End Of Furlough

Hi There

I hope everyone is managing to keep their wheels turning through this current fuel crisis. Today we managed to fill one of our cars with petrol where yesterday we couldn’t and that should be enough to get me to work and back this coming week. It seems like the crisis is almost over and the government is going to start using the army to drive the tankers from this week so all should be back to normal soon.

My six-month driving ban ended on the 13^th of September but alas I’m still not able to drive. Once a ban ends you must re-apply for your driving licence which would have been cancelled at the time of the ban. The DVLA (Driver & Vehicle Licensing Authority) unbeknownst to me have been in the midst of industrial action for many months and everything paper-related (not online) is running about four months behind. Had I known this I would have sent my application off four months ago instead of 2 months ago. The result is that three weeks after the end of my punishment I’m still being punished by not being able to resume my job as a delivery driver and worse still unable to drive my own car which means I’m heavily dependant on my wife to drive me here there and everywhere. It is a serious pain in the arse and is currently being suffered by many thousands of people up and down the country. A DVLA update page is available to access to see where they’re at currently and according to it I’m due for their attentions this week so hopefully by my next post it will have all been resolved.

So, since last post I have had many weeks off on furlough as the new driver I mentioned they had taken on meant the regular warehouse guy was able to resume his duties there which left me without anything to do. I can tell you that 11 weeks at home is not as great as it sounds. Living in a one-bedroom flat with no garden was a serious test to our mental health but we got through it and due to illness with another driver I have been back in to do warehouse work while hoping and praying my licence is issued anytime soon. Also, this week saw the end of furlough. I have worried and wondered what would happen to me once it finished. I need a full wage as part time work would be no good for me. I had a chat with my boss who agreed that my licence shouldn’t take much longer so he would keep me on full-time. On the days where there wasn’t enough to do in the warehouse I would have to do “maintenance work” which after speaking to one of my work mates can only mean something menial like litter picking or gutter cleaning but hey, its better than no job.

I have to say I’ve really enjoyed working in the warehouse. I have learnt to skilfully drive the forklift after a few disasters which saw full pallets fall off, saw me ground it in the mud outside to the point where it wouldn’t budge and we had to call in the services of a neighbouring company to free it with their heavy lift fork truck. I’ve shared much banter with the various courier drivers and lorry drivers that have brought goods to us. I’ve also got to know the employees in my company much better than I would being out in the van all day and there really is some characters working there.

So, on this Sunday night 3.10.21, I prepare for my days work tomorrow. I’ve just today bought a new pair of steel toe cap shoes, the wife has ironed my trousers and tee shirt, I’ve showered and shaved and I’m raring to go be it warehouse work or “maintenance work”. Life’s not too bad.

Take Care out there

TM

Warehouse Work

 

Hi there

Since being banned from driving in March I have been going into work as a warehouse guy. I am not in every day but up until last week I have been in at least two to three days a week. I get up at 5.15am on workdays have a coffee, get washed and shaved then at 5.45 take a nice cup of tea into my dear wife who’s having to get up to drive me in to work. At the beginning of all this my boss had offered to come and pick me up as it was sort of on his way in but at the first attempt he clean forgot about me and left me standing at the end of my road on a miserable wet and cold morning for half an hour before he remembered. He’d been sitting at his desk sipping coffee when it dawned on him he should’ve picked me up. Since that day my wife has took me in.

The first thing we do is load the vans. We have three large vans and a baby van for small local deliveries. The first van normally has the Norfolk run on it and one guy stands at the desk issuing orders for at least three of us to run up and down the aisles picking items such as toilet rolls, paper towels, cleaning liquids, cloths, scourers, mops, buckets and various items from a choice of at least several thousand. Did you know that there’s at least 20 different types of toilet roll? I didn’t till I started working here.  I don’t mean stuff you get in Tesco like Andrex or Cushelle toilet rolls. I mean bulk pack, mini, midi and maxi jumbo toilet roll with a standard or 3-inch core. Then there’s Super deluxe 3 ply, deluxe 2 ply, 320sheet 2 ply and 200 sheet 2 ply. Then there’s the Tork range of coreless, smart one and smart one mini, then theres the Leonardo range with at least three more types including one of our most popular products, Versatwin seen in many public toilets in a double dispenser. There’s another at least six types I could mention as well there so you can imagine that unless you are well acquainted with where everything is in the warehouse mistakes are often made.

