0645 Start. My first job this morning is a collection in Southend and I had been asked to be on site for 0730, presumably as it’s a school and to avoid the rush. However being half time it didn’t really matter it just made it seem better stopping on the zigzags. Yes I know that you shouldn’t etc, but there is no else that you can stop along there and you cannot pull into the site. Zigzags it is then. I have got a bit of a full day on, so I get cracking and drop the ramps in readiness for loading before wandering in. The first thing I notice is the digger has a smashed cab glass panel, it’s had a brick put through and there is glass everywhere. I collect the keys from the site manager and it has been done over the weekend, along with something being nicked off their mixer and someone forcing the lock on our dumper that conceals all the ignition wiring. The digger was dead to the world and my jump start pack only managed to get the control panel light glowing dimly. The only left to do was to take the dumper battery, but I was collecting that too and needed to use the digger to put the buckets in the dumper. I didn’t really want to keep switching batteries so I blagged their forklift, an elderly Sanderson R/T masted machine that turned like an oil tanker. Oddly enough no had tried nicking that P.O.S. With the dumper loaded up, it went up the front and was chained on and a strap thrown over the buckets up top. Off came the battery and it was lugged over to the digger to swap over, getting the old one off was awkward and to make matters worse the little bolt on the clamp sheared off making it impossible to tighten. Luckily it did the job and the machine was loaded up behind the dumper, it wasn’t too much of a squeeze as it was only a 5 tonner and the dumper a 3t machine. All this messing about had taken time and it was 0900 before I rolled out of Southend, although the good news was that one of my movements had been postponed and hopefully I’d gain some breathing space. The digger was headed for Harlow and the company it had been cross hired from were going to go out and fit a new battery and glass panel later, I used the digger as a Hiab substitute to unload the buckets and tracked it off before reclaiming my battery. It was now chucking it down with rain, so I just headed back to the yard and left the battery loose. Back at the yard there were a couple of machine drivers at loose ends and they seemed pleased of something to do and got straight on the job of reinstalling the battery and taking the dumper off. I went to grab a drink and was handed some bad news. I had been caught in a bus lane in London, now this really peed me off as I never go into them, but there it was picture an’ all. It was on Camberwell New Road and I had just cut across the very last few yards of the bus lane before it turned into a filter lane as the traffic straight ahead had stopped. I guess that’s Ken’s payback for signing the road pricing petition. The fine is £100 but to my amazement my boss said he’d pay it this time, just don’t do it again. Now I can’t believe that, you’d expect to get parking tickets paid if you they were unavoidable but…..I haven’t really got a lot of feedback from them about whether I’m doing the job OK, but I had taken the lack of chasing and not getting pulled up on silly things as a good sign. I guess this confirms that I must be doing OK. My next job was to go to the cricket bat factory in Great Leighs where there were three machines ready to be collected. First to move was one of ours a Kobelco 6t digger, try as I may I could not find the keys to it or the dumper and roller with it. I spent ages in the pouring rain looking for the keys and eventually admitted defeat and phoned to check. They were there but had been pretty well hidden, knowing which area to look at thoroughly was the key to success. Everything was absolutely caked in mud and I did my best to spin the tracks off by turning to 90 degrees and pushing down with the bucket to lift the track clear so it could spin freely. Same on the other side but really it didn’t do much good and I gingerly edged it forwards up the slippery ramps. It was a short hop to Halstead and it was here that it decided to slide down the ramps, no harm was done and I left the blokes on site sweeping the road off whilst I went back to collect the roller and dumper from Gt.Leighs. It was still raining here and I wasted no time getting them on and secure. These two were on a cross hire from another local company so it was back to their yard to get them off-hired before calling briefly at the yard to hand in my paperwork. It was back to the A12 for a quick blast to Truck East at Witham to drop it in for a overnight service and a list of jobs that need doing, like the lift axle and ABS sensors that seem to have a mind of their own. My courtesy vehicle (S reg Toyota Hiace) was handed over and I clocked off just before 1700.
