Did two days last week with a firm delivering building products. On the Thursday it was just to Jewsons, 3 trailer loads. For some reason I thought it was just a Jewson’s contract they did.
On the Friday picked up trailer no 1 and off to Govan. I knew the road I was going to but not the site. Sat Nav ddn’t help routeing me an add way on final approach so as they say in pilot circles ‘I had to do a go around’. This time I saw Jewsons and drove in. Bit of a bar steward to get into as he wanted it around the back and as usual got the proverbial white van men plonking their vans everywhere that isn’t sensible. Anyway got turned tightly at the back. Stopped, started undoing curtains and straps. Forkie says ‘Is it all for us’. Yes I replied. He looked a bit taken aback but started unloading. I gave him the notes and after about half an hour we were a third unloaded.
His mate turned up on a side unloader and also said ‘Is it all for us?’ ‘Yep’ I replied. He said ‘Funny but we don’t usually have 3m board’. Off to see his mate. He comes back grinning. ‘It’s not for us mate!’ ‘What?’ I said. ‘No it’s for CCF across the road!’
Both the original forkie and I laughed. Joint plonker of the week award. Original forkie loaded it all on and we went away across the street.
I have very nearly done the same a few times, familiarity breeds contempt they say. I got so used to doing a certain drop twice a day for a week, that when told a trailer number and hooked it up, I just threw the notes in the cab and set off. It dawned on me halfway there that I should be going anti-clock around the M25 towards Watford for Bicester and not to Croydon via the Dartford Crossing. Thank gawd for lots of junctions eh?
There’s a place in Witheridge Devon I go to very regularly.
I just saw the ‘Witheridge’ on the notes,.went there, got the drop off and (luckily) pulled outside and put a coffee on.
The kid knocked on the cab and said ‘‘This is for Mole Valley farmers along the road’’ re loaded it for me…and off I went.
So not just you mate.
Used to work for a company that delivered into Portsmouth and Plymouth. Gaffer said vans loaded, urgent drop for Portsmouth. Yes you’re ahead of me…get to Portsmouth, get notes out, yep, for Plymouth. And it was August bank holiday. One of the ‘advantages’ of being a mere van driver is not taking a break and not stopping till the job is done. It is an advantage, isn’t it…
Those who do fruit & veg to RDCs will know that often there are numerous supplier’s delivery notes all for the one RDC. I went to a delivery which had two separate warehouses 50 yds apart on the same industrial estate somewhere around Bicester or Oxford some years ago. Unloaded goods for the first address and toddled off to Tesco Didcot. I gathered together a wodge of notes for Tesco only to discover that underneath theirs was another delivery for the other warehouse belonging to the company I delivered to earlier. Cue being nice to Tesco and asking them to dig their pallets out and then reload the missed delivery.
I think my worst one was when I left jobs at one company for another 15 mins away.
2nd week, I got back to the yard, backing down the drive. Got as far as the fuel pump before realising, 'I don’t work here anymore. This isn’t their truck ’
They all had a good giggle, as did my new gaffer when I told him when I got back to the right place.
P222:
I think my worst one was when I left jobs at one company for another 15 mins away.
2nd week, I got back to the yard, backing down the drive. Got as far as the fuel pump before realising, 'I don’t work here anymore. This isn’t their truck ’
They all had a good giggle, as did my new gaffer when I told him when I got back to the right place.
i used to do dray work, one of the crews but a xmas delivery into the wrong pub, it was meant for a working mans club that was in a street nearby, but both were called after the area, all handballed into cellar 22gall kegs too, cleaner let them in and nobody thought anything till paperwork needed signing…
Last place I worked at had 2 depots 3 miles apart in willenhall and bilston,started in bilston did the run as I was used to starting at willenhall,went back on autopilot went through security fuelled up dropped trailer handed paperwork in downloaded card walked into the car park “where’s my car lol,bugger its up the road”.
Went rather red faced into security got keys and paperwork told em then had to hook it all back up lol,of course security had rang right depot and told em got back shunter said follow me in the tug you blind git lol.
Never did hear the last of when I left lol
Reading these just jogged my memory,.
Me as a young kid, keen as mustard/green as grass , tramping on a Transit pick up , picked up a small milling machine in Brighton.
It stood about 6’ high on the back of my Transit pick up, (loads of rock and roll) .
I’d roped it on to within an inch of it’s life (no straps in those days…1979) until it looked like a spider’s web …must have done ok as it stayed on all the way to Bradford…AND then back to Coventry when I discovered Bradford was the office address, not the delivery address !!. .
No trackers or cabphones in those days so I managed to blag it without the boss noticing,… just blamed a ‘bad rta’ and traffic for being soooo late.
I ran in one Saturday morning from Taunton back to Immingham and the office had left the paperwork for my Saturday and Sunday job for me. Saturday was a container to Melton Mowbray Sunday was a box to JD sports in Oldham.
