Took a load of bread to Aldi yesterday. 18 pallets
Gets on the bay and heads in.
“Lanes 23 to 26 driver” says the guy so I get a pallet truck and start unloading it. Just as I have about 4 pallets left the guy goes over to me
“These pallets are mixed. You need to seperate the trays onto individual pallets. You’ll get spare ones over there” he says, and uses his chewed pencil to point to where they are in the corner
“No, thats not my job mate” says I, shaking my head
“What?” says he
“Taking it off the trailer is one thing but im not breaking down pallets as well. Im not a stock boy”
“You need to”
“No I dont actually”
“The other drivers do”
“Ok. But im not doing it”
“well im not signing for it”
“well dont sign for it then. Ill just mark on it you refused to sign for it”
(Ive simplified the conversation slightly but that was the jist of it. Neither of us was cheeky, rude or hostile)
After a bit of deliberation, he reluctantly signed the paperwork and I went back to the depot. By the time I arrived back, the desk man says to me “What happened at Aldis?” so I told him the general outline.
“Well hes been on the phone and says you’re not allowed on site anymore”.
Not quite the crushing blow thatll give me sleepless nights he seems to think it is!
I know theres mixed feeling regarding lidl and aldis self tip policy. I fall on the “I dont mind as long as its a motorised pallet truck” side but there has to be a line. Seems I crossed it!
I feel your pain brother! A large number of my tips and reloads are done with a good old fashioned pump truck, so an electric one is luxury . However, I’ve always felt that this self tip malarkey was merely the thin end of the wedge and it wouldn’t be long before the demands increased.
Morrisons have always requested me to break down pallets and I’ve always refused only to be given the line “well you’ll be here a lot longer”. Quite frankly I don’t care as I’m getting paid regardless.
I sometimes think that these wharehouse bods are too lazy or stupid to see that if we do their jobs for them then very soon some suit with an ology is going to realise that they are actually surplus to requirements and will be handing out redundancy notices before too long!
I could understand this sorting /breaking down thing ,if you were employed by aldi and it was in the job description. but as a driver employed by “blogs delivery” whose job it is to "deliver " to site . I’m afraid (to me ) it sounds like someone is taking the pee .
I deliver to properties where the householder/builder seem to think the boom is 50 foot long and they want it there!!.I weigh up how near I can safely get the wagon and explain they can have it put there , or they can have what they paid (£1) for ,a kerbside delivery and the kerbs back there .
Trukkertone:
ask for the Bar in writing… and keep it for the rest of your career…
and see if you can get a Lidl one as well…
Thats my next challenge. Get barred from Lidl and no more self tipping to deal with!
the maoster:
However, I’ve always felt that this self tip malarkey was merely the thin end of the wedge and it wouldn’t be long before the demands increased.
Thats my feelings as well. Pretty soon youll be expected to take it to where its getting stored in the warehouse. Then itll be a case of sorting them into each stores delivery
Probably 4-5 years ago i was making a delivery to a Homebase warehouse when a Dutch,or was he Danish,driver went on the ramp next to me and came inside to pull his flower trollies off the trailer.
Warehouse manager came out to take the keys to the truck off him and told him which flowers had to go on which trollies and where to get those empty trollies from.
No and no was the answer.
No what said the manager ?
No you’re not getting the keys for my truck,and no,i don’t work here so i’m not sorting out the flowers for you.
Manager : Are you sure you want to make anymore deliveries here ?
Driver : I’d rather not…
Manager : I can get you barred from here you know !!!
Driver : That would be great,thank you.Driver then started putting his flower trollies back on the truck.
Manager,now shouting : What the f… do you think you’re doing ?
Driver,still calm : Extremely arrogant attitude is not something i’m a fan of so i’m off.
Manager : Ok,i’m going in to the office to call my boss,you will never deliver here again you f…ing i…ot
Driver : Perfect.
Driver then called up his boss,loaded up his truck and pulled off the ramp.Drove off.
10 mins later he came back,warehouse manager came out,sweet as anything and started unloading the truck while the driver was watching him.
Outside i asked the driver what on earth that was all about.He showed me a long text he’d just had from his boss :
Turned out they’d had the problem before and his boss had had enough of it.
Transport boss from Homebase had called up his boss and banned the driver from all the warehouses,the drivers boss reply was that it was not necessary as he had just banned all his drivers from making any more deliveries to any Homebase again.They were welcome to call him back if they one day were ready to do business without the arrogant attitude.
Took them about two minutes to realize that they actually wanted the stuff they had ordered and they would guarantee that the drivers would be treated with respect in the future.
I went back inside to get my paperwork and for the first time ever was offered a hot drink and was even asked if i wanted to use the toilet.The warehouse manager looked very pale.
