ContainerBoy:
It’s just I have seen a few comments about having to wait hours and hours, going into town to waste time, etc…
1/ Would you know your time slot before you arrive?
2/ If not and you got there and found out you have hours to wait do you have to hang around and watch a screen to see when you are being called so in that situation you can’t just bugger off into town for a while?
3/ So you only drive into the port proper when you are about to be loaded or unloaded. Rest of the time you’ll be in a queue or some other parking/waiting area?
I’ve broken it down into numbers to try and answer
1/ Are you talking about at deliveries?
Most places want you to turn up at a booking in time or a time window.
2/ No screens at deliveries I ever went to, like I say pretty low tech. Even distribution centres (rarely did these), you just had to wait on a bay for a green light. That’s the worst, going to distribution centres or industrial places and having to wait in a stinking waiting room. Wasn’t common to go to these places though.
Kind of places you go to to deliver they can be pretty low key affairs. Might be a warehouse in some old mill in Manchester with a scruffy looking import firm. I used to go to a farm in the linc wolds that imported quad bikes. Inside the box would be full of these little Suzuki quads . You’ll ask them how long and theyll give you a rough idea. Sometimes you’ve been before and know xyz place took 3 hours.
Waiting at the port can be very quick, in and out. Or sometimes a very long wait. The isle of grain used to have a cafe with the registrations appearing on a monitor when it was your turn. Not sure how other places do it now.
Sometimes you’d go to places like British steel at port talbot or the China clay works in Cornwall to load and it would be in and out. Main bulk of work was small firms which was really good. Swings and round abouts
3/ I only ever was back and forward to the same port, occasionally Felixstowe as we ran for evergreen. Really was a case of pick box up, take it somewhere, back again. Or pick empty up from terminal take it somewhere to be loaded and return. Some places do a bit more dicking around in between like going to rail terminals. I only did that once.
There really isn’t any quizz to it. It was the easiest job I’d ever had in my life