Noticed a vacancy for a driver at Felixstowe today.
Must be able to load/unload containers assist with unloading of goods. Permanent position £500. take home, Nights out required.
Don’t tell the ■■■■ rice merchants around London.!! …Unloading 30 ton yourself will get you really fit.
OOps…I forgot about cane sugar, and coconuts, and dried tomatoes, and…and…and…ER!!!..oh yes, milled flour… Thinking about it …Argos do a nice range in flatpack furniture.!! and stannah do a good range of stairlifts.
They’ve been saying that for years, never had to help unload a single one.
Except delivered a load of railway sleepers and the were loaded long ways so unloaders (bless’em) couldn’t get a grip, so i reversed up yard at 20mph and hit brakes, which helped.
The problem of who insures the driver in the back has always been the problem,shipping line or haulier?
Either way no one seems to want to take responsibility.
Lidl, Netto, Aldi, have tried their luck with containers and any driver knowing he’s not insured probably has refused and told to “bring it back”, Personally, I’ve had problems with farmers loading spuds. Their workers are always sick. One offered me a fiver once. I guess the old phrase should still be “your’e container mate, I just deliver it”, unless we can safely know we are insured against injury, or worse!
Every time I venture on here these days it almost fills my heart with joy that I am finished with this industry, an industry I loved and was proud to be a part of, a King of the road, me own boss, until phones got in the cab! This will be the final nail in my coffin as regards them attempting to get me back to work. I can hardly breathe these days, but doesn’t really stop me from driving, but handballing 30 tons out of a tin box would put me in my box! (See what I did there?) Even when I was fit I couldn’t hold onto those huge pallets of spuds! That’s before I learned that ‘oi mate you don’t get in the back of boxes mate, yer ain’t insured!’ (2nd box I pulled, never been in the back of one since, not on a trailer anyway!)
And what with the RH thread making yet more depressing reading I think in 2014, when my next medical is due methinks I’ll be giving up the licence that I used to be so proud of and worked so hard to get. At least I didn’t have to go through the performance that they go through now to get a C+E.
Only the other day I was out with the dog on the footbridge over the A14, just before the Dock Gate 2 turn and wishing I was back in me ERF E14, twin-splitter, (best pulling motor I ever had, never been beaten pulling full loads up an hill), pulling a tin box, fully freighted 44 tonnes, then I come on here for a reality check, it was just a mere passing abaration!
Good luck geezers, I’m done!
‘Crazytrucker’
When i first started work in '83 in the warehouse (careful on the spelling), we used to have 20’ers turn up with about 1100 cases of tinned fruit on which i think weighed in @ about 20kg /case. We would ask the driver how long he wanted to be parked, if he said he wasn’t fussed, it was a 2 hour job, if the pound notes would appear, it would be a quick tip. Me and another guy could handball the lot off and at a push, we would have the driver on his way in just over an hour. Was bloody knackering!! Others were quite happy to sit around all day. To say it kept us fit was an under-statement…i had arms like Popeye, 6 pack, the lot…didn’t carry an ounce of fat. When i got behind the wheel permanant, it took about 6 months on the fry ups and i was still looking like a god…Buddha
Starting work at 4am, arrived at 8am delivery tipped by 12noon , back to the yard ,tip and turn on the dock(2hrs) sort of, load 30 ton of spuds (pump truck optional) back to dock tip and turn, 8am delivery of rice SE18. Any chance of a shower■■? And thats avoiding overnight restrictions.Sorry I have to stop…I’m getting dizzy, but I must find time to get to the gym, the guvnor needs a new motor!!!
i can remember may years ago 25+ when i was 16 handballing ,peanuts, coco butter , etc etc at Mars Slough
i am sure one regular truck was a yellow cabbed F89 6X2 or 6X4 maybe ,we used to sit in the canteen (great food) waiting for trucks to come in with box’s to be unloaded
kept me fit
skoowif:
Noticed a vacancy for a driver at Felixstowe today.
Must be able to load/unload containers assist with unloading of goods. Permanent position £500. take home, Nights out required.
Don’t tell the [zb] rice merchants around London.!! …Unloading 30 ton yourself will get you really fit.
OOps…I forgot about cane sugar, and coconuts, and dried tomatoes, and…and…and…ER!!!..oh yes, milled flour… Thinking about it …Argos do a nice range in flatpack furniture.!! and stannah do a good range of stairlifts.
beetee07:
This job could be on short sea crossings, Most of those the driver is insured to assist not unload it on your own.
How does that work? I assume insurance would either cover you or not
Not sure how it works but i have always been told only insured to assist i think its supposed too stop the customers from taking the Michael but it dont work.
Regardless of OUR issues regarding insurance workload etc, the customer will take an almighty dump on you as as a driver, if he is aware you will unload/load. Afterall… it saves him money.
beetee07:
This job could be on short sea crossings, Most of those the driver is insured to assist not unload it on your own.
How does that work? I assume insurance would either cover you or not
As far as i understand it short sea crossings with containers is generally the type of work that could also go in a conventional trailer, its containerised for the shippers benefit and generally will be charted as ‘a load’ from say for example collect Manchester and deliver to Dublin (the load). Thats the job, get the goods from Manchester to Dublin.
With the export/import boxes (not short sea) the shipper provides the customer with a box for export and thats it end of story, customer does what they like with it so long as its legal and meets the export criteria for sealing,securing the load etc…if anything untoward happened to the load or was found in the container then either the shipping line or transport could be implicated in it of the driver has been in the container.
containers_only:
They’ve been saying that for years, never had to help unload a single one.
Except delivered a load of railway sleepers and the were loaded long ways so unloaders (bless’em) couldn’t get a grip, so i reversed up yard at 20mph and hit brakes, which helped.
do this every time you are asked and they wont ask twice
beetee07:
This job could be on short sea crossings, Most of those the driver is insured to assist not unload it on your own.
That was my first thought. We’re a Short Sea shipping line, and are insured and expected to get in the back provided the customer has asked for “driver assist”. “Assist” means you can pump them to the back door for them (for example) but they can’t expect you to fork them off as well. Or help with handball, or whatever. The point being there must be someone from the customer with you, they can’t just leave you to it. Hence the insurance - theory being, I assume, that it’s safer if there’s someone about should it all go wrong.
That said, there’s a lot less of it these days. I don’t do it at all myself anymore because of a disability, and that doesn’t stop me from doing many jobs, where once upon a time - as little as 5 years ago, in fact - it would’ve caused a lot more of a headache, since we were in the back every other load. I miss it in some ways, to be honest. It’s nice to get a bit of exercise.
Lucy:
expected to get in the back provided the customer has asked for “driver assist”.
Now we aren’t short sea but thats the thing with our shipping line, If the customer ask then we can not refuse. It can be anything from 33 pallets of plastic containers which comes in at a light 4 tonne or like Wednesday just gone 25odd tonne of onions which is pure handball.
Again, if the customer asks then we cannot say no … apparently.
It used to be the same with us. The only reason the customer has to request in advance now is a) because they have to pay extra (we get paid extra for doing it) and b) to avoid them getting stuck with Mrs Crip herself here, who would be about as much use to them as a chocolate forklift.
delivered a load of railway sleepers and the were loaded long ways so unloaders (bless’em) couldn’t get a grip, so i reversed up yard at 20mph and hit brakes, which helped. 