Once all three vans are loaded and have left for the day I head off in search of bays in the warehouse in need of replenishment. Once located I may need to bring a pallet down from one of the shelves using our Reach fork lift. Deliveries are arriving constantly, so I have to break off from what I’m doing to unload lorries or to accept and sign for stuff coming in on vans. I then have to check everything and tick it off, stamp the bit of paper and hang it on a clip board for one of the bosses to check and file it. Those items then need to be put away so it might involve climbing a ladder or raising a pallet to shelf height and unloading whilst standing on the shelf. Its all very active work and after initially finding the work tough on my old bones I have gotten used to it and am reaping the benefits of what is essentially a daily work out.

I take an hour’s break at 12.30 and after resuming I pick as much as I can for next days deliveries. I finish at 4.30 when the wife pulls up outside to collect me.

Since my ban they have been using one of the warehouse guys to do my round but they recently took on another driver, so I have become surplus to requirements for the time being. I was off (furloughed) all last week and haven’t yet been in this week either so as long as the furlough scheme is still going I probably shouldn’t be bothered but I don’t like being idle at home so find we go out more eating and shopping needlessly to the point where all the good fitness work I’ve been doing is slowly becoming undone. Oh well, roll on the 12^th of September!

Take Care out there.

TM

One Year On

One year ago to the day I wrote about the first months of Covid 19 and its effects on the world. Today its still with us and wreaking havoc in all aspects of life. We are currently at around 136,000 deaths but the last few months have seen a slowdown in infection rates and deaths. At its peak I was delivering supplies to Basildon, Queens and various other hospitals and the queue of private ambulances collecting dead bodies was unprecedented, a very sad sight to see. My own family didn’t escape it as my two sons tested positive and had to isolate for two weeks and worse still my daughter tested positive and was ill in bed when I bought her an oximeter for her finger to check her blood was getting enough oxygen. After several calls to 111 and a low oximeter reading of 84 (should be 99%) they told her to call an ambulance and she was hospitalized in St Marys, Paddington for a week with severe breathing difficulties. There was talk of putting her into a coma to assist the recovery but they eventually relented and let her body repair itself. It was a scary time as nobody could be there with her but thanks to mobile phones we were in touch daily. She was eventually discharged and after several weeks recouperation has now resumed working from home. For that I thank the NHS and the amazing staff that kept her alive.

So, since last April I have continued working, driving my van here there and everywhere delivering masks, gloves, aprons, face shields and all the other stuff my company have to sell. But it hasn’t been without incident as those of you who have followed my blogs since 2004 will probably know.

Firstly, soon after the last post, on April 27^th I was delivering to a farm outside Colchester. They had buzzed me in through an electric gate and after parking up and getting their goods from the back of the van I was wandering around the property looking for somebody to give it to. A couple of dogs came bounding towards me and circled me barking loudly. Not being afraid of dogs and not one to panic I remained calm. Someone appeared from a building and as I handed the item over with my left had one of the dogs, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, sank its teeth into my gloved right hand. It pulled the pinkie finger of the glove clean off and with it the tip of my finger. Pain shot through me as I let out a little yelp. As I looked at the damage my blood was pouring out. The guy who’d come out for the package had no idea how to control the dog who, incidentally, was squaring up to take another chunk out of me!! My language turned quite colourful as I told the guy, in no uncertain terms, to get a hold of his %$£&ing dog. With all the commotion a second guy appeared asking what was going on. I showed him my now blood-soaked hand, stating how it had happened. To his credit he sprang into action and went off to get disinfectant, bandages, and tape. He ran my hand under a tap which just made the water run red and then made quite a good job of patching me up with the other bits he’d brought out. I still had half a van of deliveries but decided I wouldn’t be continuing with them and instead I drove to Colchester Hospital where they did a fantastic job after first having me soak the wound in an iodine bath, which stung like crazy I might add. All this time the blood was pumping out of me and I reckon I probably lost about half a pint from the time of the bite to the time I was bandaged in Hospital. Oh well it would be a great story to tell the lads down the pub, if they ever opened again any time soon that is!! I did report the incident to the Police but only to get them to warn the people to control the dogs as It could have been a child and have had a very different outcome.

