Well, this week started better…
Started 6am Monday morning in Avonmouth - Agency said “7.5t multidrop of chilled food”. Arrive at client, they don’t have a clue why I’m there or what I’m supposed to be doing. 
Get told to sit in the rest room while they sort me out. Half an hour later, they decide that I should be driving a transit fridge van to Hinkley Point (nuclear) power station, plus one other drop. I’m just about finishing off the vehicle check, and the guy runs back over to say there’s been a change of plan, and now I’m going out with another driver, but that they need to stick a few sacks of potatoes on the truck first. I put the truck (14t DAF LF) on the loading bay, and wait for a while, then they decide we’re not taking the potatoes after all , so off we go, having wasted an hour.
The job is multidrop of frozen food to schools in Gloucester. 32 drops on the list to do before 2pm 
, but since the other guy knew where he was going (he’d put his back out, so found it difficult to change gear), we could at least do them without me having to navigate everywere, so he directed while I drove.
We managed over 20 of the drops before giving up (since all the school canteens were closing up), then came back to the depot. All in all a pretty successful day. Apparently I got a “glowing” report from my co-driver, even though he’s known for being rather grumpy… 
Tuesday - Agency calls with last-minute job delivering Christmas hampers to Swindon. Turn up at client, and get given “The Sprinter Van From Hell” - N-reg, 1.3 LUs on the clock (and shows it), slide door doesn’t open, passenger door doesn’t lock from outside, separate immobiliser which only re-mobilises on about 50% of attempts…
It turns out the guy just didn’t turn up for work at 10am. I start at 3pm, so I’m already 5 hours behind, and I’ve got a sheet of about 50 drops.
Anyway, get to Swindon. First drop OK. Second one, I’m in the back, finding the right hamper, and I feel the van moving. I jump out, and find that 3 [zb]ing kids are in the cab trying to nick the van . Fortunately, they were just hoping that I’d left the keys in the ignition, and I’m not that stupid 
I chase after them, but they run off. I call the police to give them details, then carry on.
Later on, I deliver (a frozen hamper) to one house which has a power cut…
Then, I stop at another place, and I have a group of 10-20 kids wandering around the van giving heavy hints about how they “hope I have some spare”, and were “very hungry”. Oh yeah?
I decide that neither the van, the load, nor me are worth risking for this drop, so I just get back in and drive off. Someone else can do it. Hopefully in daylight.
At about 8:30pm, I give up, having done about 2/3 of the drops. Get back, and the boss man is mildly impressed.
Hopefully, they won’t find all the bent bits where I kept kicking the van after the immobiliser repeatedly refused to allow me to start it…
I’ll have to have a strong word with the agency about sending me out on jobs driving dodgy vans around after dark in even dodgier areas of Swindon… 
and tell them yes, I could go back, but I’d arrive back at Avonmouth with only 5 minutes to spare from a 10, and if there were any holdups at all, they’d have to send out an extra driver to rescue me.