I’ve done a few runs via the agency now - Most of it trundling along Motorways and into RDCs that are easy to find on easy roads. Had a call this afternoon asking me to do another run for Exel Logistics - This time I’m going into London (Croydon and then Park Royal) before returning to base via Kettering…
So if you spot some numpty looking well and truly lost in a plain white Renault rigid with dark green curtainsides, give me a wave 
Best of Luck.
Park Royal can be fun if you take a wrong turning. 
Oh well done Krankee, just to give him some confidence before he goes eh?
Well, it all went to rat’s droppings, didn’t it.
The Agency gave me a start time of 0730, so I arrived at the yard for 0715, to be ready to roll at 0730. I was met by a grumpy security guard - “You’re late, I was just going to ring you.” Seems the haulier had me slated for a 0645 start…
Whatever, I’m here now so give me the paperwork and I’ll get rolling to Croydon. Not so fast - I’ll have to see John in the warehouse to get the truck loaded first. The truck was exactly where I left it on Monday - already backed onto a loading bay with the doors open - GOK why they couldn’t have loaded it already!
So, that’s another delay. I finally hit the road just before 0800. My booking at Croydon (about 90 miles away as the crow flies - across London) is for 0900. No way I’m going to make that time, but I’ll do my best. I plan on going round on the M25 then nipping straight into Croydon, then across town to Park Royal. Quite a bit longer route, but almost certainly quicker than faffing around in town traffic halfway across London.
On the way down I am pleasantly surprised to see very light traffic on the M1 - so light that I decide to go across town anyway. Bad mistake - The usual rush hour was very quiet, but everybody and his dog appeared to be heading for the sales from about 9am onwards, and soon I’m making very slow progress indeed. I have a crib sheet that I printed from the AA web-site with junction-by-junction driving directions. I follow it just fine until somewhere around Putney where I misinterpret the directions and take a wrong turning. Unknown to me, I immediately got back onto the right road, but I assumed I had gone horribly wrong and so set about trying to double back to where I last knew I was on the right road. It all goes horribly pear-shaped and I end up going round in a big circle, adding another 45 minutes to my journey. Then, having decided that the directions were no good, I try to forge my own route across to Croydon and end up going round in another circle (navigational skills of a blind wombat).
I finally fetch up at Superdrug in Croydon just before noon - only to be told that Goods In is not accessible from the front of the plot, and I’ve got to go around through the industrial estate to get to the back gate. I’m finally in by 1225, and tipped some 30 minutes later. I beetle off PDQ to make for Park Royal, only to be obliged to pull in on an industrial estate in Wimbledon for a 45 minute break. I don’t have a definite booking slot for Park Royal, but their paperwork says they only unload between 10am and 2pm. I can’t possibly get there in time so I phone the office. Five minutes later they ring me back and tell me to bring the truck back to base - the load (and the third drop at Kettering) has been rescheduled for Friday. Arrive back at the yard for 5pm and shuffle off home feeling I’ve wasted the whole bloomin’ day just to deliver half a dozen pallets of hairspray to Superdrug. Still, at least the beer I was carrying can be said to travel well 
I bought a London A-Z while I was having my break 
I wouldn’t worry Roymondo, If they sent you to london at that time of day then the TM should have expected some late running. You have to be in london for 8am to be able to get tipped and then travel across to the other side. Croydon to Park Royal is a bugger of a route if you don’t know it. I bet they didnt give you a map of the congestion charging zones either.
Just one of those days to put down to expierence.
I’ll just echo what smcaul said.
One to put down as an experience to try and avoid 
, we all get them and the TM didn’t give you much of a chance.
This could be one of those places that tell you a 7:30 start when they really mean, rolling out of the gate at 7:30. If you where told 7:30 and turned up at 7:15, definately don’t worry about it. The 6:45 start the haulier had you slated for would be to give you time to get the wagon loaded before your 7:30 start . When you go to these places just point out that you work for an agency, if they want you in at 6:45 they have to book you for 6:45 and pay you from 6:45. If you are told a 7:30 start, you expect them to mean a 7:30 start, not a 6:45 start. .
I hope it goes a bit better for you tomorrow.
Thanks for those supportive messages. (Congestion charge wasn’t an issue though as the CC has been suspended until the new year).
Regardless of the screw-up over start times (they did the same on my earlier run this week - slating me for a 6am start even though the Agency had me booked for 0800…), my disappointment stems from making a mess of my first “real” job - i.e. the first time I’ve had to do anything more than cruise up the Motorway, find my way to a RDC near the junction, tip and drive away again. Had I not lost my way in London (twice) I have little doubt I could have done the job with time to spare. As it is, I feel that I’ve let the client down and so at the back of my mind I’m wondering if I’ll get any more work from that direction (i.e. “Don’t bother sending that Roymondo bloke, he’s no good to us”)
Maybe it’s partly the realisation that the job isn’t quite as straightforward as my first few assignments led me to believe…
Well having an A - Z will help as well. Now all you need is another pair of eyes and hands. One set of each for driving with, and the other set for map-reading with 
.
The start time mixup is tough [zb]. Either the agency or the client messed up and told you the wrong time. Not your fault.
The first driving job I did (7.5t) I finished about 4+ hours late, and I only just managed to do the last drop , as the shop manager was literally locking up as I arrived, and I spent a few minutes persuading her to take the goods
The second job (HGV2) I missed the last 3(ish) drops because I got lost a couple of times, and it’s [zb] difficult to turn an 18t truck around on small Welsh valley roads 
It’ll get a bit easier, but not much.
You’re not the only one who has difficulties on the first few jobs…
I once got an agency job delivering 8 drops in london in an 18t, bearing in mind I had spent the previous 2 years doing muti drop in an artic around london this woulod have been a piece of cake. Got to company at 8am, took one look at run sheet, asked if that was the order they have to be done in and was told yes. I then turned to TM and asked him which ones he wanted to take off as starting at 8am on a Friday and the way he wanted them done I would only get 2 to 3 drops off. This was all Builders stuff, so come mid day on a friday all the sites would be desserted, they also wanted me to tip in north london first then down to south london and then criss cross my way around. Got to first drop at 10am 100 sheets of plasterboard had to handballed by 2 guys up 4 flights of stairs in the rain. took 4 hours to tip, so I got 2 drops in that day, TM was not impressed, then found out the normal driver would have left at 6am as would I have had I known the run before hand. Just goes to show most TM’s don’t know their a*** from their elbow (and I have been a TM)