Sometimes it is worth having someone who knows the score on the road in your transport office .
This week when the Dartford Bridge was shut , a driver mate of mine was in his office (not where I work ) and overheard a discussion about a driver who was stuck for a route . The guys in the office have no road experiance and were discussing how to get him over the water 
They had never heard of the ferry crossing at Woolwich 
and when my mate told them , he was asked how much it cost 
How do you do that Vernā¦thats a few times a post of yours has suddenly appeared above other posts and Iām bloody sure it wasnāt there before. Some sort of black magic is it?
Some of ours are clueless we have a thing in place saying canāt run empty for more than 50 miles last night took a double decker from Mansfield to middlesboro empty to swap to a standard trailer and ran that empty 90 miles back to base and another lad was sent to collect 2 loads the first already collected then 60 miles later at second place wasnāt even picked so ran empty back to base 75 miles away or if they get too excited you get Newcastle to Leeds to anfield plain in that order never mind keep on trucking 
I reckon good planners are worth their weight in golden nuggets (remember them ) . One truck carrying āAā service gets delayed from say London into Stoke this is multiplied by the number of trucks waiting for stuff from that trailer all those trailers are then late getting to say Gretna, multiplied by more trailers waiting to set off to say Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc., etc., they are late getting to their destinations so the vans are delayed setting out to deliver. Then thereās the delay in bringing all the stuff back from those depots to get unloaded at the Gretna hub put on other trailers ā¦thank ā ā Iām just a driver
ShropsBri:
How do you do that Vernā¦thats a few times a post of yours has suddenly appeared above other posts and Iām bloody sure it wasnāt there before. Some sort of black magic is it?
Not black magic Briā¦You tell a mod to pee off, and see what happens to your posts!!!
Coffeeholic:
bigvern1:
Donāt start me on office staff. My last place= One thick idiot that was scared of his own shadow.
One arse licker know all. And a boss that is a complete bell end.Donāt sit on the fence BV, tell us what it was really like.
OKā¦I will. No more pulling punches!
our planners are thick i could do a better job
bigvern1:
ShropsBri:
How do you do that Vernā¦thats a few times a post of yours has suddenly appeared above other posts and Iām bloody sure it wasnāt there before. Some sort of black magic is it?Not black magic Briā¦You tell a mod to pee off, and see what happens to your posts!!!
Thatās the first time Iāve read his name as ShropsBri, up until now I had been reading it as ShropsBi.
Not judging, just saying. 
We have a number of office staff who have never driven, from my own experience the only drivers who have an issue with the office are the oneās who donāt like a lot of it.
You do not need to have ever driven to be good at running transport, I often wonder if the oneās who moan and whinge would make a better job of it, probably not.
caledoniandream:
Having experience as a driver, doesnāt make you a good planner, in many cases actualy the oposite.
There are some drivers who can make (with the right education) a good planner.
And there are very good planners who (even with the right education) never will make a decent driver.The thing is being open minded, and be able to take information in and split the right information from the BS and other crab.
As I can read on the way you put your post, you would never make even a slightly decent planner
I have seen planners never even had a car license, who could plan you perfectly, so that the company and the driver made decent money and had a good days work.
Itās easy to complain that the planner made mistakes, but do you know what the information was he was given? what the next step is? and a million more factors come into play.
But to be honest, there are less planners than you think nowadays, you have a lot ācommunicatorsā who give the driver the information, and informs the customer about delays, demurrage and all other information he requires.
many times sits behind this man another man (or woman think equal rights, think about the children etc. Pot Noodle, cheap Tesco Bacon) who actualy put the lanes together, looks for the backloads, calculate prices, set routes up so that customers get their goods in time etc. the difference between Fleet and Freight planners.But only one advice to the OP, if you can do it better, go for a job in the office, and you can stand in line with the other office blokes and lassies to be called a lazy [zb]
Well said that man!
