0645 Start. I'm ready loaded from Friday this morning with a Hitachi ZX75, it's locallish so I'm in no hurry to leave the yard straight away. The site is in Hullbridge at a residential caravan park occupied by retired people, as such I don't want to be there before 0730 and I'm bang on the money time wise when I arrive. Unloading takes just a a couple of minutes, getting away from our machine driver who likes a good old chat takes considerably longer.
Next up is a dumper to move from Colchester, I'm barrelling along the A12 and I get a call to say that the 3t machine from the same site booked for tomorrow is now going today with the dumper. The site is just round the corner from the station and I just manage to squeeze around some cars and back into the site. It's a tidy pair of machines today a 3t swivel skip dumper and a Hitachi ZX27, they're quickly loaded and then I decide to secure the machines out on the road rather than paddle about in the thick mud.
All on board it's back down the A12 as far as Hatfield Peverel and off down a narrow lane to find the site. There's hoarding up at the front and a stupid entrance with no chance of me getting in so I trundle off and attack from the other direction. With the tag axle down it takes about 4 shunts to get in. The machines are soon despatched and I manage to get out in one go with the tag lifted.
Back to the yard and it's about 1030, that's the extent of my driving for the day. The rest of the morning was spent not being very helpful to our fitter for a while whilst he sorted out one of ducks. After lunch we had a bit of a tidy up in the yard and I drove round and round in the forklift with the sweeper attachment on trying to clean the yard up a bit.
Finished at 1615. Distance 135Km
Tuesday. 0645 Start. It was quiet but cold first thing in the yard this morning, not much doing until just after 0800 when I left to load at nearby West Hanningfield. I'm spot on for time at 0830 and it's an easy load, just an EX60 with grab & bucket for a demolition company.
I'm not there long and soon making good progress London bound along the M25 heading for the M11. Then the problems start, queuing to exit at the M11 I see the signs 'M25 Closed J23' so loads of people are piling in on the M11 to use the NCR. On the M11 it's running OK but there's nothing heading north, about a mile later the southbound slows to a crawl and we pass the reason, there's been a chemical spill on the other side and there's 6 fire appliances and countless police. All the traffic is getting diverted off at J4 and having to go through Loughton. There's no more traffic coming though as they have shut the entries to the M11 at the A406 junction and everything is crawling round there as well.
I eventually get round to Edmonton and have a very brief spell of running normally as I head towards Tottenham Hale. However from there on in it's heavy going all the way to the A1 at Nags Head which I clear at 1115. It's just a simple bit of roadworks but it is causing chaos. Anyway once over the A10 I'm almost there, it's just a short run down Caledonian Road to the site.
Despite appearances this is not an Italian square but Holloway, N7.
I decide to take a 15 minute break there whilst I plan a route across to Bow for my next job. It's about 1145 when I leave and it takes about 45 minutes to get to the gas works where the next job is. It's a long time for such a short distance, but it feels like I'm flying after the drag to the first job.
I'm loading a 5t Swivel skip dumper and a 120 roller, there's also one of our 20 tonners there which is also due to be collected by the lowloader. Ordinarily he'd take all 3 as he'd brought them up together on Saturday but they were both cross hired and I was (semi) nearby and able to take them straight back. I'm just folding the ramps up when Bob arrives to collect the 20 so I clear off and make a hasty exit along the A13 deciding that I'd have to stop before dropping off the plant as I'd be tight for time.
There's a couple of quiet places to stop, so I choose one near Wickford and switch off at 1330 for half hour. It's now just a short hop along to the Rettendon Turnpike and along to South Woodham Ferrers and I'm almost there. Only when I turn onto the SWF road there's heavy traffic and loads of people are turning round, I decide to stay with it but when the air ambulance lands about 500yds away I know that this might take some time. Still I'm stuck here as it's too narrow to turn. After a while the police come along and tell everyone to turn back, there's a small farm track a 100 yards or so ahead so I wait patiently for a couple of artics to turn before spinning round myself.
