peterm:
What more can any of us say. RIP driver and sympathies to his family. We can only hope that this sorry incident brings about change in as much as staff being on duty and/or a drivers mate goes out with them. Also some proper lighting in some of these dumps.
Best point so far in my view-lighting.
I used to work for P&H when I was a lowly Class 2 driver, and some of the places we had to reverse into was unreal, especially after 4pm in winter. All our wagons had tail lifts and if you were rushing around trying to get finished, harm was never far away.
Tgtrucker:
I’m confused. How in this age of health & safety obsession does any unmanned single driver shop delivery pass any H & S assessment. It cannot be on the basis if the driver carrying a mobile phone as in this instance he wouldn’t have been able to use one.
Do they have personal emergency alarms linked to the vehicle to call for help in the event of a problem? Would seem to be a good idea at the very minimum.
There are way too many things that can go wrong when delivering to an unmanned shop overnight. Along with physical accidents there’s also a risk of being attacked by persons wishing to enter the shop to rob it.
Is it really the case that these shop chains put cost before safety and really don’t give a [zb] about the driver.
that was always my fear when working for a well known office equipment company,delivering at 3/4 am and having keys to the delivery points,turning off the alarms,deliver,then re set the alarm and lock up,any accident could have happened and no one was around on top of that you open a warehouse that is full of copying machines and other expensive items,a gang would only have to watch you on your set delivery times,then strike,nice little payday for them,personally if they were mobhanded I would step aside and say ‘‘help yourselves lads’’ no job is worth getting your head kicked in or worse
I work for a supermarket, all our night deliveries have risk assessments stating 2 or more persons must be present during all deliveries.
I still can’t understand for 32pph more than my hourly rate, Aldi drivers deliver alone with keys to the shops. Sorry but I just wouldn’t do it
GasGas:
And yet…night-time deliveries are now being put forward as the ‘solution’ to traffic congestion.
It’s very worrying
I’m buggered if I’m gonna work nights just so Quentin and his Audi aren’t slowed down to less than the speed limit by me! Let Quentin and his chums work nights instead so that I’m not inconvenienced by them as I trundle up and down motorways that were incidentally built for the quick and easy movement of freight across large distances.
Terrible way to die RIP. I worked for Aldi for almost a year and in that time know of two drivers injured while working alone at night. One crushed his leg using a powered pump truck the other had a plant pot fall of a trolley and hit him on the head. I got to one store myself after closing time and the alarm was going off, rang depot to be told to let myself in and have a look around!! ■■■■ off was my reply. Changed jobs very soon after.
I reckon I’ve had my fair share of near misses working in the dark alone, like slipping on ice in a deserted supermarket car park at 4am and bashing my head off the ground - fortunately I always wore my hard hat so not too much damage done.
But what really annoyed me was the several times my bosses expected me to climb into the back of the 40-yard skip to look through the recycling (consisting of plastic bottles, cans and glass, some of which was inevitably broken) to locate car keys which some moron had managed to drop into the container with their bottles and cans.
Inevitably this would be put to me as “Can you meet with this person and sort it out…” Last time that happened I wrote a detailed email to the company spelling out the very obvious health and safety issues they were ignoring. I only received a verbal response to my complaint, they basically denied there were any genuine safety issues and suggested that this was tantamount to me refusing a reasonable request to do work necessary for the job. I don’t think they liked the fact that I was documenting their recklessness in writing.
Edit: I should add that I no longer work for this dangerous cowboy outfit.
stuwozere1:
I work for a supermarket, all our night deliveries have risk assessments stating 2 or more persons must be present during all deliveries.
I still can’t understand for 32pph more than my hourly rate, Aldi drivers deliver alone with keys to the shops. Sorry but I just wouldn’t do it
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Used to be the same with overnight car parts, work alone with just keys to dealerships. Yes there’s CCTV everywhere but it’s not going to help in the instance, only for investigation afterwards.
eagerbeaver:
So really the answer is for drivers to start REFUSING to work on their own then
Must dash, got a flying pig to catch.
