15th - 19th October 2007

Monday.
0645 Start. First thing this morning I had to sort out all my paperwork from last week following Friday's debacle. Once sorted I'm off to Waltham Cross to load an 8t Kobelco that's going to Collier Row, Romford. I'm done by half nine and that's all my booked work done so I stop to fill up the tanks and plan on a bit of off roading on the way back. As in off the road, in a layby.

I'm just climbing back in the cab and the phone goes and ruins things, can I go to Hinxton near Saffron Walden and move a forklift. Actually it's no bad thing as it'll keep me out of the way a bit longer. At Hinxton I'm expecting to load the groundworkers JCB 926 but it's not here and no one knows anything about it. After some calls it transpires that it's a Telehandler that's going and no-one on site had been told. There were also 3 crates of bricks, a shovel bucket and a personnel cage to load as well. Loading took some as the guy driving was painfully s l o w. Still no hurry and I'm away about 1215.





It's off to Chipping on the A10 between Royston and Buntingford to tip off and everyone's at lunch when I arrive so I unload myself and was surprised at how nice the little Merlo was, I've driven Telehandlers of all shapes and sizes and this was probably one of the easiest to use and it also had excellent visbilty. Hence the Panarama badging no doubt. Just a shame about the bogey colour.

An easy meander back through rural Essex and I'm done by 1515.
Distance 269Km

Tuesday
0645 Start. I collect my meagre paperwork from my clip this morning and there's a post it stuck to the front. They want me to take our LDV to Jovic plant at Sandon first and collect a breaker. Well screw that, it's five minutes down the road so it's hardly going to cost any more in diesel so I ignore it and take my truck. It's not just that I hate the LDV but it's lacking heater, radio, decent mirrors, any form of driver comfort, and there's no kettle to have a brew up whilst I wait for them to open up. Back at the yard I'm waiting for the fitter to arrive to change the couplings on the breaker so it can go on our brand new ZX50. Whilst I'm waiting I attach it to the machine and have it ready for when he arrives, there's no bungs on the hoses and hydraulic pisses out everywhere.

Apparently the fitter is out today so one of the bosses attempts to change the couplings, this drags on and on and finally the other one changes them. Only to find that the piping on the arm is too long and the coplings will foul on the hitch. There's spanners flying so I leave them to it and slope off to collect a pair of dumpers from nearby Mundon.


Back at the yard I run the back dumper off, and wait to load the ZX50 which now has a hydraulic fitter working on it. He needs more bits so I run down to Colchester to Target Plant to clear the other dumper. Back at the yard they've discovered the breaker circuit is faulty on the new ZX50 and Norm is loading a 5t Yanmar with the breaker on to his wagon. There's not a lot for me to do, so I fit my new radio, give the truck a quick wash down, scrape the yard and help Norm load up for tomorrow when he gates back. I'm away by 1545.







Distance 134Km

Wednesday.
0645 Start. It's an uneventful 2 hour run up to Peterborough this morning to my first job. I'm loading a shrink wrapping machine from a place where they stick free gifts to the front of magazines. There's forklift slots on it so getting it on is fairly straightforward, getting it inboard takes a little more effort as it's quite wide.
It's soon sorted by the winch and strapped down nice and tight before heading back down the A1M / M11. It's a bit of a slack day so I stop for 1/2 hour near Duxford on the way down before hitting the road again and off to the old Bata shoe factory at East Tilbury. I'd never been there before and I was surprised by the size of the place, although it's all storage and industrial units now. It's forked off and I stop for another half hour in the sunshine afterwards as I'm not far off my 4.5 hours.

There's a move booked for tomorrow collecting from Stanford le Hope which I'll pass on the way back so I call to see if it's ready and save but unfortunately the machine is needed for the rest of the day so I trundle back to Danbury. Back at the yard I lend a hand loading up the lowloader with 3 old vans for the scrapyard and once they're gone shunt the other around to make some space. It's a bit slack this week so I'm off home at 1545.

Distance 340Km

Thursday.

0645 Start. No prises for guessing where I'm heading this morning. Down at Stanford le Hope they aren't quite ready as they thought I was coming at 10.00 but by the time the kettle has boiled and I've necked the 1st mug of tea they're ready and on goes the little Hyundai 55.


