The three most dreaded words in transport ‘Can you just’
I came across this old clip from back in '75 in the days when one was expected to turn in on a Saturday morning even if it was just to wash the truck.
This time it was ‘just’ a trip from Stroud to Gloucester docks which according to the report I completed in a satisfactory manner (it didn’t fall off)
That’s a younger version of me on the trailer, no hi viz, no 'ard 'at, trainers and no safe fall cushions. How I ever survived I’ll never know.
hiya …i had one …can you just nip this load to Irvine glass works (from Buxton) on new years day, its got to be their before 10am.
you’ll be home in time for a pint with the lads there,s nothing come home from up their just dooodle home empty.
A load from Dolyhir quarry to Kidderminster, and then one from Gore quarry to Ashchurch the other side of Tewkesbury was an average Saturday in 1969.
Cheers Dave.
On days spent doing non-HGV work (so no hours logged so far) and when about to go home… “Can you just hang on a few minutes, there might be a some spuds to load just down the road”.
Translation:
few minutes = wait over an hour for farmer to phone back and confirm.
some spuds = 10 tons in 56 lb bags
to load = to stack single-handedly, sheet up and rope
just down the road = 40 mile round trip with a 16-ton flat to an unfamiliar village where no fewer than three farms have the name you’re looking for.
(not a specific memory but distilled from a collection of memories)
New Year’s day 1970 something, a working day in those days so we’d all be in since 7:30 ish all trying to look busy whilst trying to do as little as possible. Tidying up the shed was favourite as it was inside so dry and a little warmer than outside. (no heating of course) By around 11:30 thoughts were turning towards sneaking off home via the Crosskeys when we heard the dreaded clump of the footsteps coming down the stairs.
“There’s seven trailers just come off the boat at Fishguard, pop down and pick them up as we need them for tomorrow”. In those days the M4 finished just past Newport and after that it was A48 / A40. With seven units we had us a convoy and the four hour trip to Fishguard was completed in about 3 and a half. The trailers were all Ferrymaster tilts which had been stripped down to the side boards to tip and of course not rebuilt. The first to arrive grabbed the few flatbeds whist the rest of us had the tilts. By the time we’d picked a trailer each, fitted bulbs and lenses and made sure the loose bits weren’t going to bounce off the logbooks showed we’d had a break so back up the road we went. Getting back to the yard about 7 ish there were only two tilts to rebuild which were needed first thing in the morning so an easy New Years day saw me getting home for about 9 that night.
We rarely nipped anywhere, usually we popped, as in at midday “There’s an empty 20’ box in Downtons, pop it back to Container care”. Container care being in Barking and who closed at 5:00pm.
zzarbean:
The three most dreaded words in transport ‘Can you just’
“… nip round and help ■■ and YY, they’ve been delayed”. It’s gone 5.00 on a Friday, you’ve just finished a big move (complete with grand piano) in Harrow, and your workmates ■■ and YY are in Leytonstone.
Or: “Look, it’s only one pallet, all you’ve got to do is turn up and they’ll throw it on, and it’s on your way anyway”
One pallet: yes it fits on one pallet, but it’s 13,536 pieces packed in 43 odd-shaped boxes and the pallet will be 11’6" tall. You turn up at goods outward and they’re up to 9,000 pieces. At 11,314 pieces they run out of boxes and the forklift is out of gas.
It won’t take five minutes: you’ve been there 25 minutes already and you’ve only got an hour left on the tacho.
It’s on your way: only in the sense that Alnwick and Plymouth are in the same country.
Not so much a Saturday but any night you got back to the yard. This in the days before mobile phones, in fact many drivers didn’t have a land line, so there was no going home before you got the next days job. There was a vague first in first out policy when dishing out work but as with all groups there was them wot seemed to get the better jobs. Just after 5.00 we’d hear the clump of footsteps and around the corner would come Eric, red knotted neckerchief and usually a boiler suit, in his hand the dreaded list. There’d be 30’ containers and flats to lift on and off and maybe tilts to build. The crane was an ex council drag line effort on tracks with a SWL of 3 tons whilst the containers were pushing 3.3 The crane with Eric behind the controls appeared to have two positions; up & down and very long pieces of rope were needed to guide things into position, you soon learnt never to stand anywhere near a descending container. Only when all was loaded was the work dished out, if you were loading a bulk container in the morning that needed cleaning out and a plastic liner hung. Flats needed sheets and ropes thrown up, you often had to play hunt the sheet if they were in short supply and the pray the ones you chose didn’t have too many rips in them.
