6 weeks in, I get sent out to do 3 drops of 5 pallets… Not rocket science, but my first time on pallets.
Arrive at the first drop, couldn’t find any signage so walk around the industrial estate trying to find it, I’ve gone pretty much everywhere I could have thought to go and nobody I spoke to had even heard of the company. Ring the office and they give me the number of the company, so I ring them up to get no answer… 4th attempt to get through ‘Oh I’m not in at the moment… I’ll be there in about quarter of an hour’. Great, just spent the last hour and a half faffing about and he’s not even in. He arrives and he shows me where the place as, tightest street you’ll ever see. Time is now about 3 and kids are kicking out from the local school who all want to come down this lane on their bikes etc. Somehow manage to reverse down this tight street by parked cars with inches to spare and kids that are blind to danger and trying to fit down the side while I’m moving…
Get the pallets off, then on to the next place… ‘Oh I don’t think I can accept that mate…’. The pallet that they were taking is in a right state because it’s badly wrapped and it’s working it’s way off the pallet itself, but still intact. However the load is leaking, so I have to take that back.
On my way to the last drop and suddenly I notice there’s a giant bulge in the curtain… which is… THIS. 1000kg’s of cooking oil
So dealt with that after I got the other pallet off (which was painless thankfully).
DJC:
Get the pallets off, then on to the next place… ‘Oh I don’t think I can accept that mate…’. The pallet that they were taking is in a right state because it’s badly wrapped and it’s working it’s way off the pallet itself, but still intact. However the load is leaking, so I have to take that back.
On my way to the last drop and suddenly I notice there’s a giant bulge in the curtain… which is… THIS. 1000kg’s of cooking oil
So dealt with that after I got the other pallet off (which was painless thankfully).
It was a long day…
To be honest I would have either re-stacked the pallet or put the stuff on the floor of the vehicle instead of waiting for a worse problem to arise
Funniest one I had was a fridge trailer with internal bars to secure the load. Back in the early 90s, I’d only been driving artics for a few months (so I knew it all ) I had a back load of 1 single high stacked pallet of Tomatoes in boxes & secured it with a bar but wasn’t too happy because there wasn’t a pallet next to it, anyway they said “it will be ok”, so off I went, ‘Like a Bat out of Hell’. I was in a hurry.
Roundabouts-flat out, corners-no problem I didn’t have much weight on & I was told “it will be ok” & ‘I knew it all’-
‘WRONG’ when I got to the drop & opened the back doors-it was like a scene from the Somme 1 million Tomatoes all over the trailer, took 'em a couple of hours to pick them all up & put them all back in their boxes
Three lessons from that load=
1, Break the pallet down, so you’ve got 2 lower pallets & not 1 single ‘high’ pallet.
2, Don’t drive like a ‘Lady’s Private Part’
3, I didn’t & still don’t know it all. (although I know a lot more now than I did back then )
DrivingMissDaisy:
Tell me if I’m wrong but there seems to be quite a large gap between that pallet and the headboard?
Pallet truck wasn’t working, I had no choice but to leave it where it was. As it was my first time on pallets I thought that It’d be alright where it was, so I never asked any of the places if it could get moved.
Its all part of the learning curve.
Funniest one I had was a fridge trailer with internal bars to secure the load. Back in the early 90s, I’d only been driving artics for a few months (so I knew it all ) I had a back load of 1 single high stacked pallet of Tomatoes in boxes & secured it with a bar but wasn’t too happy because there wasn’t a pallet next to it, anyway they said “it will be ok”, so off I went, ‘Like a Bat out of Hell’. I was in a hurry.
Roundabouts-flat out, corners-no problem I didn’t have much weight on & I was told “it will be ok” & ‘I knew it all’-
‘WRONG’ when I got to the drop & opened the back doors-it was like a scene from the Somme 1 million Tomatoes all over the trailer, took 'em a couple of hours to pick them all up & put them all back in their boxes
Three lessons from that load=
1, Break the pallet down, so you’ve got 2 lower pallets & not 1 single ‘high’ pallet.
2, Don’t drive like a ‘Lady’s Private Part’
3, I didn’t & still don’t know it all. (although I know a lot more now than I did back then )
Well I guess I’m glad that didn’t happen. Did the employer take it alright?
DrivingMissDaisy:
Tell me if I’m wrong but there seems to be quite a large gap between that pallet and the headboard?
Pallet truck wasn’t working, I had no choice but to leave it where it was. As it was my first time on pallets I thought that It’d be alright where it was, so I never asked any of the places if it could get moved.
Its all part of the learning curve.
Funniest one I had was a fridge trailer with internal bars to secure the load. Back in the early 90s, I’d only been driving artics for a few months (so I knew it all ) I had a back load of 1 single high stacked pallet of Tomatoes in boxes & secured it with a bar but wasn’t too happy because there wasn’t a pallet next to it, anyway they said “it will be ok”, so off I went, ‘Like a Bat out of Hell’. I was in a hurry.
Roundabouts-flat out, corners-no problem I didn’t have much weight on & I was told “it will be ok” & ‘I knew it all’-
‘WRONG’ when I got to the drop & opened the back doors-it was like a scene from the Somme 1 million Tomatoes all over the trailer, took 'em a couple of hours to pick them all up & put them all back in their boxes
Three lessons from that load=
1, Break the pallet down, so you’ve got 2 lower pallets & not 1 single ‘high’ pallet.
2, Don’t drive like a ‘Lady’s Private Part’
3, I didn’t & still don’t know it all. (although I know a lot more now than I did back then )
Well I guess I’m glad that didn’t happen. Did the employer take it alright?
Yea ! It was just a weekend job but he was ok about it (didn’t tell him I was doing a Lewis Hamilton though, LOL)
) I had a back load of 1 single high stacked pallet of Tomatoes in boxes & secured it with a bar but wasn’t too happy because there wasn’t a pallet next to it, anyway they said “it will be ok”, so off I went, ‘Like a Bat out of Hell’. I was in a hurry. 
1 million Tomatoes all over the trailer, took 'em a couple of hours to pick them all up & put them all back in their boxes 
)