Working on your own is fine.
What isn’t fine is ignoring your inner monkey telling you it’s dodgy. Both me and you admit we have done things we knew were unsafe - and ultimately that was just so we got paid.
I do loads of stuff on my own - I even put my car on axle stands and take bit’s off underneath. What I don’t do it rush around and cut corners when I’m doing that. So perhaps we should just act like grown ups and do things properly. Just my own reflections on my own actions looking back.
Many years ago when working for a well known supermarket, we used to do night deliveries into unmanned warehouses, some of the store managers didn’t like leaving lights on in the warehouses so the only lights you had came from the motors, you unloaded via scissor lift which took twelve cages the only way up and down was to ride it, many complaints entered but no lasting results, as a driver was lowering the lift late one night, one end of the lift collapsed and threw him off no serious injury but shaken up, the Union were informed and meetings took place at HQ resulting in a memo being issued to all drivers stating that no driver will ride on the scissor lift under dire threat of instant dismissal, the driver is to use a ladder to get on to the back of the lorry and remain there just to load the cages, the lift is to be sent up and down and unloaded and empties loaded by the warehouse staff standing on the floor, but as was pointed out to the union rep this was well and good during the day when the warehouse was fully manned but when we are there are no staff on duty to help, what are we to do, the answer that came back from HQ and endorsed by the union was that these rules don’t apply to night drivers… and to carry on as normal…
Ossie
All this single man working,has been brought about by cost, it’s cheaper to get 1 person to do the job than 2. Safety will always suffer were money is involved.
Tin hat on, gets in bunker for next observation… Also all the trolley boys I’ve seen don’t want to do more than 8 hours, so the rush about to get back within there 8 hours, ever been in an RDC about 1300-1400 they come flying in not giving a ■■■■ about anything, except getting that card out before they go over there shift allocation.
lost a good mate a few yrs back due to a kfn faulty taillift ,he had no idea how to use it,just get on with it youl cotton on boy, iirc 3 night parcel came of the lift he jumped of reached underneath and the lift dropped like a stone onto him broke his neck died instantly,new wife and young daughter left without him!! not to mention the shock to the driver who found him hrs later. Zac A is right ,I fell on ice one night just after I parked up midnight on a Saturday in winter on the prairies ,fell well I reality it was the splits leg either side bounced of my nuts (im no twiggie so a bit o weight came down)and my legs stopped working -20c ,the pain was unbelievable dragged myself the length o the outfit dragged myself in to the cab and passed out,tried to move the motor towards a building in the morning but right leg wouldn’t work…managed to phone for help…was off work 6 months tore my right leg hamstring ,tore /strained muscles in my lower back. ripped the knees out o my jeans /fingers out o my gloves when dragging my self on the snowpack/ice. if I had passed out wae the pain outside I definately would have frozen to death.
sammym:
Via agency I worked for eurocarparts. It was a good job. Well paid and great trucks. But I was given keys and delivered alone at night. That included very heavy and dangerous stuff. Once I was nearly seriously hurt when a cage of air filters at the bottom and clutched and break disks at the top went over when taking it over the lip of the taillift.
I had no induction. I had no assessment (it was just a case of being told here is the keys). And I had no training.
Looking back I can’t believe how daft I was. I was lucky. Some blokes have been seriously hurt on that job.
Funny. My first night with this car parts distributor who has the same name I showed up for an assessment drive. I was sat in Transport waiting for the assessor when a call came in, the woman answered and it was one of their artic drivers who was in an ambulance on the way to a hospital. He had tripped on a pallet with batteries and fallen badly, luckily he had his mobile on so he called the emergency services. My assessment was cancelled and I was sent along with another driver in a company car to get him to the now abandoned truck so he could complete the deliveries - the woman from transport made it clear to him it was VERY important he did them all; I was to then proceed to the hospital where the injured driver was taken to to pick him up and bring him back.
