Entry 01Pull-out board
Five lines leave this yard. Take one off the board and it opens where that work is set out. Times are the planned pull-out, not a guaranteed departure.
Board set for a standard running week · the desk re-sets it on the day
Entry 02Tonight’s run sheet
| Time | Point | Load | Vehicle | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trunk run west — Newport to Swansea | ||||
| 19:10 | Newport yard | Trunk load, 14 pallets | 18t curtainsider | Sheet, keys and notes issued |
| 19:55 | Cardiff, Rover Way | Drop 4 pallets | 18t curtainsider | Signed at the gatehouse |
| 20:50 | Bridgend, industrial estate | Drop 5 pallets | 18t curtainsider | Tail-lift, one man on the bay |
| 21:40 | Port Talbot | Drop 3 pallets | 18t curtainsider | Banksman meets the vehicle |
| 22:25 | Swansea Enterprise Park | Drop 2, collect 6 pallets | 18t curtainsider | Back-load for the morning round |
| 23:40 | Newport yard | Back-load in | 18t curtainsider | Vehicle checked, curtains strapped |
| Trunk run east — Newport to Swindon | ||||
| 04:30 | Newport yard | Trunk load, 11 pallets | Artic curtainsider | Walk-round check before pull-out |
| 05:20 | Magor | Collect 3 pallets | Artic curtainsider | Pallet exchange on the yard |
| 06:10 | Avonmouth | Drop 7 pallets | Artic curtainsider | Booking slot 06:00 to 07:00 |
| 07:30 | Bristol, Emersons Green | Drop 4 pallets | Artic curtainsider | Window closes 08:00 |
| 09:15 | Swindon | Drop 3 pallets | Artic curtainsider | 45-minute break taken here |
| 11:00 | Newport yard | Empties in | Artic curtainsider | Card downloaded, sheet closed |
| Day collection round — Gwent valleys | ||||
| 08:00 | Cwmbran | Collect 2 pallets | 7.5t box | Consignment note raised on site |
| 09:10 | Pontypool | Collect 1 pallet | 7.5t box | Tail-lift, kerbside |
| 10:20 | Caerphilly | Collect 4 cages | 7.5t box | Staged for the west trunk |
| 11:30 | Newport yard | Part loads in | 7.5t box | Consolidated, weighed, re-labelled |
Loaded by Checked by Time out Time in
Entry 03How a load is worked
- Full loads
A full load is the whole vehicle. One consignor, one booking, one route. The trailer goes nowhere else until the drop is made. The desk works a full load against running time and the return position of the vehicle. An outbound leg finishing beside a known back-load is one thing. The same leg finishing empty in a dead corner is another. Give the desk both ends of the job in the first message. Postcodes, pallet count, weight, height where it passes two metres, and the hours each end can handle goods.
- Part loads
A part load takes a share of the deck. The rest of that deck belongs to other consignors on the same trunk. A part load therefore moves on the sheet the trunk already runs to. Two things decide whether it makes tonight’s vehicle. Whether the collection lands before the yard cut-off. Whether deck space is still open when it lands. The desk names which of the two is in question when it holds a booking over.
- The round
The collection round brings freight in through the late morning. Pallets and cages come off the 7.5-tonne vehicle at the yard. Each one is weighed, re-labelled with the trunk it travels on, and staged in departure order against the bay. Four small collections out of Cwmbran, Pontypool and Caerphilly become one section of one deck. Freight that lands after the stage travels on the next vehicle. It stands at the yard, dry and strapped, under cover.
- On the vehicle
The driver carries the sheet, the consignment notes in running order, and blank notes for collections raised on site. Straps, corner boards, and a tail-lift where the drops need one. The fleet runs curtainsiders, a rigid box and a 7.5-tonne box with a tail-lift. Goods travel palletised, caged or crated, dry and stackable where the label says so. Photograph a pallet at the point its condition is arguable. The vehicle is walked round before pull-out. Defects are called into the yard on the spot.