I took the rest of the week off to let my finger heal and no sooner was I back at work than the next incident happened to me. I was about 10 feet up a ladder in the warehouse getting something off the top shelf when I lost my balance and I came tumbling down, bouncing off another shelf and grazing my stomach before landing flat on my back and cracking my head off the floor. Although it sounds serious, I could feel that I was basically OK. My work colleague who had witnessed it all was concerned as he gave me instructions to just lie there a while. I eventually got myself up and everything felt ok so, although soreness had started setting in, I decided to soldier on and do my days work. I have suffered with shoulder problems since that day but mainly when I go to bed and lie on my right side. I have tried to get treatment but due to the pandemic It has been difficult to see anyone. In fact I’ve recently received an appointment to see some one this Thursday as things in this part of the country have eased off a bit Covid-wise so lets see what they can do for me.

So, onto the next incident on the 20^th of December just before Christmas. I deliver to a care home in Canvey Island and although it’s a huge order normally requiring up to fifteen trips from the van to the storage area with my trusty sack barrow, it normally goes off without a hitch. I try and get as much onto the barrow to reduce the amount of journeys back and forth so sometimes overload it and put odds and sods on the top which invariably fall off. On this day it was a five-litre bottle of dishwash liquid which fell off. I stooped down to pick it up and continued my journey to the storage area by holding the barrow with my right hand and the fallen bottle of dishwash liquid with my left. I felt my left trouser leg getting wet and also a stinging sensation growing. As I looked down at the bottle I was holding I could see the fall from the barrow had caused it to puncture and it was directing a jet of its contents onto my trousers which in turn was soaking through to my leg. In the few minutes it had taken me to get to the storage area the liquid had penetrated my trousers and burnt my leg. It was now smarting severely, and I was at a loss as to what to do next. With hindsight I should have whipped my trousers straight off and got my leg under a tap of water to wash it all off but what would that have looked like to onlookers? I completed my delivery and got back to the van where I was able to get to the injury with wet wipes and to bandage it up with some clean microfibre cloths I had in my work bag. By the end of the shift it was red raw and I went home, had a bath, and dressed my wound with cream and bandages. At work the next day my boss advised me to enter the incident into the accident book and to seek medical attention. He printed off a few pages describing the product which turned out to be highly corrosive and in a worst-case scenario could cause cancer. Lovely!! I duly got treated at my surgery and went back five or six times to get the dressings changed. Four months on and there is only a scar there. I’m still waiting for the cancer.

In February 2019 I was up in court facing a driving ban for multiple speeding offences. I managed to plead exceptional hardship and was allowed to continue to drive and keep my job. I was warned that if I appeared there again I wouldn’t be able to use the same excuse and would subsequently be banned from driving for 6 months. Since then I have seriously tried to watch my speed. My main weakness is maintaining 30mph in a 30 zone. My routes through Essex are 70% country roads which have 60mph limits then when you pass through a village it obviously drops to 30. This is where Essex Police set up their handheld speed traps often positioning themselves on a bend where its easier not to be seen until it’s too late. So inevitably I was caught on several occasions doing 35,36 &37 and eventually ended up at Southend Magistrates Court in March to face an all-women court who had not one bit of sympathy and were not prepared to cut me any slack. As a consequence, I was disqualified from driving for 6 months. At that point I was out of a job but after a discussion with my boss it was agreed he would keep me on to work in the warehouse to serve out my ban. What a nice chap. So, on Tuesday I begin the fourth week of my ban in the warehouse. It’s quite taxing on my almost 60-year-old body but I’m basically left to my own devices to unload pallets and get all the products onto the shelves. As the demand for our products has taken a dip during the pandemic I’m only required to work on the days the deliveries arrive so my boss is able to furlough me for the ones where I’m not required which also give my battered body a day or two to recover so it’s a win win situation for me at the moment.

