26th November - 1st December 2007

Monday
0700 Start. No hurry this morning, the first machine is still on from Friday and it's delivered to a house in Danbury less than a mile away. Then it's a 5 minute run down to Jovic Plant at Sandon to load a 6t dumper and drop that off with the Yanmar 8 tonner. 2 deliveries done in less than a hour.

Next job is also fairly local, just down the road at Maldon I'm loading a 5t Hamm roller at TCP's yard.
I'm away about 0830 and off over the Dartford and into Kent. It's around 0915 when I pass through the tolls and it's clear both ways. M25 through to J5 and A21 to Tunny Wells and off into East Sussex to Mayfield College in the amusingly named Little Trodgers Lane, Mayfield.

It's not really possible to get into the site and all the plant gets loaded outside in the road. Unfortunately there's already a lowloader there and I'm not the first to carve up the verge, it was a bit boggy and it was a difflock to the rescue moment to get through.




It's quite an impressive place, that apparently was where my boss went to school. They called it Colditz.


Don't you just love the way everything has a fancy name. Dust Suppression Unit!



There's also a backload for TCP collecting their smaller Rammax roller. Unfortunately it's
a. It's caked in crap


b. On a slope


c. And my winch is still not refitted



After recruiting a forklift driver to give it a shove I finally get it on board and head back to Tunny and on to the A21
There's a nice big layby on the A21 and I decide to stop for a 45 there rather than after I'm off the M25. I pull in as the kettle boils, have a quick cuppa and doze off until the alarm goes.





Then I reach to flick the tacho off break only to find.

I forgot to set it to break in the first place.





I've still got 1hr 20 minutes on the clock and I reckon I can just about make it to Maldon and back to Danbury. Unfortunately the M25 at 1300 is far worse than it was at 0930 and I spend 20 minutes from J3 to the tolls scuppering plans of getting all the way. I decide to stop at the yard and pull in just in time.







45 minutes later I'm off out for the short run to Maldon, where I neatly slide the Rammax down the ramps and get a H&S type lecture about it. Obviously they weren't bothered enough to have offered assistance in the first place and I'm aware that they can spin sideways if you're not careful with them. It tried and I stopped it. End of. Back at the yard for a 1630 finish after loading a 3t Komatsu for tomorrow.





Distance 262Km.





Tuesday.

0645 Start. Ready loaded from last night it's off down the A12 for Romford this morning. Surprisingly the Brook St. Junction with the M25 is clear and I've tipped the machine and am out the gate by 0745. It's a clear run back out to the yard where I get sent out on an errand in a van to collect some parts from near Stansted Airport. Back at the yard there's an hour to kill so I wash down a dumper that I brought back last week and hadn't been touched.



My next real job was to collect a 6t Hitachi machine from nearby Little Baddow, it's an old machine that belongs to a developer and is a jinxed one at that. I managed to lose the cab guards off the roof of it, our other driver mangled the frame that they sit in on a low branch and last time I moved it one of my front brakes seized and nearly caught fire.



No such drama today however, it's loaded and transported down to a site in Shenfield without incident . It's gone a bit slack today there's just a 1.5t mini to collect from near Gt.Leighs to go back to the yard.


Mud Removal Unit

Back at the yard it's fairly clear as almost all the machines are out and I finish off sweeping the yard with the forklift and it's hydraulic sweeper.



An early finish today, 1530.

Distamce 144Km

Wednesday.
0645 Start. Off to Greenshields JCB today to load a 535-125. I'm there at 0730 but there's not much activity until about 0800 when they finally get the gate open. I wander in and notice that they are actually supposed to open at 0730. I get the paperwork sorted and they tell me that they'll just get the machine out for me.

This involves moving about 12 pallets of bits and bobs out into the car park.


Followed by moving 1 van, 2 teletrucks and 3 minidiggers to get the machine out. (It's the one right at the back)

Materials Elevation Unit.





Finally it's out and soon on board ready for the off about 0840. It's down to MAP Plant on the A13 with this one, luckily the traffic is fine today and I'm soon in the yard for a quick tip.

They've obviously been spending some cash, the 2 unwritten ones are both 57 plate.


Next move is from Melbourn on the A10 near Royston so it's a blast up the M11 to Duxford and across on the A505. I'm not booked until 1300 and it's gonna be 1100 when I arrive so I plan for a break in a nice quiet spot on the way into the village.

Only they've filled it.
Oh Bollards.

