Wasted journeys or a jolly day sightseeing?

Today I had a belter. 150 miles approx 4 hrs drive. Got to building site and tried to locate customer. Called the office and waited on the call back. Precisely 3 minutes later Im told to bring the machine back to the yard. I didnt push for a reason as the voice at the depot sounded like he was going to blow. Scenery was epic and sat watching the atlantic waves smashing the shore is a great 45 minute break. Managed to clip the back of a bus with my mirror. That wasnt so good.
Whats your worst/best wasted journey?

:unamused: must try harder.

Guildford to Heathrow… without my passport :blush: :blush: :laughing:

I did Bristol to Swansea this morning with a load of bricks only to be told “We don’t want them drive. We ain’t got room.” Sat there for 2 hours while the office tried to sort something out then told take them back to Bristol. That was 5 1/2 hours wasted.

m.a.n rules:
:roll: must try harder.

Ehhhh?

I went from Motherwell to Driffield got onto site opened the sheet to find a completely different load to what the paperwork said. Some sausage in the office had managed to mix trailer 5 and 15 up. Had to take it back up the road. Day and a half wasted near enough.

When on tankers myself and two other lads took 60 tonnes of runway de-icer between us from Middlesbrough to RNAS Yeovilton. Chatting away on the cb on the way down I remarked that it seemed like a lot of de-icer for a place that operated helicopters! Sure enough we rock up at the guardroom and after much waiting around it turned out that they actually wanted 6 tonne in drums! “Bring it back” :smiley:

harrawaffa:
I went from Motherwell to Driffield got onto site opened the sheet to find a completely different load to what the paperwork said. Some sausage in the office had managed to mix trailer 5 and 15 up. Had to take it back up the road. Day and a half wasted near enough.

So, what you are saying, is that you didn’t check your load, and didn’t secure your load?

:grimacing:

30 bulk bags of white polished stone to Seville which should have been a mix of red and black…office/loaders fault, wrong trailer number on the notes. Red and black went to Javier :unamused:

the nodding donkey:

harrawaffa:
I went from Motherwell to Driffield got onto site opened the sheet to find a completely different load to what the paperwork said. Some sausage in the office had managed to mix trailer 5 and 15 up. Had to take it back up the road. Day and a half wasted near enough.

So, what you are saying, is that you didn’t check your load, and didn’t secure your load?

:grimacing:

Yeah I gave the trailer a whack on the side to make sure it contained something. The sheet was already rolled over and secured. Twist locks were all done tightly on the back door. Load secure. Or should I have chucked a couple of straps over the 28 ton of powdered glass as well?

harrawaffa:

the nodding donkey:

harrawaffa:
I went from Motherwell to Driffield got onto site opened the sheet to find a completely different load to what the paperwork said. Some sausage in the office had managed to mix trailer 5 and 15 up. Had to take it back up the road. Day and a half wasted near enough.

So, what you are saying, is that you didn’t check your load, and didn’t secure your load?

:grimacing:

Yeah I gave the trailer a whack on the side to make sure it contained something. The sheet was already rolled over and secured. Twist locks were all done tightly on the back door. Load secure. Or should I have chucked a couple of straps over the 28 ton of powdered glass as well?

I don’t know. You went all that way with the wrong load.

(Ok, I gather you move a bulk load, where you can’t physically check the load??)

the nodding donkey:

harrawaffa:

the nodding donkey:

harrawaffa:
I went from Motherwell to Driffield got onto site opened the sheet to find a completely different load to what the paperwork said. Some sausage in the office had managed to mix trailer 5 and 15 up. Had to take it back up the road. Day and a half wasted near enough.

So, what you are saying, is that you didn’t check your load, and didn’t secure your load?

:grimacing:

Yeah I gave the trailer a whack on the side to make sure it contained something. The sheet was already rolled over and secured. Twist locks were all done tightly on the back door. Load secure. Or should I have chucked a couple of straps over the 28 ton of powdered glass as well?

I don’t know. You went all that way with the wrong load.

(Ok, I gather you move a bulk load, where you can physically check the load??)

You can undo all the straps and climb up and roll the sheet over and look inside. Usually not necessary when the trailer has only been loaded a few minutes before hand and parked by a competent shunter. The clown in the office was to blame for getting muddled up. Human error that’s all. I certainly wasn’t reprimanded for it.

harrawaffa:

the nodding donkey:

harrawaffa:

the nodding donkey:
I went from Motherwell to Driffield got onto site opened the sheet to find a completely different load to what the paperwork said. Some sausage in the office had managed to mix trailer 5 and 15 up. Had to take it back up the road. Day and a half wasted near enough.