So as the weather improves, and we go through the various stages to come out of this latest lockdown, I look to the future with a bit more optimism. I’ve had my first Covid jab (Pfizer) with the second due in May, I get my licence back in September, Leeds United are “safe” from relegation in our first season back in the Premier League, things are all going in the right direction. Just got to make sure I don’t fall off the ladder.

Keep Safe Everyone, and Happy Easter.

TM

 

 

 

The Coronavirus Post

Hi there,

It’s been a while.

Today is the fourth of April 2020 and I continue to work at the same company but am now a permanent employee. I was taken on last June after several years working for them via a driver’s agency so in total I have been here for three years and three months.

So, here’s a brief recap of who I am.

I used to blog as the London Cabby up until 2015 and posts should still be available for you to read at http://www.londoncabby.blogspot.com 

I met someone and got married and moved out to Suffolk. I tried to drive into London to work every day but found it tough so decided to try and find a job locally. I signed up with various driving agencies and secured work driving 7.5-ton trucks as far as Scotland delivering anything and everything. After several mishaps (some of which I’ve documented in previous posts here), I decided that van driving suited me better and after receiving an assignment for my present company I managed to make a good impression and here I’ve remained eventually being offered a permanent job.

 We deliver Cleaning, Hygiene, Medical and assorted other products pretty much all over the country but our small team of drivers tend to stick to Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex with the odd journey to the East side of London. The long-distance stuff gets sent out via carriers such as DPD and Royal Mail.

They used to rotate us whereby one day we’d be in Norfolk and Suffolk then the next we’d be off to Essex and London but for the last year and a bit it seems to be me doing Essex and London every day but I’ve now got used to it and am pretty familiar with all the customers which include Schools and Universities, hospitals, care homes, dentists, vets, large factories and smaller independent companies, pretty much anyone who needs our products, even private homes.

Since this Coronavirus Pandemic has been affecting the world, we have seen demand for our products soar. Gloves, masks and all other types of PPE (personal protection equipment) have been flying off the shelves. So much so that the re-supply cannot keep up with demand which in turn means our stocks are running dangerously low. The NHS obviously has priority for all PPE but places like care homes aren’t being afforded similar status so they are suffering shortages of all the same items required by the NHS to go about their daily jobs as safely as it is their right to do.

 I was at a care home in Braintree last week where they normally order 6x40 packs of toilet rolls, 10 x boxes of gloves and lots of different cleaning products on a weekly basis and I was only able to deliver a third of their requirement as we either didn’t have the stock or we were rationing stuff after being told that the NHS had priority. I don’t think that’s fair. 

It seems everyone’s been caught out and now were all scrambling about trying to keep ourselves stocked up.

This also applies to home life where just simply popping into Tesco isn’t an option at the moment. People are having to queue up for some time, keep a safe distance from other customers and then walk around shopping for everyday items which are no longer there such as toilet paper, pasta, eggs and even bread. To be fair that was the case a few weeks ago but I think all the major supermarkets have got their act together and some sort of order has now been restored.

As a priority worker I have managed to keep working whilst other people have been laid off or furloughed (my son included) with 80% pay, which I wouldn’t mind myself to be honest. Being diabetic I don’t think my body would take well to contracting Covid 19 and however many precautions we take it can still find its way into our bodies, so a few weeks of isolation would probably be beneficial to me. There have been some terrible news reports of recent deaths to the virus. People with no underlying health conditions have become victims to it, the youngest a 13-year-old boy, absolutely shocking.

All we can do is follow government advice and stay indoors and hopefully we’ll turn a corner and get back to our normal lives sooner rather than later.

So, on that note I’ll end this post and try and do another one soon.

Stay Safe.

TM

Rear view cams should be compulsory!

Since last posting anything on here I have continued working for the same company via my agency. They seem happy to pay agency rates for me.
They have kept me on the Essex run with brief ventures into Cambridgeshire. I’m glad I’m not doing the Norfolk run as there’s too much scope for things to go wrong down some of these country lanes.

