The stevenage drop and the green guard !!!

This is my home all week


January 29th I was tipping in Stevenage @ 8.30 this morning at John Lewis, A big distribution centre there. I usually have to tip here in the afternoon and they are famous for leaving you sitting waiting if you are early.
I got to the yard with plenty of time to spare I wanted to leave at about 6 am,
I had to do the walk round checks and write out a Tacho , check I had enough fuel . It only takes about 15 minutes to fuel up in the morning but if you leave it until later in the day it can be a pain finding a bunker or a garage that takes our cards.

So I’m nice and early and I turn the engine on and hear this whirring sound coming from the tachograph the time is flashing and there is an exclamation mark flashing as well, then I see that the red light in the dash is on, indicating a problem with the Tacho , I got the new chart in and it all seemed fine , I carried out the checks and found out I had a brake light out . Couldn’t get access to any spares so I swapped the fog light bulb over . Job done .
I was running a little bit late after all this, my tom tom was showing an ETA of 8.40 am ,

I headed off down the M1 , then the A14 and then the A1 to Stevenage Its easy and traffic is usually ok , I can normally do it in 2 hours give or take a few minutes but today I was caught in the rush hour traffic when I got to Stevenage junction 8 I stopped dead. I was crawling along and I knew that the Goods in would be snooty about me being late ,

I have been early lots of times and sat around waiting , but be late and you risk the wrath of the shift change!!!! that’s when they say they cant tip you because your late and you have to wait for the shift change to see if they can fit you in , most of the time they say this ,the yard is empty , its all just power buzz bullshit stuff. But they have got you right by them ,as usual.

I got to the drop at 9 am and came across a security guard I had never seen before , Now security at any distribution facility is a whole other chapter,
some would say a whole other genre, but the security here and at most of the other John Lewis depot’s I have been too has always been first class to me. Usually they come out of there little hut and read my reference number and its either “Bank 4 drive” or “Bank 1 drive” This guy sat there stony faced , so I got down with the truck blocking both lanes in and out . I gave him my paperwork and he looked lost , I said bank four mate and he agreed but his face looked blank.
I saw him crossing out his arrivals’ paperwork and realised he had no idea where bank 4, or what bank 4 even was!! . I pulled into the space reserved for Bank 4 delivery’s and handed in my paperwork to the goods in man.

“14 pallets”” I told him , “14 Pallets” ? He said like he was disgusted , how am I going to have time for them before my tea break” I shrugged , it was bite your lip time again. He got me to back onto bay 5 and said he will try the best he could to get them all off . Ahhh bless any one would think it was his job to do that !!! . So I open up the doors to get on the bay and this artic comes flying into the yard right up to my back doors, he flies out and is shouting his head off , “Fucking security “security , “Fucking stupid thick idiots” He was ranting , turns out he had arrived an hour ago and the security hadn’t known where bank 4 was and had sent him all the way over to the other sites. He was fuming. The warehouse man tipped him straight away as I was going to be unloading myself

Drama outside over I went in and found the my lorry was stacked very close to the rear doors and there wasn’t much room for the loading bay to fit on.
My friend the warehouse man was moaning and handed me a pallet truck.
Ten minutes later and 14 pallets sitting on the dock and I was on my way.
It always amazes me that people always have something to moan about ,while doing their job , I suppose I am now though , come to think of it.

I had a collection to make in Corby that was en route to Singapore but I wouldn’t be taking it that far sadly I took it as far as Leicester , around the corner from our own yard.
It was an easy drop and I was back in the yard by 1.30 pm . I reported the defect to the TM and we ran the truck up to All- truck to have it repaired. I got to go home and was home by 2.30 pm , finding out how hard my wife has to work all day with the little ones at home, Phewww, give me a few tonne of wood flooring to handball any day .




This is the asda depot at Donny