It's my birthday today so I celebrate by finding a big layby, and crawling onto the bunk for an hour of snooze. (Must be my age)



It's down this narrow lane and you turn into the site. Since I was last there they have narrowed the access right down and put big kerbs in making it impossible to get in without damaging something.
In this case removing the orange barrier fence and bending the tree a bit. Next minute the bloke comes out asking if I'm going to anything about the fence. I reply that yes I'll probably remove the rest of it when I leave.

He's unhappy about his tree and gives me the 'They've had bigger in here before' line, Ah yes I reply but not since that kerb went in. He maintains that it's not his problem, whereas I think that it will be his problem everytime a bin wagon, builders merchant, removal van or whatever goes in there.

In fairness he wasn't arsy about it, if I'd been there for 28 years I'd probably share his concern but I'd be round at the site demanding the access to be widened to allow vehicles better access. Something which everyone agrees is inadequate.

It's just an 8t Kobelco to load here.



Load Security Unit.

It's going to Panfield near Braintree to a site down a small lane. unfortunately there's a low cable right across the gateway and the cabguards will foul it, so it has to be tracked off into the road and then taken onto the site.


I'm soon out of there and on my way back to Danbury. Back at the yard it's suggested I could run down to South Woodham Ferrers to collect one of our 5 tonners but I persuade them against it as it'll be school time when I arrive and it's a pig of a site anyway. I manage to escape for an early one at 1515.

Distance 320Km.



Friday.

0645 Start. A quick blast down to Witham this morning for one of my less favourite jobs, moving concrete blocks. I'm booked for 0730, there at 0715 and have to wait until 0830 until there's someone to load me with a forklift. There's a total of 27 packs at an estimated 1.1t each, I opt for 12 packs and nip round to the weighbridge to check. I'm just under at 25440Kg so I strap them on and hit the A12 / A120 for Harwich to deliver them to a reclaim yard at Parkestone. It's a good run, only 45 minutes or so and once there I'm quickly tipped and off back to Witham for another load.





Back at Witham our other 6 wheeler is loaded ready with 7 packs and I have to wait another 1/2 hour or so for the forklift to load the last 7 packs. Back down to Harwich to tip, and a stop along the A120 for a break on the return.



I get another job called through, it's the collection I avoided yesterday and I'm off sharpish when the timer goes to get to the site, loaded and out before school run time.



I arrive at South Woodham Ferrers at 1415 and actually manage to get backed down the road to the site entrance fairly easily. Getting on the site is impossible and you have to park outside and wander in. I'm away for about 5 minutes finding the machine and getting the buckets and when I track the machine out, there's an irate lady waving arms and generally being upset because I've blocked her drive. She's ranting a bit, but when I offer to move straight away, she admits that she doesn't need to go out just yet but might because she's got children at school. Have you got children? she asks me, Yes 3 actually I reply. I agree with her that it's a problem not being able to get on the site, and admit that I'd really rather not be here at all. I promise that in 5 minutes, the machine will be loaded, secured and gone and apologise for not checking with her first before blocking her in.



She's actually OK in the end and to be honest I can see where's she's at, it probably happens several times a day and everyone is just doing their job. South Woodham Ferrers is an 1980's new town and the site they are building on is a small plot of undeveloped land right in the centre of a lot of housing.



Back at the yard the Hitachi comes off and I collect a passenger, one of machine drivers who is coming with me to help load the next machine.




It's a site in Danbury down a narrowish road that is used as a ratrun to avoid the A414, the machine has to be loaded in the road and it's a bit awkward to get the machine out of the site. And it's getting dark so having an extra pair of (skilled) hands is a definative bonus. Back at the yard the machine comes off and I'm off by 1715.



Distance 288Km.

Friday.
0645 Start. My first job is to collect a couple of machines from Wickham Bishops, nearish to Maldon. It's a weird area and I manage to not exactly get lost but not quite end up where I expected to be. There are lots of scissor type crossroads around there and I always needed to turn the way you can't fit around.

I find the place about 0730 and the machines are parked up but the keys are not obvious and haven't been hidden in the usualish places. Someone tries ringing the man who'll have the key, but can't get through. He'll be here at 8 they say.

0820 and he rolls up and disappears around the back of the house, whilst I'm hanging around waiting I notice that he's chucked the keys on the seat. Ignorant bastard.

The dumper has got a broken beacon and tipping lever, and both it and the digger are caked so I reward his behaviour with 4 nice muddy trails out of the gate into the road and up to the ramps. As I leave I see him with a brush sweeping up.