So, what you are saying, is that you didn’t check your load, and didn’t secure your load?

:grimacing:

Yeah I gave the trailer a whack on the side to make sure it contained something. The sheet was already rolled over and secured. Twist locks were all done tightly on the back door. Load secure. Or should I have chucked a couple of straps over the 28 ton of powdered glass as well?

I don’t know. You went all that way with the wrong load.

(Ok, I gather you move a bulk load, where you can physically check the load??)

You can undo all the straps and climb up and roll the sheet over and look inside. Usually not necessary when the trailer has only been loaded a few minutes before hand and parked by a competent shunter. The clown in the office was to blame for getting muddled up. Human error that’s all. I certainly wasn’t reprimanded for it.
[/quote]
Fair enough… I’ll let you off this time.

Hang on… is that a tipper you’re talking about??

Anything where it’s “not booked in today drive”

Had one yesterday so said ok no problem (it’s not my stuff I’m carrying so couldn’t give a ■■■■) and went away and phoned in to tell the office and they said no probs. Gets five miles away and gets another call to go back to be told exactly the same thing. Then another call to take it somewhere else where the guy said I’m a useless ■■■■ for delivering to the address on the paperwork and not knowing about an 8am slot that wasn’t mentioned anywhere but he’ll tip me anyway, like it’s a favour.

So this time I told them to do one closed my curtains and off I went with their stuff back to the yard.

the nodding donkey:
Hang on… is that a tipper you’re talking about??

Indeed.

harrawaffa:

the nodding donkey:
Hang on… is that a tipper you’re talking about??

Indeed.

Oh dear

Oh dear oh dear ob dear.

lad at our place loaded cambrigde for all the way up at wick way.rolls up guy looks at the load and says its the the wrong stuff sits there a hour and told to bring it back but as he hit lakes area he was told to run back into the yard in manchester he was livid.i said how u be livid u just had 3 days of easy work but ive lost mileage.so u have a good run id not be complaining about it.

Won’t mention the company concerened, but me and my mate were tasked one Saturday, with running bobtail from Leeds to Northampton to collect 2 empty trailers from our hq. Got there, to be told they were at the other yard about 2 miles away. Rocked up, and was told that they were at the hq. Back to hq, and a shake of the head, and a phone call later saw us running bobtail back to Leeds.

Ken.

I once took 20 tonnes of 20mm dense tarmac to a concrete works instead of 20mm limestone and they didn’t believe me when they backed me up to the hopper and, despite my protestations, started to undo the taildoor. Luckily, to keep his balance, the operator placed a hand on the body side, “That’s warm” he exclaimed!! :unamused: Could have made a mess of the elevator but they ordered it by mistake as the recorded phone message proved.

Another time I took 20tonnes of 10mm tarmac to a depot in Birmingham when it should have been 10tonnes of 20mm, sat there for two hours while the quarry tried to find another customer but in the end it was tipped on the quarries waste pile. I also delivered a load of tarmac to the gas board in Preston one Saturday afternoon but two days early, gates were locked of course after the Warrington bombing but luckily a gas fitter arrived on a call out and let me in to tip it otherwise that would have gone back to the plant.

Several of us were waiting to tip tarmac at a road job in Derby when the paver broke down, spares were available at Shrewsbury so the machine operator set off to collect them. While we were waiting the clerk of the works came to test temperatures of material and two loads (mine included) were rejected as being too hot. We protested that by the time the machine was repaired it would have cooled but he wouldn’t have that so we returned it to the quarry, fourty minutes away. The lab at quarry said it was OK but to sit half an hour with the sheet off and then resheet it and take it back to the job. When we returned the machine was working, the load was tested again and considered too cold so back to the quarry it went and tipped down the waste pile. :unamused: I could write a book…

Pete.

In a van,went to Chippenham to sort a machine out,from Durham,got to Gloucester area,M5 closed so rang to say would be bit late,…'err shift was cancelled yesterday,forgot to tell you!‘turn round,head home,£400 bill’idiot tax’ for the day,last Saturday night upto Glasgow,machine attachment didn’t fit,nobody had checked,get there,coffee,back home,no wonder train tickets cost£££££