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Grab hire is just one of TJ’s many versatile services in place to provide customers with what they need, when they need it. Grab lorries can be utilised for both collections and deliveries, with their clam bucket being used to pick up materials on collections, or for precision upon aggregate delivery.
Grab hire is utilised by both domestic and commercial customers, for small and large jobs alike. Grab lorries are great at accessing hard to reach areas such as over low walls and they’re ideal for transporting and unloading a range of aggregates, waste and other materials.
Here we talk to TJ grab lorry driver, Natt Wilson, to see what the day behind the wheel of a grab lorry entails…
Yes, when I joined TJ a year ago, I received around 20 hours of training over a number of days. I went out with one of TJ’s experienced drivers, Cliff, who shared his knowledge with me and showed me how to use the controls and operate the grab correctly. I continued going out with Cliff until I was fully confident and he signed me off as competent to go out solo.
Grab lorries are used for both domestic and commercial jobs. Sometimes I’ll go to an aggregate yard, collect a load of materials and take that to a building site, tip it off or grab it off depending on what it is and where they want it. I also undertake muck away jobs from construction sites and similar, grabbing it to load it onto the lorry and taking it to one of our quarries where I’ll tip it off. Other times the job will be for a domestic customer, who needs some materials delivered or waste taken away from their home address if they’re undertaking a large project such as a driveway renewal or a new kitchen.
Domestic customers are usually a one-off, but we have a lot of regular customers on the commercial side. I regularly deliver materials to the same building / construction companies who use our grab hire service repeatedly as they know how we work and that we’re reliable and professional.
My morning starts at the yard at TJ’s HQ in Fareham, where I pick up the lorry. I collect the keys from the office, put my tachograph card in and sign into my tablet, which has TJ’s bespoke software system – Fissara Move – installed on it. Using the interactive defect report, I run through my daily safety checks on the vehicle and grease the crane to ensure it remains in tip top condition.
TJ’s Fissara application enables us drivers to receive instructions and keep in close contact with the office team throughout our shift. I receive my job list for the day through it and it’s great as the transport coordinators are able to update our job lists in real time if circumstances change.
On an average day, I’ll have around four jobs allocated to complete, though sometimes it can be as many as seven, especially if there are multiple drops for the same customer or the jobs are very close together, meaning little time is spent travelling. I’ll work my way through my list of jobs, updating their status on my tablet as I go so that the office team can track my progress and provide assistance and updates as needed.
I’ll work my way through my list of jobs, updating their status on my tablet as I go so that the office team can track my progress and provide assistance and updates as needed.
The types of jobs undertaken on the average day include collecting aggregates from one of our quarries at Hythe or Butser (this could be sand, gravel, rock chalk or recycled aggregate) and delivering it to a construction site, muck away from construction sites or domestic customer’s addresses, collections from aggregate yards for delivery, transporting materials from our Materials Recovery Facilities to our quarries – soil and stone to Hythe for infill and hardcore to Butser for use in the production of recycled aggregates.
As a company, TJ is very customer focused and they always prioritise customers’ needs above all else. If a customer gets in touch with an issue, TJ will go out of their way to resolve it, ensuring that the customer is happy with the outcome. They’re very accommodating, flexible and professional and it’s these things that makes TJ a popular choice. All of us drivers have been trained to a high standard and take great satisfaction in assisting customers with their requirements.
Find out more about TJ’s grab hire service today and discover our 10 reasons to go for grab hire…
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