These machines have been crosshired in, so I take them back to Lavenham Plant in Cold Norton.
1.5t JCB 8052

3t Dumper

My next job is to meet our other 6 wheeler in Harlow, luckily he calls me and lets me know there's delays on the M25 as I'd been heading that way and hadn't heard anything. I meet up with him on the A414 at Ongar and we travel in convoy to the site where we are loading a couple of containers.

It's a bit tight to get near enough with the crane.


Eventually we find the owner of a van and just manage to get enough space to get in.

Once we get the 20' lifted I back in and we load it on me out of the way. That's made enough space to pull forward enough to reach the 24' that we load on Norm.

Twistlock technician I aint, it's straps for this one.



We stop for a brew up and head off to the M25 and onto Basildon. On the way we pass the cause of the delays (and get delayed ourselves) Norbert Netzler has somehow managed to roll over at J28 right across the northbound on slip.



We make our way to Rawley Plant to off load the containers. I give myself a brush up on the crane and unload whilst Norm acts as slinger / banksman.



We head off in different directions now and I'm heading back to Romford to collect the Komatsu 27R 3 tonner that I dropped off at a school earlier in the week. It's a quick stop, get in, get it on and get it out (as it were) Then it's a quick blast back to the yard to tip off as I'm still not done yet.




At 1500 I leave the yard and head over to a demolition contractors in West Hanningfield to load materials. They are based on an industrial estate which is very crowded, there's also a steel stockholders, skip hire company, and roofing merchants. All of which wanting to get trucks in and cars and vans out. Most of the available space is taken up with their FH12 & 5 axle Nooteboom lowloader and pair of 8 leg roll offs. I end up shunting back and forwards whilst we load, timbers, sleepers, ballast, ply and a large toolbox. I check the weight on the steel co's bridge and I'm just over 24t and about done. Strap it all down and head back to Danbury. Finished at 1715.



Distance 249Km.

Saturday.
0630 Start. Not a regular thing for me to work on a Saturday but the cash is useful especially at this time of the year. I'm off to the demolition job in Ashord, Kent and have an unheard of traffic free run down there. Maybe there's something to be said for weekend working after all.

I'd been told roughly where it was but it was easy enough to find just behind the McArthur Glen outlet place. Haven't been there for a couple of years since I used to deliver to the Cafe Nero shops.

It's just gone 0800 and the lowloader has just arrived and they are sorting themselves so I park up for a brew before going to see what's happening.


The job is to demolish a signal box that sits alongside the road, there's no compound or off road area available just a lane closure to give them half the road.

I get backed in behind the lowloader and we handball the ply off to make a temporary road surface for the machine to run so they don't churn up the tarmac. Once the temp. surface is down they set to unloading the 20 tonner and 6t machines, there's just enough space to get them off the trailer and clear the ramps.
That brick building is the signal box. They are planning to start at 2000 tonight and have it down by 0000. Trucks turning up at 0500 & 0800 to load to rubble and job complete 2359 Sunday.



Once they're off the lowloader is moved and I run round in front of the 20 tonner so that we can use it to unload. It takes a while as everything is lifted with chains from the rear, the machine driver has to try and peer over the top of my ramps and is looking straight into the sun. I'm slinging on the back of the wagon, there's another guy on the bank signalling and unhooking and the lowloader driver has reappeared as another banksman for when the machine turns. Finally about 1100 I'm done and clear out of the way so that they can unload 2 more lowloaders both carrying machines. A clear run back to the yard and I'm done by 1300.

Distance 250Km.

Total Distance 1369Km

19th -23rd November 2007

Monday.
0600 Start. I'd not planned on starting quite this early but I woke before the alarm, obviously excited???? about coming back to work. I'd planned being in about half six just in case I needed a jump start, it was a good job the battery was OK as the other 2 had already left when I arrived. It amazes me the volume of traffic on the A12 at 0615 and at half past I am sitting in a jam waiting to exit at the Brook Street M25 junction. Glad I got up early for this. Thankfully the M25 is OK and the tolls are running well with no queing to get through. I'm off down the A2 to the Skanska site at Gravesend work seems to be going great guns over here in Kent and the slip road from the M25 to the A2 is now open and I'm soon across the new viaduct and on to the A2. Work only started here about 18 months ago and it looks like the whole job will be done before much longer.

