Funny old week it was too. Start off on Sunday (Fathers day) with a nice stroll about town and watch this guy in the middle of the picture shouting “four!!” (or fore?) as he hits his golf ball down the walkway !!
And eventually end up in China town for a nice banquet. Liverpool has one of the oldest Chinese communitys in Europe, and i love the food. Not sure i liked the end of meal drink they provide though, hot water with a lemon in it. I’ll get a coffee next time.
Next morning sees me delivering to a company called William and Jones Ltd , now something about the name just seemed wrong to me, William is a forename and Jones is a surname. Anyway i find it and here it is i have to turn around and reverse up to the right there.
Once in i reverse into their warehouse where it takes all day to empty a 20foot container.
Now the company is owned and run by Chinese, very nice people too. They made me very comfortable with tea and refreshments during my wait. And i do love their marketing ploy of william and jones though!! Whilst i’m there i have a ponder about the truck. What is this lever for in the doorway?
I assumed it was a catch for the front grille, but if it was it doesn’t work. Just how do you get the grille up on one of these?
Next day sees me at Rochdale, now before i pulled down this narrow roadway i did walk down and ask the Woolworths driver if i was at the right place, he was Polish and never understood a word i said. I asked a ware house foreman and he confirmed i was at the right place.
I now wait only to be approached after about 10 mins of waiting to be told my load is being turned away as it should of been there a few hours earlier. I can’t get out until everyone else is tipped so its about a 2 hour wait to get out.
Next day i’m off to Imperial Tobacco in Liverpool. Known as Ogdens. It actually done its last production run in about March and is now being decomissioned. They’re going to make houses on the site and its like a trip down memory lane. Hows these for old bollards?
This is another wait all day job as they load me up with snuff/menthol and old machinery. Being a bit of a fork truck geek because i worked on them as a kid i decide to go and investigate this.
I wouldn’t fancy operating that all day, seems so basic to what we have now. Once loaded up i drop the container off at Seaforth docks. And trying to find your truck when you come out the office there is no easy matter.
And good to see that there’s still money in the container game as this little fella is getting a three and a half grand kitchen this week as he was telling anyone who would listen !
Once through the security there with your swipe card its wait in a whacky races line up where fights can break out over who goes next.
Nice old shunter.
Next day i’m delivering to Skelmersdale. Drive down the narrow drive to the small yard and there’s one in already so i can’t move just yet.
Once the curtainsider moves i can go into the warehouse.One problem though, i’ve got a 40ft box and they normally have 20ft boxes. The guy is not sure if i’m going to clear the top of the warehouse doorway as well. Anyway i’m ready to try and get it in and as i do him and his mate dissapear to leave me to it !
There’s no way its going in so i tell him. Off he goes to tell ‘the boss’. He comes back and says ‘the boss was a lorry driver and he says he’ll come and put it in for you’ Out the boss comes, feet apart and chest out and scowls “whats up?”…he looks like the type of guy who only gets told what he wants to hear. I tell him not to mess about with words, he knows exactly whats up as the other guy has just told him and thats why he’s had to come out !! He doesn’t want to put it in himself so he tells me to draw forward into the opposite doorway and just reverse back, so i do and the rear and is about 8feet away fom his doorway and the cab is all cranked at an angle and its not ‘going back’ anywhere !!! What next i say Anyway to cut a story short i do get it in eventually but only after shunting inch by inch for ages and with three of them watching me
Another all day wait.
Friday and i’m off to Newton le Willows, we normally do a drop and swap here so i had removed my numberplate when i shrank the trailer up. No drop and swap today though. This steel tubing from China is being lifted off. I would reckon if you had a flat trailer and lifting hoists it would take about 20mins to lift that lot. However they have to drag each bundle forward, lift it a bit, get a hoist on then get another truck to catch the other end. I arrive there at 9 am and i leave at 13.30 !!! It might be cheap getting it from China but if you factor in two warehouse guys and two forktrucks, then me and a truck sat there all that time it makes you wonder how it pays?
People from Liverpool refer to people from Widnes as “wooly backs” so you can imagine the smile on my face as i was finishing on Friday when i seen a truck picking aload of sheepskins up at the depot. I think he was just off to distribute them around the neighbourhood !!
And before i go i can’t finish a diary post with out a shot of another excellent drivers reception. Hows this one from Matalan at Skem, nice hey?
The inside is worse!