went down to wednesbury corus yesterday, as i do everyday, on reaching the entrance/weigh bridge saw a wagon with a curtainsider three quarters of the way out of the door, “whats up with him?” oh he’s stuck says the gate man,
hands my paper work into the office and gets the full story. the shipper who turns out to an Italian had pulled into the warehouse and stripped the back, got loaded and rigged up ready to go but when he’d come to pull out, he’d no electrics, nothing, so couldn’t start the wagon, after an hour or so of his near nonexistent english and a few phone calls it turns out he’s owner/driver who’s subbed the job off of an italian firm, the only phone number he had was for the firm that gave him the work, he’d no contacts in the uk, no sort of breakdown cover and no machanical knowledge of his own wagon!
by this time the whole place was stood as he blocked the road that runs through the ware house, so somebody in their wisdom decides they can push him out with a machine they use for loading containers, sure enough they’d got him rolling, even round a tight left hand turn so he’s then facing the exit door which opens out onto a steep ramp which you drive up and then go right round a miniature roundabout to the gate, now if it was me i’d have had a minute to consider the options but no, the machine driver goes for it and attempts to push 40t of wagon and steel up the ramp with the inevitable out come of getting him half way up before loosing traction with the machine.
so there he’d sat for three hours when i arrived, he was blocking the door and caused all sorts of grief for those still needing to load or tip, me i was there six n half hours, eventually leaving at half seven, the shipper was still sat there with no sign of any help arriving! one of the lads had sorted him the number for the local MAN dealer who was only two mile down the road but apparently they’d refused to come out until they had a guarantee of getting paid, which is fair enough i suppose.
i don’t know whats the daftest, the fact that this fella had embarked on such a long trip with no breakdown cover and not even a phone number should he have any problems or the fact that corus management thought it would be ok to try and shuv a fully loaded wagon with no power steering out of a tight warehouse, the consequences if it had gone wrong don’t bare thinking about.
i’m going down again this afternoon, i just hope the poor bugger is not still sat there.
it would be interesting to know why he had no electrics
this one is easy. what do management know about in reality? im sure they are good at theory but out here in the real world, THINGS GO WRONG!
hitch:
it would be interesting to know why he had no electrics
Simple answer really. He is Italian so it will be over use of the horn that has killed the electrics. 
I would have assumed the electrics failed because the vehicle was made by Iveco, but the mention of the MAN dealer and killed my joke.
apparently the MAN dealer sent a service van at about eight o’clock that night, must have been something and nothing as he was only there ten minutes to get it going! thats after the fella had been stuck there for over ten hours 