Having done a stint in the office myself to cover sickness at an old firm, I can tell you that it is by no means, an easy job! In fact itās a ā ā ā ā ā ā ā nightmare! Itās almost impossible to keep both the customer and the drivers happy. Inevitably, someone always ends up with the hump. This is usually the driver, because lets be honest, the customers pay the wages and keep the wheels rolling! Itās a shame that more drivers donāt open there eyes and try to understand what a ā ā ā ā ā ā ā arse of a job it is to work in a transport office!
Coffeeholic:
bigvern1:
ShropsBri:
How do you do that Vernā¦thats a few times a post of yours has suddenly appeared above other posts and Iām bloody sure it wasnāt there before. Some sort of black magic is it?Not black magic Briā¦You tell a mod to pee off, and see what happens to your posts!!!
Not judging, just saying.
Ahhhhh,like now you mean Vern and sorry to disappoint there Coffeeā¦Was you looking for a new right hand man?
What you dont consider is that you are just one person and just one truck. Our lot have about 90 trucks to manage, with no technolgy really to help them at the moment, so if driver 12 has an issue it can end up affecting driver 76, 35, 24 which in turn can affect the others. In the office they are often under pressure as well to keep the trucks full and running as much as possible, so I always cut them some slack.
Dogmatix:
What you dont consider is that you are just one person and just one truck. Our lot have about 90 trucks to manage, with no technolgy really to help them at the moment, so if driver 12 has an issue it can end up affecting driver 76, 35, 24 which in turn can affect the others. In the office they are often under pressure as well to keep the trucks full and running as much as possible, so I always cut them some slack.
BINGO, I Think i got a full house
yep 90, 12, 76,35,and 24
chicane:
I reckon good planners are worth their weight in golden nuggets (remember them
I reckon them FedEx drivers must have the most stressful job in the world.
The thing is as a driver you may be asked to do something that doesnāt seem logical but we donāt see the whole picture your wild goose chase may be nessacery so it doesnāt stuff up something else.
Mind you I think the planner at my old firm just threw darts at a map and hoped for the best.
ShropsBri:
Coffeeholic:
bigvern1:
ShropsBri:
How do you do that Vernā¦thats a few times a post of yours has suddenly appeared above other posts and Iām bloody sure it wasnāt there before. Some sort of black magic is it?Not black magic Briā¦You tell a mod to pee off, and see what happens to your posts!!!
Not judging, just saying.
Ahhhhh,like now you mean Vern
Not disappointed and not looking for assistance. Years of yoga and loneliness mean I can manage just fine by myself thank you.
last place i worked at the guys /lasses were next to useless, if you ended up disagreeing with them then it was a disciplinary, computerised run sheets that we had to do in that order would send you tp point A, then point B would be 45 miles away then you were back to next door to point A, to travel to point C another maybe 30 miles away to find a colleaue already there delivering,
very rare you could complete run in the given time, eventually transport manager tried it and he went over the time by 2 hours, but said it was cos he was,nt used to being out on road, ok see that but he had 2 mates helping him unloadā¦
you phoned up for advise to be told ring another driver, they were only good at picking any faults with drivers and getting disciplinaries, seen 10 in a week!
i got one for accepting a cheque that bounced, even though i was told in writing to collect a cheque, they said i should have read the situation?
another one for a dirty tacho, was only picked up 4 weeks after i handed it into em, said it was fine when i gave it to emā¦ eventually got them to show me the tacho, you could see one of the office bods signature on em, where he had clearly been writng on something with my tachos underneath, coplete muppets the lot of em and i,m so glad i,m out of thereā¦
I am coming to realise, somewhat late in life, that working or dealing with a good bunch of people is just about the most important aspect of a job, even if a typical role on this forum means being self-reliant much of the time.
Snudger:
I am coming to realise, somewhat late in life, that working or dealing with a good bunch of people is just about the most important aspect of a job, even if a typical role on this forum means being self-reliant much of the time.
Iāve always, always said that itās not about the job or the money, but about the folk you work with! They either make or break the job 