24/01/14

Yesterday was so unnecessarily irritating that I couldn't be bothered to write it up last night.  Having had a good sleep and feeling much happier, though not about yesterday, I will write it up now.  The day started very badly, I was loaded the night before but my first load was to one of our local stores, namley Helmsley.  Its not that I mind delivering to the local stores, I don't, in fact I enjoy it.  It's that I don't like making these deliverys first.  The stores don't open until eight so we aren't able to unload before then, this doesn't matter if the next loads are local deliveries but if the next load is further afield the driver ends up being deprived of an early start for no good reason, and especially at this time of year I find that the delay means I am making the last deliveries with little or no daylight.  Even this doesn't matter if you know the drops or they are well lit, but as many of our drops are on farms the outside lighting is often minimal and farm yards offer numerous hazards that you won't find in a normal yard.  Anyhow my first drop, as mentioned, was the Helmsley store at eight in the morning, I was there in good time and had the sheets open as he pulled the forklift into the yard.  The delivery was quick and I was back at base in about an hour and a half.  The second load wasn't a big one in weight terms but some of the items were bulky and awkward to handle.  I haven't expained our delivery system, we are sent out on our own and have no forklift on the back of the truck so for heavy of bulky items we rely on help from the customer or up until this week we would use the customers loader if we had permission.  This week we have been banned from using the customers loaders with or without permission for insurance reasons, but that isn't part of my day.  The second load was one store delivery and six farm deliveries.  Two of the farm deliveries cuased me some concern even before I set off, one was a delivery I hadn't made before, though I knew the area and the other was a delivery to a council run farm that I suspected might close early and it was to be my last drop.  The first drop, ten twenty five kilo bags of hen food, was easy enough, a bit of a fiddly tight reverse in but it was all acomplised OK.  The second drop was Carlton store, only a single pallett, which was quickly lifted off.  As I was about to run out of driving hours I had to stay at Carlton for my official break, and it was one of those days when I would have rather not stopped but I had no choice.  So three quarter hour break over off to my next drop, it is a drop I have done often enough at Breighton, though I have described it as a farm drop it isn't really, its usually about thirty bags of horse food.  This drop involves a narrow entrance a turn in a yard and backing down about two hundred metres of single track lane, then handing off the bags and wheeling them into a stable on my sack barrow.  All was accomplished easily enough and off to my next drop at Thorganby.  This drop is easily accessible and the yard, though muddy is big enough for a safe turn for out, the drop was only three buckets of feed supplement for horses so I had put them in the cab to save unsheeting again.  Trouble, the customer or perhaps someone else was having a shoot, the helpful people had all but blocked the track with vehicles, leaving me about six inches either side between a ditch and a vehicle, slipping into the ditch would have been all too easy.  I did manage to squeez through avoiding both the ditch and the parked vehicle but I wouldn't have wanted my hand between the truck and the parked vehicle.  Drop done I had to run the same gauntlet on the way out and once again did it without any damage or slipping into the ditch so far so good.  All the while I am concious of time and daylight slipping away.  I rang the next customer, this was one of the drops giving me concern, with his explination finding it was easy enough, I backed down the drive as directed and rang him again to let him know I was there, this drop was at Wheldrake.  He proceeded to give me a detailed desctiption of where he wanted the gates putting round the back of his bungalow garage, this is four fifteen food heavy duty cattle gates.  When I asked if there was any help the answer was no!  Even getting these things off the truck is a struggle on your own and this idiot expected me to carry them round the back of his dewlling!  I didn't even try, though I did get them off and leave them in a neat pile on his drive out of the way. Off to the next drop.  The next drop was a good drop at Acaster Malbis, I knew the drop and it was only ten fence posts and a fifty metre roll of wire netting, this was acomplished easily enough with minimal fuss.  Off to the last drop, the council owned farm on the outskirts of Leeds.  Before setting off I rang the number I had been given on the delivery ticket to check if they were able to accept delivery and give them an estimated arrival time of just after four.  I thought I would still have enough light to navigate the narrow gate way by then.  All I got was the answering service of the mobile network operator, not very helpful, but I left a message giving my estimated arrival time and asking them to ring back if this wasn't convenient.  Since I had no other contact number I left it at that and set off along the A64 towards Leeds hoping there wouldn't be any hold ups and I would have sufficient daylight to get into the yard safely, the sky had been heavily overcast all day and this wasn't helping the fading light.  But I got there OK and navigated between the two imposing stone pillars which for the entrance with no problem, I would estimate that there was about six inches to spare either side but the approach is straight so its easy enough.  The council farm sits in a public park and there is an ample car park and turning room when you get to the car park at the end of the drive.  When I got there there was noone about and the woman whose phone I called hadn't rung back so I tried again with no response.  The only number I could find was for a builder who was working on site so I rang him and he was able to give me another number.  This time someone answered and though he wasn't on site he said he would send someone to see to me.  Quarter of an hour late a rotound man in a yellow high vis jacket turned up in a pickup.  After establishing that I hade come all the way from Malton he conceeded to let me in through the locked gate while explaining that everyone had gone home and there was noone to help me unload.  I refrained from stating the obvious, he was there, I think the effort may just have killed him off.  So, even though I was well and truly cheesed off by that time, I managed to shut up.  The entrance to the farm was narrow and bounded by high brick pillows and also on a left hand bend, great.  My truck has a fairly long wheelbase and a poor lock!  I did get through and how I managed not to catch the right hand post I have no idea, but I didn't.  By this time I was in such a bad mood that I fairly threw the goods off, the goods included two three part galvanised steel cattle feeder rings, bulky and heavy, not fun on your own.  The large man had, by this time, dissapeared into the distance in his pickup.  He may have got the impression that I wasn't a happy bunny by the clashing sound of the offloading, perhaps that caused his quick departure!  Oh well I got the damned things off sheeted up and out of the yard with no further problems.  By the end of the day I was feeling that I had been defecated on from a great height by both my boss and two of the customers.  On my way back to the A64 I received a call in reply to the message I had left over an hour and a half before to ask if I had managed OK, she also said that there was noone there because they finnish at half past twelve on a Friday, noone told me.  I was polite and reasonably cheerful but I don't know how, my immediate boss, the transport coordinator had left work when I got back.  That was probarbly a good thing as I will still have a job to go to on Monday and if he had been there I might not have.  Oh well that's life sometimes.  See you on Monday.