Okay this may seem petty but it riles me right up. I’m finding that as the older I get I’m willing to not be used by other companies.
So last week I turn up at a company who had a death of a driver on their site. They’ve implemented all the usual stuff sit in cab whilst being tipped etc. This week I go back and they put me on a bay tell me to grab the pallet truck tip their load onto their floor whilst one of their own staff watches me. I refused point blank as when I asked them for their risk assessments etc they weren’t forthcoming. I would rather take the load back 150 miles than tip it. In the end they tipped it. But the reason why it peed me off was that the previous date I went to deliver some roof tiles. On collection they told me to upload their app. I did so as it’s a company phone. They then told me I need to get a new phone because the phone was too old to put their new operating system on. I asked them what model were they willing to buy me? This was looked upon with disdain. I said it’s their app, so they should foot the bill. This then got better. They insisted I use my companies phone to take photos of the load pre delivery whilst all strapped up then at the delivery point before the straps are taken off, then at the point where the load is placed on the very muddy building site. This was then to be emailed to them along with the paperwork signed and printed in photography format. They don’t pay me any more for my photography skills (I really do get paid for it in a part time amateur role). Nor am I their secretary. Now 2 weeks prior to that I refused a load from a warehouse in Cumbria when the robots brought lots of water to the back of my truck and I was supposed to then load it for them. I quickly wrote out an invoice for £25 per hour or part thereof for the use of myself as an agency worker for their job. They wouldn’t agree to my terms. I get it that ALDI AND LIDL have done this forever and I do not do their work, but where does this stop in the future Ai world Will we be expected to accept implied terms of contract that sub contracts it out to other companies and that company cease to employ their own labour? It’s a slippy slope and one I’m not getting on. Does anyone else have examples of companies using your labour for their benefits?
Lidl and Aldi are all self tip. Reverse on a bay . Your given keys to an electric pallet truck a quick show how it works.. place all pallets inside blue lines there checked by someone then off you go
That’s not the reality though is it. You reverse in a bay hand in keys go to tip. Try to find a lane that is empty and near to your wagon as all the others are full. Then you have to double handle your pallets to put a 1200x1000 in the right orientation so that they can scan the pallets. God forbid if you put them in the wrong way. Then you wait another 30 minutes for your notes because they’ve only got 1 person checking the stuff. They’re the least efficient company who rely on other Labour. Contrary to Popular belief no company get paid extra money for their drivers tipping the pallets. In Spain they do get it as Spanish government stepped in and stopped the practice. I wrote to both Aldi and LIDL regarding this practice. The RHA are useless and do not represent hauliers and improve the conditions in this industry. All they do is placate companies.
Rha and other companies don’t care. Nobody cares in this industry as long as job gets done somehow.
Same as places you go can be waiting hours in your truck while being tipped . You have the cheek to ask for use of there toilet you get told staff only. Or there a portable one in corner of the yard.
Nobody cares about us drivers
IIRC there’s an Aldi or Lidl somewhere in the Hinckley/ Lutterworth area. The design of the bays is such that if you have a multi- compartment fridge with a chiller in the roof at the back and the pallets are tall, then you have to turn every pallet in the back of the trailer to get past the buffers.
Got rid/lost warehouse staff together with a change from pallets to all handball.
Implied terms yep bound by a union agreement changing terms from no driver involvement in warehouse work, to handballing trailer loads front to back floor to ceiling.
It’s moot whether that is on customer’s behalf and premises or employer’s own turf and job.
Not sure what the setup is now? when Aldi / Lidl came over here there was £30 per load added to the job for the driver to tip his load, Knowing the Cheapskate Hauliers that are about today most proberley never charged it to gain the work lol
Pretty much it. Best you can do is work for a good company who will back you up. I’m more than willing to help out and go that bit extra in certain situations but where does that stop and the piss taking starts.
I used to love going to Lidl RDCs after all the crap of being locked out of my cab to sit in ‘hostile environments’ with stupid televisions and ■■■■ coffee machines beloved of Tesco etc. It meant that I could get out my cab, exercise my atrophying limbs, circulatory system and lungs to actually do what my body was designed to do and WORK! All I had to do was operate an electric pallet truck ffs. It’s not as if I had to use a manual one, which I never really objected to unless the surface was uphill. And it’s not as if I had to handball 25 tons of onions like we had to in the old days. Jesus! I’m 73 now and could load a Lidl consignment onto a 13.6m fridge trailer in the time it takes me to do the ‘i’-paper crossword. You’ve got me going now: where are my old toe-tectors and my day-glow tabbard?
Yes you’re from the generation that will accept anything and charge zero for addendums. I watched my grandad as he bathed in a tin bath in Durham after a 6 day week in the pit at Consett. Unions got them better deals. By the time he retired he had a pension. His youngest brother died in childbirth as when he was a child health services were sparse. The world started to advance, the 74 H&SAWA came in and 7 million more people were covered by legislation that previously had zero protection. I’m sure you revelled in the era of pulling 60 tons of onions on a rusty skateboard. Unfortunately the act for me had serious consequences when my own dad was killed at work. Without that act 6 of us may have ended up in a poorhouse. But I’m sure your era was so much better. Things start to creep in and then we’re back to where we were 60 years ago. In 2017 Aldi were fined 1 million after a driver had life changing injuries using a pump truck. That can still happen tomorrow and they’ve received over 1 million in secondary labour from drivers so it doesn’t matter to them. Prior to that accident Aldi had 20 RIDDOR pallet truck injuries yet instead of ceasing the practice they continued it as it’s cost effective for them. That’s just one company. Multiply that numerous times to reflect the industry and you get the picture. Creeping secondary employment is creeping in and you can crack on all you like, but when Ai comes in you may as well scan the pallets yourself because why do we need humans to do it when we can use the drivers. For those who do the supermarket rdc’s will know that security has now gone and booking in at most of them now entails a touchscreen. Get the drivers to do it, who needs security personnel. It’s coming, and you may sit at home and wallow in retirement but the next Generation will be sat with you .
Same as waiting times years back companies gave a time to be tipped.
say an hour or what ever. And if driver wasn’t tipped then charges could be applied to cover drivers wages etc
Over the years that’s gone at a lot of places now.
Companies just want the work don’t want to upset customers they just bow to there needs and desires.
If there’s an implied term I’d love to know how that happened. If it’s that implied surely it would now be an express term and people know what they’re getting into at interview stage. The 3 terms of a contract Implied Incorporated and Express should be obvious. I’d argue all day long that it’s not implied. But some people will just follow what the boss says. Great example was only yesterday. A guy at work was going on holiday and requested a midday finish 10 weeks ago. Right at the last minute on a Friday they changed it to pushing him into a job that entailed a finish of around 2pm. I told him to forget the job and just to go back to the yard and I’ll deal with it on my return. He did as I said and not the boss . When I got back, not a word was said to me regarding the incident. That’s because I know every single term of my contract and he has the same contract. If you carry out an action at work that isn’t in your contract and there’s a historical trace if you doing it, you can be held at a later date. So I do not get flexible in my work practices anymore otherwise you can end up with a frustration of contract at a later date when they tell you that you’re working new years day (non statutory) from now on and you refuse.and obviously misses his flight
I can’t say any of us regarded loading our own lorries as ‘creeping secondary employment’: it was statutary primary employment - ie part of the job description. I can understand where you are coming from if you sign up to be a steering-wheel attendant with zero hands on involvement at the back of the lorry, but apart from container work, when was that ever the case?