Further down the A2 is where the Skanska site is and here too the progress is impressive, I'm here to load a JCB 4CX and I trundle round and find the compound where the contractor has got all his gear stored. They arrive just after 0730 and start faffing, my planned 15 minute break on the tacho creeps round to an early 45 but that'll help me out later.




We get the 4CX on and secure and I'm out of the gate just after 0830 joining the A2 which is going nowhere fast. Then just like that it picks up and clears and things are looking brighter (although the weather is looking anything but) I consider sneaking around the Bluewater loop to drop down on the top of the toll booths for the tunnel but decide to risk it and am rewarded by an unhinderred passage all the way to and through the toll booths into the tunnel. That's quite rare at any time especially nearing 0900.

On the down side the weather is appalling and the traffic pretty horrendous all the way round to the M1 and through the roadworks. Finally things improve (sun struggles out briefly & traffic now OK) about 1030 as I'm around the Milton Keynes area. I plug on and take the M6 and make my 2nd ever use of the M6toll as far as J4 where I head up the A38 for Lichfield.

I've only got a rough idea of where I'm headed but it's a Nuttall site so I look for the green cabins and I'm soon roughly in the right place. A quick call to the site contact and he soon appears in his van and leads me to where he wants the machine.
This dozer was a tight fit going through, he ended up with a banksman riding on it to watch him through.

I managed to find a clear spot to stop and unload. It's clear because it's about 3" thick gooey mud that sticks to everything. A 15 minute stop here and I'm back onto the toll road (another £8 gone) and I make Corley services with about 20mins on the clock. At 1400 my half hour's up and I make my way back across the A14 to the top of the M11.



Passed this big fella on the way. I thought it was going to bigger than it was from the width of the thing.

The rest of the journey was OK for traffic but pretty miserable weatherwise. Back in the yard at 1700 having done nearly 8.5 hours driving, pretty unusual for me these days.

Distance 558Km

Tuesday.
0645 Start. This morning got off to a bad start when the truck wouldn't start. Flat battery again. Both other drivers had already gone and the fitter was on site somewhere. I managed to breathe some life into it about 0730 with a jump start onto one battery from the bosses Ford Ranger.

First job was at Lt.Leighs near Chelmsford loading a 5t digger and 3t dumper and moving them back to a landscapers yard about 5 miles away.

Next up was a site clearance at Halstead, it's a poxy place to go as you have to load in a communal parking area and the locals don't like it. Sure enough after only a few minutes someone comes out and starts having a moan about it. She doesn't get far with me and starts moving along the various people before steaming off to see the site agent. A few minutes later she quietly slinks back to her house, obviously getting short thrift from the agent. If she'd lived there for years you'd understand her point, but her house was one of the first phase and is about a year old.





There's a few packs of bricks, blocks, cills, some tipping skips and a mixer to be loaded. It all has to be loaded up the ramps by forklift as there is not enough space to load from the side. After an hour and a half I'm ready and take the materials to a site in Danbury to unload. Unloading is slow as it comes off the same by a shorter reach machine and less experienced driver.



1300 and I'm empty and headed back to Halstead to reload. It's simpler this time round, a couple of road plates, a fuel tank & stand, and the forklift (JCB 540-140) this too is taken to Danbury and is quickly offloaded. It had been planned to take the smaller machine and some bits to nearby Sandon but that's been postponed so I head back round the corner to the yard. Finished at 1645.

Distance 237Km

Wednesday.
0645 Start. It starts. By all accounts a fairly light day if the paperwork is to believed, first call at Silver End to load a 3t dumper.



It's a nice easy load and it's taken to a site in Sible Hedingham where access is through the Premdor factory. It's dropped off and replace by a 4.5t Kobelco and a 6t dumper.



Now it's back to Silver End to unload the dumper, squeezing it cheekily past a muckaway tipper being loaded. The Kobelco stays on board and is run down to Tiptree and dropped in their yard.

Next job is one of ours, collecting a 3t dumper and 8t Yanmar from Purleigh near Maldon. The site is a quagmire and the dumper is travelling sideways as much as forwards. At one point I have to drag it with the machine as it cannot climb a slope due to the amount of muck caked on the wheels. Unfortunately it has to be loaded in the road, but the dumper does at least go on OK. The 8t is another matter and slides down the ramps even after clearing the tracks out. I try the usual trick of wrapping a chain round a strong point on the body and pulling against it whilst tracking up but things are not very successful. I decide that I'd let the hirer try as it was on a road and he'd obviously be a more experienced operator.





