a few years ago i did alot of agency work for a firm in airdie, who had contrcacts for next, argoss and brewers fayers.
Had to be at the yard at 0300 hrs as i was going to aberdeen on the brewers fayre contract.
got there to be told by desk jockey that i was just called in as a spare driver in case no one showed for work.
waited until 0700hrs (well p****) and asked / told was heading for inverness, told them to ram it, went home.
agency phoned had to fight with them to get my wage, but did, and guess what happennend 2 weeks later ? exact same thing
Did this happen to anyone else out of this yard? or was it just me they liked getting out of bed at ridiculous times for nothing.
i have had it before. boots do it, tesco do it. they seem to like having a spare driver. the last time i did it for tesco i did a run to ■■■■■■■■■■■ and that was it. i have had the same thing to alloa and corstophine too. they give you a run to get you out on the road during a shift. its annoying. especially when you want a long shift and you end up doing 6 hours with a local shop
not just agency , im regulary put down as spare , ive often sat there waiting for 4/5 hrs for a job / truck , but normally they then only give you a local , so your day only pans out the same as if you wernt a spare.
but it can take its toll arriving at 2 am to finally leave at 7/8 a.m
It’s the main reason I won’t do Asda ambient any longer (chilled is fine) - been sat in there 5-6 hours then given 7-8 hour run. Some drivers love it - they have TV, playstation, pc etc. in the driver’s waiting room so they figure if they’re getting paid for sitting around then that’s fine, but I now only do jobs where I know what I’m doing beforehand, so I can plan the rest of my day around it.
Maybe always have a book in your Go-bag? I dislike it too …though invariably get a run either to rescue an out of hours matey or cover for a jam someplace.
It’s normal-ish for the the Just-in-Time (JIT) business of logistics, eh…
no one ever got hurt in a pile up driving a waiting room chair for 8hrs, but they did get paid
Darn right. I get paid exactly the same for sleeping at an RDC or in the yard as i do for driving:)
Sainsbury’s at Worcester were famous for it and with a bit of luck you got sent home after 6 hours. Same thing at Blakes of Alcester. Just give them your mobile No and get your head down.
