For those who want to read the story :
Hi everyone nice to be here, so the story begins…
I’m in my early 50’s semi-retired after a good career in IT from my late 30’s. I passed my Class 1 as it was known in those days in 1989. Had some nasty driving jobs to start with, triple split Eaton’s , crash box, ZF’s Leyland Road runners … flat beds, roping sheeting etc etc. Served my time ended up on a new Scania 143 V8 and fridge tramping across Europe on very good money. Then due to a stupid knee injury ended up in the office training on the new-fangled things called computers lol.
So I bounced around as a IT contractor until about a year ago and I’ve done alright out of it. So I decided that I still loved driving the big bending ones and thought of doing some part time or agency work. (It never leaves your blood). I thought I would ease myself in with a bit of rigid work to start with.
First Agency.
This is what I said to the agency guy:
Please don’t send me on any multi drops.
I’m not as fit as I used to be so please no heavy lifting.
Class 2 only.
No nights out.
Day 1.
Agency guy sends text : Have a job at ***** start 7 am.
Me reply’s to text : cool I’ll be there.
Turns up in good time. As I walk towards the transport office a very burly and angry guy comes out of the door, hurls a set of keys across the yard and stomps off towards the car park.
Enters transport office:
Me: hello I’m from the agency
Smiley guy behind desk: hello, do you have a torch?
Me: yes, I always carry one just in case.
Smiley guy behind desk: good you will need one to find the keys for your truck. Their somewhere out in that yard. (I kid you not!!). Find them fast you have a lot of drops today.
Hands me the work sheet.
So I look at it, 14 drops … 19 roles of carpet. Now I look at the weights. 45 Kilo’s – 56 kilos’ 75 kilo’s!!
Of course, I was stupid enough to ask, “I’m doing this solo”?
Smiley guy behind desk: Yeah, it’s a one-man job, fuel cards in the cab, we don’t pay for overnight parking.
So I quietly slip outside and call the agency guy:
Me : errr this is a multi-drop single handball job lumping 75 kilo carpets off the back of a rigid. Oh and by the way it’s a night out.
Agency guy: yeah, I did explain that’s what you would be doing in the text didn’t I ?
I looked over at the truck, it was a fairly new M.A.N in good nick.
At this point I thought to myself I have a couple of choices.
A. Walk away and block the agency number.
B. Find the keys which wouldn’t be hard, jump in the truck and go for a little ride.
Me: Ah yeah… sorry I misread it, I’ll call you when I finish.
I chose B and a bit of A (Blocked the agency number).
After 5 mins of searching I found the keys, jumped in the cab and got out my shiny new digi-taco card which had arrived in the post the night before. Then I paused with it just outside the slot… “perhaps” I thought, “my card is still in the post??”.
I’ll post part 2 if anyone is interested in the rest of the story(s).
Part 2.
I decided I couldn’t fit the Taco Card in without further training. So decided to do a manual report on the back of the printout when I finished my shift. (as instructed during the CPC training)
The first thing that surprised me when I looked around the cab, was the lack of a gear stick …and no clutch pedal??
I started the engine, and did my checks. Went to the brew room and made a coffee in my brand-new thermos cup. (engine still running in the yard… twas a cold and windy morn)
Returned to truck , set up my new Truck sat nav, punched in weight and dimensions etc and post code for first job… wow 130 miles … 90% motorways… “boring”, I thought, so set sat-nav to avoid motorways… twiddle knob to D and off I went.
As I reached the factory gates a high-pitched buzzing and a red flashing icon like a man sat with a seat belt on appeared on the dashboard. “Hmm, trucks have seat belts?”, I said out loud in astonishment. “It must be to comply with the foreigner’s laws, no sane British person would pass a law where a driver has his neck chafing for up to 10 hours by a badly fitting seat belt”. Luckily the manufactures knowing they would be sold to British drivers, had made the seat belts extra-extra long to overcome this problem, and it quite easily wrapped around the back of my seat and fitted neatly in the buckle harness.
Problem solved… now how the ■■■■ do I tune this radio into Radio 2 and set air con to comfortable? 10 mins later sorted both problems sorted.
So after 3 hours of driving down some nice A roads and through some picturesque towns and villages I came to the conclusion that the news wagons where far easier to drive than I remembered.
Then a phone call from Smiley guy behind desk back at the factory.
Smiley guy behind desk: I’ve just looked at the tracking data and you only just arrived at the first drop?
Me: There’s a tracker?
Smiley guy behind desk: Yes, why didn’t you go down the motorway?
Me: Yeah I thought that, these new Sat Nav’s are not all they are cracked up to be, perhaps it was avoiding a low bridge?
Smiley guy behind desk: On the f**king M6 ■■?
Me: I’ll check the settings after I’ve made this drop. By the way, I don’t recon I can do all the drops today.
Smiley guy behind desk: Do as many as you can then the rest tomorrow.
Me: No problem mate … I’m on it.
Smiley guy behind desk: (phone goes off, not even a goodbye).
So I make a quick pass of the shop I’m dropping at and see there’s no unloading between 9:00 – 18:00. Its 10:15. I membered there was a butty van about 6 miles out of town in a layby and decide to have my break and some food at the same time. The bacon and egg was great, however the coffee was a bit weak. After 45 mins I call the shop.
Shop owner: Hello
Me: Hi you have a delivery today of 2 rolls of carpet, but unfortunately, I see that there is no unloading on that street between 9:00 – 18:00, the nearest place I have found where I can safely atop without breaking any highway rules is outside the Tesco’s car park, could you meet me there?
Shop owner: You are taking the ■■■■ right? That’s like a mile away. The other drivers just pull and quickly drop it off.
Me: So that’s a no then?
Shop owner: This is a wind up, right?
Me: No, like I said, it’s the only place near to shop that’s safe and legal to park.
Shop owner: (phone goes off, not even a goodbye) (defiantly a pattern forming here).
At your age and knowing youve been a desk jockey for thirty years…Probably best to put the full story down in one go. You might not make it as far as part 2
fivetide:
Hi everyone nice to be here, so the story begins…
I’m in my early 50’s semi-retired after a good career in IT from my late 30’s. I passed my Class 1 as it was known in those days in 1989. Had some nasty driving jobs to start with, triple split Eaton’s , crash box, ZF’s Leyland Road runners … flat beds, roping sheeting etc etc. Served my time ended up on a new Scania 143 V8 and fridge tramping across Europe on very good money. Then due to a stupid knee injury ended up in the office training on the new-fangled things called computers lol.
So I bounced around as a IT contractor until about a year ago and I’ve done alright out of it. So I decided that I still loved driving the big bending ones and thought of doing some part time or agency work. (It never leaves your blood). I thought I would ease myself in with a bit of rigid work to start with.
First Agency.
This is what I said to the agency guy:
Please don’t send me on any multi drops.
I’m not as fit as I used to be so please no heavy lifting.
Class 2 only.
No nights out.
Day 1.
Agency guy sends text : Have a job at ***** start 7 am.
Me reply’s to text : cool I’ll be there.
Turns up in good time. As I walk towards the transport office a very burly and angry guy comes out of the door, hurls a set of keys across the yard and stomps off towards the car park.
Enters transport office:
Me: hello I’m from the agency
Smiley guy behind desk: hello, do you have a torch?
Me: yes, I always carry one just in case.
Smiley guy behind desk: good you will need one to find the keys for your truck. Their somewhere out in that yard. (I kid you not!!). Find them fast you have a lot of drops today.
Hands me the work sheet.
So I look at it, 14 drops … 19 roles of carpet. Now I look at the weights. 45 Kilo’s – 56 kilos’ 75 kilo’s!!
Of course, I was stupid enough to ask, “I’m doing this solo”?
Smiley guy behind desk: Yeah, it’s a one-man job, fuel cards in the cab, we don’t pay for overnight parking.
So I quietly slip outside and call the agency guy:
Me : errr this is a multi-drop single handball job lumping 75 kilo carpets off the back of a rigid. Oh and by the way it’s a night out.
Agency guy: yeah, I did explain that’s what you would be doing in the text didn’t I ?
I looked over at the truck, it was a fairly new M.A.N in good nick.
At this point I thought to myself I have a couple of choices.
A. Walk away and block the agency number.
B. Find the keys which wouldn’t be hard, jump in the truck and go for a little ride.
Me: Ah yeah… sorry I misread it, I’ll call you when I finish.
I chose B and a bit of A (Blocked the agency number).
After 5 mins of searching I found the keys, jumped in the cab and got out my shiny new digi-taco card which had arrived in the post the night before. Then I paused with it just outside the slot… “perhaps” I thought, “my card is still in the post??”.
I’ll post part 2 if anyone is interested in the rest of the story(s).
I lost the plot at 1 no multi drop and you have a lot of drops today let alone heavy handball.
Something similar happened to me but it was actually given to me as a class 1 trunking job which suddenly conveniently turned into 7.5 t multi drop when I arrived.No problem with keys but I actually chose B try and get on with the job out of naivety and wanting to make a reasonable impression rather than what I should have done A.
Look on the bright much of the load got left behind in the warehouse because unknown to me I was supposed to help to sort and load it.Then did only a few drops out of who knows how many were actually on the thing and forget all about the collections.Arrived back at the yard at a reasonable time and ended up with an apology after the massive resulting argument with the guvnor in which I said if you wanted a 7.5 t multi drop driver you should have made sure that’s what the agency told the driver they wanted.
No surprise the job predictably eventually ended up in the situation of A.Unfortunately for me later rather than sooner,when my naivety eventually turned into knowing the score about these zb parasites that need to be removed from the industry.Ironically having been dragged away from ( a rare ) brilliant class 3 bulk/full load all pallets distance day job no doubt because the agency wanted to give it to someone less inclined to accept their zb while taking me for a mug.
Although to be fair that ideal combination is a tall order limited to just rigids.
Good story so far very well told, but so far you said no multi drop and your doing it, then you said no night’s out and your doing it
By any chance did you have your overnight stuff with you when you went in to do a day job
Then you let them treat you like a dog, go find keys
Can’t wait for the rest of story
