Cancelling Deliveries/Collections

Do HGV driver normally cancel deliveries due to roads are unsuitable for HGVs or do most take a risk? How do your companies react to canceling jobs I’d rather be safe than sorry causing an accident.

Where I work they don’t care they expect you to struggle through.
I drive a class 2 if can’t get to place I ring tell them. All they say is every house or factory has a bin. So if a bin wagon can get there so can you.
Have been to some very tight places.
Once I literarrly coudlt get to drop down a narrow alley way . Story short people who wanted goods said we told him 7.5 t wagon . We told em when booked and loads not that heavy. .So was refused. They rang company said send it back on 7.5t .
I even told them. So day after they resent load on different driver on c2 was brought back again. What a shame lol.

End day I carry a tale measure if you can’t fit you can’t fit

Braveheart2009:
Do HGV driver normally cancel deliveries due to roads are unsuitable for HGVs or do most take a risk? How do your companies react to canceling jobs I’d rather be safe than sorry causing an accident.

Bloody hell :smiley:… If I decided to cancel deliveries due to unsuitable for HGV roads in Devon/Cornwall farm deliveries, I’d be bringing all my drops back every week.

All you can do is take every possible step to ensure access, turn around and exit by using maps (your fancy expensive truck sat navs will not ‘‘let’’ you :unamused: ) and phoning customers for guidance and/or other drivers, then it’s your call if you decide if it’s ok or not.

Aka good old use of old fashioned initiative and common sense :bulb: , a dying art with some today. :unamused:

With a username like yours, wouldn’t think it would be a problem to you. :laughing:
(As much as it is for me to put photo on right way round anyway. :laughing: )

With Palletforce we used to get sent to all kinds of tricky places. An 18 tonner is not that much bigger than a 7½ tonner; fold the mirrors in and crack on…:slight_smile:

At my place if you really think you can’t get somewhere to a point where you’ll do damage or get stuck, you’d be expected to phone the office and explain the situation. They will either then tell you to call it off and maybe take a photo to prove to the customer so they can charge them to take it somewhere else and charge them a second time for redelivery on a smaller vehicle. Or you will get told to risk it and give it a go, but end of the day if that happens and you end up needing a crane to get you out or you end up writing off an 80k Merc or knocking down a grade 1 listed building, you can then have the last laugh at management because you told em so and they can’t put you at fault, it’s their fault if you’ve told them you can’t and they tell you to “just try”.

DickyNick:
At my place if you really think you can’t get somewhere to a point where you’ll do damage or get stuck, you’d be expected to phone the office and explain the situation.

Or you will get told to risk it and give it a go, but end of the day if that happens and you end up needing a crane to get you out or you end up writing off an 80k Merc or knocking down a grade 1 listed building, you can then have the last laugh at management because you told em so and they can’t put you at fault, it’s their fault if you’ve told them you can’t and they tell you to “just try”.

That’s ok, but as a pro you have to make your own judgement, never mind who’s fault.
Put it this way, if some prick in an office on the phone told me to chance it, and I thought it would be a ■■■■ up situation, there aint a chance in hell that I’d go for it.
It’s you that has to has to take the consequences at the scene if you come unstuck, and end up looking like an incompetent arse…like I said ‘‘initiative’’ :bulb:

I gave up on initiative when I started driving trucks rob. H&S means you can’t use it anymore, and use it elsewhere and you get told it’s nit your decision to make. So sod it, I play them at their own game and purposely use none. That way I can’t get blamed either.

In fact I’ve got myself in more trouble (nearly getting kicked of site etc, not getting stuck) by using initiative. So yeah, sod em, I just play the game.

if you use your initiative and it goes wrong you get the blame…if you use your initiative and it goes right someone else takes all the credit…why bother taking the risk?

If it’s tight check double check. And just go slow. And what ever you do if some one offers to be your banks man watch you through. Take the offer but I must stress never rely on them 100% though there just a guide.if your u sure get out and look yourself.
Obv as been said if your expected drive down a road dull parked cars and you feel you won’t fit then try find an alternate route

edd1974:
Where I work they don’t care they expect you to struggle through.
I drive a class 2 if can’t get to place I ring tell them. All they say is every house or factory has a bin. So if a bin wagon can get there so can you.

You might want to explain to them that there are various sizes of bin wagon. Our road has to have a shorty, probably 10t, one because of a narrow gap with the gables of a house either side at an odd angle to each other. You can get a 7.5t /18t up to about 7.5m long through with mirrors folded in, anything longer no. The advice about getting out and checking is sound but, once you start through you cannot open the doors :exclamation:

End of the day your in charge of the veichal not your office. If you can’t genuinely fit take pics maybe dash cam footage. Ring deliver point ask if there’s another way in. If not take it back let yourc offfice sort it out.

Remeber it’s your licence not theres

edd1974:
End of the day your in charge of the veichal not your office. If you can’t genuinely fit take pics maybe dash cam footage. Ring deliver point ask if there’s another way in. If not take it back let yourc offfice sort it out.

Remeber it’s your licence not theres

^^^^^^^
Exactly this.
Don’t be A. Dictated to by an office monkey.
B.Be made to look an incompetent idiot by him.

A lot, especially on the pallet deliveries, won’t care if about “it won’t fit” but there’s a simple question for them. Would you rather lose £50 for a non-delivered pallet, or £5000 when I try and end up hitting a building / car / etc in insurance claims? Usually that changes their minds. Also it’s going on my car insurance if I hit something expensive too.

As for Robroy’s country lanes - think my sat nav would either have a heart attack or just plain sulk! :slight_smile:

(This is why I went onto night trunking…because I’m a lazy steering wheel attendant and we don’t have to worry about this stuff. :wink:)

edd1974:
End of the day your in charge of the veichal not your office. If you can’t genuinely fit take pics maybe dash cam footage. Ring deliver point ask if there’s another way in. If not take it back let yourc offfice sort it out.

Remeber it’s your licence not theres

If you don’t do it there is 2 scenarios here

1 they send out on some one else they get through.

Or 2 they send someone else they try cause damage and you then go.told you so

Here in Norfolk this is a normal day for us. My wagon in for MOT so I was shotgun for the day.

[video youtu.be/hNWFw1YE3gI [/video]

msgyorkie:
Here in Norfolk this is a normal day for us. My wagon in for MOT so I was shotgun for the day.

[video youtu.be/hNWFw1YE3gI [/video]

NFN (Normal for Norfolk) means rather eccentric and uses an incomprehensible dialect.

Santa:

msgyorkie:
Here in Norfolk this is a normal day for us. My wagon in for MOT so I was shotgun for the day.

[video youtu.be/hNWFw1YE3gI [/video]

NFN (Normal for Norfolk) means rather eccentric and uses an incomprehensible dialect.

Arr boi.

manski:

edd1974:
Where I work they don’t care they expect you to struggle through.
I drive a class 2 if can’t get to place I ring tell them. All they say is every house or factory has a bin. So if a bin wagon can get there so can you.

You might want to explain to them that there are various sizes of bin wagon. Our road has to have a shorty, probably 10t, one because of a narrow gap with the gables of a house either side at an odd angle to each other. You can get a 7.5t /18t up to about 7.5m long through with mirrors folded in, anything longer no. The advice about getting out and checking is sound but, once you start through you cannot open the doors :exclamation:

Many bin wagons also have rear or mid wheel steering meaning they have a much tighter turning circle which is particularly useful for reversing off narrow roads. The slight downside is that you get a lot of rear end swing on opposite side to which you are turning when going forward.