Pat Hasler:
I used to look at those BNFL flatbed 40 footers going by with one very small flask bolted to the exact centre of the trailer and think ‘I wouldn’t want that job for all the money in the world’
Many years ago I used to watch the regular bnfl convoys going down the A66, always had a big police ■■■■■■. I could see then from my bedroom window while doing my homework. Maybe if I’d concentrated on my homework I wouldn’t be driving a ■■■■■■■ wagon now.
Dangerous jobs? Netting a load of woodchips on a tipper ok a windy day with no safety harness or timber wagon on some of the steeper hills!
(or driving an under powered wagon fully freighted on the A75)
Anytime I do a load of ‘hanging beef’. Usually from Clitheroe to Cairn Ryan. You should have to have a sign on the back of the trailer to warn people of a weight hanging from the ceiling as they really do get stressed when you are taking it easy at every roundabout ! (It is funny though when you drop the trailer at the dock and the shunters who take no care in anything at all pull off with the trailer to load it onto the boat and get the shock of their life when they swing it left or right)
Car transporters always been one of the worse for getting hurt, nearly everyone will have slipped off the decks at some point, hopefully from the bottom which isn’t too far, the the danger of slipping ratchets etc whilst under force sending you headlong.
Difficult to know whether its better to go off the top deck outside or straight through the middle and take your chances which part of the chassis you end up wrapped around…latest bodies its more difficlut to go through cos many centres are filled in, unfortunately kneeling down beside a wide van on the peak to fit chocks and wheelstraps isn’t funny on a wet windy day.
Cars and vans used to have gutters to hold onto as you inched past, hardly any now, not good.
Reckon nearly every long term transporter driver has the scars to show they’ve done the job, my mate went through and ripped the inside of his thigh open about 18" on some part of the brakes, others have broken ankles and arms when gon over the side, i’ve got a chipped elbow where i slipped straight through the centre top decks and saved the fall by smashing me elbows onto the steel plating, ouch!
Thats without you immediately becoming public enema number one the second you pull up outside a main road garage or rental office and passing numpties try their best to injure you for daring to hold 'em up 3 seconds.
I have to go for the wrecker drivers who are laid in live lanes removing propshafts and the like, but working at height, car transporters and tankers probably comes in as a slightly hazardous job, especially in the ice and snow.
well last one to the moss has to get the coffees in!!!
ahhhhh the good ol days when you slept at the lights in Dumfries &Annan and remembered to turn the wheel at the scew bridge or ya landed on the track
jimmy
I find loading this can get abit dangerous at times
I actually fell off the other day, whilst trying to undo the chains on a car which was sitting on top of a hightop transit. 15 ft 9" and i managed somehow to land on my feet !! could have been a very bad day.
Driving a coach load of glasgow rangers fans to norwich after one them recocnised me as a Glasgow Celtic fan and took great pleasure informing them of this fact
I got the last laugh they had already given me a very large tip and didnt even get to abington services when the police stopped me and confiscated all their booze.
I recon a public spirited truck driver informed the police when they mooned out the windows as i overtook.
number one the second you pull up outside a main road garage or rental office and passing numpties try their best to injure you for daring to hold 'em up 3 seconds.
well last one to the moss has to get the coffees in!!!
