Pete Gets The Job Done

Road Sweeper Pete Bowers, an outstanding and loyal Quattro employee of twenty-five years finally decided to retire last week at the youthful age of eighty-four.

Thinking back to when he first started, Pete reminisces:
‘I remember the day that I saw the advert on East Ham High Street, Road Sweeper Required.  I had just left London Transport and was looking for something.  I met John and that was that!’
 In his time with the company Pete drove his sweeper all over London, and quickly became valued for his reliability, efficiency, amiable nature and great service in keeping roads clean wherever he was sent. 

 
 ‘I loved my job’, says Pete, ‘I’d arrive at the yard and park my van then pick up my lorry, get to work, eat whatever my wife Julia had done for me, then get back to the yard, check the vehicle over and was done for the day.  I loved meeting all the different people.  It’s a great firm to work for’.

Pete swept the streets with Radio 2 on in the lorry, a flask of coffee, and if he was lucky a couple of Digestive biscuits.  Easy going Pete was happy to travel anywhere, but back in the early days says leaving his own van in the yard was a temptation for John Murphy.

‘Back in the first few years John had these magnetic stickers with Quattro written on them.  While I was out sweeping he would use my van and put his stickers on the side and drive around with it like it was his. It was a bloody cheek!

Pete won’t be as busy as he’d like to be in retirement: ‘I was sad when I left; I didn’t really want to leave Quattro, but old age was creeping up on me. Now I’m spending my time dossing around doing crosswords and book puzzles!’

Clearly sad to lose a valuable and much loved employee, John Murphy added: 'Pete is an asset to our work force.  He was a swift worker, much faster than me.  Reaching top speeds of 10mph I'm amazed he retired before I did.  I'll miss that van.'

Pete ended the conversation by giving a few words of advice for other road sweepers: ‘Do the job as best you can.  Get on with the Foreman.  Don’t get stroppy.  And don’t let John down.’