It would appear not. He was next to useless and less happy about loading it than I, his suggestion was to try and clear the tracks completely but without a steam cleaner to do the tracks and ramps this would not work either.

Luckily the site is only a few miles away from the yard and there was a spare machine driver in the yard today so he was summoned to assist. Next thing I know there's an argument underway, the hirer is spoiling for a fight and has taken our drivers comment completely out of context. I tell them both to stop pissing about and try it get it loaded and away.

Our machine driver does manage to load the digger but it was quite hairy and at one point had quite a lot of track overhanging. At least he admitted it was dodgy and didn't make me look like an arse.

Back at the yard the 2 machines are dropped off for cleaning and fuelling and I head out into Chelmsford to collect our 3t Komatsu from The Miami Hotel.



On the way back in I call at Jovic Plant to load a 6t dumper and unload both at the yard. The 8t Yanmar is now ready and it is loaded with the 6t dumper and chained ready for the morning. Until the plan changes and it gets offloaded and transferred to the lowloader.

Finished at 1645. Distance 154Km





Thursday


0645 Start. I've still got the dumper on and now have to trail over to Target Plant at Colchester to collect a 5t Yanmar & breaker. I run the dumper off to load the buckets in and it slides nicely down the ramps. The pair are going to Gt.Leighs between Chelmsford and Braintree and it takes well over an hour to do the journey as the traffic is bad getting through Colchester to the A12.

Gt.Leighs to Gt.Dunmow next, it's a short hop and I arrive to load an 8t Volvo which is going to Bury St.Edmunds in Suffolk. It's a bit of a drag after Braintree, all single carriageway road through Halstead, Sudbury and on to BSE and I arrive on site around midday.

I've got another collection to make from a farm at Boxted on the Essex / Suffolk border just off the A134 between Sudbury and Colchester, it's a scissor lift this time, an unusual piece of plant for me to have to move. I try several ways to load it, slowly forwards, slowly backwards, taking a run up at the ramps but there is little control over the power sent to the wheels and it slithers about all over the place. I've still got no winch so I have to get one of the blokes on the farm to give it a shove with his telehandler.



After a 45 minute break parked in the sunshine I head back to Colchester and pick up the A12 for a better run right through to Harold Wood to drop the scissor lift back at their yard.



A short run back to the yard and I'm off home at 1615. Distance 339Km.

Friday
0645 Start. Having just come from home at Great Baddow my first job is to go to a site in the village and load one of our JCB 3cx's. There's several wheeled diggers on site and I can't find our one, this is because for some reason this one has never been signwritten and it's about the only one of our machines I'd never seen before. I have to wait before I can load it, as the site cannot start until 0730 and I need the machine driver with his keys so it can be moved. Eventually he appears having been waiting outside the site, his machine was brought here last week by another haulier that the contractor had provided and they wouldn't bring the lorry off the road. Obviously he was expecting the same vehicle to take him today.

Anyway he loads the machine and I head off about 0800 heading for a site in Ipswich on the edge of the docks. It's a good run down and I'm there, tipped and done just after 0900.

It's now back to Danbury to the site from earlier in the week to load the forklift and bits and bobs. All the gear is ready there's just no forklift driver, I'm a bit annoyed by it as it's not really my job to load all their junk on board but I give it a go. There's an empty fuel tank that goes on first followed by a large steel stand that I flip over and put on next, a tipping skip sits on top and them there's a mixer on next. There is also a shovel bucket to go, so I have to remove the fork carriage and swap it for the bucket, scoop the forks up and slot the machine on the back. I'm actually quite pleased with what I've acheived as it has to be loaded by driving on and off the lorry rather than from the side. Quite often the regular drivers will moan and groan about having to try and get a load like this together.






It's a 5 minute run down the road to Sandon, where the forklift driver appears and takes about twice the time it took me to load, to unload it.

Back at the yard my plans for getting a washdown are hindered as our lowloader is parked down in the washdown bay with one of the trailer wheels off. Eventually they get the repaired tyre back on and get it shifted and I'm able to squeeze in and try and get some of the dirt off.

I'm now told that there's another machine to collect off the Garrison at Colchester at 1530. Great. I cut the wash short and leave at 1415 hoping to collect it early, I'm there at 1500 but have to wait for about 20 minutes until the driver has finished. He loads it on and I make my back to Danbury. Finished about 1645.

Distance 252Km.