Shift change

By this time I had been working for quite a few years in the depot and Allocations group and was very experienced. I had been joined on the team by Owen Pritchard and Sue Imhoof and Hilary Jodrell. We all became good friends and in fact Hilary,Sue and myself all got made up as inspectors together back in 1982.

Along with Taffy Ismail the senior man of the group we made a good team and worked well. But Owen was made for higher things and moved through the job onto the training department in the company.

To sort out the shift problems it was decided to change our shifts and the depot man would work eight days on from 03.30 to 2.30 pm. We then had six days off to recover. As I would normally work one of those as a rest day for the extra money I was bloody knackered at times!

This went on for several years and with holidays or sickness from others in the team we just had to work their shifts and get on with it. At one point I worked eleven days on the trot getting up at 2.30 in the morning. By the time that was over I just about collapsed. It was really no way to carry on but we just took it as normal back then.

I worked with Sue most of the time and we took it in turns to alternate the depot shifts. As Sue was single she could please herself what she did when she got home. I did not have that luxury and the hours began to tell.

In the next blog Cardiff Bus begins to slowly modernise and come in to the 20th century and my shifts change again.