Tuesday 13th February 2007
First thing this morning was to run the van back to Witham and collect the truck about 0700 before running back to the yard to load. Obviously it had had some attention as a couple of little jobs had obviously been done, but there is still vibration through the steering column (should have had new UJ, track rod ends and bushes) so maybe it didn’t all get done. The O/S washer that was working yesterday has stopped (Hmm, obviously not tested – now fixed by me) and about 10 litres of screenwash went in the tank when I got back. When I got back our fitter was just finishing off working on a 3t Komatsu that was swiftly loaded after an early morning tea fix. Last nights lack of enthusiasm for standing at the pump came back to haunt me as I had to fill both tanks before venturing much further. Once on the way proper it was back past Witham and out along the A120 turning off just before the water tower at Horsley Cross to call at the Lt. Bentley Sewer installation (Aren’t I lucky). This is a fairly major project and like all of Barhale’s sites well managed with decent sized compounds and everything well organised. The machine was offloaded and left in the shadow of a 20 tonner before I headed back towards Colchester. The next job was an external move, collecting a 3t JCB from Boxted and running back to Harold Wood. I was fairly sure I could find my way through the lanes from the top end of Colchester to Boxted rather than cutting through to the A134, my gamble paid off and I had a pleasant run through the countryside to the farm where I had dropped the machine a couple of weeks ago. This farm is massive and has it’s own network of dirt tracks (like many) and the machine had been dropped right at the bottom of the farm at a solitary barn, far from the main yard area.
Nice farm roads. I made way straight there and sure enough the machine was where it had been left, I decided that turning where I had done so previously was probably best avoided and chose a reasonably flat and hard looking bit of ground to turn on instead.
Maybe I'll choose somewhere other than this to turn round.
Like here perhaps.On reflection this was not so clever and the drive wheels were having no of it. No matter what gear, ratio, difflock or what I tried I was stuck and in need of some help. When I arrived a couple of minutes ago, there had been a farm bloke moving bales with a telehandler, “OK I think I’ll just wander over and ask him to radio one of his mates to bring a tractor down to haul me out” Unfortunately he had disappeared and I am forced to walk back to the farm which is about a mile away. It’s no problem though and I am soon bouncing along next to the farmer in his mahoosive John Deere. I rig a chain across the D Rings on the beaver tail and attach his tow chain to it between the ramps before he effortlessly pulls me clear. Whilst this is going on our other driver Norman rings to ask where the job in Harlow was and asks how my day is going, “Just don’t OK” is my reply. This amused him no end, no doubt wondering what scrape I’d got into. Once clear I decided to play it safe and reverse all the way back round the shed to turn around and load there. I was getting impatient by this stage and wanted to get cracking, but the buckets on the digger just wouldn’t play ball and kept springing off all over the shop.
Somehow I got it all sorted and I was glad to get going again. I returned via the A134 and on this side of the hill noticed that there were very big puddles on the road and one field was flooded and looking like a lake. It would seem that there has been a fair bit of rain here, if only I’d seen that on the way in. It was a straightforward run back down the A12 to Harold Wood to drop the machine at the Old Brickworks estate. When I’d collected it I was flagged down by a bloke and the machine was just there, but now I pulled up in the same place and spent ages wandering about looking for the right bloke to hand it back to, there are probably 40 businesses there and to be honest I never paid much attention when I picked it up. Eventually I found the right man, and I decided to wash my hands of the whole affair and let him unload it, I was glad to not that the buckets wouldn’t stay together for him either. The day turned a bit quiet after that, a fair bit of hanging around and a trip to Jovic plant at Sandon to collect a roller. A bit more waiting whilst the fitter finished off an 8t Hitachi which was loaded with the roller. I finshed the day at 1615.
Wednesday 14th February 2007
0645 seems to becoming a regular start time but it works fine for me and means that I’m not up at silly o’clock anymore. I was all ready to roll this morning for the short hop down the A130 into Wickford where I was to meet one of our machine drivers for the start of a new job. He was already ‘there’ when I arrived but our site location was just a track at the end of the road with no one else present. I called the client and he explained roughly where the machines needed to go and promised to come down in a few minutes. I was uncertain about venturing down the track so I decided to offload where I was and let them trundle the machines down themselves.
