On my way to work this morning, came across one of our drivers reclining in a field in his artic (he was ok) the farmer that was using a forklift without any lights, tax, MOT or insurance at 5.30am wants shooting and burying 6ft under . Told the bloke he looks like he’s been through a hedge backwards and got told to go away rather impolitley .
Couple up to my trailer and defect it for the electrics. Tell the boss and get the fitter to look at it. He takes one look at it and says: “You havn’t plugged all the electric lines in you dipstick (or words to that effect) .” I took the one off the unit and plugged it into the trailer . Lesson learned? At least I did my checks and caught it before I went out. Boss was told it was a faulty connection .
Got loaded rather quick 'cause the dipstick’s in Australia for a holiday and I hope he stays their. The storeman located a pallet I’d forgot. I told 'em I’d got no paperwork for it and how was I supposed to load it if I hadn’t got it (the paperwork)? But I’ll take it anyway as I’m going their (big of me I thought).
Got to my first drop took the curtians off. Now the roof of the trailer’s held up by a bar that you have to struggle to get out. Got it out and narrowley missed my head on the way out but it landed on my thumb on the way back to the trailer. Swore at it in no uncertain terms and couldn’t get it back in it’s resting place so left it where it was and but the curtain straps round it. The roof of the trailer u’ll just have to stay bowed until we can get the bar back in. My thumb’s still throbbing after a load of red wine and I can’t bend it. The nail’s truning black so I’ll go down to the walk in centre tomorrow when I’ve recovered sufficiently. I can just see the conversation. What’s up mate? Bar a sore head?
Got to my second drop. Now they’ve got electric forklifts (one for each sight) and they’ve forgot to put the bloody things on charge . I offer to handball the pallet off as it’s not too big but get told “we can’t do that mate,” so I tell them I’m taking it away. “We might need it.” “Tough I say and bugger owft.”
The only thing I’ll say about the day is I didn’t hit anything or get it stuck under a bridge and I did get 16 drops and 4 collects off on an artic round the middle of Leicester. Why oh why does everyone give you the excuse It’s Friday mate when it happens every other day of the week?
Yesterday I was around Kings Lynn and the charge light came on, on the dash indicating a faulty alternator in my limited grasp of driving things.
By the end of the day the truck needed a bump start from Bob and his forklift at DHL so that I could get home.; Put the truck away and phoned the Boss with the good news (he already knew about the alternator).
Met boss in van this morning so we could bump start the truck and took it to hire firm for fixing. They fit 2 new batteries and order new alternator. By this time we had lost most of our promised jobs so all that was left was a collection of seafreight from JCB to New Caledonia (where?) Took that to Brum then return to JCB for the usual collection at 1730.
Arrive at 1710 but dont get loaded until 1840. Ask the forkie what the problem was and he has been ■■■■■■■ with his other role as Shop Steward sorting out whinging blokes and overtime.
Result, after I’ve been finishing at 1945 all week, tonight I finished at 2045, but still, another hours overtime and now having been to the pub I feel better. (please excuse any typos I’ve been to the pub - hic!)
Friday seems a bad one for one or two on here! Mine went like this, tootling along through the lanes from the A51 to Stone on my way to load a 40 at a quarry, heater is on, and im comfy, all of a sudden heater is off, oh oh, water, im in lanes very narrow. I reckon get to Stone town centre and find a spot to break down in comfort. Found a spot on a very wide footpath just before the point of no return on the A520!, the ■■■■■■■ didnt quite boil, thats good at least! Had to then walk the parish for some water and phoned in. Finally found the leak and reported it, gaffer said, can you see whats broke for me to bring out? So, tilted the cab, found the top hose blown and told him. Cab back down, ■■■ & coffee to keep the morale up, and its all great. Talk to a retired truker walking his dogs for a bit, and its all dandy, I say to him, could be worse, the weathers fine at least! Feeling ive dossed enough, I think, tilt the cab back over and get the hose off. No sooner I do this that the heavens open and Im soaked in mins! Then the quarry say go away, load Monday. So I got an early finish!
BigOne, if you can’t get the centre post back in…ask the forkie to lift the roof slightly whilst u pop the post in.
If you look around the trailer carefully you should find a sticker stating that it should never be operated without the side post in place…but we’ve all done it!
Edit: sorry guys, i have inadvertantly called it a centre post…it isn’t, its a side post. Some trailers have just one, some have 2. Variety of different ways of getting them in & out. Vicious things, usually stick/jam/jump out at you. They’re designed to come out so you can load/unload where they sit. A good forkie with a side shift will work around them.
Centre posts art exactly that, trailers where the roof support posts are fixed in the centre of the trailer… & a zb nuisance they are too!
The annoying thing is, there’s only the one post and how the hell do you get pallets in and out round it? I’ve used the trailer before and you can quite happily take the bars out, slide them down and put them back in. It just wouldn’t slide back Friday. Their’s no stickers on this one either. When I told the boss he said they’re probabley getting rid of it anyway 'cause it had one of the other drivers arm the other week .
I do have my trailer back Monday morning so that’ll start the guys at Screwfix moaning then .
Anyway it’s nice to see it doen’t just happen to me.
Keeping on this off-topic thread of side-posts a minute… 6 months back whilst doing an agency job for a company one day, I’d pulled the curtain back and needed to swing the side post out (not the sliding type, it was the release-the-bolt and swing-it-out-towards-you-on-its-pivot type), so I tackled the retaining bolt which was quite rusted up and needed a bit of oomph. Once the bolt was clear the side-post flew out at me at warp factor 9 and smashed into my right temple thus knocking me unconscious for nearly 48hrs in Jimmy’s. There was no warning on any type of the trailer about it and I feel there should have been. The post was spring-mounted at the bottom which I’ve never come across before; well, MacFarlanes trailers have the same system on the newer trailers and there’s don’t have a spring behind them
I lost a considerable amount of blood and I have a claim in against the company concerned, although obviously I can’t name them until it’s been settled. The claims compan(ies) reckon I should see a nice 4-figure sum although the money side of it isn’t the point really.
(he was ok) the farmer that was using a forklift without any lights, tax, MOT or insurance at 5.30am wants shooting and burying 6ft under 
. Told the bloke he looks like he’s been through a hedge backwards and got told to go away rather impolitley 
.
. Lesson learned? At least I did my checks and caught it before I went out. Boss was told it was a faulty connection 
BigOne, if you can’t get the centre post back in…ask the forkie to lift the roof slightly whilst u pop the post in.
Keeping on this off-topic thread of side-posts a minute… 6 months back whilst doing an agency job for a company one day, I’d pulled the curtain back and needed to swing the side post out (not the sliding type, it was the release-the-bolt and swing-it-out-towards-you-on-its-pivot type), so I tackled the retaining bolt which was quite rusted up and needed a bit of oomph. Once the bolt was clear the side-post flew out at me at warp factor 9 and smashed into my right temple thus knocking me unconscious for nearly 48hrs in Jimmy’s. There was no warning on any type of the trailer about it and I feel there should have been. The post was spring-mounted at the bottom which I’ve never come across before; well, MacFarlanes trailers have the same system on the newer trailers and there’s don’t have a spring behind them