Why don't people seem to understand what 'Self Service' means on the locks?

[Steve Grubb]

Very busy on the river this weekend (unsurprisingly) especially Windsor and down river from there. A number of locks are on self service - but the majority of people seems to think this means 'wait in your boat and let someone else get on with it', coupled with 'it doesn't matter how many boats are waiting I'll just go halfway down'! If people work together more boats can get through at a time and the whole process is so much easier and faster. Because me and the Mrs wear our lifejackets all the time some people assume we are lock keepers . . . . A couple of times today we've actually asked other boaters to lend a hand and they seemed surprised!

Lovely weather though, not going to let it spoil our fun, cheers!

 

[rotrax]

Very busy on the river this weekend (unsurprisingly) especially Windsor and down river from there. A number of locks are on self service - but the majority of people seems to think this means 'wait in your boat and let someone else get on with it', coupled with 'it doesn't matter how many boats are waiting I'll just go halfway down'! If people work together more boats can get through at a time and the whole process is so much easier and faster. Because me and the Mrs wear our lifejackets all the time some people assume we are lock keepers . . . . A couple of times today we've actually asked other boaters to lend a hand and they seemed surprised!

Lovely weather though, not going to let it spoil our fun, cheers!

First Mate and I often speculated how the Thames Motorboaters would enjoy a Hatton Flight. 21 broad locks with very heavy ground paddle gear in a couple of miles.

Did it going up in a morning once, in the pissing rain.

The Caen Hill flight at Devises rises through 29 broad locks in just over two miles.

That lot is hard work.

Intrestingly enough, most canal boaters share the work when locking with more than one boat. Unless there is a boat in sight coming up or down, all gates and paddles are closed afterwards too.

 

[Wavey]

Those on the canals and those on the Thames have two different mind sets, partly because the latter have been used to lock keepers being on duty who would manage the locks properly during busy times and generally be on hand to help. I'm surprised locks on the lower reaches were on self service over a Bank Holiday weekend but it seems perhaps that Thames boaters are just going to have to get used to rolling their sleeves up and getting stuck in.

If that truly is the way forward on the Thames then my option of downsizing and coming back has just been kicked into touch as the south coast is a lot more manageable when you're single handed 95% of the time and do most of your boating mid week.

 

[boatone]

Put simply, there are not enough full time employed lock staff to provide cover at all locks every day.
The practice of double (and occasional triple) manning has become the norm. This means one lock keeper being responsible for 2 (or possibly 3) locks. Whilst the lockie is travelling between locks this means neither will be manned so you may well find them both displaying ‘Self Service’ signs - ie DIY.
This years Customer Charter which will be published shortly includes a chart of all locks and identifies key priority locks which, whenever possible will not be subject to double manning. Also, the fact that a lock is not on the priority list does not necesssarily mean it will be unmanned depending on day to day manning availability.

 

[Viking23]

I remember last year doing Marlow lock on self service (on my own and in the rain) and yes, people think you’re the lockie if you wear a life jacket! I was going downstream on and closed the lock gates after going through. Saw other boaters just arriving and going downstream and no one got out to let themselves in, so being in a charitable mood I re-filled the lock (takes 9 mins on self-service!), and when I opened the top gates to let them in, I got abuse for the time they had to wait!! Yes, what’s hard to understand about Self Service signs!

 

[Pump-Out]

Put simply, there are not enough full time employed lock staff to provide cover at all locks every day.
The practice of double (and occasional triple) manning has become the norm. This means one lock keeper being responsible for 2 (or possibly 3) locks. Whilst the lockie is travelling between locks this means neither will be manned so you may well find them both displaying ‘Self Service’ signs - ie DIY.
This years Customer Charter which will be published shortly includes a chart of all locks and identifies key priority locks which, whenever possible will not be subject to double manning. Also, the fact that a lock is not on the priority list does not necesssarily mean it will be unmanned depending on day to day manning availability.

We need to stop the EA using the expression "Double Manning". This is not double-manning. Double manning means I have twice the staff on duty for any given task.
This is half-manning, and the Civil Servants who try to cover this up with double-speak should not be allowed to get away with it. I respect hugely the work that boatone and others do with the EA but, please, do not support this awful mis-use of the English Language which conspires to cover their inability to provide the service.
Half-manning, please.

 

[Riverleak]

We need to stop the EA using the expression "Double Manning". This is not double-manning. Double manning means I have twice the staff on duty for any given task.
This is half-manning, and the Civil Servants who try to cover this up with double-speak should not be allowed to get away with it. I respect hugely the work that boatone and others do with the EA but, please, do not support this awful mis-use of the English Language which conspires to cover their inability to provide the service.
Half-manning, please.

Having moored at a lock for many years and knowing a number of lock keepers as friends I'll try and give a definitive answer on this subject.
The phrase double manning was something that was started in the late eighties by the lock staff and was entirely a term used by them for identifying the need for them to cover on occasion, two locks on a given day, and this was only during the winter period. This over the years, has been gradually increased to now cover locks all year, and the boating public have heard lockstaff referring to the term "Double Manning" but it is perhaps perceived in a different way by the public.

