Well folks another snowy day in west Norfolk! Took an hour to get to Wisbech this a.m. Don’t know where the gritters and plows were last night, or what they were doing; but they certainly did not go anywhere near the A1101 from Downham to Wisbech!! LOL
Anyway…arrive at the yard at 7:15 for a 07:30 showtime…30 mins later and still no Robert! Phone rings…“Hi mate. Can’t get my little car (Toyota MR2) out of the driveway! Gonna see if the missus is stayin’ home today. If she is, I will try her car. It’s an Audi and it’s front wheel drive!”…“No worries; just give me a bell to let me know”. He lives in a tiny village in the North Fens about 15 mins away on a normal day, so I figure it may be 40 mins or so 'til he arrives.
So; night heater on…Preflight check…complete!..40 mins later phone rings…“No joy yet. Road is a sheet of pure ice and cars are going every which way but forwards!”
Talk to the TM…“How about I go out on my own; do all that I can and Rob and I pick up any slack tomorrow or even come in Saturday morning to finish up if necessary?”…“Let me think about it for a minute”, sez he. He gets on the phone to Rob…
30 mins later decision is made to bin it for the day…Cost of operating the truck v. pickups possible by one man v. wages v. fuel etc., etc., etc!
So; Disappointed, I shut 'er down and head home…
Thought I’d take the time to give y’all a quick review of my almost two weeks worth of experience…LOL
After last Tuesday and Wednesdays successful forays; The rest of the week went pretty ■■■■ well too…There were a couple of ‘steep learning curve’ moments tho’. Primarily; Never, ever. trust the customer to know whether it is possible to get your wagon into their premises and turned around again to get out!! It’s always, and I mean always, “Yeah, no problem mate!” Just another way of them saying “We’ve had bigger than that in here driver!” I reckon…LOL
Two cases in point:
Thursday, we had a pickup in Ely. Well; I know Ely quite well and am aware that almost all of the town itself is 7.5 tonne weight limited once you turn off the main drag. So I call the customer, “Can I get my truck in there ok?”…“Yes mate. No probs. Oh and by the way, you got room for more tyres than scheduled? I thought there was about a hundred, but looking at it again, there is probably more like 200!”…“No problem”, says I, thinking to myself, "Brilliant!! Twice the money for the pickup…The boss’ll love this!"So into Ely we trundle along the A142, past Tesco’s roundabout to the next, left turn…Hold up!! What’s this? Max Weight 7.5 tonnes!! Crap!! Signal right…Round the roundabout…“Oops, sorry mate!”…Into Tesco’s filling station…park up! Call the geezer…“What about the weight limit?”…“Never stopped you guys before.”, sez he…Call to the TM…“Yeah…Well…We always sent the 7.5 tonner before. It never occured to me it might be weight restricted. Can you just have a quick mosey up the road and let me know the situation?”…Righto 
Robert and I walk up the hill and look. Find out that the weight restriction starts literally 10 yards or so past the turning to the blokes business!! …“Mind you”, I say to Robert, “That is a tight turn and that street looks pretty ■■■■ narrow!” Cars parked up on the kerb down both sides too!!..Based upon my vast experience, I decide that we can get down there…LOL
Back to the truck; fire 'er up and off we go…Swing into the turning…slowly…LOL…Yes!..Ease slowly down the street…At least 8" each side…■■■■ I’m good!..LOL…Then we get to his yard! 
Straight in entry, but big enough to turn around in?..Maybe; If it wasn’t for the 50 or so cars in there!! FFS! And…the mountain of tires is at the far end of the yard…No way to get them down the sides of the wagon…Nuts!
Nothing for it then…I send Robert back to the main road to stop anyone turning into the street and slowly back up 500 yards or so. Robert stops the traffic and I swing back into the road, pull up the hill a few yards (crossing the weight restriction limit - reckon I’ll get done? LOL) and reverse back into the street and all the way back to the yard; then into the yard and put the tail end about 5 feet from the tyres…Finally!!..LOL Lesson learned!!.. 
Oh yeah…his 100, then about 200 tyres, turned out to be 368!! So; at least it was a very profitable pick up!!..And the guys face when we pulled into the yard!! “That’s a lot bigger than what they normally send!!” …No kidding!! LOL
And then:
Yesterday; Get sent to pickup “30 or so” heavy truck and “20 odd” tractor tyres from a farm on the fens. A really good pickup as they pay so much more than car tyres. Call the bloke to get directions which he duly gives me, in great detail!! Good stuff! One of the directions was, “When you reach ********* Farm turn right onto a gravel road and follow it for 4.5 miles along the dyke, past **** Transport and it will bring you right into the back of our yard, saving you about 8 or 9 miles going around the roads.” I remind him that I am in an 18 tonne truck. “No problem. We bring big tractors and even ‘artics’ that way all the time. It’s a really good road. Very smooth and almost arrow straight except for one small dog-leg. You won’t have any trouble. I promise!”
Righty Ho then…off we trot.
Get to the aforementioned gravel road and, other than looking a bit narrow, with ditches tight to both sides, it does look ok. So in we turn…Trundle along…Blimey, it’s smoother then the tarmac!..Lovely!!..Only about 6" of gravel on either side with a narrow grass verge and the ditches tho’…We pass a turn to the right, at 2.5 miles and see the phone mast, just as described…Good stuff…“Isn’t it nice when somebody gives good directions?”, I say to Rob…“Yeah,” he says, “wouldn’t wanna have to reverse back down this would ya’!”…LOL…“No I wouldn’t mate!”…More laughs…
2 miles later and about 500 yards from the farm buildings…What the hell is that?..A gate?.. …“Hope it’s not locked!”…More laughs…
Oh Crap!!..It is locked!..WTF?!..Call the bloke…“Oh yeah, Ha ha. Forgot about that…ha ha…ermmm, I’ll just go find the Guvna’ and get the key…Be right with ya!”…
10 mins later…call the bloke…"Oh…ermmm…aaahhh…err…Sorry mate. Hate to tell you this, but the Guv’s gone to Spalding…won’t be back for a couple of hours. Can you back out of there alright and come round by road?..
%$+!!!%…**%&$!!!%%$"!!!..
So we then, very carefully, reversed for 2 miles back to the turnoff…Ha bloody ha, my ■■■!!! 
LOL
Lesson learned…AGAIN!!
LOL
Anyway…Other than a couple of delays caused by a major accident on the A1M and having to find some really obscure places and; One day where a screwup at the office meant that every single one of our pickup sheets had wrong addresses, postcodes and phone numbers; the rest of the last couple of weeks has been …in a word…Brilliant! I even really enjoyed trundling around in the snow on Monday…Just took it really steady.
Can’t really overstate how much I am loving it!!
To all you old hands, the respect I already had for y’all all has gone up many, many notches. And; I can definitely understand why you have done it for so long. And to the other ‘Newbies’ (just like myself) and ‘Wannabes’; I would say; Stick with and don’t give up. When you do finally get to do it, you’ll love it too! I am sure!
Incidentally; I literally just got off the phone to one of our TM’s…He is really pleased with the way things are going and is making noises about putting on more wagons and hiring some more drivers…If you don’t mind the idea of ■■■■■■■ tyres for a couple of hours per day on average,(believe me, it does wonders for the old chest, back and arm muscles! And the ‘abs’! LOL ) and can reasonably reach the Wisbech or Spalding areas and are interested, let me know. I would be more than happy to put in some names.
Going to the Seaside tomorrow. 
If I see anything interesting, will post some piccies…
Thanks again for putting up with the long, long ramble…
Cheers,
Simon
