28/03/14

Back to seed dressing again this morning and worst of all the job was five tonnes of oats.  But on the good side I was inside a large shed with a well laid floor, though this does make the dust worse I was protected from the weather.  The job went well with no blockages and I was finished and back in the yard by half past ten.  I think this will probably be the last seed dressing of the spring season so the dresser will need a good clean down and a list of repairs and modifications will need preparing.  The spring season is only a short one compared to the autumn work when both dressers will be working for up to eight weeks solid so they need to be in good repair before we start.  Once back in the yard I was back to delivering, firstly a full load to our Malton store, easy enough.  The second load was nearly a full load to our Helmsley store.  While getting my tickets confirmed I asked about the work for Saturday as I knew we would be leading fertilizer from Middlesbrough.  As it was still short of midday I asked if it would be possible to go from Helmsley to Middlesbrough, collect and deliver one of the next days loads.  I had already worked out that it would hardly be possible to complete Saturdays work within my driving hours.  After a phone call to Bunns it turned out that it would be possible so off I went.  The Helmsley load was off loaded easily and quickly and off I went to Middlesbrough.  I had to collect the load from two different docks, Terra and Dawsons.  Terra is a great place to collect from, the man who loads is the best loader of bagged fertilizer I have ever met, the dock is well ordered, we all like to collect from there.  If anyone from Bunns reads this triple the man's wage, he would still be cheap at the price as he is worth four or five of the louts at Dawsons.  As I expected the first part of the load was loaded with the usual efficiency and I was out within less than half an hour.  Dawsons was another story.  I was treated to the Dawsons run around if full measure.  Once I had been to the office and collected my papers I was sent round the corner to load straight off a ship.  Round the corner I was waved away and pointed to the other end of the dock with no explanation.  Being used to these moronic idiots I went to where I supposed the arm waver indicated.  I eventually found a man on a forklift who promptly sent me back to the arm waver.  This time I actually managed to get one of the arm waving idiots to speak and apparently they had stopped off loading the ship for the day, it was all of half past three!  The arm waver then sent me back to the fork lift driver who had just sent me to the arm waver.  By this time my patience, which though slightly better than my younger days still isn't good, was wearing thin.  I went back to the office and holding tightly to my temper asked where I was supposed to get loaded, by this time there was an artic also getting the Dawsons run round treatment.  The man in the office called someone on the radio and finally directed me to shed five at the other end of the dock and two more arm wavers on forklifts deigned to load both me and the artic.  The next trick was not to give me an exit permit so the gate man had to send me back to the office to get the exit permit which I had asked for in the first place but had been assured it would be issued by the loader.  It was nearly five by the time I got away from the bloody awful place.  Both Dawsons and Terra are operated by Bunns, what the hell are they playing at?  I have never met a drive who has a good word to say about Bunns at Dawsons dock.  As far as I'm concerned the whole lot aren't worth paying in plastic washers the bloody place should be shut or even sunk into the Tees never to be seed again, the world would be a better place without it.