Saw the driver again a few weeks later and he didn’t seem to have any more problems there.
Wish my boss back then had had the stones to do the same…
I’ve been barred from Lidl at Belvedere 5 times. It’s never enforced as they’re too desperate for their stock. I even begged them to take my picture and put it on the wall last time
Anyone on Morrisons “Drop & Drive” will know the expectation that you have to break down pallets…they always used to look so shocked when I said “no, I don’t mind waiting”…
Trouble is, a lot of the companies doing this work pay their drivers per shift, rather than per hour…which means that it isn’t in their favour to be held up.
I tell Aldi goods in that I’m a registered midget. I say it’s it’s discriminatory to make me unload as they don’t have little pallet trucks. For effect I complain on the way out their urinals in the bog are too high and that’s why I missed and ■■■■■■ on the floor, adding they’re lucky I don’t put in a claim. Always works. I’m 6 foot 4
James the cat:
I tell Aldi goods in that I’m a registered midget. I say it’s it’s discriminatory to make me unload as they don’t have little pallet trucks. For effect I complain on the way out their urinals in the bog are too high and that’s why I missed and ■■■■■■ on the floor, adding they’re lucky I don’t put in a claim. Always works. I’m 6 foot 4
OVLOV JAY:
I’ve been barred from Lidl at Belvedere 5 times. It’s never enforced as they’re too desperate for their stock. I even begged them to take my picture and put it on the wall last time
A bloke at the last firm I worked for used to get banned from Aldi, Chelmsford on virtually every visit for refusing to cut the wrap on bottled water.
Like you said - he never had a problem turning up the next time and never had the load refused.
Admittedly he did point blank refuse to put it all back on (did the goods in staff actually think that would happen?) when they said they wouldn’t sign for it unless cut.
on a Co Op delivery I was asked to break down the pallets . They even brought me spare pallets over and laid them out for me . So i started to put about half of one pallet on to another until somebody told me that I had to put one kind of chicken on one pallet and another kind of chicken on another .
" Sorry mate but I’ll need some help to do that "
“Why?”
“Well its a bit embarrasing mate - can we talk somewhere quiet ?”
"OK " walks to the corner
"Look mate I can’t read and I’m colourblind - I don’t mind helping but I need help as well "
Signs paperwork - "On you go drive - we’ll sort it "
Barred from TESCO Southampton for the same thing 20 years ago, they wanted me to split 26 pallets of fruit and veg, some pallets had 4/5 different class of produce on, refused point blank, I was always willing to tip loads help load if requested etc, but split loads down never, if you think about it your doing two jobs for one wage a Driver and a Warehouse mans, they also said interestingly I thought they paid COOLCHAIN for us to split the loads, if so I nor anybody else ever saw it.
OVLOV JAY:
I’ve been barred from Lidl at Belvedere 5 times. It’s never enforced as they’re too desperate for their stock. I even begged them to take my picture and put it on the wall last time
About time people stood up too these Little Hitler.
Well done The Snowman.
bobbya:
What’s wrong with self tipping,when I did brick and block it was self tip just about everytime,much quicker than waiting for a forkie.
This isn’t just self tipping though. With bricks and blocks you tipped packs, I guarantee that you didn’t break the packs down and hand individual bricks to waiting hod carriers!
bobbya:
What’s wrong with self tipping,when I did brick and block it was self tip just about everytime,much quicker than waiting for a forkie.
This isn’t just self tipping though. With bricks and blocks you tipped packs, I guarantee that you didn’t break the packs down and hand individual bricks to waiting hod carriers!
I think you’re taking it a bit too far with that statement of course I didn’t,but I do prefer to crack on with it don’t believe in hanging about far too many lazy folk about for my liking.
bobbya:
What’s wrong with self tipping,when I did brick and block it was self tip just about everytime,much quicker than waiting for a forkie.
This isn’t just self tipping though. With bricks and blocks you tipped packs, I guarantee that you didn’t break the packs down and hand individual bricks to waiting hod carriers!
I think you’re taking it a bit too far with that statement of course I didn’t,but I do prefer to crack on with it don’t believe in hanging about far too many lazy folk about for my liking.
This is different from your usual self-tip crap. How long before we have to load Aldi’s own wagons? As Maoster rightly said, this is the thin end of the wedge that they will use to try and get us to do everything. I don’t mind helping break pallets down if its a mom and pop operation with a few staff, normally because I can get something out of it at the end but I will not break down pallets for a multi-national company that employs hundreds of staff. There is a reason why I detest RDC work and this is just driving home that point.
. However, I’ve always felt that this self tip malarkey was merely the thin end of the wedge and it wouldn’t be long before the demands increased.
