BUT, it seems as though some companies are reacting to them being taken the pi55 out of, for too long warehouses have held many of us to ransom, having to wait hours even for a couple of pallets is not acceptable, especially when your the only lorry there, so i say good for them, only problem is, what do you do with the load miles away from your own depot, otherwise its back to there, drop the trailer, and charge them demurrage or storage, and only release the goods when you have been paid, sounds like a good system to me, well on paper but in reality, it doesnt work, the supplier will threaten you with no more work, the receiver will ban you from their sites, which is why not many are adhering to the demurrage rules, and that should be after a 1 hour delay in my opinion, as they say…Time is money.
A boss i worked for did just that, was approaching xmas, i got a phone call, there was an urgent load to be collected from france, it had to be delivered within 2 days, and there was £50 in it for me…so ripped my guts apart and arrived at Tesco Northampton with this urgent load…well it seems that they wasnt that interested. First port of call was the gatehouse, where little hitler told me i was too early, and to go back outside, i refused…told him to phone Mr Superior, who knew all about it, and would sort it it as it was urgent…right…wrong…he said i had to comply with Mr hitler…so i refused to move and asked for a bay…eventually after causing a stir, i was told to back onto bay 20 ( or whatever )…and someone would come to me and ask me to open the doors…2 hours went by, and i phoned the boss…he said give it another hour…so i did…he told me to pull out, so as i approached the gatehouse, with the barrier down, mr hitler said i couldnt leave…so i phoned the boss…he said…turn around and reverse through the barrier, as they couldnt hold me against my will. So with barrier on the floor, i moved forward, turned around, and proceeded to pull out…and parked up, men in suits arrived, then the police arrived, and wanted my details for criminal damage. Once i had explained the situation, they let me go, so i phoned the boss, and he said to bring the load back to the yard…where it stayed till the new year, until a large bill for storage had been paid, and their own vehicle came to collect it, we never did get to do any more work for Tesco, but i did get my £50…if only more companies had bosses like that, we wouldnt get held up for so long.
