Biggest Error

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

Once had to pick up trailer 18 loaded with jam for Tesco, Waltham Cross. Got in at 4am on dark rainy morning, trailer 18 was sitting there covered in mud as it had recently been on farm work, coupled up and off I went, got to Tesco’s pulled sheet off and found it loaded with marmalade for Sainsbury’s, Buntingford. Had a closer look at trailer number after cleaning some mud off headboard only to find it was trailer 118. Boss was not amused.

That was my biggest error however it wasn’t as big an error as a driver made round the corner from us years ago. There was a sweet factory which had two pipes sticking out the front of building. One for sugar and one for heating oil, driver turned up in the early hours, connected up and filled the sugar tank up with heating oil. The company closed down not long afterwards.

22

pulling off the pumps with the hose still in the tank ,wtf was that in my mirror ,luckily it seems the cctv doesn’t or wasn’t working :exclamation: :exclamation: :exclamation:

23

Swung into the yard at Tesco store in Potters Bar just about to put the trailer on the back door then realised I should be in the Sainsbury store at Potters Bar especially as I was in a Sainsbury motor out of Rye Park Hoddesdon, the perils of doing odd days here and there, well thats my excuse anyway.

24

Bought a house next to people with no social skills

25

happysack:
Bought a house next to people with no social skills

We’ve had some of them move in next to us :angry:

26

Took three empty wine vats from Tooley St (near London Bridge) to Harveys at Bristol instead of Paddington Station. Boss went through the roof when I phoned him to ask if he had a back load :slight_smile:

27

Place I once worked asked a shunter to take a motor out urgently. Driver had been pulled off the road sick, and trailer was loaded with vital components and we couldn’t get an agency driver in time.
The shunter took his 7 years previous, but had never left the yard. (Wilts/berks border near M4)
Was told to go to St Ives.
He was called 6 hours later to find out where he was, and had informed us he was just getting into Cornwall.
Which was a pity as he was supposed to go to Cambridgeshire.
And the reason it took 6 hours?
He grew up in Rugby, and knew the route from there so went there first.

28

I collected a portacabin once and as it was late I was the last one to leave before the site was locked up by security, they had to wait for me as I needed a dump.
Unfortunateley whilst driving up the road for 30 minutes I realised I had left my coat containing my wallet in the loos.

Returning to the site I had to break in using my ladder to climb the gate then pulling my ladder up and climbing down the other side. Finding the loos in question I saw the small window at the back was open, using my ladder again I proceeded to struggle through the tiny window and retrieve my coat.

As the loo lead to the main offices I left via the normal route and proceeded to retrace my steps to my vehicle and continue my journey relieved and quite impressed with my ninja like abilities.

Anyway a few months later i returned to same site and got chatting to one of the yard lads and the topic got round to how a few weeks earlier they have dodgy cctv footage of someone apparently breaking in and then walking straight out again after triggering the silent alarm on the office block doors.

I never owned up.

29

First trip abroad as an owner driver, I threw out the Cmr paperwork out of the window.
Didn’t know that bit of paper, is what you get paid on.
Got down to the South of Spain, no mobile phones back then, find a cafe and ring in once in a while to tell them how progress was going.
I was told I had the wrong trailer, the other driver had my trailer.
The numbers on the trailer were very similar,so we swapped over.
Dropped a trailer with about 12 pallets of ceramic tiles.
The yard was hard on the top surface but soft mud underneath.
Trailer tipped over like the Titanic, legs buried deep.
Punishment was to handball the load off.

30

I was Forman/Trainer at Biffa MK. We had all our Diesel nicked (about 20,000 ltrs, cheeky sods came back 2 nights running & emptied the tank) over a weekend, after a lot of thinking about security & no extra money coming from Biffa, I suggested parking a lorry (with immobiliser) in front of the gates with all the air drained out, so it would make it more difficult to drive a ‘tanker’ into the yard (basically they’d need the keys & Fob to start it up, or wind the brakes off)

One Monday morning I arrived, unlocked the gates & doors, grabbed my coffee & 2 sets of keys (one for the ‘Blocking’ Roll On lorry & 1 set for the Skip Wagon I was driving that day) I opened the door of the Roll On & started it up to build up the air, whilst I was waiting, I started the skip up & was writing my Tacho Disc out when I noticed the Roll On-Rolling away !!!

In my haste to move vehicles around & get under way, I never gave it a thought that who ever parked the Roll On up on the Saturday would pump the foot brake, letting all the air out, then LEAVE THE HANDBRAKE OFF !
It rolled down the access ramp, across the road & planted itself into the council building opposite, causing about £20,000 worth of damage. WHOOPS !

It’s took me over 3 years to come to terms with it & only now have been able to tell the story.
My Union should have advised me to resign but instead, insisted on fighting my dismissal, even getting me to appeal the dismissal, then finally dropping me like a Hot Coal when their solicitors wouldn’t take it to court on a no win no fee basis.
I could see it a mile off (only fought it because they thought I had a case) it was My Bad, I never checked that the handbrake was on.
I won’t ever join a Union again. (Or start a wagon up without checking the handbrake)

The bloke who left the handbrake off was also sacked & subsequently got killed in Watford (summer 2014) when a dustcart he was driving, trapped him & caught fire after he left the handbrake off. (There was a thread on here a few months ago)

31

On the Agency, I used to do a lot of work for Sainsbury’s at Worcester. We would often wait for hours to get a run and sometimes get sent home after six hours in the canteen. One day there were four of us sitting there from 6am to nearly lunch time and hoping we would get sent home when we were called in for a job.

