This week we got a call from one of our long term transport clients asking us to move something far from his usual palletised freight. Something far more important…. his newly acquired boat.
We take great pride and honor in the fact that through working with us over the years on a business level he felt comfortable and confident enough to entrust us with moving his personal pride and joy…. his beloved boat. Although not a long distance movement an extremely important one all the same!
The boat had been dry docked in Littlehampton Sussex for restoration reasons and was now ready to face her audience in Portsmouth, Hampshire.
This was a new and exciting venture for our customer and was his first boat purchase. So understandably he was somewhat nervous of the whole situation and didn’t really know what to expect, this trepidation came across loud and clear in the conversation to our operations team when he first ordered the transport, and with this in mind our planners and lifting team made sure our driver arrived on site nice and early to greet our somewhat nervous customer. Our driver talked him through each step of the movement to help put his mind at rest prior to setting off.
Positioning his HIAB (Truck Mounted Crane / Lorry Mounted Crane) on a suitably flat piece of ground he proceeded to extend the legs of the truck and securely put the feet down so as to make the vehicle stable and safe. Then he set out to lift the boat, which had been carefully rolled out of the storage area and was sitting nicely secured in a steel cradle.
Having the boat secured in a steel cradle made the lifting extremely straightforward for our driver and within a matter of minutes he had expertly crane lifted and loaded the the truck… still being carefully watched by our overly nervous customer (who had now taken his hands away from his eyes). Our driver continued to secure the cradle to the bed of his truck, put away the legs and safely stow the crane.
The loaded boat was now ready to start its journey to Portsmouth which is already home to some famous larger vessels including HMS Warrior, The Mary Rose and Horatio Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory which is the oldes naval ship still in commission.
On arrival at the destination our customer was much more laid back, he was so relaxed in fact that he happily left the driver to again expertly offload and proceeded to go and put the kettle on for a well-earned cuppa!!
On completion our extremely happy customer thanked our driver profusely for a job well done and said next time he was in Portsmouth to bring his sea legs with him and he would take him out…. unfortunately our driver gets extreme sea sickness so maybe not!!
We are very fortunate as a company to be positioned on the South Coast of England making boat movements a regular part of our business – each movement is individual and each customer needs their minds putting at ease – we feel we are quite proficient at both.
If you are in need of help or advise with any of your transport needs whatever it is just pick up the phone and call Sussex Transport, we can then discuss your requirements in further detail and take away any worry and responsibility of planning, organising and managing the complete operation from start to finish.
Call us now on 0800 915 23 23 and speak to one of our operations team or fill in one of our contact forms…
