I don’t drive trucks anymore, I run my own van on same day courier work.
As such I rarely visit RDCs.
The other morning I had a 6 am booking at a DHL site just south of Doncaster for a collection.
Get there 10 minutes early.
What a faf!
Report to gatehouse, get signed in and given a little sticker, round to transport office and given a manifest.
From there to the other side of the site (through 2 security gates) to report to another office.
Directed to a bay, explained I was in a van so then redirected to a roller door at the far end of the building.
Loaded by forklift driver, report back to office, given another bit of paperwork, told to report back to transport office.
Get back there, sticker I was given is stuck to my papers and I’m given a gate pass.
Back to security gate, they check everything and send me on my way.
Over an hour mucking about.
How you guys put up with it, day in-day out, is beyond me.
65 drops and…
35 collections, how do you guys put up with it?
yourhavingalarf:
65 drops and…
35 collections, how do you guys put up with it?
I think he might be struggling a bit with that, he said he was a same day courier 
manski:
yourhavingalarf:
65 drops and…
35 collections, how do you guys put up with it?
I think he might be struggling a bit with that, he said he was a same day courier
Yep, Youd normally need a dayn`alf to do that much work in an artic. 
yourhavingalarf:
65 drops and…
35 collections, how do you guys put up with it?
Yeah, I don’t tend to get involved in multi drop.
We do same day, time critical stuff.
The key here Drew is that it’s YOUR van therefore time is money. Completely understandable btw and speaking as one who used to have his own light haulage Co specialising in next day European work I absolutely get the whole quick tip thing.
On this forum however the overwhelming majority (note I never said all) drivers are hourly paid and work for someone else, so probably figure that if the person paying their wages isn’t bothered about the hoop jumping then why should they be bothered?
The solution is very simple
You join them
the maoster:
The key here Drew is that it’s YOUR van therefore time is money. Completely understandable btw and speaking as one who used to have his own light haulage Co specialising in next day European work I absolutely get the whole quick tip thing.
On this forum however the overwhelming majority (note I never said all) drivers are hourly paid and work for someone else, so probably figure that if the person paying their wages isn’t bothered about the hoop jumping then why should they be bothered?
I absolutely understand what your saying, and although I’ve not posted much, I’ve been a member here for many years.
I just don’t get all the too-ing and fro-ing.
That same day I was fortunate enough to go to another NDC for a massive transport co. In Nottingham to deliver.
The security guard got proper upset that I didn’t have a reference number starting with a 5.
Told him to give me 30 seconds and it’d be sorted.
He told me to park up in this bay to sort it out.
Turns out everything I did from that point on was the same as if I’d given him the ref number!
It made no difference, apart from him raising his own blood pressure.
I don’t particularly care if I’m made to jump through hoops at a delivery/collection point.
Anything over 30 mins, and I start with the waiting time.
Sounds like you were at the Bawtry site if so that explains a lot. Lol
I was about to say, Bawtry without a doubt haha
I’ve had a similar faff at Bawtry.
Waited 5 hours for a load to Morrisons at Swan Valley. It was a Saturday and I told them any load would be rejected after 12. They insisted I go, they’d rung ahead. Got my load at 11.20, go to gatehouse and he wouldn’t let me leave, told me to go back to transport. Agreed to do a U turn in gateway and arrived back at in gate and the same bloke wouldn’t let me in without a reference number! I told him that I’d just done a U turn and was going back to transport as per his instructions and he denied it. Said he’d never seen me before!
In the end I walked down their yard to transport, left site at 12.15 and load was rejected at Swan Valley because I arrived after noon.
Biggest pantomime I’ve ever worked for.
sent using smoke signals
Sounds like its totally geared to a time/money wasting excercise with a helping of jobsworth security cabbage and H&S bollox thrown in for good measure. These type of places really havent a clue that time is money…
drew30:
I don’t drive trucks anymore, I run my own van on same day courier work.
As such I rarely visit RDCs.
The other morning I had a 6 am booking at a DHL site just south of Doncaster for a collection.
Get there 10 minutes early.
What a faf!
Report to gatehouse, get signed in and given a little sticker, round to transport office and given a manifest.
From there to the other side of the site (through 2 security gates) to report to another office.
Directed to a bay, explained I was in a van so then redirected to a roller door at the far end of the building.
Loaded by forklift driver, report back to office, given another bit of paperwork, told to report back to transport office.
Get back there, sticker I was given is stuck to my papers and I’m given a gate pass.
Back to security gate, they check everything and send me on my way.
Over an hour mucking about.
How you guys put up with it, day in-day out, is beyond me.
often thought about giving up driving the hgvs myself and doing what you are doing in a nice merc sprinter
I don’t miss doing distribution center deliveries with a box van, I hated that crap, waiting in line, being treated like garbage. All I do now is drive up, check in drive to a tank, hook up, it takes 30-45 minutes to unload and I drive out empty all the way back to wherever I came from. I don’t think I could do anything other than tanker work now.
I had an agency gig last Winter where I had to drive 70 miles then wait (in the cab) for four hours while they tipped me, every single day. I just looked on it as being paid £50 a day to drink coffee and look at ■■■■ on the internet. 
drew30:
yourhavingalarf:
65 drops and…
35 collections, how do you guys put up with it?
Yeah, I don’t tend to get involved in multi drop.
We do same day, time critical stuff.
Every load, drop I do is time critical, so I’m told by the office.
Just grin bear it. Think of the money if paid hourly. Plus if was in and out the only find you another job to do. It all brings home.time no matter what
edd1974:
Think of the money if paid hourly. Plus if was in and out the only find you another job to do.
If its at all possible to avoid (not always possible) why would any driver even if hourly paid want to sit around in a goods yard waiting unnecessarily. And isnt that what the jobs about, getting tipped and onto the next one? Its the company a drivers employed by that pays the wages, making full use of the driver and its truck is paramount to productivity. Lost time always without fail means lost money…