One of the guys was a first-timer so they gave him a local run to the store at Blackpole. I and the others all got longer runs and when I got back there was obviously some kind of flap going on. The new guy had set off to Blackpole (a 20 minute drive), with a trailer full of wines and spirits, four hours earlier and no one knew where he was. The called the police and put out an alert and I went home.

Apparently, just after I left, they got a call from the Blackpool store, wondering why they had sent them a trailer full of booze. I never saw that guy again…:slight_smile:

32

I once did an agency job for Sainsburys from Bristol to North Devon with drinks and ambient.
Got a phone call to say where are you going, I said to the town on the paperwork, but it was the wrong place as the towns had similar names.
No damage done , as they rang just in time before going to the wrong town.

33

I thought this would be a wasted thread on trucknet admitting errors as there’s so many perfect drivers. Ha I jest! How funny, yeah whatever…

I’ve made some real boo boos. 23 years old, brand new licence. Christian Salvesen one day - instead of being down the road, I was involved doing some shunting of trailers on and off bays due to a foul up in the chain that had caused chaos. Long suffering TM was even out marshalling people about. Inside of ten minutes, he’d asked me to swap and bring on so many trailers on and off the 2 tight freezer docks my head was but a spinning! I was doing a fine job in my Hitler’s revenge, powerliner 2. I was going to sort those ■■■■ trailers out if it bloody well killed me so I was! Bolstered by a shout from the TM of “good job!, keep it it up!”, I was on song right up until I snapped the suzies off. 20 foot long stretched abs lead and emergency line, clinging on for all buggery like entrails leading from the trailer leading to my tiger tank. Yep, nice one centurion…

TM didn’t even blink just rolled eyes and smiled and carried on barking his orders at the other 2 shunters. I limped round to fitters shed with cap in hands.

34

parked up on a farm and was invited in for a coffee . walking back to truck i see a big tractor wants to come where im parked so i hop in and reversed quickly a few feet . what i didnt know was a retired farmworker had parked his treasured triumph car right smack bang hidden behind my trailer while nicking wood from nearby farm woodpile. id reversed right over the car too .

35

Just in a new well paid job on a 3 month trial, never used tail lifts before done the first delivery fine. But time I got to second drop id lost the Anderson lead, I think I had unattached it but left it on the catwalk as the plugs where not damaged. Unhooked the DD trailer traced ma steps back couldn’t see it anywhere on the roads. Had to think fast so thought I could get one at Aberdeen docks, no luck! Phoned a few local dealers who didn’t even know what I was talking about. Phoned dingbro who sold the parts but not a complete built lead. They referred me to some geezer down a back street who could assemble it. Got to dingbro they ■■■■■■■ wouldn’t sell me the parts cause of no account, so went to this geezer anyway who made one up for me as he had the parts. Quickly drove back to my second drop who I’d phoned to say id been held up hoping they didn’t look outside to see ma trailer :laughing: phoned the 3rd drop saying the second drop had held me up big time :laughing: got back to the depot 14hrs later saying the A90 was closed for a major crash :laughing:

God knows how I got away with it but am convinced if I’d phoned saying id lost that Anderson lead and would have to fail the deliveries I would have got the bullet. Still here 7 months later happy as larry in the job :grimacing:

36

try these 2 .posted elsewhere a while ago,but ballsups by me anyway.
parking up near pleck road…j9—j10 m6. years ago there was lorry parking there,and also around the surrounding areas…sooooo…parks up with a load of steel beams overhanging plenty at the back…usual story,pub…■■■■■■■■■■■■ trollop,who when i woke up beside her had somhow changed overnight from being a stunning ■■■ goddess,into a fat minging munter complete with indian in tattoos…however,any port in a storm,i get a cuppa,and decipher exactly whereabouts i am…apparantly its somewhere in wolverhampton which seems a reasonable place to wakeup,then possibly 45 seconds later,it starts to dawn on me that i left the lorry in walsall…i havent a clue whereabouts i am as its in the middle of a housing estate,but finds a bus stop after asking directions,gets on the 1st bus that comes,then get off it 5 mins later as its taking me away from walsall. eventually back to walsall after running miles once i found a landmark,and back to truck as i can now see it over on the waste ground…hhhmmmmmmmmm those beams hanging off the back have bounced loose a tad on the journey down from glasgow…bright hangover idea number 1 comes into place now…im backed up onto a massive brick wall… methinks il just loosen the dwangs off a tad,and give the beams a wee nudge and see if they shove back up the trailer a bit…start truck,build the air…back gently and nudge wall the tinyest of tiny wee taps,happy days,there goes 20 or 30 feet of brick wall crashing down so that i can now see a clear view into the back of a police station or somewhere that looked very similar judging by the cars and stuff now covered in bricks…so i do what any self respecting truckie would do in a similar situation…trailer plate off,and heavy pedal with the chains and dwangs flapping i expected to get dragged away denying everything somewhere south on the m6,but i tightened the lot up at corley services,and never another word heard.hopefully itl stay that way…perfect end to a perfect night…I wouldn’t know what night is my most memorable,but this one has to be in my top ten… :wink:

