Your Biggest Blunder

Well like most of us I could put pages and pages on this subject, here are a few that spring to mind.

Started work for Hayter Mowers, first week going down the A4 I looked in the mirror and saw a rope trailing so pulled over to sort it, couple of minutes later a lorry stopped and the driver said “you dropped a mower back there so I chucked it on mine for you” thanks said I. Went on to the stockist where the mower in question was part of the delivery and drove into his yard knocking one of his gate posts down, then had to tell him that one of the mowers was damaged. Got back to the yard and reported the gate post and explained that the damaged mower was the fault of a driver coming down a road on my side and I had to avoid her by going up the bank causing a rope to snap and the mower came off the side. Not proud of that one.

At Hayters we had Scammel couplings on the old Albions and one day got in the yard and was told to drop the trailer on the loading bay, gets out disconnects the light cable, pulls the brake across and drops the trailer, drives round the back to collect my loaded trailer for the following day, walks back to the loading bay and lo and behold no trailer, who has moved that trailer I asked the loader, no idea he said so I goes looking for it, well it seems that when I dropped the trailer the brake jumped off and trailer trundled of on its own across the yard through a 10ft high wall and into a garden, I was pulled into the office and told that I had not put the brake on, well when we pulled the trailer out of the garden I hitched it back up and went through the same procedure as before but left Albion in front of trailer and sure enough as I dropped the trailer the brake jumped off and trailer hitched itself up again.

Again Hayters, in the wild of Lincs late one evening am coming down a country lane and over the brow of a hill comes to a halt sign, slams brakes on trailer jacknifes and hits a road sign, flattening the pipe the sign was on against the house but also putting a kink in the trailer, drives back to the yard and came clean on what had happened and old Mr Hayter said we will soon straighten that and hit it full tilt with a fork lift, trailer did not move, fork lift came off worst, scrap trailer.

Again Hayters, called into office and told the old man wanted some bricks to build a wall in his garden but they had to be Norfolk Reds and the transport manager Peter Ansell said that he had arranged for me to pick up a load at this farm house that the builder was salvaging the bricks from, was told to collect 8 ton (had an 8ton trailer on) which would be x amount of bricks, so off I goes, delivers in Lodden (our Norfolk depot) and collects these bricks, driving back to Bishops Stortford thinking the old girl is pulling a bit rough will have a word with Mike the fitter and see if it needs a new air filter or something, gets in the yard gets a cup of coffee and am walking back to motor when Peter shouts get those bl**dy tyres pumped up, did it yesterday said I, anyway looking at the tyres they did look a bit down so I got the gauge and they were a little high if anything, went into office and asked Peter how he worked out how many bricks I needed for 8 ton, I weighed one how do you think, so he picks up this brick from beside his desk, Peter that is a flitton, one of the lightest bricks around with a frog in it the ones I have are sand and solid, turns out that I had nearly 12 ton on the back of my poor Albion, unload half them pallets before the old man sees them and drive the rest round to his house. Lesson learned.

When I was a van boy working for Tesco’s 1958ish all the van boys used to connect unit to trailer before the driver came in (we were cab happy), anyway one morning one of the boys (not me) connects up ready for his driver to come in and gets notes and everything ready, driver jumps in cab starts up and starts driving out of the yard and yes you guessed it the trailer parted company with the unit in the gateway, we are all killing ourselves laughing as we cannot get out of the yard with the trailer on its knees in the gateway, we never had a fork lift big enough to lift the front of the trailer so had to wait for a brake down truck to sling a wire round kingpin and lift it enough to get the wheels to come down.

Now for stupid me, On tankers for Biss Bros, called round home on the way back to yard and wifes niece was there (very nice young lady) who said she would like to drive a big lorry, jump in and you can drive it down to Spellbrook round to Sawbridgeworth and back here before I take it to the yard, (this was loaded with 6500 gal petrol by the way) anyway tells her what to do and off we go, to be honest she handled it very well for a first time, we was very very lucky not to get caught. She always talked about that night, I always remember the short skirt she was wearing!!!

That will do for now.

Balloonie.

