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Too Many Volunters Lock Keepers (?) (Or, arguably, too few, depending on your viewpoint!)


alan_fincher

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8 hours ago, blackrose said:

Personally as a single handler I'm grateful for any help at locks whether that's volockies or just kids closing gates for me. I guess volockies like working in groups (it's probably part of their training in order to deal with people who may be less than grateful). I think it's a bit much to blame them for being at some looks but not others. Anyway, the ones who took me down the Cain hill flight were excellent.

Last time we were dreading coming back up Caen Hill as I had a broken rib. There were only two vlockies on duty that day but one of them helped us all the way up, at the expense of the other boats on the flight, but it seemed a common sense approach as we were most in need. 

 

Have to say this hasn't always been my experience though, more than once we've seen vlockies ignore us and congregate round a hire boat, even though they have plenty of crew.  Perhaps they have been told to prioritise hire boats or perhaps they know they are likely to get less aggravation that way..

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5 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

Have to say this hasn't always been my experience though, more than once we've seen vlockies ignore us and congregate round a hire boat, even though they have plenty of crew.  Perhaps they have been told to prioritise hire boats or perhaps they know they are likely to get less aggravation that way..

I was told once that 'we don't help single handers as they know what they are doing, we only help hire boaters as they are clueless' or words along those lines.

 

Best vlovkie i've had was coming out of Birmingham where he went ahead and set the locks for me, most helpful, last time on the Hatton flight the official vlockies ignored me, and just shut the gate behind me by their hut and went back to their cup of tea, a couple of locks later, an autistic lad who helps out once a week asked if he could asist, and set each of the following locks for me, in the pouring rain, again most helpful!

 

At the Knowle flight i had a vlockie complain she cant get any painting done with the constant boats!

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There seems to be a huge difference in the wants, needs and expectations from the side of both the boater and the vlockies, so thinking as someone who is inexperienced and probbly lacking confidence, is there some way of giving CRT real time feedback about these situations. A specific phone number to call or department that deals with the vlockies "specifically". I'm emphasising specific cos there's no point in phoning some random Helpdesk that has no idea what you're on about but just says helpful sounding things that may or may not appease you. 

 

Obviously it is helpful to give nice feedback but that can be done at a later date but is something if going horribly wrong or a vlockie is being unnecessarily overbearing  that would be better sorted out sooner rather than later. 

 

 

Edited by Tumshie
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2 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

There seems to be a huge difference in the wants, needs and expectations from the side of both the boater and the vlockies, so thinking as someone who is inexperienced and probbly lacking confidence, is there some way of giving CRT real time feedback about these situations. A specific phone number to call or department that deals with the vlockies "specifically". I'm emphasising specific cos there's no point in phoning some random Helpdesk that has no idea what you're on about but just says helpful sounding things that may or may not appease you. 

 

Obviously it is helpful to give nice feedback but that can be done at a later date but is something is going horribly wrong or a vlockie is being unnecessarily overbearing  that would be better sorted out sooner rather than later. 

 

 

 

 

Forgive my cynicism but I don't think 'being helpful to boaters' features anywhere on CRT's list of reasons for setting up and running the Volly scheme, so I can't imagine them paying anything other than lip service to your idea.

 

Its all about appearing to the government to be good custodians of the waterways in order to maximise the chances of keeping the cash flowing, as far as I can see. Which benefits us boaters ultimately so I suppose we'd better learn to tolerate them...

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Forgive my cynicism but I don't think 'being helpful to boaters' features anywhere on CRT's list of reasons for setting up and running the Volly scheme, so I can't imagine them paying anything other than lip service to your idea.

 

Its all about appearing to the government to be good custodians of the waterways in order to maximise the chances of keeping the cash flowing, as far as I can see. Which benefits us boaters ultimately so I suppose we'd better learn to tolerate them...

From reading through what boaters write about the vlockies it does rather sound like a lot of them are there to entertain the visitors on the towpath and give them the interesting experience that CRT advertise. I can't help wondering if volunteering will be reframed to become CRT's version of the green gym. 

 

Though there are many who do it because they enjoy the interaction with the boaters. 

 

 

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I suppose there's no reason for it, but I'm surprised at the number of volunteers I have met who have no previous connection to/experience of, canals and boating.  I suspect the criteria on which they are taken on are pretty weak, but I guess CRT would probably prioritise interpersonal skills over direct experience and as Mike says, if this indirectly leads to a more benevolent view of funding the waterways it's difficult to argue against.  

