Temp Jobs . . . and other work

I worked for another company as a van driver. It was called Sangers and was based on the Elms Farm Industrial Estate in Bedford. This company distributed stuff to doctors surgeries and pharmacies. I delivered to an area from around St Albans to just north of London, Welwyn Garden City, Burkhamstead and surrounding area. Some of the drivers delivered prescription medication to pharmacies and took orders for products and as a result earned commission, but I didn't, but I think I may have gone on to that side of the deliveries but I think I must have left before actually earning commission. I think Sangers is now defunct, as is A.M.S. Infact, a lot of the companies that I worked for have since folded, which doesn't bode well for any company I have worked for since! I think one of the places I delivered to was Cheshunt. The man who helped show me the route was convinced that it was actually called 'Chestnut' and it took me a while to convince him that it was actually 'Cheshunt'! How ignorant can some people be? 

I would be loaded up early in the morning to begin the round, and you had to be careful as you loaded so that each particular delivery could be differentiated from other deliveries on the round so as not to be confused once I got to a particular customer as it was easy to muddle orders and as a result get things delivered to the wrong customer. This happened on several occasions, so I had to either go back that day and retrieve the item or take collect it the next day. As a result this could put my timing out and I could be later and later with my deliveries. Some of the pharmacies where I delivered could get quite annoyed if I didn't deliver when they wanted to, and one in particular, if I remember rightly in St Albans got quite angry with me when I got to his shop during his lunch break. A bit difficult to arrive exactly at the same time due to such things as traffic and weather conditions. The orders were rung through via telephone, to a bank of telephone operators and these orders were then made up in the warehouse and then placed in the relevant shelving for each particular round and then these orders taken out to each van for delivery.

On several occasions the van would be so over-loaded that it took all my best efforts to keep the van doors at the rear of the van closed securely. So much so that, on occasion I was driving along Dunstable High Street and the doors burst open, and several packets of Andrex toilet tissue fell out and I had to stop and pick them up! Goodness knows that other drivers who were nearby must have thought, but looking back it seems like something out of a comedy movie, but at the time it was just plain embarrasing.