Monday 2nd July 2007
0615 Start.
There’s activity already in the yard when I arrive, the fitter and the lowloader driver are loading has wagon and the other driver is nattering to one of the machine drivers but I haven’t time to hang around and am straight out on to the A12 headed for Hewden’s at Dagenham. This is quite a regular subcontract job that I get, when they have got too much work for their 6 wheeler and it stacks up I get called in to clear up the bits. They have had a brand new ’07 motor in their yard for about a month but they haven’t recruited anyone to drive it yet and the driver they have got hasn’t got a card yet. I’m there at 0700 and the fitter Ken runs through the jobs for the day, a delivery, a few collections and a couple to be delivered to Chelmsford which I can do on the way home. It transpires that the driver they did have jacked the job about a week ago and now they have 2x 6 wheelers and a 7½ tonner with no driver. It’s down to me today then and we soon rattle a skiploader and 3t digger with pecker on board and I head off down the A12 / A11 to Whitechapel to the first job of the day. It takes well over an hour to arrive at the Sainsbury’s petrol station, but only a few minutes to unload the machines and make my way up through Bethnal Green to the Lea Bridge roundabout for the first of the collections. I’d been told that the machine might be on the roundabout which is a bus stand or might be in a nearby college car park. A circuit of the roundabout turned up only the shovel bucket and the machine (CAT TH210 telehandler) was in the nearby car park. There was no way to get the wagon in the car park not stop anywhere nearer, so I parked up on the roundabout and walked over to collect the machine. There was no-one on site, the machine had a smashed door, mirror, punctured tyre and was generally wrecked but I had no choice but to drive it the 300yds or so along the main road and onto the bus stand in the roundabout where I was able to collect the bucket and load it on. It’s a fairly easy half hour run back to the yard where this one comes off and is replaced by a brand new JCB 926 forklift and the old Manitou Msi20 that I had to drag off the Olympics jobs a few weeks back. These forklifts were headed for the Scout’s World Jamboree at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, both Ken and I had pointed out that it would cost them about 2-3 hours extra to do these now but ‘they had to go’ On site at Hylands and it’s the first day of the setup and there’s plenty of stuff onsite already including a couple of Hewden’s forklifts (parked) There’s one being used to unload 2 Polish curtainsiders, stacked full of feet for the Heras fencing that will circle the entire site. The machines are offloaded, parked and signed over and I’m off up the A414 and stop for a 45 near Ongar. The next job is to collect a couple of machines at Theydon Bois, there’s a 6t dumper and 5t digger they’re no problem to load once I have found them tucked away on a farm, the access for which being over a 5t bridge that branches off from a quiet residential road. I pick up the M11 at Loughton and drop back into Hewden’s to unload the machines, it’s just before 1500 when I’m done and I refuse the collection from The Dome at N.Woolwich. If I had done these collections first I would be loading the forklifts for Chelmsford now and they’d have copped an extra half hour but got all the jobs done. As it stands they get booked for 9½ hours and will have to make other arrangements for the machine at The Dome. I’m back at the yard about 1600 and leave at 1645 after loading our 1½t mini digger (maggot) for the morning.
221Km
Tuesday 3rd July 2007
0645 Start. A short trundle down the road at I’m at Jovic plant at Sandon as they open at 0700 to collect a little 1t skiploader which is destined for the same place as the maggot. A quick hop up the A12 to Rivenhall and through the lanes and I’m on site in Tiptree at 0730, there’s no one here yet so I get the kettle on, take the machines off and just as I am finished the customer arrives and signs the ticket. Back to Chelmsford and I’m collecting a Kobelco 8t machine from a retirement home development in Springfield Road, I can’t get on site so we load on a side road and the machines driver fetches his van so he can follow me to the next job in Southend. It’s a quick tip at Southend and I’m soon off out again and back to the yard at Danbury. There’s a new machine in the yard and it’s my next move after the fitter has fitted a refuelling pump and adapted the breaker hoses. I get lumbered with taking a little Vauxhall Combo to a garage in Maldon as it has lost 2nd and 4th gear. I’m getting fed up with this van, a few weeks ago it’s driver blew the engine and since then I have been fetching it and carrying it all over the place. It’s actually not too bad once I get it into 5th and I get a ride back in the bosses Range Rover. After lunch I get sent out to nearby Purleigh to collect a 3t dumper, for once I’m thankful for the rain as it gives me a chance to escape from the talkative old giffer there. Back into the yard and it’s a quick drop and swap, the dumper off and the 8t Yanmar goes on. This goes about a mile up the road to a farm behind the guvnors house to level out an entrance and once he’s dropped off I make my way over to Maldon to collect a little Rammax roller. Then it’s back to the farm to collect the machine and then just past the yard to Bardon’s quarry where it delivered for it’s first proper job. Out of Bardon’s and across to Jovic at Sandon where I load a 1½t and back to the yard. Finished at 1715
166Km
Wednesday 4th July 2007
