April 2022
A Day in the Life - Gary, Palmstead Delivery Driver
Driving a truck for Palmstead is a job where each day is
different. Our drivers are customer
facing and visit a wide variety of locations, including landscape depots and
domestic houses, as we found out when we hitched a ride with Gary recently.
07:00: Gary is already in the yard, checking over his
2021 DAF LF, more details here: https://www.palmstead.co.uk/content.aspx?content=394
With everything in order, we leave the nursery shortly
afterwards, heading for our first delivery at Pound Hill, near Crawley.
08:40: Having made good time on the motorway, we were
soon at our first drop. As Gary moved six pallets to the back of the truck, the
customer quickly unloaded them with a forklift.
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09:30: Our next destination was in the picturesque
grounds of Tilgate Park, where Gary unloaded eleven Danish trolleys for his
next customer. This is regular delivery so Gary will collect the empties next time,
allowing us to get on our way to the next location, 55 miles away in Chiswick.
11:20: As we arrived in West London, the destination
was in a tiny residential side street. This delivery was for a spectacular
looking project and consisted of a Danish trolley and two large container grown
plants
This time the trolley had to be unloaded and put back on the
truck, and once Gary had taken his 45-minute break we were then off to North
London.
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1:30: After avoiding low bridges, weight limits and
width restrictions, we arrived in Willesden. Here two trolleys were delivered to a landscape
designer for a stylish garden project. Once
again Gary needed to unload the plants at the kerbside.
4:30: More than two and a half hours later we arrived
back at the nursery. After topping up
the Adblue and diesel tanks, it was time for a debrief with transport controller
Robin, before joining fellow driver Andy to load the trucks ready for the next
day’s deliveries.
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