My licence currently has nine points. Three more would see me out of work if I were to receive a ban. So, on that note I get a call the other day from the agency informing me I had been caught speeding on the A13 at Pitsea. The offence occurred on the 31st of July. They had sent the initial NIP (notice of impending prosecution) to the van owners who in turn sent it to the company I’m assigned to who then sent it to my agency who then sent it to me. All that to-ing and fro-ing took 2 months. As its now mid way through November its been rumbling on for four months and I’m yet to receive a court date where I hope to be able to plead my case and get  maybe a lesser ban than six months so that I don’t suffer exceptional hardship. Some might say "you do the crime you do the time". What I would say to that is I agree but if there’s a possibility of being shown leniency then why not try.
Just before I received the NIP the company I’m assigned to were going to take me on permanently but they are now awaiting the outcome of my court case. Fair enough!

There have been a couple of incidents in the past year.
A few months back whilst driving along the Burnham road in Essex a van coming the other way was well over the centre line and as we passed each other our door mirrors slapped. My lower mirror and my indicator lens fell out and the main mirror was left flapping in the breeze but I manage to grab it before it fell away. Neither of us stopped as it was a very fast road and would’ve caused  chaos. I pulled over when safe to do so but there was nothing I could do other than tape up what was left of the mirror then go on eBay to buy the bits needed to put it right. They arrived within a few days and all was well.

Friday just gone I was delivering to one of the regulars. I parked up outside and got into the back of the van to sort out the fourteen items. An18 tonne rigid truck was parked about 20 feet behind me and whilst I was in the back of the van I heard it start up and begin reversing. I assumed its driver knew I was behind him but as he got nearer I began to doubt whether he did. Within seconds it was too late to do anything as he had picked up a lot of speed and I had to brace myself as the lorry came crashing in to me. Once the driver realized he’d hit something he pulled forward allowing me to jump out of the van for a scream up. I started ranting something along the lines of " how the hell couldn’t you see me". He had by now jumped out of his cab and was apologising saying his regular truck had a reversing camera. The loud noise had by now alerted most of the workforce who were emerging out onto the street to see what all the commotion was about. Both my back doors had taken the full force of the collision and refused to close. A couple of the bosses were also there and made sure I was OK which was nice of them, and even offered me a cup of tea for the shock. They saw the state of the doors and produced a couple of club hammers and proceeded to bash the hinges to try and get the doors to close. They only managed to close them three quarters of the way so I tied them with a bungee and headed back to base. My governor and several of the employees came out for a look. The remaining deliveries I had in the van were transferred to our transit and off I went into Ipswich to finish off. So, tomorrow, Monday, I’ll be driving the transit until they either fix my Sprinter or hire something else.

I went to see my kids yesterday in London. They miss my cooking so asked me to make a couple of my specialities. We went to Sainsbury’s at Ladbroke Grove and bought ingredients for meatballs and rice and mince and dumplings. I duly cooked both meals and everyone pigged out till completely stuffed. Afterwards, I went to visit my mum and brother in the evening and stayed the night. My brother ordered a Chinese and only a few hours after pigging out with my kids I pigged out again. What a fat bastard! Actually I’ve been losing weight without even trying and am now a few pounds under fourteen stones for the first time in a few decades.
So I’ll end it for now and post again soon.
Take care out there.
TM

Country Roads and Roadkill

Since my last post I have continued working for the same company I have been at since January.
They seem content to pay agency rates for me although I'm only getting the minimum wage. I had been promised to be taken on permanently after a trial period but seven months on and I am still an agency driver. I receive holiday pay and am enrolled in a pension plan but its on Bank holidays that you feel it because you don't get paid for them.

I have really gotten used to this job though and there isn't much in the way of problems that I encounter. I basically cover all of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire and often dip inside the M25 with trips to the east side of London. I leave the yard every morning with a van full to the brim of cleaning and medical products. Most of the drops are literally pull up at the door and put the stuff into the lobby but quite a few entail trips up flights of stairs or treks through a maze of corridors to some obscure cleaning cupboard at the far end of the building so I know for a fact my fitness levels have improved. I bought a Fitbit recently to track my steps and heart rate and regularly do 10,000 steps per day. The downside to this job is that I can pull up wherever I want and eat what I want so KFC, McD's and many other junk food outlets often have visits from me.

