Phone: 07970 946329
Ready for the Ice: Inside Our Pre-Season Checklist
Our winter outlook said cold was less likely than usual this year. Less likely, mind you, not banned. With icy weather forecast across our area from Thursday, the first big cold spell has arrived, and the good news is that our pre-season checklist got there first.
(A quick bit of perspective: the Met Office outlook we wrote about deals in odds across three months, not individual nights. A mild winter can still hand out a few sharp, clear ones, and this looks like the first.)
Here’s what goes on behind the scenes before a single grain of salt hits a car park.
Ticked, tested and topped up with tea.
The vehicles: boring on purpose
Our gritters are Vale TS1700 spreaders towed by 4×4s, and before the season starts every vehicle is serviced, MoT’d, taxed and insured. For the vehicles our subcontractors bring, we check the paperwork ourselves. The best breakdown is the one that happens on a depot forecourt in daylight, with a mug of tea nearby, rather than at 2am on a hill.
The people: back to school (briefly)
Everyone who grits for us completes pre-season training modules: vehicle safety, manual handling, loading and unloading, gritting safely, PPE and COSHH (the rules on handling substances safely, salt included). We check that driving licences are valid, then allocate the rounds so everybody knows exactly where they’re heading. You can read more about how we vet and train our teams on our Health, Safety & Environment page.
The kit: what’s in the cab
A gritting round runs on more than salt. Every driver carries:
- To wear: hi-vis, safety boots, waterproof gloves, cold-weather and waterproof clothing, and safety glasses for hand gritting and for dusty jobs like loading.
- In the cab: shovel, broom, bucket, toolkit, torch, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, and oil-absorbing granules in case of a leak.
- For the driver: food and hot drinks. Yes, they’re on the list. A warm driver is a safe driver.
- For the route: a smartphone loaded with our reporting app, with a dashboard holder to keep it hands-free. Holding a phone while driving is against the law, and we’d rather not be the gritter that makes the news.
- On the roof: an amber flashing light, so other drivers can see us coming.
The tech: dry runs and “have you tried logging in?”
Every visit is reported through an app, with photos, times on and off site, and notes on access problems or anything else you should know, and customers can see those reports. So before the season we do dry runs, make sure everyone can log in, and iron out any glitches. Teams are also briefed on any new sites, including our newest patch, the Forest of Dean.
The salt: ordered and getting a lift
Salt is ordered, and the delivery runs are set up. Our white marine salt travels on the return leg of local hauliers’ trips to Avonmouth, after they’ve delivered grain for export, so it’s basically carpooling. If you’re curious why we use it, we’ve written about white marine salt vs rock salt.
And then we wait for the forecast
We don’t grit on a hunch. We use forecasts such as the Met Office Open Site forecast, which gives an icing risk for individual postcodes, and when it says ice is likely, we grit overnight between 6pm and 6am, so surfaces are treated before anyone arrives. Our four depots mean there’s a team close to your site, whether that’s a business park by the M5 or a hilltop in the Cotswolds.
Not got your site covered yet?
With a cold spell on the way, now is a good time to ask. Send us a Google Earth image of your site with the machine-gritting and hand-gritting areas marked up, and we can usually turn a no-obligation quote around the same day. There’s no retainer: pay per visit (no frost, no cost), pay a fixed annual price, or mix the two. The FAQs cover how it works, or get in touch or call 07970 946329.
Stay warm, and mind the ice.