Despite the fact that they are going to be joing another long queue, idiot car driver are making this guys life hell by turning around all round his cab.
Air ambulance leaving.
I now have to queue all the way back to the Turnpike roundabout and am pretty much at the back of the queue having been almost at the accident site.
Fortunately the road that's blocked is parralleled by the old road so everything can divert along there. Unfortunately all the traffic coming the other way is streaming on to the roundabout from the right and has priority over us, if the coppers blocking the road had any common sense they'd hold back that traffic periodically to let the turned traffic have a fair chance at getting away. All in all it has taken almost an hour to get back to the roundabout. Thankfully the traffic is clear to Lavenham's yard and the dumper and roller are soon rolled off and dumped. It's now only a short hop back to Danbury.
Finished at 1615. Distance 161Km.
Wednesday
0645 Start. I'm only expecting a P.M. job today but when I grab my paperwork there's another one on the list so I'm off out to Colchester and along to Boxted on the Essex & Suffolk border to load a scissor lift from a farm. It's deja vous as I did exactly this move a couple of weeks ago and managed to wriggle out of the return load in the interim. Last time I tried to load it, it couldn't get traction on the ramps and had to be pushed on by a telehandler. Today it's frosty and it sails up the ramps no bother. It's braked position is a bit vague as it rocks back and forth so I chain it down nice and tight before heading back down to the A12 ultimately heading for Harold Wood.
I stop around 0900 at Stanway to use up some time and I get a call at 0930 "Where are you?" Hmmm am I being chased or is there another reason for the call. "Getting diesel at Colchester" is my slightly inaccurate answer, close enough. "Ah good, I've got you before you got too far, can you go to Alresford and load a 3t dumper?" I'm kind of glad I stopped now, a quick look at the space remaining and I reckon I'll just squeeze a 3t dumper on the beavertail without moving the scissor.
When I get to the workshop to collect the dumper I find this there, a 5t swivel skip.
Now that ain't gonna fit on the back. Initially I was going to move the scissoe forwards and put the dumper on the back, and reload it at Harold Wood, but I decide it'd possibly overload the front axle and take a chance by unloading the scissor completely. The dumper goes right up the front and the scissor just squeezes on behind.
Now I can finally make my way down the A12 to Harold Wood, it's about an hours run and I'm there about 1100. It's soon tipped off and the dumper rolled back and secured and I head back out to the M25 at J28 intending to go to Kent. In the half hour since going under the M25, the traffic has stopped on the top, and is now clogging the roundabout almost completely.
After watching the traffic lights go through about 8 green phases without being able to release the handbrake, I decide that the only place I can actually get to is the M25 anticlockwise. There's no info on the radio, nothing is moving and it's only just happened so I decide to take a gamble and run round to the M11 at least giving me 3 potential routes to Kent.
1. Out along the A13 to the Dartford Crossing.
2. Blackwall Tunnel
3. Woolwich Ferry
There's no signs reporting the usual delays on the ferry so I decide to chance it, and if busy head through Silvertown and to the Blackwall. I round the corner at North Woolwich and the holding lanes are empty, I'm able to tack straight on the back of the reasonably short queue. Furthermore there's a ferry just unloading and I'm soon getting closer to the slipway. It's not quite enough and I miss the first ferry, it's a two boat service on though and it's not long before I'm on the front and looking forward to relaxing in the drivers lounge.
Unfortunately it was closed or otherwise unavailable. Before long I'm straight off the ferry and on to the A206 for a blat round to Dartford. The dumper is going into the Costain compound alongside J2, easy enough to get to and perfect to stop and take a 30 min break.
It's 1400 when the timer announces the return to work and I rejoin the traffic queues at J2 and queue through the tolls. And out the tunnels, past J30 and right the way round to J28 in fact where there's a broken down wag & drag in lane 2 and everything is being funnelled onto the hard shoulder and lane 1 to pass.