Off I trundled to Immingham dock on autopilot and loaded my first job…got to Melton Mowbray and broke the seal expecting to see chocolate and is was converse trainers… then it hit me like a sledgehammer, I had loaded Sunday’s box…
Managed to rebook the job for Sunday morning and trudge back to Immingham and load an empty skelly with the right box and tipped it Sunday morning. Got both jobs done on Sunday but had to not invoice the firm for Sunday (ltd driver) so worked a day for sweet f.a to cover their costs… only fair really as it was my mistake, now I’m paranoid about checking double and triple checking everything!! Felt a right muppet!!! Office bod just laughed it off and said ‘■■■■ happens’ no harm done.
A few years back, I rang the office mid morning to find out my next load. As it was Thursday and my last day of the week I knew exactly what kind of ‘can you just’ load I would get and that I knew I wouldn’t be doing nothing else later.
As I was local to the yard it was a quick nip down the pit for a full load to Lowestoft.
Got down pit loaded up 30 bulk bags and trundled over to Travis Perkins in Lowestoft.
Got there and booked in. The forkie said ‘2 loads in 1 day’ and I said ‘no idea mate, just doing as I’m told’.
Anyway I pulled onto the unloading bay, opened the curtains and got back into cab and put kettle on.
Now I would like to point out at this point that I knew exactly what was on my trailer as we used to assist the forkie at the pit by putting the bulk bags on the forks as they would fill the bags as and when the drivers arrived to be loaded.
Anyway back to Travis perkins Lowestoft, after 1/2 hour of sitting there and nothing being unloaded I decided to get out and ask the forkie what was taking so long to tip me. He said look at the trailer and tell me what’s wrong with the load. So I looked and I looked before the penny had dropped. I said sorry, grabbed the paperwork, done the curtains up and buggered off to the correct delivery point, Jewsons Lowestoft.
Silly me.
I once went to Iceland Luton when I should have been at Swindon. A friend lost a good job at Dunlop because he dispatched an empty container to India by mistake - well it was only one digit different.
There is the story of the Blakes driver who went to Preston to do a trailer swap with a driver from Paisley. When he got there, the earlier driver, who happened to be a Scot, was still waiting. They swapped and both set off back to Alcester.
P222:
I think my worst one was when I left jobs at one company for another 15 mins away.
2nd week, I got back to the yard, backing down the drive. Got as far as the fuel pump before realising, 'I don’t work here anymore. This isn’t their truck ’
They all had a good giggle, as did my new gaffer when I told him when I got back to the right place.
Brilliant!
There are some real beauties up there and here is true story.
I knew this outfit in 70/80’s that did meat to Europe and backloaded a lot of fruit. As well as no mobile phones back then some of their tractor units and drivers weren’t capable of going abroad so they would often swap trailers in the port.
One night the owner gets a phone call in bed from a driver…“You won’t believe this…Let me guess…You are in Rungis meat market with a load of apples…How did you figure that out so fast?..Because the other Blind Ballix woke me this morning from Smithfield fruit market with a load of *#^>@! Beef”.
Not me but…
Two man crew given Gillingham first job then Poole. Set off for Gillingham. Get call where are you. M25. Wtf you doing anyway forget that they want you in Poole first as engineer on site. So they go do Poole job and set off back to Gillingham. Phone goes where are you M25. AAaggghhh wtf you doing. Just come back to the yard. Kent and Dorset easy to mix up. But twice in the same day… This was before sat navs and proper mobiles and on frisbee tachos
I’ve done the Gillingham Dorset/Kent thing many years ago, in Summer with live sheep from Cirencester market. Way before sat navwas even thought of, even before the M25. That was a long day.
Years later got confused with Coventry and Dover. Took a bit of explaining.
Some time start of the 90’s. Did a haul from base in The Highlands down to (if memory serves) Taunton. Did the drop and rang the boss, 'Pick up a back load from Exeter. When you’ve done that one I’ve another collection in Edinburgh [a ‘normal’ pick-up point] All the details on the paperwork and I’ll see you when you get back.
Did the collection in Exeter, glanced at the paperwork where it said Newcastle and set off up the road.
Pulled into the services at Washington (wouldn’t normally have but was desperate) and, on getting back to the cab, decided it would be a good idea to double check where in the toon I was going.
Didn’t recognise the road then looked at the paperwork again only to read the obvious: Yep, you guessed it – Newcastle Under Lyme
Pretty much got to my delivery point when I got a phone call, “What trailer you got?” me looks at notes “trl 123 why?”, office - “Are you sure? get out and check”, Pulls over, jumps out, looks at headboard … [zb]! “trl 456”
I was on local work and luckily the trl I took up was for the same destination just now my notes didn’t match the load, still got it tipped though with solemn promises of “I’ll bring the notes up with the next load” which I did, so all came right in the end, a very lucky resolution to a very schoolboy error. What I’d done was I’d actually gone under the trl next to the one I was meant to take, I somehow got my positioning wrong when I ‘U turned’ to line up with my trl and never thought to look at the headboard again once I’d gone under it.
’ 
, picked up a small milling machine in Brighton.