- The paper
Booking raises a consignment note and a reference. Quote the reference and the desk finds the job in one search. The note travels with the goods. It carries the consignor, the consignee, the pallet or cage count, the weight declared to the desk, and any handling agreed at booking. The signed copy comes back to the yard with the vehicle. The desk scans it against the sheet line. A west trunk drop is available the following working morning. A day collection is available the same afternoon.
- The hours
Hours are planned against the tachograph. The desk builds the sheet backwards from the last delivery window on the run. It then checks the driving block between the yard and the break point. Where that block runs over, the drop moves to the other trunk or waits a day. The window below prints those same figures as clock times.
Entry 04Trailer spaces, twenty-six of them
One space is one full pallet footprint standing on the deck. An artic curtainsider takes twenty-six of them, thirteen a side. Halves go two to a space. Quarters go four. Type the counts and the deck plan fills as you go.
Guide only · the desk confirms space against the loaded deck
Thirteen spaces a side, nearside on top. A hatched space is carrying halves or quarters and has room left in it.
Entry 05Drivers’ hours window
Set the shift start and the driving already done. The window prints as clock times, on the standing assumption that wheel time runs on from the start of shift with no other duty in between. These are the desk’s planning figures for laying out a sheet, guide only; the tachograph card is the record and the card governs.
The four figures the window works from. They do not change with what is typed above.
- Driving block before a break
- 270 minutes
- Break length
- 45 minutes
- Daily driving, standard day
- 540 minutes
- Spread of duty from start of shift
- 780 minutes
Entry 06Will it go tonight
Callers ask this first, so the desk reads it backwards from the pull-out. Start at the bottom line and work up. If the clock has already passed the top line, the freight travels on the next vehicle in that direction.
| Step, read upwards | West, Swansea | East, Swindon |
|---|---|---|
| Desk takes the booking by | 15:00 | 19:00 |
| Vehicle on the collection by | 16:00 | 20:00 |
| Loaded and away from the collection by | 17:00 | 21:00 |
| Freight standing at the Newport yard by | 17:30 | 22:00 |
| Weighed, labelled, staged on the deck by | 18:40 | 04:00 |
| Pull-out from the yard | 19:10 | 04:30 |
Guide only · a bay slot, a closed crossing or a full deck moves any of these lines
Entry 07The stretch worked from this yard
- The one road
The trade runs on one road. West of the yard the sheet covers Cardiff, Bridgend, Port Talbot, Neath and Swansea. The valleys come in off the A465 and the A470 on the collection round. East of the yard it is Magor, the Severn crossing, Avonmouth, Bristol, Swindon and the junctions between them. Anything inside that stretch is collected and trunked on the same sheet.
- Past the end of it
Work beyond the stretch still goes on the board. The desk hands the far leg to a scheduled trunk running that way and states at booking which leg is ours. It names the handover point in the same message. Ask for that line in writing and the desk sends it before the vehicle moves.
- Both ends of a run
Two facts shape a run. Where the vehicle finishes the night, and whether there is weight to bring back. A one-way job to the far end of the corridor works differently from the same job on a lane with a standing back-load. Ask the desk which lanes run back empty in the week you are booking. A load that fits an empty leg goes on the sheet quickly.
- Short mileage
Mileage out of Newport is short by haulage standards and the corridor is dense. Cardiff is twelve miles west, Bristol thirty east. That density is why the trunks leave late and land early, and why a part load can wait at the yard for hours and still reach its drop inside the window.
Entry 08Standing arrangements the desk keeps
Work that repeats sits on the sheet as a fixed line. Set it up once with the desk and it runs to the same pattern each week.
- Standing collections
- A weekly collection holds a place on the round. Give the desk the day, the ready time and the usual pallet count. The driver calls the site number on approach.
- Back-load lanes
- Lanes where a vehicle returns to Newport with room work at short notice. Ask the desk which lanes are open in the week you are booking.
- Pallet exchange
- Exchange is agreed at booking, not on the bay. State the pallet type and the count to swap, and the driver carries the empties out with him.
- Booked bay slots
- Sites holding a timed slot go on the sheet against that slot. Send the slot window and the gate reference with the booking.
- Early pull-out cover
- Trunk cover starts 04:00 on running nights. Arrange an early pull-out with the desk on the working day before.
Set one up by writing to haulage@jztransit.live