23rd - 27th June 2008

Monday 23rd June
0700 Start. No rush this morning as there's nothing on until a 1000 collection, after a bit of fiddling about there's a later job that I can bring forward.

It's only a short job and barely worth taking the wagon out of the yard for, it's only down the hill at the quarry and it's our Volvo EW180 duck that could be driven back on the road. Still it's good practice loading the mechanical monstrosity as they're a bit awkward.



There's not loads of space out of the way down at the quarry and to get off the haul road the unit has to be jacked round.



The Volvo is returned to the yard, refuelled and offloaded. Once I'm done it's time to trundle off down to Harold Wood to do a reverse of a move I did last week.
There's a demolition company Komatsu 2o tonner there to go to Southend, it's at a school and has to be loaded on the road at the rear of the school. It's on and secured esy enough and I'm off to Southend Hospital with it. I'm thinking that not being rush hour might make it easier to deliver than when I was here last. I'm wrong obviously. There are now lots of blue badge disabled drivers parked on the double yellows opposite parked cars which means plenty of wing mirror folding but I get through and we switch the 20tonner with one of our JS220 machines to go back to the yard.

Back at the yard there's a chance to grab our fitter and get him to weld the plating down on the ramps where it has started to lift and manufacture some new blocks to support the rear of the trailer when loading / unloading. Somehow the clock had rolled around to 1700 by the time I went home. 117Km. 61t plant moved.

Tuesday 24th June
0645 Start. Nothing on till lunch today so I grab the chance to pull the trailer down the end of the yard and steam it and the unit down. I've just finished when I get an errand job to do in the van, collecting parts for one of our machines.

By the time I'm back it's time to go down to Maldon where I'm loading a JS130 for a groundworker, it's off to Abridge to replace one of ours there. I'm loading that one back, it's one of our Hyundai 140's and back at the yard there's some work to do on it before it can go out again tomorrow. Refuel & clean down, replace broken mirror and the fitter has some panel beating to do to one of the engine cover doors. It's all done on the trailer and it stays on ready for the morning. Finished 1645. 98Km.
27t today.

Wednesday 25th June
0630 Start. Off this morning down to Brentwood with the Hyundai 140 from last night, it's only a short job and our driver is ready and waiting when I arrive. It's soon off and I make my way across to Billericay where I'm loading at a farm there. First thing to load is a little farm type tipping trailer which they back up onto the swan neck so it's out of the way. I'm shown the machine that is going on, it's an old Fiat Hitachi FH130. It's seen some action that's for sure and someone at some point has removed the track levers leaving only the foot pedals to control the tracks. It also didn't want to do much unless given virtually full throttle and when it did move it lurched into action. Nevertheless it went on safely and was chained down as usual.



It's nice to go to different places and this one is going to Eridge in East Sussex, OK so it's not that different and I've been in that area plenty before it's been a few months since I was last that way and it's a nice part of the world. The machine is going to a farm there and gets mixed reaction from the two South African blokes working there. When I say mixed reaction it was more like "WTF has that numpty bought now?" I tracked the machine the off and gave them the task of removing the trailer with a tractor. I haven't got much of a clue when it comes to tractors but these guys were clearly no better and it took them several goes at reversing it along the trailer. Eventually we got it off and I'm off back through Tunbridge Wells and along the scenic route to Ebbsfleet to collect some plant by the International station.

There's a 3t and a Hyundai 130, the 130 is the predecessor to the 140's that I'm always moving and needs to be carefully chained to keep within the width for the Dartford Tunnel.




I decide to let them measure the load first today and pull in at the tunnel control rather than get turned around again. Today the story was "Well how wide is it? Did they escort you last time? No, well why haven't you gone straight through?" Honestly you can't win.

Once through the tunnel it's across to Cressing to unload at the customers yard, our 6 wheeler is there just finishing unloading and the driver lends a hand. Whilst I'm there I learn that the guy driving my usual truck has had an accident and has been taken to hospital. He'd loaded a machine and seemingly got hit in the face by a chain tensioner, the blokes on site found him on the floor sparked out. No one knows how long he was down for and he was carted off by ambulance. Initial reports suggest that he is OK but hurting like hell.

Back at the yard we reorganise tomorrows work so we can get the other lorry back, and advise the boss about a method statement for loading as requested by the HSE. Finished 1700. 299Km. 47t plant moved.

Thursday 26th June.
0630 Start. I'm off to Takeley first thing but in a works van that I'd taken home, I've got to collect my 6 wheeler from where the accident happened yesterday. Lucilky our fitter lives just next door to the site and he'd parked it at his house overnight. The van gets dumped and I head off with the Yanmar 8t machine that he started to load. It's nearly a month since I last drove this and it's quite nice to get it back, those 420 horses feel much more eager in this. Loaded as I am it's a similar weight to the unit and trailer empty, obviously the trailer is dragging 8 wheels (not me!) when empty but there's still a world of difference.




I'm off down to Harold Wood to deliver the Yanmar to a school, it's the one where I was earlier in the week with the demolition machine. The blokes here are the same guys who found the driver and they're concerned about his well being, apparently they thought he'd had a heart attack.