He had 3 cracked ribs and an internal bleeding, was in a lot of pain and groaned every time the car went over a bump. When we got back to the yard in the morning they wouldn’t even let him go home to rest, they told him he had to wait for big boss manager to come in for his day shift so he could be interviewed and provide a statement. The only “safety” system they had in place was you had to call every time you arrived at a store and then call again as you leave but few drivers bothered. During my first shifts I would often call upon arrival but then forget to call as I was leaving (overwhelming amount of paperwork and things to do for a new driver) and no one ever called me to see if everything is ok.
sammym:
Via agency I worked for eurocarparts. It was a good job. Well paid and great trucks. But I was given keys and delivered alone at night. That included very heavy and dangerous stuff. Once I was nearly seriously hurt when a cage of air filters at the bottom and clutched and break disks at the top went over when taking it over the lip of the taillift.
I had no induction. I had no assessment (it was just a case of being told here is the keys). And I had no training.
Looking back I can’t believe how daft I was. I was lucky. Some blokes have been seriously hurt on that job.
Funny. My first night with this car parts distributor who has the same name I showed up for an assessment drive. I was sat in Transport waiting for the assessor when a call came in, the woman answered and it was one of their artic drivers who was in an ambulance on the way to a hospital. He had tripped on a pallet with batteries and fallen badly, luckily he had his mobile on so he called the emergency services. My assessment was cancelled and I was sent along with another driver in a company car to get him to the now abandoned truck so he could complete the deliveries - the woman from transport made it clear to him it was VERY important he did them all; I was to then proceed to the hospital where the injured driver was taken to to pick him up and bring him back.
He had 3 cracked ribs and an internal bleeding, was in a lot of pain and groaned every time the car went over a bump. When we got back to the yard in the morning they wouldn’t even let him go home to rest, they told him he had to wait for big boss manager to come in for his day shift so he could be interviewed and provide a statement. The only “safety” system they had in place was you had to call every time you arrived at a store and then call again as you leave but few drivers bothered. During my first shifts I would often call upon arrival but then forget to call as I was leaving (overwhelming amount of paperwork and things to do for a new driver) and no one ever called me to see if everything is ok.
Yeah they gave me a phone for the first few shifts. But often they didn’t answer it when I called. And after my first night I gave up calling. In the end they didn’t even give me the phone.
Let’s be honest - the newest Scanias were top notch. And sometimes it was a fun job. Going to dodgy places alone and worrying about being attacked made me both get a Leatherman and a Maglite for protection. Drivers often were attacked or got hurt. One I met was hurt for life. They paid him out and kept on doing it. Biggest laugh was the 360 hi viz policy in the warehouse but the lack of care at all on the road.
Don’t get me started on the van drivers blocking entry. In the end I was sacked after all my diesel was robbed whilst in South Mimms services - that was a clusterf after no manager to authorise sorting it out, I had to pay on my own credit card for fuel to get back to Tamworth which they did pay back. Looking back they did me a favour sacking me.
They will always blame the driver. If you are robbed you will not be taking care. And if you are hurt they will say you are not taking care. That being said they pay enough to keep drivers coming back… But they should be seriously looked at.
ETS:
I was to then proceed to the hospital where the injured driver was taken to to pick him up and bring him back.
He had 3 cracked ribs and an internal bleeding, was in a lot of pain and groaned every time the car went over a bump.
Says more about the NHS in not keeping him in AAU at least for a couple of days under observation than the firm.Which hospital was it ?.
Pretty sure they can’t keep you in there against your will. I don’t remember the name of the hospital, it was in Reading, 5-6 months ago. They had morphine’d him up and discharged him but it took a while for the morphine to start acting apparently. Eventually he calmed down and fell asleep; I felt bad for the fella, he was 50 something probably took him a long time to fully recover. I later asked him if he had any advice for a new driver like myself and he said “Yes - keep your phone with you at all times, it might save your life”
