6th - 10th November 2006

Monday 6th November 2006 0630 Start.
Took the dinky toy down to River Rd, Barking to tip some stainless steel turnings, it barely seemed worth the bother as there was only about 940Kg difference at the weigh in / weigh out and a fair bit of that was water that had collected in the bottom of the bin. I trundled round with the empty to Sundridge on the A25 (just off M25 J5) to exchange for one at the EDF energy place. Dropped and swapped and ran back to Boreham to unload. This one was an enclosed bin so that got switched for a normal one and I had a local run to Lancaster Mercedes Benz at Witham. A little extra caution was required here as the yard around the workshop is crammed with expensive Mercs being repaired and I do not want to add to the damaged panels that are in the skip. Back to base and there’s nothing doing even after taking a 45 minute snooze in the November sun. I decided to risk giving the motor a bit of steam cleaning action, nothing major but just to shift some of the grime that seems to cling to me whenever I go to net up. Just as I finished this one, the other driver rolls in with the beast, back from service complete with new door handle, although they seem to forgotten to valet it so I end up with the keys to that as well. The Iveco is a reluctant starter at best, I think the starter needs replacing as it doesn’t spin all of the time. Steam cleaning doesn’t seem to have helped and I try on and off for about 10 minutes before admitting defeat and getting Ted to have a look, only now it goes on his 2nd try and I shunt it away and bring the Scania over. Trying to clean this is just pointless, so I give the cab (what’s left of it) a quick go over and blast off the oil and some of the grease at the back, and at least make the number plate and reflective chevrons a bit more visible. Tied up some paperwork and off home by 1600. Distance 198Km

Tuesday 7th November 2006
0630 Start. This morning I have got a couple of jobs, both fairly local and pointless leaving early so I take refuge in the weighbridge having a cuppa whilst leaving the Iveco outside to warm up. I leave about 0715 and head down the A12 to Rivenhall before following B roads through Tiptree, Tolleshunt D’Arcy to Tollesbury on the Essex Coast. It’s another straight forward drop, swap and back to the yard to tip, before heading out to Ernest Doe at Ulting which is about 5 minutes away. Doe’s is a massive place dealing agricultural and construction machinery and I have to go on a wild goose chase to find someone to shift a mini digger so that I can nip in and grab the bin, although not until I’ve collared a forkie and got him to shift a metal staircase that was also in the way. Back to tip off and as there’s no one in the weighbridge I get my head down for half hour after all the chasing about that’s been going on. My next job is to take one of the lads from the scrapyard to clear some rubbish out of a house that the company had been renting for a couple of the blokes. I don’t recall manual labour being mentioned in the job offer but in go a 3 piece suite, dining table and chairs and a few other bits of tat. Our yard is also a waste transfer station so these get tipped on a different part of the yard. Ooohh how exciting. Job number 4 is another drop and swap in Maldon and the return journey puts me almost past the front door, so I decide to stop for another half hour to get over the multidrop and manual labour. An hour later and I head back but there’s nothing happening at the moment. There is a small job to do, but it’ll have to be done with the ELV unit’s little Isuzu 7½t which has got a Meccano crane on it. (ELV stands for End Life Vehicles, there is a de pollution facility where they drain all the fluids, remove the batteries etc before junking the rest of it. The 7½ tonner is out so I take position in the cab and await it’s return. Some time later it appears and I enjoy watching two blokes make heavy weather of unloading an old Rover 214. Bearing in mind that it’s going to be scrap soon I cannot understand why they are messing about with the ramps and winching it off. Forklifting it off the side would take seconds but it gives me something to watch anyway. Finally they’re done and I get the keys and try an suss out the diddly little Palfinger crane. To operate the controls I have to stoop as they are so low but it’s a doddle. As I climb in the cab I nearly put my head through the roof as I have become used to climbing into much bigger and higher vehicles, this is like getting into a van by comparison. It’s a 5 minute trip up the road to the Essex Police Transport garages at the old Ford Rally team base at Boreham airfield. It might be 5 minutes to get there but it’s about 20 minutes to find someone who can point me in the right direction of where the gun bin is. Eventually I get to the right place and the bin is wheeled out so I can lift it on. Once on it’s a five minute run back to tip, the bin is full of knives and guns that have been put through a big set of shears and there’s no nasty looking stuff in there. Shotgun barrels, pistols, big knives, small knives, knuckledusters. Back round to return the bin and back to the yard for the last time. Off home by 1700. Distance 135Km