Not MY blunder, but cracked me up.Pulled into Shrewsbury lorry park one evening and there stood one of our Mercury box demountables. Parked my Transit alongside, and -cut a long story short - we went on the lash and met a couple of co-operative young(ish) ladies who spent the night with us in our seperate motors. I was up early and ran my date home then carried on to Wales with what was left on board. The following Saturday I met my mate in the factory canteen who said "I woke up all alone in the cab so skedaddled my woozy way to my next drop, wrexham; reversed onto the bank, up with the roller shutter door and there she stood,in floods of tears, shivering with fear and cold, and worried about her kids missing school! He gave her enough dosh to train it home cos he was late and still had Liverpool, Manchester and Preston in the back. Jim.

Taking my class 1

500 gallons of black oil (boiler fuel) the Selby Abbey every two weeks in winter, regular job, it had been running a long time. The storage tank was out of sight from the filling point and standing instructions were ‘you must check with the verger that there is enough room in the tank before you deliver’. There always was, never a problem, I goes on Friday, " bugga trailing round looking for him", So I pumped 500 gallons in. Big mistake The storage tank was full when I started (the boiler had been broken for a week), 500 gallons makes a hell of a lake in a churchyard, I still don’t know how I managed to talk my way out of that.

Buliders merchants, LDV pickup, inter-branch transfer.

Arrived at the branch told there was 4x4m lengths of MDF skirting and something else. He loaded the skirting while I went to fetch the something else. Got on the motorway, moved into lane 2 for an overtake, looked in the rear view mirror to see what looked like 4 giant white straws spinning violently about 20 foot above the road in front of 3 lanes of rapidly decelerating cars.

Pulled over to the hard shoulder, nothing to be done except wave back at the drivers who were pointing out that I’d lost my load and nearly killed them. Got back in the cab, went to the depot, went straight to the transport manager and explained what happened and that I took full responsibility.

He phoned his boss. His boss said wait and see what happens. Nothing happened, case closed.

2 lessons learned, always check your own load and never trust a bungee - yes, that’s what they had been “using for years” - to hold down a load of MDF skirting.

Oh, and took a load from Derby to Czechoslovakia as it was then, in a Merc sprinter XLWB. Only discovered I was running at 4.2 ton on the weighbridge at Calais Dover. Got away with that one, too.

Oh, and took a load from Derby to Czechoslovakia as it was then, in a Merc sprinter XLWB. Only discovered I was running at 4.2 ton on the weighbridge at Calais. Got away with that one, too.
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as most weighbridge operators are well aware of,then a 3500 lgv sprinter,usually means that its referring to the payload and not the gross.

dieseldog999:
as most weighbridge operators are well aware of,then a 3500 lgv sprinter,usually means that its referring to the payload and not the gross.

Maybe that’s why the weighbridge bloke didn’t bat an eyelid

Getting married for the SECOND time!!

David

Hey,

To believe to long in Scania and the people around.

Eric,

Here is another one for you all. I will say that it was not me.

Was going to deliver at a fuel depot in Uxbridge next to a golf course, as I drove into their yard the manager came running out to stop me shouting that one of your bl**dy drivers has just flooded the golf course so we cannot take any more fuel. “What do you mean one of our drivers” “well he pumped in 5000 gallons of paraffin into the tank without checking that it would take it” " just a minute who checked the tank" " no one did" " well it is not the drivers responsibility to check, who told him to unload it" “I did he said” " whose fault is it then said I" he walked away, I got on with dropping 6500 gal off 2 star into the tank.

Had a look while I was delivering and lucky enough there was a ditch between the depot and the golf course so none of the paraffin actually went on the golf course but ran away down the ditch, have no idea what happened to the clearing up but it did not half smell for weeks after.

Number 2/ Again not me. Driver went into Paktanks Thurrock to load 6000 gal derv for a bus depot in Cheltenham I think, anyway he gets loaded and is driving down the M4 the other side of Reading when this police car pulls alongside with the wa wa’s going, so he wonders what he had done, speeding? no must be something wrong with the motor, pulls on the hard shoulder and one of the gentlemen in the car gets out puts his cap on and walked back, “driver are you going to Cheltenham? " " yup” no you are not you have got to go back to a place called Paktanks, they have loaded you with 6000 gallons of RED dye not diesel".

