Yes we’ve all done it, engaged our brains too late and made a fool of ourselves. I can remember last summer, I stopped to buy a drink on the A303 near Andover, I was on my way back to Oxford. It was a warm summers day, and I had an old DAF with no aircon, so had the driver’s window open. When I went to close it, by pressing the button on the driver’s door, nothing happened. I pressed it for up, and for down, I turned the ignition on and off, but nothing would make my window go up. OK, it’s warm and dry so no problem, I’ll defect it when I get back to Oxford.
Just turn onto the northbound A34, and the sky goes very black, the heavens open, and I try desperately to get the window up, No chance. By the time I get to Oxford, my right side is soaking wet, and the cab floor is flooded, only then, as I get out the cab to shake myself off, do I notice the winding handle on the door! Yep, it was a manual window, stupid thing was, I must have opened it at some stage! All the time I was pressing the button, I never noticed the passenger window going up and down like a whores knickers!
On another occasion, I was taking a driver out on a driving assessment. As he was a full time driver, we did a store delivery. Again, it was a lovely hot summer’s day, so I left my coat in the car, and just wore my polo shirt etc. We were delivering to Asda Havant, and as we came out of the store, there was an almighty storm, rain like stair rods, thunder and lightning, hail etc. we were heading towards the A3M at waterlooville when we came across a tree blocking the road. We had no choice but to reverse about a mile, back to the roundabout, as we couldn’t turn around. It was very dark and the roads were becoming flooded, we called the police but traffic was still coming up behind us, so I put on my Hi Viz vest, which at that time was a new innovation, And walked back through the rain to the roundabout to stop traffic from coming up the road, while the driver reversed back in the pitch dark, with rain battering against his mirrors. I got soaked, like a drowned rat! It took about 20 minutes to get the truck back and turned around, only then did the police finally arrive.
I climbed into the cab, but couldn’t sit on the passenger seat as I was so wet, It was then I noticed, on the bunk, my drivers hi Viz waterproof coat, that I thought I had left in my car!
On another occasion, I was in an RDC, which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty! I was told to go onto bay 6, but there was a trailer already on it. The shunter came around and coupled up to it, but was having difficulty pulling it off the bay. He sat there revving the engine to build up air pressure, still no movement; he checked the red line and the parking brake. While I waited, another shunter came around, and now both of them were trying to find out what was going on. I went back to goods in to explain what was happening, and was told to use bay 7, by this time the depot mechanic is now there with his 4x4 truck, orange lights flashing, and his torch and hammer in his hand, all 3 are standing baffled, scratching heads etc. As I walk past, I casually point out to the first shunter, that it is a container on a skelly, and perhaps he should try connecting the red airline to the correct coupling! 3 faces turned extremely red, and a muttered thank you drive was heard coming from the embarrassed shunter. Fair play to him, he did buy me a coffee afterwards!
