KEEP on truckin’ with this month’s Skip Chick, Andrea Parsons of GBN Services in the driving seat.
Hi there! Can you introduce yourself?
I’m Andrea Parsons and I’ve just turned 25.
In the prime of life. So where do you work, and what is your job title?
I work at GBN Services, which is a skip hire, recycling and waste company based in the south east. I’m a tipper driver.
Bet they keep you busy. Tell us more.
I have worked there since February 2019, this is my first trucking job – prior to that I worked in a bank! Most of my days are spent running materials around to landfill. However, I do occasionally jump into a skip lorry or am in the sorting plant which can be a nice change of scenery.
Just you, the open road and a pile of rubbish in the back – bliss. Anything about the job you don’t really like?
When you have rocks stuck between your back wheels, it’s pouring with rain, the mud is dripping off the body straight onto you while you’re standing there with a bar and hammer trying to smash them down enough that you can free them – which happens most days in winter.
Well at least it’s not boring! Where will we find you outside of work?
Pole fitness is my main hobby but I recently decided to take up Scuba diving. I’m hoping to travel and dive different wrecks, it’s the weirdest feeling breathing underwater for the first time!
Sounds amazing. As does a romantic night with the person of your dreams…
I’m not really a ‘romance’ type of girl. I’d much rather been taken to do something fun, so for me it would be an off roading experience with Richard Rawlings.
Handy chap to have around if those rocks get stuck between your wheels. Do you have a fascinating fact about yourself that will leave us amazed?
It’s more of a party trick: I’m double-jointed, meaning I can dislocate my shoulders on demand.
You need to have a word with our Skip Hunk Andy – he needs a little help when it comes to dislocated shoulders! But first, let’s get you the holiday of your dreams. Where to?
I would love to travel around America in a pick-up truck, meet a few cowboys, drink in every honky-tonk I could find and listen to country music.
Sounds pretty darn fine to us. Before you go, who would you say is your hero?
It has got to be Walt Disney. Even when things look like they would never get any better he pushed for what he wanted and never gave up on his dreams. His ideas were crazy but they worked!
And he gave us Pluto the dog! Talking of famous characters, ever met anyone famous? Who?
Marty Mone is the most famous person I’ve met – I met him at Truckfest last year. Other than him, Mike Dirnt gave me his guitar pick at a Green Day concert, but sadly I didn’t get to meet him properly.
Well that’s his loss, isn’t it? We’d love you to win the lottery – imagine spending all of that money!
I would by a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere away from any neighbours, with lots of land, a few animals and I’d start a rescue centre. I would probably throw in a green Focus RS MK2 for good measure.
Why not – it’ll make a nice change from the tipper truck. Finally, make us smile with your best joke.
Why don’t crabs donate? Because their shellfish!
Hope your truck skills are better than your jokes! Seriously though, we’ve been bowled over – thanks for being a superb Skip Chick!
GBN Services is based in Leyton and operates across London and the south east. Find out more at www.gbnservices.co.uk