Change of Scenery

A slight change from the norm this week, our other driver is on holiday and I've been given his work to do. Usually they just avoid containers if he's not about but with work getting thin on the ground I'm pressed into service.

Wednesday 28th May 2008

0645 Start. The worst part about this is driving someone elses motor, I've got none of my stuff and nothing is easily to hand. My kettle is missing and I'm cooped up in a day cab. That's enough moaning for now though.

I'm booked all day with a builder customer of ours, first job being to load out of Tiptree and I arrive at 0715. It's a tight little spot, a cluster of houses down a new close. I wait outside until 0730 and then wander in and start getting vans moved so I can get in. There's a 20' container to go, I can get closeish and get it hooked up but it's a bit heavy at full stick, so it needs a bit of cajoling to get it nearer so I can lift it properly and get it on board. Eventually I get there and head off to one of their big sites at Braintree where it's to be dropped in the compound.



It's PTO in and out the cab, and on the levers.



After unfolding the crane I align the hook roughly with the centre of the box.



Then it's up the rickety ladder on to the top of the box.



Snap the chains onto the hook



And it's going to go in that gap



Gently up



And squeeze into place.



Back on the top to unhook the container



These chains weigh a ton, they get carefully placed back with the crane.



And job done.



There's a couple of small machines to load, a 3t Yanmar and a skiploader.



These machines are taken back to Tiptree where I get the pleasure of loading another container (only a 10 footer) a fuel bowser and some sleepers



These are then taken back to Braintree and offloaded, but I'm not done there yet. There's a load of blocks to go on, luckily these are forked on by their driver who is shit hot and before long I'm off out of the site. It's now lunchtime so I find a nice quiet spot for some uncomfortable lunchtime day cabbed break.



The blocks are tipped off in Chelmsford and I return to the yard empty. After sorting out tomorrow's workload (Another box) I head off to Truck East at Witham to drop the truck in for overnight service. I'm given a brand new '08 plate 100 miles on the clock Fiesta courtesy car and get the honour of getting it caked in mud inside from my dirty boots. Finished 1615.

Thursday 29th May 2008

0645 Start. It's a quick run over to Witham this morning to drop off the Fiesta and collect the truck from it's overnighter.

There's a warning tag attached to the gearstick "This vehicle needs to be topped up with oil"

Now bearing in mind that they are supposed to have inspected / serviced it why haven't they done it? It's not as if I've got any handy. A check on the dipstick and it's in the middle anyway.

It's a short run across to Maldon to load a container from an electrical distributors yard, they're open at 0700 so I'm able to get straight in and get it lifted.

It's a old one that has had it's day, I'm headed back to D&P Metals at Witham so it can be scrapped.

Once I'm here I discover to my horror that there's no paperwork as it's a free disposal, had I known I could have weighed it in and trousered about £200.

I slunk away off to Bradwell Aggregates quarry near Braintree where I'm loading 8t of sand for a groundworker. It's quickly forked on but the health & safety gestapo won't let you climb on the back of the wagon to strap on, so I leave it unstrapped and use their layby on the haul road to break as many of the H&S rules as possible.

I'm dragging the sand down to Southend, this is another weird job as it'd surely be cheaper to pay a builers merchant a bit more for the sand and save 3 hours on the haulage. Still it's all work. There's a forklift here so the crane stays put.

I'm still on hire to the same company so I head off back to Tiptree to collect a dumper from their farm. After a hunt around to find someone who knows where the keys are, it gets loaded up thde front and I trundle off around to their yard to load a 4.5t Kobelco.

Once I'm all loaded up I head back down to Southend stopping for another uncomfortable break on the way. It's a quick tip in Southend and I make a quick exit along the A127 to Basildon where I'm loading 3 tipping skips at Langdon Hills ready to deliver tomorrow.

Back to the yard and I'm done by 1645.

Be Back Soon

Just an update,

I've not been blogging for a while as I lost (had it stolen)my digital camera whilst away in the States, I cannot get decent pictures with a phone so I haven't been bothering. I've been waiting for my insurance company to sort things out but 6 weeks later I'm still not getting very far.

Taking matters into my own hands I've just re-equipped with one of these



It's a Samsung NV11, I'm looking forward to using it and seeing what it can do. I was well pleased with my old Fuji Finepix camera hopefully this'll be better still.

Moving Up

Thursday 8th May 2008

Things have gone a bit slack at work, yesterday I managed to reorganise my cab, spray my wheels and generally keep busy for a bit. I did also get the chance to go out with our lowloader driver so that I could get some more experience in. We did a couple of moves including a 22 tonner which is the biggest machine that we move. Today I was paired up again and had a decent amount of time behind the wheel.

0630 Start.
At least getting in early I've got a clear run to reverse out of the yard and into the undustrial estate, this gets harder later on with cars and vans parked up all over the place. First job this morning is down to Purleigh where we deliver a 7t Yanmar that we'd collected yesterday, ordinarily this would be a 6 wheeler move but there's a 14 tonner coming back. There's not much space here so we unload in the road.





When the hirer shows up we are then able to get this Hyundai 140 out and the Yanmar in.



It's back to the yard to drop off the 140 and straight back out again, this time down to VOSA at Chelmsford. We've got an MOT failure to collect.



14,420Kgs of Dennis Eagle finest.

It's a close run thing as it goes up, the arse end almost grounds out but it does get on without event.



It's about 11 metres long so the front has to sit up on the swan neck or dance floor.



Dennis is off to Ongar along the A414 and is tipped off at a lorry park, we head back into Chelmsford grabbing some fuel on the way. It's now back to the yard where we are waiting on this Doosan 140, it's a brand new machine that arrived yesterday and the signwriter is due in.



There's a fair while to wait however, so I crack open a can of paint and tart up the bodywork on my truck. This is generally known in the yard as bullshitting, but it does make it look a bit better.

Eventually the machine is signwritten, loaded onto the trailer and whisked off down to Shoeburyness. It's going to one of our machine drivers, it'll be 'his' machine now and it should stay in good condition as he looks after his machine.



We collect his Volvo 140 which is now going onto our self drive fleet, this in itself is replacing a Daewoo 130, which along with an identical twin is ultimately what the 2 Doosan's are replacing.

The Volvo is due to be swapped for the Daewoo, but time is getting on and we return to the yard with the Volvo.



That's it for today. Finished at 1600. 168Km

Not quite Truckfest

I'm still without a camera at the moment and the camera phone is just too fiddly and not good enough quality to bother with all the time so no proper blog this week either. Normal blogging should be back soon hopefully.

Here's a picture that was worth the effort however.



It's a Volvo FH16 610 10x4 plated at 150t GVW, put simply it's a beast. 3 steering axles, two lift axles and almost certainly unique in the UK.

I was at the East of England Showground on Friday to collect the tractor and drill rig that was in the last post. I'd taken it there earlier in the week to the Geodrilling show and on Friday the show was over and everything being cleared as Truckfest was moving in and taking over. As I pulled up at the exhibitors gate behind some slightly tidier motors, the guard just looked and said "Geodrilling?" Cheeky bugger what's he trying to say.

The Volvo was collecting a huge drilling rig, I'd have hung about for some more pics but it was a bit chaotic and I was sort of in the way.