Wednesday 8th November 2006
0630 Start. First thing this morning was to drop the empty bin and run down to Margaretting to collect a customers own bin, return to the yard, tip it and replace on site. Next job was load two empty 12 yard bins and trundle off to Neasden Underground depot. When I came here last week it took about 15 minutes to explain to the gate guardian what we were trying to do, he was from Vietnam or similar and didn’t really grasp the situation. Today there was an Eastern European in the gatehouse and although I knew where the first bin was headed I needed to find out about the second so I asked him to call up the wheel lathe shop and ask if someone could come out and see me. He replied by asking me how he’d do that, I told him to use the phone and ring someone but it didn’t really sink so I just left him to it. Surely at the depot gate there must be various contractors in and out with different requests, why can’t these places have people who can understand English. I decided to do what I could and hope that someone might show up. It was a bit of faffing about here as I had to drop both bins one behind the other, pick up their own 6yd from under the chute and tip it into the one of the 12’s usually the 6yd would go back under the chute and we’d take the 12 back but they have decided to have a 12 on site and do straight forward exchanges. So I now how to dump the 6 and reinstall the 12 under the chute. By now someone has appeared and he asks me to put the 6 over there behind the empty 12 for the next job. Pick up the 12, nip round grab the 6 and hang it off the back, reverse into position and drop down before reattaching the chains and asking where the other 12 for exchange is. Well it’s just over there he says pointing to the other side of about 30 rows of train depot. This involves going out of the depot gate, crossing the North Circular and entering through the other gate before going up the drive underneath the North Circular. When I book out I have already been on site for an hour, I book in round the corner and can’t be bothered to ask where it might be so I just drive round over the enormous speed humps that shake everything loose until I come to the very end of the depot where I find one of our skips. Empty. I call up the TM and stick the tacho on break whilst waiting for an answer, and before long he’s back on to check I’ve got the 4 wheeler as he has another L.U. job. Right it’s Griffin House, Marylebone Road have you got you’re A-Z with you? Yes but I’m sure I know where that is, actually I think it’s on Old Marylebone Road I reply. Oh, Oh well OK then. Now I’ve not been that way for over a year but I remember seeing a large office type building with a couple of big shutters on the ground floor which were open one day revealing a Tube lines truck in the workshop area. Now I hope it’s that place as Marylebone Road is a pig of place to start looking for an unknown building, also it makes me look good when I know exactly where a random place is. I finish my break and leave Neasden depot and decide to follow the NCR to the A40 and come in over the elevated section. As I pull into Old Marylebone Road, I am pleased to find I’m right and nip in to see the security guard to find out where to go. This one communicates English OK but tells me to go through to the workshop and get someone from there to deal with it. Eventually I find a bloke who tells me that the bin is in the yard outside and to get there via a couple of right turns. The gate is shut and no-one answers the buzzer so I go back in to security and explain I need the gate opening which I figure is a security type job. Not so. I am taken back into the workshop and shown an intercom that connects me to someone who is getting seriously pissed off about security telling everyone to call him, however he tells me where I need to go and finally I find the right man. He takes me back to security and asks for the some paperwork for the scrap metal and the numb nuts guard suddenly seems to know what’s going on. The yard is tight and there is just enough room to squeeze in and drop the empty before pulling out the full one, trouble is there is no where to dump the full one whilst I put the empty in, so the empty is hung off the back and carefully manoeuvred into position. It’s 1500 by the time I get away and I decide not to take the obvious A41 route to the A1 as I’ll likely cop a big jam at J25. I decide instead to use the Camden, Holloway, Finsbury Park, Tottenham route to the A406 / M11 to miss the roadworks. Big mistake. There is a gas leak by Finsbury Park station and although my route is not shut it is having to cope with tons of traffic being forced to turn onto it and it takes about an hour from Camden to Manor House. This delay means that I get heavier traffic all the way back and I get back to the yard about 1745. Distance 280Km

Thursday 9th November 2006
0645 Start. Following yesterdays late return the first job is to tip the bin and head off to EDF at Rayleigh to exchange theirs. Rather than wait until the bin had been swapped they had decided to keep piling the scrap in and it took a bit of time to try and push it down with the top bar before I could even attempt to net it up. Back to the yard and once tipped I double it up with another 12yd and leave both in the middle of the yard. Now I swapped all my gear over into the beast, our twin bed T Reg Scania 8 wheeler that has now got a new door handle and fixed air sprung seat (thank god for that) Both bins are loaded on and I male my way to Larkfield on the edge of Maidstone in Kent. The skip here is inside a big warehouse but I’m just a couple of minutes too late as a lorry has just gone in to be loaded, however I’m pointed in the direction of the kettle and I take the time to get 15 minutes on the clock, although it’s nearer 30 by the time I can reverse in and drop the 2 bins one in front of the other. I then pull out so they can drag the full one out from it’s spot next to the door. The forkie here is good and spins it round and pushes it out to the waiting chains for me to lift straight on. Whilst this is going on he brings out the spare empty and does the same. I try the proper way of using the rear bin to push the first one forward but it only goes part way so the empty goes back down and it’s a charge up the road with a quick dab of brakes to slide the full one up the front with a nice loud bang. The back bin goes on and I head off having been on site for almost an hour. I’m headed for Reading and make my 2nd journey ever along the M26, although if the junction at the M25 allowed access on and off the A21 I’d have been a frequent traveller over the time I’ve been driving. I pull into Clacket Lane for a 30 minute break and am away about 1300. Traffic is OK except for the A33 in Reading but it gives me a chance for a scan of the map to see where I’m headed. Most of my maps are the Philips OS county street maps and the Berkshire is no exception, usually these are excellent but the centre of Reading is in the corner of 4 pages with little or no overlap. Unfortunately I miss my turn and end up on an industrial estate and check the map, I realise the problem and decide to turn at the roundabout marked just up the road. Although it’s not a mini roundabout it’s only smallish and where I’d have got my old Volvo round this one isn’t playing ball and I have to shunt to get round. Finally I get to the road I need and am bemused to find that none of the units seem to have numbers, quite a few have no signs and there are lots of little sprigs containing more units. I waste a stack of time by driving round and asking people if they know where this place is, or what their number is but eventually I spot the skip outside an unnamed and unnumbered unit. Fortunately there is a gap opposite in the parked cars and through this alone am I able to squeeze in and exchange the bins. All this messing about means it’s nudging 1600 by the time I leave Reading and I take the A329M route back to the M4 rather than the A33. Approaching Heathrow the matrix signs are displaying M25 J22-J26 long delays so I decide to go southbound and take my chances. What the matrix signs didn’t actually mention was that the M25 was just a series of long delays right the way round to the Dartford Tunnel, although it did say delays between J29-J26 which were non existent so I guess that’s even then. It dawns on me that I’m not going to make it back without another stop so I pull into the first layby off the M25 and take a reluctant 45 just 20 minutes from the yard. Inspection of the tacho reveals that I have gone over so I explain the delay and that I stopped ASAP on the reverse and signed it. Finally I got back to the yard at 1945. Distance 459Km

Friday 10th November 2006
0645 Start. Like yesterday the day starts by tipping the bins from last night, this is done and I’m off to Basildon first exchange being at the New Holland tractor plant. I know this one is going to be agro when the security bod asks me to drop the empty on to the weighbridge so they can log the empty weight. The two bins are nested so I have to drop them both unchain the bottom one, chain the top and lift it clear and then put them all back on again. Anyway I am given a vague description of where to go and told to find a bloke called Clive to get my paperwork. Clive can (or not) be found in an office up a fire escape about half way along the back of the building, certainly not obvious and it took ages to find someone who might know where I could find him. When I located his office he wasn’t there but there was a note telling you to ring him on ext ??? from an internal phone, as he said he’d be about 10 minutes I decided to go and swap the bin over to save time. Usual procedure here but I left the second empty and went back to the entrance to go through the weighing palaver again. After I put in on, I dropped the chains so that I could gently slide it up front. However the bin weighed about 7t and was seeping machine oil from the metal turnings within, when I jabbed the brakes it steaming down the bed like a locomotive and I thought it was going to take the cab off. Didn’t arf make a loud bang though. Back round to see Clive who had now got an Onyx driver in the office, I must have waited about 5 minutes for him to sort out the paperwork before he even looked at mine, I handed him the weighbridge ticket and told him I’d load my empty and come back. It still took about 5 minutes though and I was there on site for just over an hour. The next job was York International just around the corner, again a straightforward exchange but complicated by having to wander round the factory complex looking for someone called Chris to get a gate pass. Eventually located I hand her the collection note (12 yd skip) and she asks what I have collected as we have got various different metals bin there, I could be taking anything but they are happy to issue the ticket and finally I can escape and head back to tip off. The engine and gearbox are steaming nicely from all the machine oil that has seeped out of the front skip and there’s a fair bit of metal swarf cooking nicely too, it must have shot over the bulkhead when the bin hit the stops, not wanting to set the beast on fire I give it a dowsing with the pressure washer when I get back to tip. The first skip tips OK and I drop it off so I can tip the front one, nipping on and off the bridge after something comes off. I raise the trip hooks select Reverse High and give a gentle dab on the brakes to slide the swarf bin half way back, now I can grab it with the chains and drag it back, attach the front pair and start to tip. However it doesn’t catch the hooks properly and swings off needing to be replaced on the bed and start over again. And again. The problem is that only the rear half is full and it is tipping the skip so the hooks aren’t grabbing the rail. I drop the bin, run round and get it from the other way and this does the trick. Finally I have finished these two jobs but wonder if I could have done it with the 4 wheeler in the same time. After a brief 30 minute break I swap over to the 4 wheeler and run over to Braintree to a site where there are 3 to be exchanged, I figure even with 8 wheeler it will need 2 trips and I’ll suss it out first with the small one to make sure I can get in later and do the other 2. There’s not tons of room here but it will be possible so I nip back the 10 miles or so and after tipping and loading the bin back on to the 8 wheeler (we have only got 2 spare 12yd skips at the moment) I swap over once again and retrace my steps. Same as before but with faffing about sliding the bins forward and back although I have got it going better now. Back to the yard and one of the bins misses the hooks and it doesn’t seem to be my day. Finally after getting all the paperwork sorted I’m off for home at 1630. Distance 135Km Total Distance 1207Km