Gritting lorries

[sherrardk]

What job do the people who drive gritting lorries do when they are not gritting roads? (Odd time of year to ask I know!)

[Top_Gooner]

Never mind that, how do they get to work when the roads need gritting ?

[redcrx]

I know that in my town last year we had council construction workers who were laying paving slabs and brick weave for a new town scheme. By late December the scheme was a few weeks behind because they workers were often off site taking out the gritting lorries.

So maybe they are all employed as labourers etc when the gritting lorries are not in use.

[4getmenot]

Maybe they swap there gritting lorry for an icecream van for the summer. And then swap back for winter. :-)

[rescuer]

In my village and surrounding villages the work is contracted out to a general builder who would probably would not be able to do his normal work because of the snow. He employs a local farmer to drive one of the gritters. Trouble is they are given a list of roads to treat by the Council and my road is not one of them!

I have made many efforts to get my road treated without success. But a few miles away a perfectly level road is treated almost every day -- but a Councillor lives there !!!!

[libertie]

Think they mostly do grass cutting and such in the summer months!

[WoWo]

My borther in law drives a gritting lorry. He works for a general road contractor who look after motorways, roads etc. During normal working hours they put up traffic calming (cones to me and you) do small maintenance and so on.

During the winter months a number of the workers will be on the gritting roster. The weather is monitored and it's easy for them to know when gritting needs to take place.

[wilsonator]

They are normally dustbin wagon drivers

So there you go!

[Kay]

wilsonater's correct! The gritting is done by the refuse collectors and they get treble time for it.

[Coobeastie]

Well not sure where wilsonator gets there information from and may be true for their town but in croydon at least the work is down by the highways staff. My father before he retired used to do it at Christmas and do not recall him receiving triple time either. What I do remember is him working a full day coming home for dinner and then going back to work and not returning until 6 the following morning.

[Coobeastie]

sorry should have been 'their'.

[gary baldy]

Deck chair attendants?

[yummymummy]

In our area they come from a Highways company so are probably out building roads etc for the rest of the year and drafted in for gritting when necessary.