It's gone 1530 when I arrive at my P.M. job in Waltham Cross. It's a Volvo 8t machine and a pair of fuel cubes to load, it's on by 1600 and ready to go off to Bocking near Braintree. There will be no-one on site by the time I'd get there and the M25 is crawling from J26 - J28 so I decide to cut through the lanes the back way into Harlow. It's better than it sounds, for some reason the traffic through Harlow is fairly light at 1600, something I remembered from all the time I worked there last year. Avoiding big roads and big delays, I scoot along the A414 back to Chelmsford and take a devious route around back to Danbury for a 1715 finish. Distance 323Km
Thursday.
0645 Start. First job is to get over to Bocking sharpish and tip the Volvo so I can get on with todays work. I'm on site at 0730 and I'm told to stop just outside the compound to unload, after 2 minutes I'm told to switch off the engine as they are not allowed to start work until 0800. All the chains come off and get stowed away. The straps are frozen and end up getting folded rather than rolled, at about 0745 some machines have been started and the groundworkers start unloading. At 0755 Everything is off and I just return to the cab to pump the air suspension up and raise the tag axle before folding and securing the ramps. Now I'm getting grief because I'm holding the site up. I reply that I'm exactly where I was told to stop and it's another 5 minutes before they can start work anyway. Basically fcuk off out of my face and I'll be gone by then.
Today's first booked job is in Ipswich and I hear on the radio that the A12 is partially blocked near Marks Tey on the London bound side, where I'll be returning shortly. I pass the accident, a 9 vehicle shunt and the queues reach back about 8 miles almost to the Suffolk border. I figure that there's no point rushing and getting fuel on the way as a delaying tactic would be a good idea. Once I arrive at Ipswich I park in the yard and settle for a cuppa over a 15 before going in search of our machine, although I'm spotted and our driver trundles his 3CX over anyway. It's an easy load when there's a regular driver and I'm ready to face the traffic and leave just before 1000.
Oddly this is one of our machines but has managed to escape the signwriter in the 2 years it's been on the books.
Amazingly the traffic has completely cleared and it's a good run down to Hatfield Peverel where I leave Mick and his machine. Next up is a short move from Latchingdon to Heybridge near Maldon for a local contractor, I collect him from his yard en-route and it's really easy move just a 5t JCB digger, no other buckets and a 20 minute drive either way.
Once he's out of the way I've got one more job to do, but not before a half hour stop at Boreham Interchange. It's round to Highwood on the other side of Chelmsford, proper banjo playing hick country out here. I spent 6 years working at a woodyard here and don't miss the poxy little roads one bit. I'm collecting one of our ZX50's from a small house renovation job, there's no-one on site but after a bit of hunting about I unearth the keys and get it loaded up. Back to the yard, it's a refuel only stop as it's staying on for the morning.
After some little jobs at the yard I'm off home at 1615. Distance 239Km.
Friday
0645 Start. I've got the ZX from yesterday loaded on and it's off down to Colchester to drop it off at the site where I collected a smaller machine from earlier this week. Once it's off it's straight back on to the A12 almost back to Danbury, calling at Jovic plant at Sandon. I've got to shift a 9t dumper and an 8t machine, ideally in one go as they are going to the same site. It's actually a 10 tonner but I'm confident it'll fit. The buckets go in the dumper and it gets loaded up front tight against the headboard, the machine squeezes nicely on the back and the arm laid over the dumper. Easy.
These 2 are off to Priors Green at Takeley near Stansted Airport. They're soon there and tipped off and I've got one more job to do but not till later, so I head back to the yard and manage to get the truck washed. I also manage to get my windscreen washers working properly, having had to endure a pathetic dribble for some time now.
At 1530 I'm able to go and load the last machine of the day, it's a Yanmar 75 from Great Baddow. Delivering this was last Friday's last job and as I'm in exactly the same place with the same machine I'm going to cheat and repost the original picture.
Back at the yard I just have to switch a bucket over and then I'm done by 1615. Distance 170Km
No comments:
Post a Comment