I became chief roller instructor demonstrating the controls of the roller to the client (forward, back, steering wheel, throttle and vibrate) before packing up and making my way back up the A130 to pick up the A12 headed towards Colchester. Something must have been happening London bound as the traffic was mega heavy / stopped all the back past Kelvedon, it was tipping with rain mind, but my way was clear of delays. I wasn’t due to arrive at the next job at Gt.Bromley until 10 so I disappeared for a while to kill some time. All I knew about this job was that it was moving a forklift to Sudbury, I figured that it’d either be something decent or an old dog like the one I used on Monday. As I trundled along looking for the right place I spotted a shiny red Manitou telehandler and struck gold 20 minutes early. It was just the machine and a tipping skip to go and these where soon chained down and on the way to Sudbury.
I took the A120 back to Colchester and picked up the A134 to Sudbury, the job there was just off the main road and was a large housing development that is at the moment just a nice clear site. No doubt soon, it will be full of machines and people and quite possibly could be somewhere I’ll be back and forwards to. Once I was empty I followed the road through Halstead and Braintree before diverting off to drop in at Easco at Boreham to hand in the last of my tachos and chase up some unpaid holiday money. Whilst I was having a cup of tea in the weighbridge office one of the Colchester drivers came on the bridge with his wag & drag. Whilst he waiting to enter the yard one of the airbags on the trailer suspension blew out, wow what a noise, everyone though a flippin bomb had gone off it was that deafening. It was a good job no one was standing close by as I am sure they could have been badly injured. I saw my faithful old 8 wheeler there, still soldiering on somehow earning a living and I also took the opportunity to get this one on the bridge to get it’s tare weight (11500kg). I left them to the problem of the knackered trailer and headed back to base to find both other trucks in already (1200) Norman had been sent out to drive a machine and Bob was taking a JS220 20t JCB off the lowloader ready for cleaning and preparation for it’s next job. There was nothing else to do transport wise so I got the waterproofs out and lent a hand with the JS220. This involved digging out the wet clay from round the track motors, removing the rubber pads from the tracks and generally trying to get about 2t of muck of the machine by use of shovels and steam cleaner. Bob and I got stuck into this whilst the fitter clambered up top and started fitting some new gadgets to the valve block. Despite a good couple of hours on it, it still is not clean and it needs to be spotless when it goes out for it’s next job which is in a car park. When we called it a day my blue waterproofs were completely brown with thick oozy clay, so much so that I got Bob to blast it off me with the steam cleaner. As it stood when I left just after 1600, there was nothing in the pipeline for tomorrow so I could well be back on it again tomorrow.
Thursday 15th February 2007.
0745 this morning as there was nothing booked, and the three wagons sat idle in the yard for a good while. I decided to look industrious and found a hoover in the office and gave the cab a good clean out. Apart from a quick wipe over, it’s the first time I’ve been able to do it properly and the seats and bunk look immensely better for the trouble. I got sent out mid morning to take a safety certificate to one of our machines at Lt. Bentley and was given a Renault Extra van for the task, I decided that I was going to hate the horrid little thing, but came back thinking it wasn’t actually too bad. After a bit more looking busy a proper job came up, it was one for tomorrow that had been brought forward. I wasted no time in getting out of the yard and headed over to Tiptree to collect an 8t Kobelco from a groundworkers yard to be swapped over in Sudbury. I had arranged to meet Norman on the A12 as the was collecting a container from the same site, and I was to follow him, I picked up his tail around Marks Tey and had caught him up by the Colchester turn. Somehow he managed to get through the lights at North Station, whereas I managed to cop just about every set of lights on the Sudbury Road before I finally caught him up at the Suffolk border. Two idiots pulled out of a side road right in front of me and got a long blast of airhorns coupled with about 10 seconds of main beam. Are people really that stupid to just pull out in front of a wagon doing 40. Oh yes, I forgot that they are. Eventually when we got to Sudbury, Norm was waiting and he led me to the site. He pulled in to collect his container and I backed down to where the digger was waiting. No sooner had I stopped, the digger disappeared to collect buckets and wasn’t seen for about another 20 minutes giving me plenty of time to unload and get the kettle on. To my irritation, Norm had got loaded and left before I had even got mine loaded and it was about 1600 before I finally managed to get away. It was back to Colchester to drop this one off hire at Target Plant and then a battle in the ten to five traffic getting off of Severalls Park back to the A12. A blast down the A12 back to Danbury, quickly load a hydraulic breaker and off home at 1745.