It's going to Cambourne in Cambridgeshire which is a new town that is still being built, it's about 10 years in and still has got another 5 or 6 to go. Luckily I'd got directions from our lowloader driver Bob as it is a vast place. Basically get on the Haul Road and go along it for about 2 miles until you see a big Georgian style house.



It's a bit odd, one side is all housing or construction the other parkland and more land ready to be developed.

Nice little tri-axle drag just left there.

Eventually I find the right bit and rattle the machine off. It's back down to Essex again, there's nothing else booked so I meander down top the tanks and stop for another brew before going back to the yard.



There's not much happening so I get sent on some errands in the pickup truck, I've not long been back from collecting a breaker when I get sent out with it to replace a broken breaker in Erith. It's gone half two but not being speed restricted makes a bid difference and I'm back by 1630. But for the 20 minutes to get through the tolls I'd have been back around four.



Distance 253Km + some miles in the pickup.



Friday.

0645 Start. It's off to Hewden's at Dagenahm for the day and I'm there at 0730 and given a great wodge of paperwork. There's just one delivery and a stack of collections, one of which is urgent and another fairly important.

Machine no 1 & 2 are loaded on, these are a 3t dumper and a 3t CAT mini digger, and I head out past all the inbound traffic for the delivery which is to a primary school in Grays.

Machine number 3 is a CAT TH330 Telehandler that is the urgent one, it's parked on the entrance ramp to an underground car park in South Woodford. It's not actually in the way as such but the owners of the building are screaming to get it shifted as it should have gone yesterday, apparently the bloke in at Hewdens yesterday did one load out (2 machines) and another load in (2 machines) for his days work.


Although there's a bit of spare space on board there's nothing else to collect in that direction so it goes straight back to the yard at Dagenham. I've just got that one off and there's a bit of a flap going on, they've got a telehandler which is knackered at a nearby school and needs replacing urgently so I load this JCB 532-120 (machine number 4) and deliver it to the school 5 minutes away.


Where they return this CAT TH83 to go back to Hewdens (no.5)

Back on track I head homeward bound to Chelmsford where I load this CAT 1.5t mini (no.6)

And this little skiploader (no.7) The skiploader refuses to start, it sound like the battery is a bit week so I get the jump start pack out and give that a go. It's still not going and the fuel gauge is on empty, however there's a drop of red in the tank so it must be summat else. Like the big red stop button on the dash.

7 machines loaded and it's only lunch so I celebrate this and the nearing of my 4 hours of driving with a cuppa and a snooze in a layby on the A130. Full of renewed energy I'm soon down at the Tilbury Riverside Railfreight Terminal looking like the odd man out amongst all the box jockeys there. One advantage is that I drive in, find a space, go and jump in no.8, a JCB 926 and roar up the ramps before leaving shortly after. No doubt a record for anyone to be turned round there in less than a hour or several.

There's still a bit of floor space left right at the back so I head over to Rainham (Essex) for no.9 which is a little 800mm roller. Unfortunately it's about 4" too long (as if) and the ramps will not fold. Things like that don't stop me though so I run the 926 off and scoop the roller up on the forks and drive back on again complete with roller on the forks.

As I did this on a bustling site with several other drivers milling about it occurred to me that this was either a moment of brilliance or a moment of stupidity depending on whether it worked or not and if nothing fell off.

Brilliance it was then and I make the final run back to Hewden's at Dagenham where they're taking the piss because I've left a bit of floor space about 3' square.

During the afternoon I'd had a "Can you just?" phone call so I head off down the A127 to Basildon.

I passed this 'poor' farmer on the way in his shiny John Deere towing this brand new CAT 11t machine behind. This really pisses me off about farmers, here he's moving a seriously heavy bit of kit at a fair speed (30mph) on a dual carriageway. Fast and slow enough to be a danger if you understand on a trailer that has no MOT, no licence requirements to tow it and he has no number plate either. If I were to tow it, I'd be up for serious scrutiny.

The last one of the day (no.10) is our original ZX50 which goes back to the yard and is unloaded.

It's a late (for me) finish at 1745 although much better than last week. And a much better day than this day of last year which is when my previous plant job came to an abrupt ending.

Distance 291Km

Total Distance this week. 1487Km