Coming down from Scotland this morning, I got told to swing in here & collect 50 empty pallets. Got the customer ref number etc so duly “swung in”. I arrived at 12.55, and joined the 3 lane queue. I parked in the middle of a 3 lane system, and was soon surrounded by other wagons so was unable to move. 90 mins later I finally spotted somebody wearing a CHEP hi viz so asked what was going on.
I was told “there’s a queue, we’ll let you know”
Half an hour later two wagons behind me turned round and left by the entry lane, despite being told not to by the CHEP staff, at which point I jumped out of my cab and asked why the long wait? My enquiry was met with “we’re doing our best mate” so I walked round to the loading area and saw 4 empty bays.
After 3 1/2 hours I rang my TM (yes, I had rung him several times before & he’s asked me to be patient) to say that I was leaving. The truck in front of me in the queue moved forward leaving a gap so I went round him and got to the exit barrier. Once there, I informed the gormless lunk behind the window that I was leaving, so could he lift the barrier, only to be told that I needed my paperwork to exit.
I informed him that I had no paperwork, no f**king pallets, and no more patience. And that if the barrier didn’t lift as I approached it, they would have no barrier.
So…an empty pallet collection takes 3 1/2 and more hours? And when I left, there were perhaps 20 truck in the queue… why does our industry do this??
Avonmouth is the same, must be a chep thing !! The forkie will lift some pallets off spend 2 minutes on his phone then take some pallets off spend 2 minutes on his phone and well you’ve guessed the rest 
obviously the same when loading.
Yes chep in manchester is shocking on the day shift. I’m in there on a daily basis and once sat for 7hours plus and had to get another driver to swap with me as my time was running out. Yet chep pontifract seem to fly through the wagons.
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That chep in Glasgow that closed down was horrendous, the queues where so long they went out the gates, so they gave you a radio told you to go park somewhere close and they’d radio you round when a space in the queue opened 
50 pallets though, what a bloody waste of time. Full load or nothing when a did the pallets.
Not enough forkies on duty & the ones that are don’t give a monkeys (“I clock off at 6, the slower I go, the less work I do”) and aren’t properly supervised. It’s the same story at many container terminals with the lazy arses manning the gatehouse, lifters & cranes.
The CHEP forkies can strip a full artic in 5-10 minutes if they are motivated enough.
Places like that should have hauliers charging them demurrage after an hour, but we all know thats a pipe dream.
Joke of a place, spent a few hours in there before now as they were certain I shouldn’t have been there as ref no didn’t seem right, it was right and eventually got sorted, and don’t dare try to make it a quicker tip by getting out your cab to move a post or curtain until they tell you lol.
That hole @ BHX is bad, I`m banned after the ■■■■■■■■ forky pushed his luck just a little too far 
Born Idle:
Coming down from Scotland this morning, I got told to swing in here & collect 50 empty pallets. Got the customer ref number etc so duly “swung in”. I arrived at 12.55, and joined the 3 lane queue. I parked in the middle of a 3 lane system, and was soon surrounded by other wagons so was unable to move. 90 mins later I finally spotted somebody wearing a CHEP hi viz so asked what was going on.
I was told “there’s a queue, we’ll let you know”
Half an hour later two wagons behind me turned round and left by the entry lane, despite being told not to by the CHEP staff, at which point I jumped out of my cab and asked why the long wait? My enquiry was met with “we’re doing our best mate” so I walked round to the loading area and saw 4 empty bays.
After 3 1/2 hours I rang my TM (yes, I had rung him several times before & he’s asked me to be patient) to say that I was leaving. The truck in front of me in the queue moved forward leaving a gap so I went round him and got to the exit barrier. Once there, I informed the gormless lunk behind the window that I was leaving, so could he lift the barrier, only to be told that I needed my paperwork to exit.
I informed him that I had no paperwork, no f**king pallets, and no more patience. And that if the barrier didn’t lift as I approached it, they would have no barrier.
So…an empty pallet collection takes 3 1/2 and more hours? And when I left, there were perhaps 20 truck in the queue… why does our industry do this??
May be worth dropping them a line on their web site here… chep.com/Contact_Us/
I have and cut and pasted this page. 