Friday 16th February 2007
0630 Start. This morning is looking like it’s going to be a bit of rushing around, so I make a good start by hammering down the A130 to Wickford arriving at 0715. It’s the same job that I went to earlier in the week and I start to reverse down the track, this track goes on for ever, is very narrow and has loads of overhanging branches. A later check on the tacho when leaving shows that it is well over half a mile to get to the gateway where the machines are. I leave the machine driver to fill the digger with the diesel I’ve brought out whilst I get the roller loaded and chained. He loads the digger and I make my way back down the lane to civilisation. This machine is going to Takeley near Stansted Airport and is to be swapped for a similar one that has pipes for the hydraulic breaker. It’s an effortless run to the site, and I know exactly where to find the machine as this site was one of the jobs on my first day. The machines are switched and I am pushing on to get this one to site as it was really needed first thing. Unfortunately I have to take it to Hullbridge near Rayleigh, which is not a million miles from Wickford and it sets the theme for the day of backwards and forwards. I get the machine to the site, a caravan park just before 1030 and with it goes the breaker that I’ve been dragging round the countryside. It’s a bit sparse for space on this little residential caravan park and I get the impression that running t he wheels over a bit of grass will be as well received as a French kiss at a family reunion. This leads to me making an absolute arse of turning round and I am glad to get out of the place, now finally able to stop chasing as I have got an hour to get to the next job in Lt. Burstead near Billericay. From Hullbridge I cut down to the A127 and skirt Basildon before heading up to Billericay and onto the farm where my next job is. I’m a bit early and there’s no one there but I am just glad of having a stop for 15 minutes as it gives me a chance to get the kettle on. At this point disaster strikes, my milk has gone off and I am forced to use the emergency Cappuccino sachet. Someone turns up and lets me in and hidden behind a Scania R series and bulker trailer is the museum piece Daewoo 6t digger that someone has bought from them. We chain the two other buckets up and attempt to track the thing up with the buckets suspended, the machine has other ideas and even with only two empty buckets the dipper arm keeps dropping, obviously needs a Viagra in the hydraulic tank. I decide to load the machine first and then lift the buckets on singly which although slower is achievable. With this all loaded I make my way back through Billericay to the A12, I pass Anglia TV filming on the High St. although they didn’t air the shot where I drove past the reporter who probably got deafened by the growling exhaust brake. Up on the A12 it was a short blast to Rivenhall before cutting through the lanes to Tiptree and Tolleshunt Knights to the site address for the digger.
This was another poxy little lane to reverse down and I had to give the fella who had bought the machine some basic instruction on its controls. After this it was just me and the roller from this morning and it was looking like an early finish was on the cards after I dropped it off at Jovic’s on the way back to the yard. As I am about 10 minutes out I get a call asking how it’s going and I proudly report that in about 15 minutes the roller will be off and basically I am superb. So superb in fact, that I get tasked with another job when that is taken care of. Damn. Once the roller was off, it dawned on me that although I’d only been local I’d been notching up a fair bit of wheel time so I checked the tacho and found that I’d have to stop for a 30 before going too much further. As it was on route I stopped at the yard and grabbed a drink and turfed all my filthy kit out so I could take it home for washing. My final job was to collect one of our 3t dumpers from St.Lawrence bay, one of the few remote Essex outposts I have never ever been to. On the map it’s a short distance from Latchingdon, but in reality it’s well past the middle of nowhere, in fact so far I thought Essex would run out and I’d fall off the edge of the world. The dumper was down a long bumpy narrow track with facility to turn so, yet again I am forced to make a long reverse. Aaah joy. Finally I am ready to make my way back to Danbury where I offload the machine and reflect on the fact that I’ve done 5 machine moves today which is a record, also done nearly 300k’s whilst not been further than about 30 from base. I finished about 1700 having clocked up a 49 hour week and 1149KM.
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