this week, i had to do four nights on shunting, our busy period. (i work for in a brewery that brews stalla) no worrys i thought, crack on.sooner i get done,sooner i get home. thought id do my day man a favour and always make sure his motor was coupled up and ready. not something we can always do if its not loaded. all went well till tuesday night, in my rush to get done i quickly coupled up his/our motor to his trailer, switched night heater on and got home to bed. he came in and as he was doing his walk around another driver asked him for some directions. distracted, got in and drove off. when he got to carsberg tetley at wakefield and opened the curtains, it was the wrong stuff. DOH!
in my rush i had coupled up his second run instead. he was distracted, and the final check, the gatehouse, well! you get what you pay for?
so, back on the road tonight, and yes, ive had some stick. you know the sort, “make sure youve got the right trailer on” lol…
it reminded me of along time ago. when i was a young yard lad, driver came in at dinner time, rushing to get going. i loaded him with empty bottles for the brewery (i now work in), whilst he went for his dinner. when he got to tiverton depot (from preston) the fork lift driver asked if he was having a laugh, we dont do emptys only fulls. in his rush hed forgot to tip and load first at the brewery.
i know weve all done it, but how far did you get before you realised (or someone else did!) that you had the wrong trailer on?
Mind we’ve had guys come down with a trl with the right doc’s and a dif load… Were sup to check the last pall aswell to see what we have…
When I first started we did loads to reading and had no way of knowing what was in the box the guy in bristol said “well whats in the back”
I would say "brown boxies "
“Whats on the boxies” was his reply
“Nothing apart from TAPE” my reply
"OH ok bring it down "
Nothing on the boxies and no notes how the hell am I ment to know
I once loaded at Harrow for Kodak in Chalon sur Soane, when I got to Chalon I was to tip & reload for Milan, off I went to Dover, did my customs, got a boat & set off down the road, it was quite late so I got just south of Paris & called it a day, the next morning I set off again, as I started the climb up the ski slope at the bottom of Mont Blanc it dawned on me that I had completely forgotten about the tipping & reloading bit at Chalon I had to turn around & go back, more or less 8hrs work for nothing, good job there wasn’t satellite tracking in those days, good job I wasn’t paying the tolls & fuel bill too
I got away with it though, I told the lads but it was a good firm & they all kept their mouth shut, well I obviously got a load of stick but they didn’t tell the office
I’ve known a few blokes get number dyslexia & take trailer 132 instead of 123 etc, I remember a trailer for Germany went to Manchester & the Manchester trailer went to Germany which was where it had started from, this was in the days of customs so it wasn’t a simple process to get it back, that time I was fortunate enough to be dishing it out instead of taking it though & I had my moneys worth
Can own up to being sent one Saturday morning on a regular job - pick up trailer from one factory and tip it at a cold store. Normally the trailer was already dropped at the factory - on this time the boss told me to take a trailer from the yard but I forgot. 1.5hr round trip to take the trailer and anoyed boss/storemen.
Another time when I worked in the transport office we had one driver go to Queensferry in Scotland not Wales and another load 24 pallets of frozen meat from Chard and set the fridge at +24.
I know a lad who on wagon and drag left the trailer at St Albans carried on and tipped the truck.Got all the way back to the M62 when he was looking in his mirror thought "Where the hell is the trailer?"Oops!!
Not done the trailer thing but my favourite detour used to be going along the M4 eastbound up the hill just after the bridge overtaking a slower lorry thats in the crawler lane just before the M5 turn off and forgetting to pull back in to actually join the M5 so a swift detour off at bristol down the M32 then back up the M32 (Its a pain in the arse that you cant go all the way round the roundabout at that jctn 19) back along the M4 and then onto the M5 its amazing how ■■■■■■ off you can get with yourself at times
johnpirate:
I know a lad who on wagon and drag left the trailer at St Albans carried on and tipped the truck.Got all the way back to the M62 when he was looking in his mirror thought "Where the hell is the trailer?"Oops!!
Thats funny
I heard a story somewhere of 2 agency drivers sent from Bristol one hour after each to do a changeover with 2 drivers from north-east at Tamworth services. Now, there was an accident on M1 or somewhere so the 2 north-east guys were running late, so of course the 2 Bristol lads both ended up at Tamworth, didnt know each other and just been told to do a changeover…well you can guess the rest!
newmercman:
I once loaded at Harrow for Kodak in Chalon sur Soane, when I got to Chalon I was to tip & reload for Milan…
…I got away with it though, I told the lads but it was a good firm & they all kept their mouth shut, well I obviously got a load of stick but they didn’t tell the office
Was that for a certain South London Storage company then Mark■■?
Was doing a bit for an agency once, Co-op DC in Beddington Lane, Croydon.
Took one of their short arse 20ft trailers out to somewhere round Dartford area, found the store, saw the staff, tipped it, cup of tea, empties on, paper work signed and back to the yard…only to be laughed at / told off for tipping at the wrong store.
Never mind that the staff at the store never queired it and had signed for it so no choice but to go back to the shop, re-stack and re-load the cages, then deliver to the correct store!!
Moral of the story being…read the (zb)ing address!!!
Reef:
Not done the trailer thing but my favourite detour used to be going along the M4 eastbound up the hill just after the bridge overtaking a slower lorry thats in the crawler lane just before the M5 turn off and forgetting to pull back in to actually join the M5 so a swift detour off at bristol down the M32 then back up the M32 (Its a pain in the arse that you cant go all the way round the roundabout at that jctn 19) back along the M4 and then onto the M5 its amazing how ■■■■■■ off you can get with yourself at times
I did a similar thing a few years afo, but on the M42 where the M40 splits off. I got quite a long way down the M40, before I realised I wan’t on the M42
Same story at the brewery I work for , wrong trailer went to the wrong place and this week we had a delivery sent out to a customer a week early that had to be sent back.
A good few years ago we sat at Leeds Castle waiting for a production truck from Germany to deliver some lighting. Got a call around lunchtime saying he was in Leeds, but could not find any castle, it would appear he drove past us 6 or so hours previous on his way from Dover.
I had to turn around & go back, more or less 8hrs work for nothing, good job there wasn’t satellite tracking in those days, good job I wasn’t paying the tolls & fuel bill too 
its amazing how ■■■■■■ off you can get with yourself at times 
