Ok…currently in Transport management for a major logistics company, working on a contract for a major national retailer.
Sick and tired of the office politics, especially the latest round of ridiculousness where we have ended up with an Ops Manager who knows less than ■■■■ all about Transport basically emasculate our department in favour of her protege’s department, meaning I’ve had to tell our transport clerks (who are all actually bloody good at what they do) that they now have to spend 3-4 hrs a shift sitting in the warehouse checking pallets, or “housekeeping” if there are no pallets to check.
Right…to the point…seriously considering going back on the road…but I don’t want RDC work, or least as little as possible…certainly don’t want fridges. Don’t mind tramping Mon-Fri…providing parking is paid if I feel like using a truckstop (I don’t always, but sometimes its nice to).
Most recently was doing steel work which I don’t mind, although I would prefer to avoid flats…getting on in years and sheeting loads was tough 2 years ago and I haven’t got any younger!
Based West Midlands/Worcestershire…guess I’m just fishing to see what is about…I could be tempted back onto the road with the right job…
Try Culina Hereford or Wolverhampton or Great Bear .
I’ll second this - it would take a crow bar to get me off fridges. Do I miss fighting with curtains and strapping in the ■■■■■■■ rain and wind? Do I ■■■■!!
And IMHO RDC’s always seem a bit quicker on the Chilled/frozen side.
Try Culina Hereford or Wolverhampton or Great Bear .
I’ll second this - it would take a crow bar to get me off fridges. Do I miss fighting with curtains and strapping in the ■■■■■■■ rain and wind? Do I [zb]!!
And IMHO RDC’s always seem a bit quicker on the Chilled/frozen side.
You obviously never tipped at Safeway Aylesford back in the day
Try Culina Hereford or Wolverhampton or Great Bear .
I’ll second this - it would take a crow bar to get me off fridges. Do I miss fighting with curtains and strapping in the ■■■■■■■ rain and wind? Do I [zb]!!
And IMHO RDC’s always seem a bit quicker on the Chilled/frozen side.
Most of them seem to do “drop and drive” on the temperature controlled side of things but generally ambient you wait for it all to be checked.
I feel your pain, you have to options, one requires patience and that is that your ops manager falls over, this will happen.
The other is to force your way, and be prepared to stand up and walk away from the job.
Clearly refuse to use your people for her job, if she sacks you, no problem, plenty jobs out there.
Or just do her work, but don’t do your own, so that the whole transport comes to a grinding halt.
Don’t be scared from any ops manager, they can only advise the company to fire you, but than they have to lay there own cards on the table, and mostimes they are not willing to do that.
They will quickly step back, or are stupid and walk trough a concrete wall, at least if you are fired, you can keep your head high (or if you just walk out in the most inconvenient moment) instead of them running you down (very depressing)
Stand up for your people, they will be grateful, and you come out as a much bigger person on the other side.
Never loose your temper, but make your points vocal and very clear
Maybe she is trying how far you can be pushed.
If you are the depot TM then you are in a much stronger position with this woman. It does depend on the size of the actual depot operation, but since you mention several traffic clerks working under your instruction it sounds as if there is quite a lot going on for them to be needed. I am guessing that this woman is not the senior manager on site or within the company, if this is so then point out to higher management that this ignorant cow is interfering with your legal obligations as TM. It would be easy to make a case that because she has sequestered your staff you are now ‘not able to carry out your legally required duties with due diligence’; suits will love the use of that turn of phrase. If your staff are in fact underworked then delegate some of the routine work you have to do so that you only have to QC what they do. Meanwhile go back to your CPC practical and tell management that you need to undertake some research into costings with a supposed aim to make the operation more profitable, but this woman is preventing your ability to devote the necessary time.
cav551:
If you are the depot TM then you are in a much stronger position with this woman. It does depend on the size of the actual depot operation, but since you mention several traffic clerks working under your instruction it sounds as if there is quite a lot going on for them to be needed. I am guessing that this woman is not the senior manager on site or within the company, if this is so then point out to higher management that this ignorant cow is interfering with your legal obligations as TM. It would be easy to make a case that because she has sequestered your staff you are now ‘not able to carry out your legally required duties with due diligence’; suits will love the use of that turn of phrase. If your staff are in fact underworked then delegate some of the routine work you have to do so that you only have to QC what they do. Meanwhile go back to your CPC practical and tell management that you need to undertake some research into costings with a supposed aim to make the operation more profitable, but this woman is preventing your ability to devote the necessary time.
The management structure is such that whilst I am a “Transport Manager” I’m not actually the O licence holder…that’s my boss. who is actually based at another site entirely.
Part of the problem is that the business is quiet at the moment, meaning that our transport office has spare capacity, which we had filled by taking on other responsibilites from the loading side of the operation (which should really sit under Transport anyway, but for some reason doesn’t). The whole problem has occurred because one of the loading managers, who is best mates with the new Ops manager, hates the fact that we have been taking more control of their side of things. Hence, now everything is being given back to them (the reason we took it in the first place was because they were constantly making mistakes and loading the wrong trailers) and our clerks now have to work under them doing these pallet checks!
This all kicks off tomorrow, which coincidentally happens to be turn to be in on Sunday, so it will be very interesting to see how much of a mess they get in.