Once I'm done it's back to the yard for a swapover back to the artic, I'm off down to Southend where I've got another Hyundai 140 to load at a school there. It's well buried and getting it out will be a tricky affair, the groundworkers have no driver on site but I refuse to get it out as there are trenches beside it and overhead cables that have to be squeezed under. I think they realise that I'll leave without it and they bring it out to me on the road but bottle putting it on. That's no bother and it's soon on board.


Back to our yard now and I collect one of our blokes now, the machine is going back to the groundworkers farm and you have to unload on the lane outside. It's only down the road at Purleigh and no sooner than the ramps are lowered there's one guy there in a dumper for thebuckets and another to track the machine back. With that taken care of it's over to Brentwood to collect the Hyundai 140 that I delivered yesterday morning. This is another tricky one, right outside Sainsbury's delivery gate on a busy road and with overhead wires for good measure. There's a couple of so called "banksmen" who stop the traffic whilst the machine comes out but they let the traffic pass whilst the machine is going up the ramps, I always hold the traffic back until it's level just to be safe. The pair of numpties then bugger off to get brushes to sweep the road rather than see the driver round when he swivels the machine round.

Back to the yard and some bits and pieces to do there before leaving at 1630. 238Km today. 36t plant moved.

Friday 27th June
0630 Start. Off down to Basildon this morning to load up at a school there. The address is The Pioneer School, Ghyllgrove. On the map there are 2 Pioneer schools in the Ghyllgrove area but after going to both I can see no sign of building work or heavy plant. There is also a road called Ghyllgrove which has another school on it with a different name, it turns out to be the one I want.

The customer wants to try and move a JCB JS130, a 6t dumper and a Cat 120 roller, the dumper has got a fixed rollover bar and will be too high sitting completely up the top so the front wheels are bumped up and the rears are left on the lower deck against the step. The JS goes on next and the Cat roller is lifted on with a 20 tooner so it's sitting crossways against the headboard. It's a tidy bit of loading but unfortunately it was no getting chockablock with school traffic so I didn't get a pic.

This little lot was destined for Mill Hill, NW7 down a very narrow crescent that was off a narrow road itself. They were private roads and full of people who really didn't want this stuff coming down their road. We were able to placate them enough to get the 130 and dumper off and set about dragging the roller round with the machine. Everything had to be cleared off the trailer so the roller could be driven off and it nearly made a bid for freedom when it came down the ramps from the swan neck. Slideways. It stopped with me just about to bail out over the side.

Once the trailer was clear I threw everything back on and set too about reversing out of this hellhole before parking just up the road to put things straight again.


The next job was back at the yard which meant a detour to get around the M25/A12 junction as it was closed. I load a Hyundai 140 and borrow the driver who helped me out yesterday. I don't really need him but it'll be handy and it get's him out of the yard where there's nothing doing anyway.

The 140 goes off to Walthamstow and whilst he tracks into site I get ready to go so he can bank me out again, once we're clear we head back to Stock to collect a Volvo 140 that I delivered on my 2nd day on this. It was a horrendous place but I'm confidant that the last month will make this collection easier. I'm wrong obviously. I'm happy that there's no traffic behind as we approach the road that I need to reverse down, but that goes to pot when I discover a bloke in a 6 wheeler trying to line up with the improbably narrow gap between two buildings. The traffic is now horrendous and it takes some time before it's clear enough for me to reverse. It's about quarter of a mile reverse down to the site all the way down a very narrow road. A couple of times I have to shunt to let someone past and there's some complex shunting to get the 6 wheeler out with his machine and me back in to get mine. Eventually we get it loaded and drop it back at the yard. Finished at 1700. 47t Plant.

Saturday 28th June
0600 Start. I'm at the yard early and meet up with another of our machine drivers we're off to Marylebone to collect the 21tonner I delivered here last week. We're out the yard at 0615 and on site at 0740 and having a brew. At 0815 the guard opens the gate and we can fire up the machine and get it out and loaded. By 0840 we're good to go and I start the tricky reverse out of the narrow street past the awkwardly parked Merc, cut the corner across the pavement to miss the cars parked opposite and hopefully escape. It's a bit tricky at over 11' wide and a blindside to boot and I'm relying on my driver to act as a banksman on the N/S. The trailer headboard starts to touch the hoarding on the O/S so I shunt forward slightly and BANG, the N/S outer tyre on the trailers first axle exploded and ripped itself apart. I pull forward and report the bad news to the boss. I decide that as time goes on the space we have available will likely disappear so the best thing is to back out now and park up. We pack the kerb with timbers and after some mega tight reversing I get out of the side road, there's now traffic backed up behind so I drag the trailer onto Marylebone High Street and back on a parrallel road to await a tyre fitter.

Eventually at 1030 a Spaniard turns up and sets about jacking the trailer, there's no sign of an air wrench, only tyre levers and before long he's leverring the tyre off the rim as is. I take my hat off to the guy to change a trailer tyre whilst it's still on the rim, especially being a little 17.5 tyre on a lowloader trailer (with a 20 tonner above him) and having to crawl underneath and break the bead on the back whilst working round the inner tyre. By 1100 we're on our way hoping that the MET Police will let us bend the rules of our wide load permit (Midnight - 1000) due to exceptional circumstances. We're routed out A41 and have to contend with traffic at Lords and some crappy roadworks at Hampstead that are causing chaos. We get back to the yard at 1300 and park up and clear off home.