30 + years ago.night out at salford docks area/.pub was called the clewes or something like that,a normal truckie haunt full of baggies and enthusiastic amateurs,so always a good night had by all. im parked on waste ground where they have decided to use as a national carpark but its deserted because its the evening and theres a few trucks abandoned there,…,several happy pub hours later,im blocked,helping tonights star buy into her high rise penthouse for a nice chinkies and some horizontal jogging,wakesup in the morning,back to truck,the carpark is now filling up with cars and im blocked in…disaster… winston is there collecting tickets from a garden shed painted yellow.( I think his name was Winston,but its a long time ago) ive to burgle 4 or 5 cars to move them so i can at least see the exit while winston stops others from blocking me in further.45 mins later with my arms hanging off me,ive nearly got the cab at the exit,but the trailers still round the back of the ticket office/garden shed. so as i eventually remove the trailer plate, winston gets told to go out onto the street to stop traffic as im coming out,once hes safely 10 yards away looking the wrong way,i exit left,taking out the shed as the trailer wheels flatten it and wreck it as the last 15 feet/2 axles,and a few tons of bricks trash it into firewood. i stop looking in the mirrors and heavy pedal it off into the sunset.flat out in a guy j4 with a 180 gardner,5 gears and no power steering wasnt exactly warp factor 9,but the reek of smoke coming out of the old donkey made up for that…im still waiting for the bill though,so altogether not the worst evening… :smiling_imp:

37

Working at Palmer and Harvey’s , went out with frozen and ambient goods.

Got to first drop opened the back up …no frozen. Rings office. Tells them. “Fine no worries just do the drops and drop what you have” …ok.

Get bout 3/4’s through shift and freezer alarm goes off for overheating. Call office again. “Fine, just get rest off drops done and let the garage lads know when you come in” …ok.

Get back to yard, 2nd man jumps out cab with out so much as a kiss my ■■■ which I thought was strange cus he was fine. Transport manager comes up and stops me.

“No frozen lad?”
Yeah that’s me.
“Come with me”
Jumps out cab, walks round to passenger side to the side door

“Did you open this?”
No , it’s ambient all they way to headboard
“Oh really?”

Opens door and there is about 12 drops worth of frozen.

Sorry boss…

"Not to worry, see you in morning "

38

Gave myself plenty of time to get to a training course in Milton Keynes.

Training course was actually in Northampton.

Still not sure exactly how I managed it…

39

1 - Arrived at company for agency shift. Get given keys and paperwork. “5 drops in east kilbride driver. Wagon is on bay 20” Off I goes. 36 miles and 90 mins later I arrive at first delivery. Open the back doors to find…nothing. Zilch. Nada. Empty.
Went all the way back and told them “its not been loaded”. They then decided that NOW,not when I arrived, was the best time to tell me alk wagons get loaded just prior to leaving. Apparently no one thought informing the agency guy,there for the first time, of their procedures might be a good idea
OR how about this doozy
2 - Day of my class 2 test. Nervous nught before. Test at 10am. Im up at 7. Relaxing morning. Tea,toast and read of paper. Chill out,leave at quarter to 8. Nice lesurely drive to test centre. Arrive at quarter past 8. Wait for instructor to arrive with truck. Listen to radio,nervous but feelung good. Instructor arrives at 0835. At this PRECISE moment I realise ive left my driving license(both parts) and my passport,along with my theory pass certificates, in my other jacket. Which is hanging nicely on my bannister back at home. Cue frantic mad dash through rush hour traffic,of which ALL traffic lights went against me,to grab them anf rush back. Heart racing and sweatibg like a turkey at Xmas I screeched back into test centre with about a minute to spare beforw my test would be cancelled. Ill never know if it was a good thing or not but I did test on autopilot and aced it with about 4 minors.

40

Had a week once at a place with a trailer where the airlines would get snagged on the handle for the curtain tensioner and I wrove the red or yellow suzie off almost every other day with the thing. Fortunately it was a suzie that had the airline push fit onto a brass union on a bracket on the back of the cab so I just cut off the stub of pipe left there on the union and pushed the airline back on nobody the wiser. :blush:

Another time I backed up to a trailer in the early hours to do a run. Had a load of timber on and it was all sheeted and strapped down. Thought “that’s nice of the shunter to do” and being agency thought the shunter had done it because maybe they didn’t think I could rope and sheet. Driving down the road I get a phone call to tell me I’d picked up the trailer next to mine. Fortunately it was going to a timber yard in Widnes I’d been to quite a lot a few years before that so I got them to fax the notes over and delivered it instead of running back. Don’t think I was the trailers original driver’s friend that morning and getting back to the yard I didn’t bump into him to find out.