Hopefully all would be done by six’ish when Eric would go back to the house for his tea with a “thanks lads, don’t be late in the morning!”
We used to get back in the yard around 2 pm from an early shift on the tankers and I would get, can you just take your van (Bedford CA Van) and do a school run. The seats I had in the back were ex coach seats not bolted down so I had to be a bit careful going round corners. No insurance to cover the kids. If I had ever got pulled by the Plod I would still be paying the fine. Or take the Ventura and do a school run, used to get 2/6 for that.
I called into a local yard in Poole looking for a start and the man said if you can load a trailer for us we will see how it goes, ok I said, come back about 5 and I will have the paperwork ready, rocked up at 5 he said the address etc is in the Berliet just load it and bring it back here, ok no worries and off he drove, the load was sheep skins out of Bradford, and I did it as you did then, lots of memories whilst working there.
Any saturday when you had to deliver tarmac to a company you had never heard of, usually a gang of blokes who invented a name (Mactar was a regular favourite, no imagination those chaps) and they would have you there all day if they could. No overtime pay when on earnings, you just had to grin and bear it and pray that they would sign you for daywork at the end of it.
The best one I remember…in the last few years before I retired I ran a Transit 3.5t for myself…one Christmas eve, 17:00pm…"Brian, can you deliver a pallet (just one ) of booze urgently, name your price. Bonded warehouse at Leeds/Bradford airport to Cafe Royal, Regent St. London.
So I did, I got back on the M1 at 23:45pm Christmas eve to come home (no tacho). The motorway was just about deserted.
But it paid the diesel bill for the month
“You’ve got plenty of hours,will you tip Baglan Bay,wash out and reload for Stallingborough”. This was one Saturday job from Sheffield I got,didn’t want to turn it down of course but didn’t want to be away Saturday night which happened now and again.
I think I booked off at Monmouth and kept going,hid the wagon at Beighton,got int pub about 8-00pm.
Had to be done.
Left Thetford (Norfolk) at 5-00am. Delivered Buckingham, Brackley, Banbury, Stratford on Avon, Leamington Spa, Warwick, 3 in Coventry, Solihull , Sutton Coldfield, had a note waiting for me at the Queen Elizabeth Birmingham to ring yard. Told to ring again whe empty in Hereford, so delivered West Bromwich,Walsall,Wolverhampton,Stourbridge,2 in Wourcester, 2 in Hereford and rang in - big panic - Over the hills to Cardiff, collected the base of an artificial Kidney machine and took it straight to the Brompton Hospital in central London. I arrived back about 5-00am the following morning havin covered a thousand miles and there was a dozen drops in London waiting for me on the bank. Guess where I told them to go?.. Jim.
P.S. I was 23 and full of beans then! 68 now and much much wiser.
Just thought of another “can you just” Gets in the yard (Bishops Stortford) around 7pm, can you just take that unit to Nottingham we have sold it, here is some cash to get a train back, see you in the morning. Drives up to Nottingham, finds the garage to drop it off at, they drop me off at the station, single to Bishops Stortford please, first train 7am mate, s*** how about a bus ha ha, Phone the yard, all gone home except the night fitter who ■■■■■■ himself laughing. Thank god for night trunk boys I finally got home around 5am
The crane with Eric behind the controls appeared to have two positions; up & down and very long pieces of rope were needed to guide things into position, you soon learnt never to stand anywhere near a descending container. Only when all was loaded was the work dished out, if you were loading a bulk container in the morning that needed cleaning out and a plastic liner hung. Flats needed sheets and ropes thrown up, you often had to play hunt the sheet if they were in short supply and the pray the ones you chose didn’t have too many rips in them.