Shift Two Teal C290 Estate Car

I arrived early for my shift so I had a quick wander over towards the stadium and the Orbit to take a few pictures. I still arrived for my 9am shift at 8.40am and was assigned to the Teal group. Had the usual breakfast of a scrambled eggs and mushroom barm, collected my lunch, and eat breakfast with Lea, my training buddy. It was her first shift and she was panicking. I then moved upstairs to join the Teal group at our table. There was no team leader again but a despatcher sent us all over to the car park rather than have us wandering over on our tod piecemeal.

I checked the car over, filled out the sheet and radioed in to confirm my first destination was Eton Manor Transport Hub. Handed in the car sheet on floor five on the way out from floor seven and took no time at all to get out of the Olympic Park via the Eton Manor VSA entrance and then a quick left, right into the Eton Manor Transport Hub which was the staging area for the T3's at the Olympic Park.

Spent the next few hours standing in the sunshine, talking to fellow drivers and trying to get people's DORS to work. Finally met someone who had actually had a real person in her car the day before. Late in her shift after hours of waiting at the Village, Jonathan Edwards asked to be taken to the City Centre. She crawled through traffic both ways and was late finishing her shift. Said she didn't care being late.

Eventually, at about 11.30am, I got a call to go to the ExCel T3 Drop off point to pick up a client to take them back to the FDO. Four other cars from Teal got the same call. Thought it might be a phantom client to get us to go somewhere, but I programmed DORS and set off. I missed a left turn instruction as I approached ExCel and ended up at what I later found out was the entrance to the ExCel Fleet depot (FDX). I headed back the way the sat nav said and ended up at the West T1/T2 VSA which seemed daft as the T3 spot is outside the VSA area. After checking with a squaddie, I turned around and relying on the venue map in the A-Z went underneath the Emirates airline on North Woolwich road and then left to the Connaght Bridge roundabout. Heard on the radio that some of the other cars had already arrived and were bemused by the unnecessary trip to the VSA.

I turned left onto Royal Victoria Road but realised two DLR stations later I had to do a U-turn. Back at the roundabout I managed to stall the car and took ages to restart it (This car needed the clutch pedal to the metal I discovered). Turned right and thought I was in the Premier Inn car park but followed round to the right and after another embarassing stall right by a squadie I arrived at what he told me was the T3 area. Control had been calling me to find out where I was because my car wasn't registered on the GPS system. When I told her I had arrived at the T3 drop off, my fellow drivers said they couldn't see me. I had to drive around the East VSA and join the other three in the pick up zone. C320 who had only made it to the FDX was tasked to join us. No sign of our clients. We confirmed this with control. She informed one of the guys we were not where our customers were so we formed a convoy, went throught the East VSA, out of the security zone and ended up exactly where I had been when I first arrived having made the mistake.

Our customers turned out to be FDO Workforce volunteers who had been driven over to FDX earlier to see how things were done over there. Chris and I had a nice chat on our way back to FDO. Dropped him off on the FDO apron and was told to take my lunch break. Unfortunately that meant parking up on the 7th floor and walking back to the FDO. C291 and I had lunch on the Teal table. I had a loo break whilst he had a fag. He radioed in first and was told he could go home if he wanted. I couldn't get onto the radio because of traffic, so control called me to ask if I'd finished my break. I was also offered the chance to go home so I said yes I would as I would get back in time to watch the golf. As was checking the car and emptying the boot I heard the remaining Teal cars were finally leaving Eton Manor to go to the Olympic Village.

On the way out I chatted to various drivers on their way to and from the FDO. One woman had been to Heathrow T5 and brought 3 media types back to the Media Broadcast Centre (MBC). I also spoke to someone who had got so lost yesterday they had to send a search party out for her!!