Monday 17 March 2008

17th - 20th March 2008

Monday.
0645 Start. Still loaded from last Friday with a 4.5t JCB to be offhired.


It had sustained some minor damage and the plan was for our fitter to reshape the panel before it went back, he was busy on a 20 tonner and said he'd been told to leave the JCB so I head straight out.


Only to get a call 2 minutes later, what they actually meant was to leave the JCB until the 20 tonner was ready. It was nearly 0800 by the time we'd got it looking OK again and I swap it over at Jovic plant for a 1t skiploader.



The skiploader is delivered to a big house in Great Totham, it's an unload in the road job here.


Great Totham, Great Braxted and Wickham Bishops are a nightmare they all blend in and there are plenty of little lanes like these. I leapfrog jobs next and run across to Braintree.



I'm loading this new JCB Vibromax roller, there's a collection on the way back at Hatfield Peverel one of our Yanmar 75's I took some pictures but somehow managed to not upload them before clearing the memory on the card. The Yanmar is dropped at the yard and the roller taken down to MAP Plant on the A1 at Barking.

Next job is down at Canning Town, it's the one I could have done on Friday afternoon with the lowloader. The other 6 wheeler has moved the 9t digger and compressor, all I've got is a 6t dumper. This companies stuff is never mechanically tiptop so it gets an extra pair of chains to hold it in place.



If this is a Monday morning, I'm thinking that Friday afternoon with the lowloader was worth avoiding.


I always have a chuckle at this one.




The dumper is returned to their yard near Maldon and I return to ours about 1430. I was expecting to load at Jovic at bit later for tomorrow but I'm given the Yanmar 75 back again, this time with breaker and buckets and despatched off to Dedham on the Essex/Suffolk border. It's one of those places that has probably got 1 legal route in for HGV and everything else is 7.5t except for access, however there's no way of knowing whether you will pass through the restriction and out the other side or if it's a blanket restriction to stop traffic cutting through. I decide to just follow the logical way in and only managed to go past about 4 signs. Coming out was better only past 1 sign that restricted about 100yards of road between 2 junctions. Back at the yard and there's a dumper to load before heading for home at 1715. 334Km



Tuesday.
0645 Start. Off to Dedham (again) with the 3t dumper, it's a quick trip as I've got some more stuff to be getting on with back in Chelmsford. First of which is loading a JCB 5t and a 6t dumper at Jovic Plant. It's a bit of a squeeze as they haven't loaded the dumper with the buckets and the machine has got a large breaker attached.




The digger and breaker just squeeze in nicely.


This barn has just been extended, the furthest half is brand new and the closest is original. Looks like it was all built together.

It's off to Basildon now for the next job, I have to pass the stupid 'Fortune of War Rondabout' it has been like this since 1995 and has just been completely resurfaced. Everything has to crawl round the roundabout that isn't one instead of flowing straight along the A127 dual carriageway.


It's an easy one here, a JCB 803 with just one bucket and a breaker to go ack to Lavenham Plant at Cold Norton.


It's on a residential development, narrow roads and people parking in all the wrong places.

This is how a roller looks after it has fallen off a wagon, somersaulted and come to rest. There is a roundabout just to the left, the wagon driver was exiting the roundabout when a car driver came up on his inside going around him on the roundabout, when he swerved to miss the car the strap broke and fired the roller off sideways. That's nearly 3t, good job no -one was in the way or it'd be completely different. Not one of ours thankfully although it was later recovered by our HIAB.




Back at Lavenham the 803 is swapped for a 120 roller which was dropped off at the farm from earlier. Back to the yard for the rest of the day. Finished at 1645. 195Km



Wednesday.
0645 Start. Since leaving there's been no jobs come in for me to do so I make use of the empty yard and get down the end with the steam cleaner. Before too long I'm given a job moving this rough old Rough Terrain FLT in Southend. It's only a short job from a school to their yard about 3 miles away.



Back at the yard and there's not much doing so I break out the polish and give the cab a quick shine up. After lunch I load the 1.5t ready to go our later.



There's now a roller to collect in Chelmsford and that goes on too.



The 1.5t is taken to Cressing near Braintree and the roller dropped off at Jovic at Sandon where I collect a breaker to go back to the yard. Finished at 1645. 140km

Thursday.
0645 Start. No hurry this morning, there's not much doing except a run down to Cock Clarks to collect the dumper from the farm. The contractor comes from near Gt.Yarmouth and is never early so I sit and wait until about 0800. I decide to load the machine using my keys and wait until 0830 for him to arrive so I can retrieve the key and return with the fuel drums that I have brought out.



He doesn't arrive and I head off to Jovic Plant to offhire the dumper. I do pass him enroute though so I return in a van and collect the key and th drums. There's another errand in the van to do and a bit later a trip out to Chappel to collect a grapple for one the machines. Back at the yard I unload the grapple from Chappel and head off to South Hanningfield to load our Komatsu 27R mini.



It's school chucking out time when I leave and I have to pass this mobile library parked on the zigzags. Nice one.



Finished at the yard at 1645. Distance 136Km

No comments: