Aye I know what you mean, A pal of mine was given a new 8 wheeler, The bloke in the office ordered a new drip sheet, The driver said 30ft would be ample, When it came it was 40ft, Regards Larry.
Retired Old ■■■■:
I managed to persuade one boss I had to let me order my own sheets. Caused a bit of bother in the “finance department”, (boss’s wife) but at least I had sheets I could work with.
The one job I had for a good many years was carrying brass coil and bright bar, I’d requested some canvas sheets for the wagon and drag I was using and got told I’d have pvc as" nobody uses canvas now" ! 2 reject loads later I got the sheets I wanted, neither load had been in the rain or got wet from start to finish but the metal had sweated in the sun under the plastic and was stained black.
Bosses know everything 
Retired Old ■■■■:
Bosses know everything
And your quite correct “ROF”,well at least you are acknowledging the fact However,some bosses knew everything(well almost) from the drivers perspective whilst others didn’t have a ■■■■■■■ clue as they hadn’t done the job but thought themselves superior to the drivers so therefore they must know better,unfortunately.I’m glad to say that the management at Bewick Transport were in the former catagority and fully understood all the problems that a driver faced in order to complete a fair days work Cheers Bewick.
Aye, you’re not wrong, Dennis. I’ve always said that you can’t know the job unless you’ve done it.
Lawrence Dunbar:
0
A credit to the Shunter or driver Larry,then again you could have done it for wor Nigel eh! Cheers Dennis.
Now I will make no apologies to “The big wheeler road runners” for this shot,although I’m only sorry it isn’t a shot of the Scania 4 wheeler loaded,however,the lad sat behind the wheel (making himself a couple of “roll ups”) before he left the Milnthorpe depot one day, to return to Rochdale, is called Dave Priestly and he is from Littleborough,now IMO he was the finest 4 wheeler driver you could ever wish to find,the work he could get through with that Scania,and a previous non sleeper one was phenominal and his sheeting and roping was immaculate,we eventually got him a new 6 wheel Scania with Bo-Alloy body and then he was just about on a par with the work the artics could get through,a great lad and a credit to us and whoever else he drove for.
Lawrence Dunbar:
0
Larry, correct me if if wrong 
Is that the Evening Chronicle and Newcastle Journal site in the Bigg Market?? Ps great job of sheeting. Regards Kev.
kevmac47:
Lawrence Dunbar:
0Larry, correct me if if wrong
Aye,it’s a load of newsprint by the looks of it Kev! howay the lads !Cheers Dennis.
It is Kev, The Chronicle is printed at Middlesbrough Now & is done on night shift by Adams, The Sunday Sun & The Journal plus the Homemaker is still done at the Big Market, The load you are referring to came up from the south, & was being tipped by one of the local shunters, But as you say a good example of good workmanship in sheeting & roping, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
It is Kev, The Chronicle is printed at Middlesbrough Now & is done on night shift by Adams, The Sunday Sun & The Journal plus the Homemaker is still done at the Big Market, The load you are referring to came up from the south, & was being tipped by one of the local shunters, But as you say a good example of good workmanship in sheeting & roping, Regards Larry.
That spot in the Bigg Market used to be a right “illigitimo” 
to back into unless you were there early, the stupid Efin car drivers used to make a simple job really difficult. Regards Kev.
adr:
These look good to me!
Are you wearing “dark glasses” “adr” ? Those sheets look baggy to me,looks like whoever tied the fly sheets never pulled them tight from the back before tying the the sides and the mains look like they have just been “draped” and tied, oh dear ! Just an observation,no doubt the abuse will now flow in my direction 
Cheers Bewick.
adr:
Don’t see many modern wagons R&S nowadays.
And there’s not many modern drivers that could sheet and rope to-day either,oh dear ,more abuse to follow 
Bewick.
And I was just about to come out from behind the sofa, ar well never mind
Dennis
I think you will find that there is a lot more don’t want to rope and sheet anymore, me amongst them.
My present day view on sheeting and roping (notice which way round I put that statement ) is that it looks great when done well and even better when done by someone else
And in no way am I distracting from the skills of drivers past and present who had it to do.And I have the greatest respect for the drivers who did it day in and day out, and the ones who still do. I have done it in years gone by and I still can’t feel the joy of frozen ropes ,wet through sheets, water coming off the top onto you,struggling with a sheet on a windy day. Climbing back into the cab with a pot of tea whilst you thawed out was the best memory of a sheeted and roped load.
Pleased I had those days though, they showed me how some things in transport did improve.
Cheers Bssman
Bassman:
Dennis
I think you will find that there is a lot more don’t want to rope and sheet anymore, me amongst them.My present day view on sheeting and roping (notice which way round I put that statement ) is that it looks great when done well and even better when done by someone else
And in no way am I distracting from the skills of drivers past and present who had it to do.And I have the greatest respect for the drivers who did it day in and day out, and the ones who still do. I have done it in years gone by and I still can’t feel the joy of frozen ropes ,wet through sheets, water coming off the top onto you,struggling with a sheet on a windy day. Climbing back into the cab with a pot of tea whilst you thawed out was the best memory of a sheeted and roped load.Pleased I had those days though, they showed me how some things in transport did improve.
Cheers Bssman
I understand where your “coming from” “Bassman” and I accept that “sheeting and roping” will never return,ever ! I can claim to have been involved in the industry during the demise of S&R and the rise of the “curtainsider” which we had to embrace at Bewick Transport at considerable cost which many of the customers would not acknowledge but demanded never-the-less,so it was quite a sore point at the time with me,similar to ten years previously when 40ft flats took over from 33 footers,no one wanted to pay anymore and many idiots in the business just swallowed the increased investment for no more return 
But nothing changes I suppose,so thats progress for you.Cheers Dennis.
! Ah Mr Bewick, thought you might pipe up sometime, good evening! I will stand by what I said, & I don’t think they are too badder jobs, are they perfect? maybe not as you have pointed out a couple of things already! Are they up to your standards? Obviously not, but your blokes were doing it day-in day-out, & they were very good at it as we have all seen your wagons over the years. Were these 2 blokes roping & sheeting every day? I have included a couple of pics of my efforts on Cannons, others were a lot better than me, but I always got the load there & never had any damage or any part of a load refused, so I was happy with that We were General Haulage, but I didn’t R&S every day, I could have a flat on all week, then the for the next 2 weeks pull Bulkers on the Coal/Tautliners/Low-Loader/PFA Tankers/Box, everything but a flat! So they may not be perfect, but while maybe I have seen better I have also seen a lot worse!
Your second observation, I agree that no there aren’t many modern drivers that can R&S, but is that their fault? To us it’s a shame that it’s a dying art, I always say there is no finer sight than a well sheeted load bowling down the road, but although we love to see it, what a ■■■■■ it was in the cold/wet/snow/ice/etc to do! I got blokes on with me, if you asked them what a dolly was they would think for a minute & probably say “Teeny Tiny Tears” , but again while we may shake our heads & walk off muttering “■■■■■■” under our breath, they know no different! Like twit-navs, I don’t think some of them could find their way out of the yard without it, but they can’t figure out why I don’t use 1, I’m a few months away from the big 50, but to them I am a Dinosaur already!
But isn’t this why we love Trucknet, cos it might not have always been easy years ago but it was definitely better
Regards Chris
Bewick:
adr:
Don’t see many modern wagons R&S nowadays.And there’s not many modern drivers that could sheet and rope to-day either,oh dear ,more abuse to follow
Here is a lovely little wagon, just right for a budding young driver to learn his craft on , but how many of these motor’s are about now, all the small’s work now goes in boxes/tautliners, cos it’s quick, & now speed is of the essence, contracts & jobs are won nowadays so much on price (not preaching to you Dennis cos you know far more about that than me), but when you got a start somewhere years ago this is the type of motor you started on, & you accepted it & got on with the job so you could work your way up to the bigger stuff!
This is also a sad result of insurance/H&S etc, because people like myself & many others on here who grew up in Transport families had a un-official 10-15 year apprenticeship riding round with Dads/Uncles/brothers/family friends etc learning what the game was all about, & you understood that there was a slapping order at firms where you had to prove your worth before you got the good work/wagons etc. Nowadays they come in for a interview (I know cos I’ve interviewed a fair few over the last few years), waving their Licence around thinking they are a wagon driver just cos they got a bit of plastic, truth is I am closer to being “Pope” than a lot of them are to be what we class as Lorry drivers, but they think all they need is the plastic, so they expect to get a new Scania straight away, so they wack the Twit-Nav in the screen & they think they are as good as you! Until they pour 2 cans of anti-freeze in the oil filler & then just shrug their shoulders & say “Nobody told me”!
Regards Chris
