Before going on duty every week the first job is to check the bike over and make sure it is fit for purpose – much like a pilot doing a walkround of his aircraft before each flight. At lunchtime I took advantage of gap in the rain showers to do to my bike handover check. Things I noted today included a faulty tyre depth gauge and just 1.6mm tread depth on the rear tyre (the legal limit is 1.0mm). Otherwise the bike is fit and ready to go.
I also had to perform a small upgrade to the bike's complement of reflective stickers and decals to ensure that we are fully legal. I just added a UN3373 diamond-shaped label which is a legal requirement when carrying category B infectious biological substances. This always freaks me out slightly as I think of smallpox and ebola virus when I hear "infectious biological substance", but those are category A which we are not licensed to carry. UN3373 regulations for the packaging, labelling and transport of category B substances are pretty much any biological sample—blood, faeces, urine, or tissue biopsy—which is being transported for the purposes of diagnostic analysis. Displaying the logo on the bike's panniers ensures that the emergency services would know what to if one of our riders were to have an accident and be unable to tell them what is being carried. Here's hoping they are never needed!
So 5:20pm, time to finish off work, get dinner and wait for that first call at 7:00pm....