 

 

Edited by Neil2
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Just had a very good experience with the vollies on the Tardebigge flight. We were lucky, they were about to go home as it had been so quiet, instead they helped us through all but three of the locks.

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Last year we got stuck trying to get into the lock below the marina on the Atherstone  flight despite the support of quite a few trying to pull us in. We needed to run water down so lesley walked nearly to the top to see if a volunteer could help seeing as the flight was busy. The first volunteer a woman said she’d like to help but she was just going for her lunch so couldn’t.

 

At the top she found the  senior volunteer by the hut who ran some water down the flight so we could fill our pound  and flush us in with a great shout from the team helping of the stuck boats either side of us. To be fair to this volunteer he helped us up the rest of the flight. 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

At the top she found the  senior volunteer by the hut who ran some water down the flight so we could fill our pound  and flush us in with a great shout from the team helping of the stuck boats either side of us.

 

This is another example of where vollies can be a hinderance. Without them you could have just run some water down yourself, instead of having to find the 'senior volly'. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Neil2 said:

Last time we were dreading coming back up Caen Hill as I had a broken rib. There were only two vlockies on duty that day but one of them helped us all the way up, at the expense of the other boats on the flight, but it seemed a common sense approach as we were most in need. 

 

Have to say this hasn't always been my experience though, more than once we've seen vlockies ignore us and congregate round a hire boat, even though they have plenty of crew.  Perhaps they have been told to prioritise hire boats or perhaps they know they are likely to get less aggravation that way..

You certainly couldnt blame em with some of the negative comments on this and other similar threads.

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8 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

You certainly couldnt blame em with some of the negative comments on this and other similar threads.

 

Cuts both ways. When a volly interferes with the safety of my boat uninvited, it possibly comes across as 'aggravation'. 

 

Thing is, some simply don't understand what as a single hander I'm worried about, often. Same as you don't seem to. :P

 

 

 

 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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10 hours ago, Alway Swilby said:

We have also experienced the Atherstone volunteers and their reluctance to go below the third lock down. And Hilmorton where the bottom lock is the only one where you get assistance. And also the top three at Hatton. But we have also, just last week, experienced the Rochdale into Manchester, where the wonderful volunteer Ian met us at lock 65 and on his own helped us all the way down to number 81. Thanks Ian.

Ian helped us on the same section last year. His help and advice was very welcome.

 

I’m a Volly on the Gargrave/Bank Newton flights on the L&L and have to say that neither the Vollies or the seasonal staff are precious about which locks we work.  I will go wherever needed and will often stay with boats through both flights if that’s what they want.  However as a boater I have experienced what happens at places like Atherstone where some Vollies don’t like to move away from certain locks and I do find it a bit strange when there are several folks in one spot. Each to their own, but please don’t tar us all with the same brush!

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nick D
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6 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

 

^^^^^^^
Yes, exactly this..................

I have no issue with them setting locks up for me, but they are supposed to ask if my boat is involved in their actions.

That makes sense. But then again, I can imagine some crews getting cheesed off at missing out on the chance to set the lock, if that's the experience they're looking for. I suspect there'd always be some boater left with a grievance whatever the volunteers did or didn't do.

6 hours ago, Tumshie said:

 A specific phone number to call or department that deals with the vlockies "specifically". I'm emphasising specific cos there's no point in phoning some random Helpdesk that has no idea what you're on about but just says helpful sounding things that may or may not appease you. 

I don't know if this would apply to calls about volunteers cos I've never made one, but FWIW I've always thought the main helpdesk is very good at directing calls to the right place (usually a local office).

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9 hours ago, magictime said:

there'd always be some boater left with a grievance 

This is a statement of general validity. No matter what you or indeed CRT do, someone will bitch about it.

 

It’s called being human.

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We had VLK's at Braunston top lock last week but none on the others. On chatting it seems this usually occurs when they are training. They very politely asked if they could do the lock for us as there were few boats about and they had to train the newbie.

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15 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

This is another example of where vollies can be a hinderance. Without them you could have just run some water down yourself, instead of having to find the 'senior volly'. 

 

 

Or if they had left the side pond unlocked, this would probably have been enough water.

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6 hours ago, BruceinSanity said:

This is a statement of general validity. No matter what you or indeed CRT do, someone will bitch about it.

 

It’s called being human.

Would there be any grievance if the Volockies followed their training and asked first? 

Maybe, but far less. 

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