Although I try hard to avoid accidents they occasionally still happen. A few weeks ago I was delivering to a sports club in Cambridgeshire when I parked in front of a bollard. I did the delivery, jumped back in the van, forgot I was in front of a bollard and drove straight over it with a loud crunch!! I reversed back, saw that I had knocked the concrete bollard over causing the concrete lump to break the nice red tarmac and making a mess of the forecourt. I looked up and down for CCTV but saw none so made my escape. The van received minor damage to the front and would probably go un-noticed. I was pretty gutted for the next few days and worried in case I was reported by the club but as the days became weeks I realised I'd got away with it.

 How ever hard you try to avoid these incidents they will still happen from time to time. I also received  3 penalty points on my licence after I was caught by a mobile police camera doing 43mph in a 30 zone bringing my points total to 6 now.

One thing I have noticed whilst driving the country lanes is the amount of roadkill out there. I've seen badgers,deer, foxes, hedgehogs and all manner of birds lying dead in the road. I have had birds fly into the path of the van many times and  wonder that there's any left.

The guy that works out the routes is generally quite good at getting me finished anywhere between 3 and 5pm but occasionally he works it out wrong and I finish between six and seven but at least I get paid for every minute I work unlike the regular driver they have who's always moaning about finishing after his time and not getting paid.

Anyway, its all quite uneventful and probably makes for a dull blog so I'll only post when there's anything worth talking about.
Catch you all later.
TM

Disastrous New Year

Hi Folks

A lot has happened since my last post.

Just after Christmas work was very thin on the ground. In fact I wasn’t offered anything till the 4th of January. 

I got a call from my agency at 7am on the Wednesday morning to see if I wanted to work at Canute in Great Blakenham. I accepted and got ready quickly and was parked up at their site within 40 minutes. The job was driving their 7.5 tonner around Suffolk and Essex delivering electrical supplies. I had quite a few drops to do and around 4.30pm completed the last one in the Sudbury area and headed back to base. I turned onto the A1071 in the pitch black. The conditions were cold and murky. The main beam on the truck left a lot to be desired so I was high beaming when possible and dipping when traffic approached me. It was during one of these dips that disaster struck. A hard right hand bend appeared without warning (all chevron markers were missing due to numerous earlier collisions) as I raised the high beam but it was too late to stop. The truck left the road, took off and landed nose first in a field several feet below road level. I didn't have my seat belt on at the time (silly boy) so my face whacked off the steering wheel with my nose taking the full force. Blood spurted everywhere as other cars stopped and the drivers raced over to see if I was ok. Essentially I knew I was OK. I was more concerned with how I was going to get the truck back to the depot, hopefully without having to declare I'd had a mishap. After people realised I was OK they all went on their way. But every so often another one would stop to see what had happened. I decided I had to contact my depot to inform them what had happened. As I was in a muddy field they were at a loss as to who to call to get me out. One of the motorists told me they knew a farmer nearby who had a great big tractor who could probably help me out. I agreed and had to wait about half an hour for him to arrive. I told the depot I had sorted some recovery and they asked if the truck was damaged but as it was pitch black I couldn't see. Before the tractor arrived I walked around the truck with my iPhone torch in one hand and a bloody tissue held to my nose in the other and gasped at the amount of damage that the fall from the road had caused. As far as getting any more work from my agency went I knew I was toast. Both the cabs steps had fallen off. The front grill was smashed to pieces and for all I knew the suspension was knackered so all in all it wasn't looking too good for me. The guy turned up with the tractor and started negotiating with me as to how much I would give him to pull me out of the field. The company I was working for should probably have paid but I think reality and shock were setting in by this time and I just wanted to get home so I said all I had on me was £30 so he agreed to do it. He attached a chain to the truck and literally had me out of the field and onto a side road in 2 minutes. I thanked him and started hobbling back towards Great Blakenham. There was definitely loads wrong with the truck. It was making funny noises and wasn’t driving so well. My face and nose were aching and now my ribs were hurting. I probably should have gone to A&E but that’s not my style. As I limped into the depot the guy I had spoken to in the morning was waiting in his car to assess the damage. He took one look at it and shook his head and drove off without a word to me. Haven't they heard of the phrase "Accidents happen"? I basically couldn't wait to get away from the place so I went into the office and handed the keys over. They wanted me to fill out all sorts of forms but I said I needed to go to hospital and it would have to wait and I turned round and went to my car. I sat there for a while and composed a long text explaining everything to my agency. I knew that would be my last assignment (they haven’t contacted me since!!) for them but luckily I was with several other agencies so I knew I'd be back at work soon enough. I got home and Jane fussed over me whilst I had a bath and got cleaned up. My nose was turning dark purple by now and I thought it was probably broken but still I knew I wouldn't go to hospital. 

