The Early Shift

I think I've written here before about the way our work pattern can be classified into three 'shifts'.  That doesn't mean, of course, that we are divided into three entirely separate teams who rotate their hours like shifts in a factory.  The business just wouldn't operate if we were, because our work doesn't naturally fall into eight-hour units to permit such a system.  Nevertheless, there are three distinct patterns, and which one we fall into on any given day is mainly dependent upon the flow of jobs through the office.

For three days this week, I have most distinctly been on 'early shift'.  That means that I have been allocated a job before the office closed on the previous day, and so will be on the road by the time it opens at 8.0 in the morning.  As a point of information, the second shift comprises drivers who have returned from a job during the afternoon and were therefore available for work when the office closed, but were not given work.  It is then their responsibility to make themselves available by 8.0 the following morning, ready to be allocated work as soon as the phones get busy.  It has been known for anyone known to the night controller as one who doesn't sleep well, or who, for any other reason is likely to be up and about early, to 'jump the queue', if he gets an early call for an urgent job.  And the third shift is the term I give to drivers who are out on a job when the day closes, so they simply go to the office or phone in when they consider themselves ready for work, depending what time they might have returned home.

So, to my week.  On Monday, I began with a job that wasn't included in the magnificent list presented last week, which I thought offered something of every sort.  I'd forgotten a delivery to a building site, but this oversight was soon to be corrected.  In Wallsend they are building a sparkling new library, and I had to take some samples for the furniture supervisor.  I had visions of some difficulty carrying them - one of them was quite heavy - up to the first floor, but as luck would have it, I missed my turning into the road, and so had to drive right round the block.  As I drove up to the site, one of the foremen was crossing the road, and I seized the opportunity to ask him about parking, access and so on.  Once he knew what I was delivering, he told me there wouldn't be anyone there yet, but that he would willingly receive it on their behalf.  I did wonder why I had been asked to be there at 8.0, but that is often down to the imagination of whoever booked the job.

Tuesday found me on second shift.  By the time I'd got home on Monday afternoon, I didn't feel like doing anything else, and so after an hour or so sorting myself out at home, I drove to the office to conclude the day with the weekly paperwork exchange.  Tuesday morning I did a couple of local jobs, before being sent to a factory in Wednesbury.  Although I only drove through a few streets on this, my first visit there, I found it quite a nice place, with many neatly tidied-up Victorian street scenes.  Despite the van windows being closed, in many places was the all-pervading smell of the ironworks.  I readily admit that many would find this unpleasant but to me, not having to live with it, it's a nostalgic fragrance, reminding me of the happy time when I worked in the office of a factory that had its own small foundry.  I returned about 5.30, and secured a 'second shift' place for Wednesday, too.

On Wednesday I was initially sent off on a fairly regular job for a firm in Royston, whose goods are processed at a place in Letchworth and then taken on to Daventry for further work.  The usual sequence therefore is to take some pieces on one leg, make a delivery and a collection, and then do the same for the second leg, eventually returning to start with a third batch.  If that's not confusing enough, this week things were further muddled, and I finished up spending virtually all day on it, along with another small job to Corby which sort of fitted alongside it.  When I got home and rang in, I was surprised by the question, would I be available during the evening to collect something for the next morning.  I said I could be, and was promptly allocated one of two jobs for morning delivery on Thursday, that would be ready for collection in Letchworth in a few hours' time.  Mine was for Darlington, and I was also given instructions for a collection in Sheffield on my way back.

Thursday was therefore something of a re-run of Monday, but with the bonus of a second job, and the added benefit that, recognising that we were late in getting the goods, delivery was not expected until 10.0 instead of the expected 8.0 am.  I was home mid afternoon, phoned in as available, and was quite pleased not to be sent out any more, except to collect an early job for this morning.  Since this was for 7.0 am in Derby, the domestic routine paralleled Monday and Thursday, but of course I was home sooner, and fitted in three local jobs afterwards.

To round the week's story off, I now have instructions for a 10.0 am collection in Reading on Monday, so I can look forward to a complete, and so far as I know uncluttered, weekend, apart from a fund-raising lunch at church on Sunday to help our curate who's off on a missionary trip to Africa shortly.