Thought I’d post an update, after my post at the beginning of May. trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic. … highlight= As it turned out I thought sod it, I’ve had enough and other than nipping in over the weekend to empty the wagon never went back. I started the job hunt and put a few irons in the fire after the bank holiday.
I was asked to go over for a tipper grab job working in Tingley, for a subbie to the utilities, which I did, got the job after showing them what I was like with a crane and was due to start on Thursday morning, unfortunately I had to give them my notice before I started but agreed to work for them Thurs, Friday and Sunday They offered another £20 a shift to stop by the end of the weekend but I decided to give the other job a go.
Ironically the bloke who put me onto them rang me back on Wednesday afternoon to see if I would consider driving a transit pick up? My gut reaction was no, but then he matched the brass that the other one offered so I gave it a thought. I would be their spare grabman (although they only have 1 wagon). Again working for a utility company. And other times I would be collecting barriers and signs as well as supporting the gas layers. It had the advantage of only being 5 mins. away from home and I get to take the van home, so I could sell a car and have no travelling expenses.
I’ve done about 6 weeks, and in that time spent about 9 days on the grab. It’s an 05 merc 8 wheeler with an atlas 95 crane and bucket.
My is van just 12 months old and once I gave it a good clean out, reported and had rectified the defects on it, I love it. It’s like nipping about on a gokart compared with the old Foden.
The job gets a bit hectic at times but has slack times to make up for it. Standard 10 hours days, the biggest disadvantage is that I’m on call every other week so cannot have a pint. Part of this is to run round the jobs at weekend and make sure that the signs and barriers are in good order and that the traffic lights if used are working, takes about 4 hours and your paid a shift and half.
The callouts range from taking out a heater and hotplate to vulnerable customers without gas to reports of flashes in holes from broken cables and this weekend I have to make visits to a site at Dewsbury after a mixture of an old lass having a ■■■ and a gas leak resulted in this dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news? … id=2994020
So I’m enjoying it and to be honest not missing the wagons a bit. Meanwhile Ronnie has had a bit of bother getting someone to drive the Foden and send a message this morning asking if I would go back.
I’ll bob some photo’s up when I get photothing to accept them, but looking back at the last 6 weeks I recon the best thing I did was tell whiplash (the cow in the office) to stick the job.