anyway, I digress. The new box was duly loaded and I trundled back to the yard, it was only when I got into the office that I looked at the paperwork for where I was going. Ann Summers. Does that mean that I'll be a hauling a 40' High Cube container full of sex toys tomorrow? The mind boggles. I'll leave that thought in your minds and I'll certainly be updating on more detail later. Take care.