Number 3/ Again not me. One of our tanker drivers going round the N.C.R was pulled over by a policeman for smoking in the cab of a fuel tanker, had his ■■■■ and lighter taken off him and told to collect them after work, needless to say he never did go back to collect them.

That’s it for now.

Balloonie.

Coincidence.
Long ago the yard foreman at Hazelwoods Foods, Selby was a right bar steward, a very unpleasant fellow. Full load of black oil, asked him which storage tank, “number 2”. Now I knew number 2 was full…“are you sure it’s number 2”…“I’ve bloody well told you number 2”’
Okey Dokey, clipped the pipes on and started pumping.
Hell what a mess, there was black oil all over the town because there was a bit of a gale blowing and the overflow vent was 30ft up in the air.

I blew a pump off line when unloading diesel into above ground tanks in lethbridge alberta Canada in the 1980 s . Diesel everywhere including me had to shower and the agent provided me with clothing to get home in.

Not one of mine but, Again Biss Bros, one of our drivers Mick Burton was loading Styrene in Southampton through the manhole in the top of the tanker when he moved the pipe to look in and the pipe went over the edge of the tank and covered him in Styrene.

Big trouble, ambulance called and he was carted off to the hospital where he was stripped and dumped in the bath where the nurses washed all the Styrene off, that stuff stings and they had to rub some cream all over his body and I mean all over, the problem was was that it was Monday and the poor bugger had got married the Saturday before and he was red raw in places you do not want to be at that time in life.

It lasted a couple of weeks before he could comb his hair, if you know what I mean.

Just started work as apprentice fitter for Arlington Garage in 1956, anyway we always put the cars for sale in the garage at night and out again in the morning, on morning jumps into an Austin Princess and drives it round the garage to the forecourt and reverses it in line with the others only I finished up in a small ditch, had to get the grease monkey to pull it out for me.

Bloke came in with a puncture and I was told to repair it so I got on with it, trouble was it went down again so again I repaired it and this time it was ok UNTIL the following morning we gets a phone call from the owner to say that it had gone down again overnight and we WOULD send someone out to repair it, I was pulled into the office and told in no uncertain terms to go out and sort it, which I did and also found out what I was doing wrong, we used tyre levers in those days and I pinched the tube with the lever putting the tyre back on. You live and learn, and also get the sack, oh well jobs were 10 a penny in those days. I started on the 27th of August and never made it to Christmas. They were not the only balls up I made in that 4 months but they were the ones that stand out.

When working for Tesco Stores I went as a stocktaker for a while, anyway not been Married long and was told the rest of the crew would pick me up at 05.00 outside the flat, anyway gets up at 04.00 has breakfast and waits out side, eventually gets to thinking the buggers have forgotten me so jumps into the A35 van and drives to Twickenham only to fine the store closed, what the flipping heck is going on, finally finds a clock and it is 3AM.
I had woke up, looked at the clock and it was 04.00 WRONG it was 20 past 12. Phones the driver and said not to bother picking me up as I was already at the store. Took a long while to live that one down. Same day I had just finished stocktaking the warehouse at the shop and the manager asked if I had done the eggs yet as he wanted to put some in the shop, what eggs, the ones by the unloading bay that were delivered last night, there were no eggs there when I went round that area, don’t pi** about have you done them, anyway we walked down to the unloading bay to see if I had missed them. I had not missed them, some bugger had pinched 6 cases of eggs in the dark.

That is all for now.

One for the Honorable Member for the Isle of Man-
Not that many years ago I had parked up in a lay by for the night, wife picked me up and dropped me back at the lorry next morning. Plenty of time to spare for my timed delivery at Knottingley, about 2 hrs away. Oh, SH*T! Flat super single on rear axle of trailer. Phone tyre company who can’t come out until 0830. Fitter arrives at 0845 with the wrong size tyre, comes back an hour later. So far I’m an hour late and I haven’t turned a wheel. And just to complicate matters I’ve booked off at Pontefract the night before.
Pretty soon the phone starts ringing- How I hated cab phones! Spun the T/M a line about having a flat tyre at Pontefract and the tyre fitter can’t find the correct tyre.
Eventually arrive at Knottingley three-and-a-half hours late. apologise profusely to the customer who says, “Don’t worry, Drive, we didn’t have room for your load earlier”.
I was a bit more careful after that.

