I hooked a trailer up at Howdens depot in Runcorn one night to find the brake lights out. Was a stupid hex screw so I couldnt change it. Called Bellshill who called a repair company. They called me back ten minites later and asked if I could take the unit and trailer out of the depot as Howdens wouldnt let them in without having done a three day induction (which they had to pay for)!
I had to park outside the gate so he could spend 5 minutes changing a bulb
Went to a place yesterday that is on both sides of a quiet road. A young forkie was in the yard, we got chatting. He says he can’t drive his forklift across the road as he is only 20. Company policy is 21.
So he can ride a motorbike at 16.
Drive a car at 17.
Drive a class 1 at 18 under a scheme.
But can’t drive across a road on a forklift at 20!!
My lot made me do NVQ level 2 to get a CSCS card and after all that i’ve never been asked for it.
The other day I was chaining down a digger and a man said to me “you’re not allowed on the back of your truck without cushions and a fall-arrest kit”, I said well what am I meant to do then?, He said "well I’ve told you and you ignored me ". In other words he was covering his back cos someone told him to tell me. Most sites are the same,if something’s holding the job up,all that stuff goes out the window
I used to have to do a site induction on every site in previous job (non driving), but it’s amazing how having a time limit to get the stuff off the truck before they get charged does away with all the H&S rubbish. Not done a single induction, had to show CSCS card or even had anyone more than drop a hint that a hard hat is “recommended” even though it’s part of the site H&S policy and I’d get kicked off if I worked there.
If there wasn’t a time limit it’d be exactly as you describe it with every H&S rule under the sun being adhered to in triplicate.
As for the fall arrest kit - you mean one of those airbag things they sometimes blow up beside the truck and makes it impossible to get at the straps? I sooo want to jump off the back one day onto that and then tell them I’m simply testing it.
Went to Gill Mill gravel pit yesterday in our grab wagon to get some shingle. They’ve now said it’s the law that any tipper over 7.5 mgw must be sheeted and you can’t get onto the back the truck to sheet up or sort the load out. Fair enough about the sheet (the grab doesn’t have one so we’ll just collect stock with our 8w which does) but how do they think that the grab can be worked without me standing on the catwalk?
There’s one site I go to that have got ridiculous with health and safety. Our drivers have had numerous bollockings there for minor little things and they seem to bring in new rules without telling you. You only find out there is something new when you get told off for it.
But then next thing you see the managers and office staff walking about without high viz or without safety boots or not in the walk ways (stuff we all get threatened to get banned from site for). It’s double standards that winds me up more than the rules themselves.
Travis Perkins and all of their subsidiaries wont allow anyone on the back of their truck, but I challenged it one day at one of their places in Leeds, when I was doing agency work for a well known pallet network.
When the delivery had been made, I had to get on the back to make sure that the pallet truck was secure, and Hitlers son ran up to me with the, “You can’t go on the back of their driver.” “And who said that,” was my reply. “Company policy” he said. “Really? Well the laws of the land called The Road Traffic Act are far more powerful than your company policy and it informs me that if I leave your site with an insecure load, I am liable and could end up inside, so do one.”
All hell then breaks loose, and various managers are summoned, by which time I had secured the pallet truck, shut the curtains, and went.
Another TP site, a few years ago, this time when I am on brick grab deliveries, wanted me to crane them across the footpath, as my their yard was too small to accept an artic. (You might be already ahead of me at this point!!!) Manager come out when I am on a top seat crane and tells me to put on my hard hat, as it is TP company policy. When I politely informed him I wasn’t on his site, and they had authorised me to crane across a footpath, to a forklift with no public safety barrier or lookout, and that I did not have to wear a hard hat, he reported me afterwards to the company I was working for who, when after hearing my side, took no action.
Travis Perkins are an absolute pain in the arse when it comes to H&S, and seemingly make their own rules up depending on which depot you are delivering too.
I know a lot of it just seems to come from ‘jobsworth’ types, but we now live in a blame and claim culture with people suing someone else for so much as breaking a finger nail.
andy_s:
I know a lot of it just seems to come from ‘jobsworth’ types, but we now live in a blame and claim culture with people suing someone else for so much as breaking a finger nail.
Not everyone is like that though, and it tarnishes people with the same brush.
Case in point. (Hope you have eaten.)
I had a 2.9m concrete beam weighing around 100kg fall on my middle right finger 5 weeks ago, from around 10 foot up, severing the end of it. Without going into too much detail, the finger is a mess, but intact (However the hospital were going to cut the end off the next day.) and nobody else was to blame but me. I ■■■■■■ up, and held my hand up. Old school. If you do it, then admit it.
andy_s:
I know a lot of it just seems to come from ‘jobsworth’ types, but we now live in a blame and claim culture with people suing someone else for so much as breaking a finger nail.
Not everyone is like that though, and it tarnishes people with the same brush.
Case in point. (Hope you have eaten.)
I had a 2.9m concrete beam weighing around 100kg fall on my middle right finger 5 weeks ago, from around 10 foot up, severing the end of it. Without going into too much detail, the finger is a mess, but intact (However the hospital were going to cut the end off the next day.) and nobody else was to blame but me. I [zb] up, and held my hand up. Old school. If you do it, then admit it.
I am not into making claims for the sake of it.
Ken.
I’m the same mate as some people are… Reminds me of years ago, I hitched up a trailer that had the old mechanical cable brake on it, when I went to release the trailer brake the cable came away at the arm and whipped back, catching me on the side of the head at the temple with a shackle: result was me knocked out for some time with no one else about, I came round with blood all over my face and couldn’t see properly out my left eye. Managed to get someone to take me A+E and had a couple days off, luckily my eye got back to normal.
All I got from all that was ■■■■ take for a week. Didn’t even think of suing someone.
Trouble is now, any and every excuse/ opportunity is jumped on by certain people making life more difficult for the rest of us.
I took a load of precast stairs and landings to the Olympic a Village in London for the apartments the athletes were staying for an 8AM tip one Friday morning then had to piggy back one of our flats that had been left down there back to our yard.
Tidy I thought get down there tip the stairs and landings where they were decking them and not fitting them so no waiting around for about 4-5 hour, get the trailer on my back and away for about 09:30-10:00AM and have a nice steady drive back upto Barnsley and get back for about 14:00.
But it didn’t quite work out like that. The lads tipped the stairs and landings and then said they couldn’t load the trailer onto my back without the safety certificate being faxed through to the site even though they had done the exact same thing many times I the past
They were ■■■■■■ off with the H&S bollox also but told me to go and get my brekkie in the staff canteen and the foreman kindly gave me his card so I didn’t have to pay. They were s top set of lads tbh and none of it was their fault. Anyway I didn’t end up just getting breakfast, I ended up getting my dinner and tea as the useless ■■■■■ at head office didn’t send the fax/e-mail through until 16:00
I ended up leaving Stratford at about 16:45 after getting there for 07:30 in the morning and I ended up having to night out at Huntingdon due to running out of time
Just tell them that you have just done a dynamic risk assessment which supersedes theirs and you have come to the conclusion that the way you are currently doing things is far safer than their methods. I’ve used that, I have no idea what it actually means or if it indeed carries any weight but if you tell them that you are your companies health and safety officer at the same time it usually confuses them until you’re long gone!
". In other words he was covering his back cos someone told him to tell me. Most sites are the same,if something’s holding the job up,all that stuff goes out the window
