Keeping the traffic moving

Brian Shearer

Cumbria Contract Services, as a typical local authority direct works operation, is charged with keeping ice and snow off the County’s roads, as far as is possible, allowing traffic to flow freely and safely during the winter months. This is done using gritting vehicles which spread a mixture of sand and salt (rock salt, actually) almost every night on the more important of the County’s roads. This light sprinkling of salt is intended to prevent the notorious black ice from forming, and wherever snow has fallen, this can be cleared rapidly by attaching snow ploughs to the gritting vehicles. It all sounds straightforward enough, but, as a motorist who has just had your windscreen peppered with salt when overtaking a gritter on the M6, you probably don’t know the half!
Every driver who takes out a gritter, with or without a snowplough attached is assessed annually for his (or her) Winter Maintenance Certificate. There are different Units to be assessed, depending on the size of the vehicle, but what is remarkable is that this test must be passed EVERY YEAR before the onset of winter driving conditions. A typical Unit comprises several Elements, each of which must be assessed using the NVQ/SVQ A1 Assessor Standards.
One Element requires the driver to be assessed by demonstrating his pre-start and loading routines before taking the vehicle out on the road. For another Element, there is a set of theory questions; e.g. “What weight of salt would you spread depending on different conditions?” “How do you use your snowplough when crossing bridges or working the outside lane of a dual carriageway?” “Why must you always empty your vehicle and wash it down when you get back to the depot?”

Right: David Hullock loads his gritter truck while Assessor Brian Shearer observes

The really hard part consists of a driving test lasting one and a half-days. The driver drives; the assessor sits in. A route covering a typical sample of the County’s roads must be covered – and it goes without saying that this route must be completed without mishap. Finally the vehicle is taken back, unloaded, washed down and parked. The Assessor then completes his checklist and files an Assessment Report on the driver.

Brian Shearer is aiming to become one of Cumbria Contract Services’ trained Assessors and by the time you read this, we should have got him through his A1 Unit. His skills will then be very much in demand over the next few weeks as winter tightens its grip on Cumbria.

Also training as an assessor is Angela Miller, who is one of the Company’s administrators, and although she works in an office, part of her responsibilities require that those members of her staff who need to go out on site for any reason, know how to take care of themselves. Even when wearing the regulation PPE, slips, trips and falls need to be guarded against, especially in bad weather or in the dark.

Angela Miller

 

Our Christmas Card Competition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People have been sending greeting cards at Christmas at least since Victorian times. Whether you think that Christmas cards should be Christian or not (you know what I mean; robins, Santa, stagecoaches, carol-singers, etc.) the Twenty First Century has provided two new variations on the theme.
The first of these is the Christmas epistle (“Little Susan has now obtained Grade Eight in her piano and is going on to master the Javanese Gamelan,” meanwhile “Patrick, now aged ten, has taken up shooting and is asking for a Kalashnikov assault rifle for Christmas”) Whatever, we think of them, we’ve all received them!
The second variation on the theme is the Electronic Christmas Card sent by e-mail; no card, no envelope, no stamp required, even! Apart from cheating Royal Mail out of some hard-earned pennies, you might think the idea is a bit naff! You will not be alone!
I shall not be sending you an Electronic Christmas Card. That’s because you’re already looking at it; the same picture I use on my real hardcopy, send-through-the-post Christmas cards. And the greeting in this case is “A Happy Christmas and New Year to all our readers”.
But then there’s a competition to be won. I rather like this picture of the Adoration of the Shepherds. Please do not write to ask where I got it from because I would be forced to lie to you. The trouble is, I have forgotten the artist’s name. If you think you know who painted this picture, please get back to me. Contact me There’s a valuable prize for the first correct answer.