I’ve been doing it nearly 6 years so any specific questions you have I’ll probably be able to answer. We collect from abattoirs and knackers yards and we deliver the final bonemeal into power stations. We run the length and breadth of the UK on domestic regs using a log book just like the good old days.
It’s dirty job you will get covered in all sorts. If it’s a standard sheeted bulker you’re pulling you’ll find yourself in the trailer along side the animals if their limbs are sticking up everywhere as it’s near impossible to pull the sheet over from the ground, same applies to loads of bone.
You’ll see sights you’ll wish you’d never seen and the smells are foul, you’ll get numb to both fairly quickly if you manage to stick the job.
Spills will happen, anyone who’s been at it for a while will have had at least one. My worst one was pig innards poring out over the back door while on the slip road from the A1 at Scotch Corner.
The job itself is pretty relaxed you’re just exchanging an empty trailer for a full one at each site. There is a bit of faffing about dropping your empty, pulling the full one out of position, dropping the full one out of the way then moving the empty into position.
There can be a fair bit of waiting about and late nights. Abattoirs generally stop killing late afternoon and you’ll have to wait until they’ve cleaned the slaughtering hall before they’ll let you take the trailer. The bigger sites like a fresh trailer (or several) everyday where as the smaller sites may take a few days to fill a trailer but these places are becoming rare.
We’re treated well everywhere we service, we’re free to use the subsidized canteens and the toilets / showers if required at the abattoirs and I can honestly say I’ve never had anyone speak to me the wrong way. I’m yet to meet any health and safety nazis doing this job never been asked to wear a hiviz at an abattoir just a pair of boots is all that’s required and the knackeries are a bit like farms they just don’t care.