I spent the whole next day in bed recovering and was debating whether to stay off till Monday but thought it was probably better to get straight back to work. I texted a different agency to say I was available and they promptly replied with a shift at a firm in Bury St Edmunds for the following morning. It was a different type of work to anything I had done. I was delivering large iron frames to companies and building sites in a drop sider 7.5 tonner. It also had an analogue tachograph, something I hadn't used since my bus driving days in the late 80's. The whole day was an absolute doddle and I was back home by 4pm to continue my recuperation over the weekend. Everyone I had come into contact with had asked me if I'd been in a fight due to the state of my nose I said yes to some adding "you should see the other bloke" and to others I just said I'd had a prang in my car.

The next week started with no work for three days followed by a phone call asking if I could do Thursday and Friday at an electrical firm called Newey & Eyre in Ipswich. It was van work but easy peasey. One little incident worth mentioning was when I was driving around the country roads north of Hadleigh in Suffolk I came upon a ford crossing a stream (I think possibly my first ford ever). I just assumed it was possible to cross as why would it be there? The water level did look high as there had been quite a bit of torrential rain the last few days but I started to cross anyway. The front of the van dipped towards the stream and the water level soon reached the bottom of the windscreen. This wasn't right thought I! It was a miracle the engine never cut out as that would have been one disaster too many in my recent driving history. I managed to whack the van into reverse and back away from the ford with steam arising from the bonnet. Crisis averted!! Nobody would be any the wiser. I made it back to the depot on that Friday and that completed my two days’ work with that particular firm.

During the day on the above shift my agency rang me to ask if I would be interested in doing van work delivering hygiene and cleaning supplies for a company just down the road from me with a possible view to a permanent job there. I agreed.

I started the job on Monday 16th of January at 7am. I was to deliver things like rubber gloves, toilet rolls, bleach, detergents, cleaning cloths and lots of other hygiene and cleaning supplies to care homes, doctor and dental surgeries, vets and assorted businesses throughout Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. I am still there after nine weeks but there has still been no indication that they want me there full time. I have found the work sufficiently strenuous to get me into better shape but not ridiculously strenuous such as when I worked at Tuffnells for four days then jacked it in!

I've already had a slight mishap at this place but not much was said about it. I had delivered to a care home in the Great Yarmouth area. The car park was full and manoeuvring space at a premium. Whilst trying to reverse I felt some resistance as if my wheel was up against the kerb so I pulled forward made some room for myself and drove away looking at the offending kerb and protruding coach light and wondering if it was that which was impeding me. I thought nothing more of it and continued my route. That was the same week as storm Doris where the van had been hit by many falling branches during the shift. On the Monday morning I turned up for work and one of the other drivers jokingly asked me what had I done to his van. He said there was a dent in the wing. I went out to the yard and looked at it and there was indeed a fair old dent in the nearside wing. I said I knew nothing about it and mentioned that during storm Doris a falling branch  or two may had caused it. Nothing more was said until the Wednesday when I turned up and one of the managers told me they'd had an email from the care home where I thought my wheel was up against the kerb with a CCTV film clip showing the van hitting the coach lamp and breaking the glass and also that they were putting in a claim for the damage. That really took the wind out of my sails as up until then I thought it was all going extremely well for me. I thought that more would come of it but three weeks on and no more has been said. 

I take extra care when I'm out and about now and apart from some near-misses on country roads with cars flying round blind bends I have managed to avoid any more dramas. I have a feeling they're waiting till after Easter to offer me a job, if at all! So, watch this space.

Take Care Out There

TM