0630 Start. Off to Grays first this morning to drop the 1½ tonner at a small house extension job. The road I want is a poxy place to get into, I need to turn right into it but cannot because there is a central reservation stopping you. Up the road and turn around so I can make the left turn. When I come to leave I head out at the other end of the road and have to make a left turn instead of a right, it is purely down to strange traffic management rather than a genuine need and just a bloody nuisance. I head back to the A13 and join the traffic queue over the QEII bridge which is actually flowing quite well this morning. I’m off at the Dartford turn and go over the M25 (or A282T for the pedants) and under the A2 where they have built the new viaduct for the junction improvements. It’s only a couple of miles to the site the address of which is Green Street Green Road, Green Street Green (really it is) It should be a five minute job to unload the little Rammax roller but it’s not playing ball and after five minutes I’m shagged out from cranking it over trying to start it. I enlist the help of one of the blokes on site and after a couple of minutes he gets it going (after I’d warmed it up for him, no doubt) Once the paperwork was sorted I was off back through the tunnel and back to the yard for some odd jobs to fill in some time before trundling down to Chelmsford at 1245. My booked time was actually 1330 but I thought I’d chance it, and I arrive at the retirement home development to find that the tower crane has broken down. This is a problem as I am due to collect packs of concrete blocks and they will have to be loaded with the crane. At present there is a fuel bowser dangling off the end about 10’ off the ground and there are lots of blank faces. After a while they tell me that the engineer has suggested that they isolate it, disconnect the power and leave it for 5 minutes before trying it again. It sounds like they rang Sky TV with a solution like that, it didn’t work and I get called off to collect one of 5t dumpers from Coggeshall. It’s an easy one to load the dumper and I head back to the yard ready to quickly offload and go back to collect the blocks. The crane is still knackered however and instead I reload a 5t Yanmar that arrives shortly afterwards on our other wagon. Finish at 1630. 124Km
Thursday 5th July 2007
0630 Start. It’s a short local run this morning only into Chelmsford to E2V on Waterhouse Lane. In fact it takes longer to get past the gatehouse and onto the site than it took to get there. I suppose being a defence related industry things are quite tight at the moment. The machine comes off and it’s back to the retirement home job to see if the crane is going yet. They’ve landed the bowser but it’s still blowing fuses and not fully operational so I am sent away and head off back to the yard. I’m back on the errands in the yard getting sent out to drop a car off, collect a van, nip to the shop, and even get landed with a paintbrush for a while. About 1400 I get to escape and go back to the job at Grays to collect the Volvo 1½t machine that I delivered yesterday. This goes back to the yard, but the booking for it has been cancelled so I run it back to Jovic’s yard to offhire it. Finished at 1630.
131Km
Friday 6th July 2007
0645 Start. First call this morning is home to collect my phone which I left on the worktop, thankfully it’s only 5 minutes away and not a huge detour from my planned route. Finally on my way and I’m off up the A12 towards Colchester and take the A1124 to Ford Street, Aldham where I am due to collect 13t of stone paving slabs from an importer there. I’m there just after 0730 and there’s no sign of life, I wait until 0800 and call the number on my paperwork but get their answerphone. Eventually someone arrives at 0820 and at least he knows what I want and the crates are already lined up ready. Twelve lifts later with his fork truck and I’m ready for the off after throwing a few straps over the load. This lot was destined for The Hythe in Colchester for one of our groundworker customers, and it’s only a short hop from one to the other. No sooner than I pulled onto site one of the Weston Homes boys pulls up in his forks and says he’ll unload when I’m ready, two minutes later and there’s another one and between them they clear the load in just a few minutes. Once I’m clear my next booked job is at 1430 to collect the blocks from Chelmsford and I stop on the A12 near Marks Tey for some uninterrupted peace. Unfortunately it gets interrupted by a call telling me to head to Bow to load a 7t machine and pecker. I arrive at Bow about 1130 and the machine is an ancient old CAT digger with a pecker and a single bucket. I wrap my chains around the pecker head and lift the bucket before tracking across the site towards the lowered ramps. All of a sudden it stops dead and there is no life. Bollox. Nothing I can do makes any difference and the blokes on site draw a blank too, eventually after some phone calls one of them finds the problem, a loose wire in the ignition circuit and I’m able to load it on and make my way down to Rainham to get shot of the hateful thing. I head back to Chelmsford for another shot at getting the blocks and I’m at the Army & Navy just before 1400 when our other driver Norm rings to say that the crane is still knackered but there’s a dumper to load. I pull in to the site just as he’s leaving with an 8t machine on board. The blokes on site are filling the dumper up with bits and pieces and I check with them as to where it is going, Norm had said “back to the yard” I assumed he’d have loaded it if it were going to our yard and I just want to make sure. The groundworkers tall me it is going to their yard which makes sense going on two wagons etc. and I’m soon off to High Garrett on the other side of Braintree. I pull into their yard, unchain it and drop the ramps and just as I’m climbing up into the drivers seat a woman appears and asks “what’s that doing here” I explain the conversation and she tries to blame me by pointing out that Norm was referring to our yard not theirs. One nil to MDS. I reply that I hadn’t assumed anything. One all. And I’d asked one of their employees where to take it. DPH 2 — MDS 1. Needless to say I’m pretty ■■■■■■ off as it’s just a waste of time and the traffic is bloody horrendous as the M11 is shut and people are cutting through the Braintree area to avoid it. I arrive back at the yard at 1630 and load the Volvo 8 tonner with the dumper. It occurred to me that it would be put Norm over his weight as he can only carry 11t whereas I’m good for 14t, if they had bothered to tell us that the crane was still U/S I could loaded both there in the first place and saved a barrelful of hassle. Headed for home at 1645.
394Km