 

[boatone]

Having moored at a lock for many years and knowing a number of lock keepers as friends I'll try and give a definitive answer on this subject.
The phrase double manning was something that was started in the late eighties by the lock staff and was entirely a term used by them for identifying the need for them to cover on occasion, two locks on a given day, and this was only during the winter period. This over the years, has been gradually increased to now cover locks all year, and the boating public have heard lockstaff referring to the term "Double Manning" but it is perhaps perceived in a different way by the public.

As Riverleak says, double manning is a term which has long been in use by EA staff amongst themselves but has only relatively recently come to the attention of th e boating public.
i can assure Plumbob that I challenge its use regularly and have suggested that “split manning” would be a more appropriate term. Unfortunately I have, thus far, received little support from other river user reps. However, in the best Churchillian tradition, I will “Keep buggering on” !!!

 

[rotrax]

If the EA put up licence fees enough to cover full time Lockies, would you be prepared to pay?

Serious question, I am curious.

 

[DogsBody]

Very busy on the river this weekend (unsurprisingly) especially Windsor and down river from there. A number of locks are on self service - but the majority of people seems to think this means 'wait in your boat and let someone else get on with it', coupled with 'it doesn't matter how many boats are waiting I'll just go halfway down'! If people work together more boats can get through at a time and the whole process is so much easier and faster. Because me and the Mrs wear our lifejackets all the time some people assume we are lock keepers . . . . A couple of times today we've actually asked other boaters to lend a hand and they seemed surprised!

Lovely weather though, not going to let it spoil our fun, cheers!

Think its just a sign of the times, the helpful, friendly attitude of boats from past years is now largely replaced with an "I'm alright jack, sod you attitude" - its evident in the increase of speeding, not moving up to make room for others at waiting zones etc.

What really annoys me is a lock on public power, loads of boats in there with 4+ people on board, all sitting on their backsides, leaving it to the one boat that only has 2 people on board to do all the work.

 

[DogsBody]

Re: Double manning

From my experience over the bank holiday weekend, double (or more correctly half) manning would be a benefit!

Cruising down river on Saturday, 3 out of 7 locks were unmanned, returning on the Bank Holiday Monday only 2 out of 7 were manned. One of the five unmanned had a lockie and assistant on duty that both disappeared at the same time - not much point having an assistant if he can't cover when the lockie's gone away. If the EA doesn't consider it worthwhile to try and man the locks on a hot sunny bank holiday weekend, they need to have a serious re-think about what customer service really is because this ain't it.

@rotrax, I wouldn't support any increase in fees boaters pay the EA until the EA get real and start trying to charge some of the other organisations that utilise the river - I believe motor boaters as a whole already contribute the majority of the EA's funding for the river.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Intrestingly enough, most canal boaters share the work when locking with more than one boat. Unless there is a boat in sight coming up or down, all gates and paddles are closed afterwards too.

That's how it used to be on the Crinan Canal. Unfortunately there seems to be a growing culture among visitors, and particularly among English visitors, which is to let everybody else do the work, hold them up whenever you feel like it and leave the locks any old how.

 

[Parabordi]

Re: Double manning

Totally agree - however Statler and Waldorf will be along in a mo to tell us all we never had it so good. Zzzzzzz

 

[ianc1200]

"all gates and paddles are closed afterwards too."

When will people understand to leave the bottom paddles open........

 

[rotrax]

"all gates and paddles are closed afterwards too."

When will people understand to leave the bottom paddles open........

Not on canals. Really bad form.

Water loss has always been a problem from summit levels on canals and the practice has been for many, many years to leave all gates and paddles closed. In the days of working boats and top level maintenence leaving the gates and paddles up after leaving a lock was normal. But not now.

And, as an aside, how can one leave the bottom paddles open after going up?

 

[ianc1200]

On the Thames you leave the gates closed and the lock empty. That means (if going upstream) exiting the lock, closing the top gates and then open the bottom paddles & continuing on your journey.

 

[kremmen]

I would disagree. The current instruction on the self service notice says to take the boat out of the lock and close gates. Sluice gates should be left up whether you are going up or downstream.
In some lock ( such as Marlow and Culham) it takes an age to lift sluice gates so it is a courtesy to allow the next boater as quick a passage as possible. Obviously it only takes seconds to close a sluice gate so if it is up "against " you it doesn't take long

 

[ianc1200]

Anybody else? Have the signs changed this year? (still stuck in the back yard at Harleyford varnishing).

 

[kremmen]

I have just double checked and you are right. ( I was only reading the "going downstream" instructions. Apologies for misleading you.
Honestly as I went to check I find that the head gates have been left open again and honestly it is difficult enough to get the gates closed normally without trying to then get the lock emptied.

 

[Riverleak]

Without question, the lock should be left with "both sets of gates closed with the lock empty or empyting of water", as per the instruction on each pedestal.