Retired Old ■■■■:
One for the Honorable Member for the Isle of Man-
Not that many years ago I had parked up in a lay by for the night, wife picked me up and dropped me back at the lorry next morning. Plenty of time to spare for my timed delivery at Knottingley, about 2 hrs away. Oh, SH*T! Flat super single on rear axle of trailer. Phone tyre company who can’t come out until 0830. Fitter arrives at 0845 with the wrong size tyre, comes back an hour later. So far I’m an hour late and I haven’t turned a wheel. And just to complicate matters I’ve booked off at Pontefract the night before.
Pretty soon the phone starts ringing- How I hated cab phones! Spun the T/M a line about having a flat tyre at Pontefract and the tyre fitter can’t find the correct tyre.
Eventually arrive at Knottingley three-and-a-half hours late. apologise profusely to the customer who says, “Don’t worry, Drive, we didn’t have room for your load earlier”.
I was a bit more careful after that.

:And so you should be ROF You naughtey boy , How many times did you chance your luck in those good old long gone days I wonder , Hope you are keeping well, Regards Larry.

I made a few in my time! Oversleeping by half an hour one morning (woke at 5.00am instead of 4.30) and Bison floors at Lichfield ran low on limestone, Tom Wibberley (in charge of dispatch at ballidon quarry) put me on lates (7am starts) for a week then as I was “unable to get out of bed on time”:roll: Another, I wanted to finish early and took the truck home at lunchtime one day instead of going back for another load. Reported into ballidon next day; Tom Wibberley says “Why didn’t you come back yesterday?” and I told him I was held up on a job. “That’s a lie, you were on tv at 1pm, the BBC news were filming on the A6 at Allestree and you went past”. Drat, back on ‘jankers’ again for a few days!

Pete.

Day one on the old gal above, into Whitwick quarry up to the weighbridge gaffer says to load under bunker a load of black. I was under the impression that there was a load in there just for me (■■!!). Got under half opened the hatch n started loading her up, soon I’m thinking I might have a bit too much on (doh). Shuts hatch n onto the bridge, 29t n she’s 22t!!. Gaffer says we don’t chuck hot stuff off! Take your time it’s only for Leics. It was touch n go on the machine as well, the body took a good while to get going.
On the Friday my boss went ballistic, lesson learnt.

coomsey:
Day one on the old gal above, into Whitwick quarry up to the weighbridge gaffer says to load under bunker a load of black. I was under the impression that there was a load in there just for me (■■!!). Got under half opened the hatch n started loading her up, soon I’m thinking I might have a bit too much on (doh). Shuts hatch n onto the bridge, 29t n she’s 22t!!. Gaffer says we don’t chuck hot stuff off! Take your time it’s only for Leics. It was touch n go on the machine as well, the body took a good while to get going.
On the Friday my boss went ballistic, lesson learnt.

Funny old world isn’t it. He doesn’t give you complete instructions, but it’s your fault for getting it wrong. What’s obvious when you’ve been doing the job for 20 years isn’t obvious on day one. Nowadays you would accompany someone else for 2 weeks, have instructions, health and safety policy printed…

But hey, he got an extra 7 tons payload! We got by didn’t we. Happy days,

John.

John West:

coomsey:
Day one on the old gal above, into Whitwick quarry up to the weighbridge gaffer says to load under bunker a load of black. I was under the impression that there was a load in there just for me (■■!!). Got under half opened the hatch n started loading her up, soon I’m thinking I might have a bit too much on (doh). Shuts hatch n onto the bridge, 29t n she’s 22t!!. Gaffer says we don’t chuck hot stuff off! Take your time it’s only for Leics. It was touch n go on the machine as well, the body took a good while to get going.
On the Friday my boss went ballistic, lesson learnt.

Funny old world isn’t it. He doesn’t give you complete instructions, but it’s your fault for getting it wrong. What’s obvious when you’ve been doing the job for 20 years isn’t obvious on day one. Nowadays you would accompany someone else for 2 weeks, have instructions, health and safety policy printed…

But hey, he got an extra 7 tons payload! We got by didn’t we. Happy days,

John.

Should have asked John but 23 n daft! I was on 20% earnings so not so bad. Bet that was the best payer she ever had.