Just a thought ,one of my biggest hates with the job when i was driving , was timed deliverys , ie 8.00 wellingboro or so and so place at 9 o clock am , when living in ipswich that meant early starts ? and as soon as you were over 15 mins late the fne wld start ringin with were are you and why are you overdue etc etc , so making your day stressfull? why cant deliverys just be either am or pm with no times , just get there when you get there? it would make the job so much more enjoyable and easier less stress and no rushing about , your thoughts on above what do people think on here ■■ and by the way before everyone starts saying the obvious ie there wld be loadsa containers all turning up in one go , yes thats poss but then just unload as and when , but what really annoyed me was after getting my ear chewed by the boss moaning that i was a bit late , i asked when i got to most of my deliverys what the urgency was ? and most of the time they said none ? we arnt waiting for it and didnt even know we were getting a delivery that day ? sometimes the places id go to would only get 1 container a week ? so why all the stress ■■?
It gets there when it gets there, once I have started driving there is nothing I can do to get it there any earlier than that.
From my experience If you have a decent planner and the times are realistic I don’t mind timed deliveries. It’s when you have a planner who doesn’t know anything about driving when things go sour.
I used to have a planner who was an ex driver, he was spot on. But I’ve had others who are just admin staff, and couldn’t pinpoint you on a map if you told them where you are.
Lofty83:
From my experience If you have a decent planner and the times are realistic I don’t mind timed deliveries. It’s when you have a planner who doesn’t know anything about driving when things go sour.
I used to have a planner who was an ex driver, he was spot on. But I’ve had others who are just admin staff, and couldn’t pinpoint you on a map if you told them where you are.
Yes but the actual point im trying to make is why have a time to get to delivery ? why cant it be just up to the driver ie anytime that day between 9am and wenever ■■ just so much less stressfull stop 4 lunch when you want , get out of bed in the morning at a civilized hour ■■
When you’re “only the agency guy” it doesn’t matter how quickly you arrive at a drop. The “regular guy” would always “have been there an hour ago”.
The worst days for this tend to be Fridays, when it seems that every other profession in the world other than the lowly lorry driver knocks off early. You’re then expected to arrive in double jig time - in some cases the expected delivery time can even be before you leave the bloody yard 
I couldn’t give a monkeys about what time I arrive at any more and I don’t rush or break speed limits for anyone. I don’t get paid even nearly enough to give a flying ■■■■ about that. It’ll get there when it gets there, safely, and in one piece. End of.
COOKiEEES!!:
When you’re “only the agency guy” it doesn’t matter how quickly you arrive at a drop. The “regular guy” would always “have been there an hour ago”.The worst days for this tend to be Fridays, when it seems that every other profession in the world other than the lowly lorry driver knocks off early. You’re then expected to arrive in double jig time - in some cases the expected delivery time can even be before you leave the bloody yard
I couldn’t give a monkeys about what time I arrive at any more and I don’t rush or break speed limits for anyone. I don’t get paid even nearly enough to give a flying [zb] about that. It’ll get there when it gets there, safely, and in one piece. End of.
I doff my cap to sir , my sentiments entirely , im not risking my life or licence for the crap wages we earn , and half the stuff i carted around in my container was in my opinion not very important in the grand scale of things , ie j clothes 22tons of them to ashton in makerfield hardly life threataning if they get there late ?
COOKiEEES!!:
When you’re “only the agency guy” it doesn’t matter how quickly you arrive at a drop. The “regular guy” would always “have been there an hour ago”.The worst days for this tend to be Fridays, when it seems that every other profession in the world other than the lowly lorry driver knocks off early. You’re then expected to arrive in double jig time - in some cases the expected delivery time can even be before you leave the bloody yard
I couldn’t give a monkeys about what time I arrive at any more and I don’t rush or break speed limits for anyone. I don’t get paid even nearly enough to give a flying [zb] about that. It’ll get there when it gets there, safely, and in one piece. End of.
Yeah mate dead right, everybody & his dog has a POETS day (P**s Off Early Tomorrow’s Saturday) on Friday afternoon except the lorry driver, but I guess we don’t count 
I too am a hater of the timed delivery side of things and if you let it ruin your day by getting stressed then it will. I was letting it get to me when the office monkeys would be on the phone with the "where are you, why are you late, spoken to like crap because of it ect ect, but at the end of the day you cant help traffic, hold ups ect Or even given a duff address. All the excuses fall on deaf ears and its still the drivers fault. Sod em i say
If the office monkey wants to jump in the truck with me and see if he has the power to make traffic part for me then he is welcome too, otherwise sodoff the phone and let me do my job of getting there as soon as i legally can without taking the p*ss.
Ive been to jobs early and not been tipped untill after the time slot, Ive also been to jobs late and been left sitting in a queue to be tipped with no sense of urgency■■?
At the end of the day the nature of this game is hold ups and anyone who just cant grasp and except that obviously lives in an office pushing a pen and never gets released into the real world or is just to ignorant to understand the job.
As for turning up Am or Pm Thats my attitude anyway, il get there when i can safely and legally get there, Dont get me wrong il do my upmost to make the time slot allocated for me but if im held up then im held up.
I hope some of the people wanting to get into this job have a good read through this forum to understand what the job is really like, Hold ups, Spoken to like crap ect ect, but at the end of the day you want to go home alive to your family.
Stress = Rushing
Rushing = Accidents
Accidents well its obvious isnt it
Enjoy the job
Thats my rant over 
Totally agree, it always made me laugh when if a customer did complain that it was say half an hour late ,that there container has travelled halfway across the world been at sea for weeks and its just 30mins late ? not as if were carrying live organs for an important transplant with a team of surgeons waiting on it ■■? anyway im glad im out of it …
All i can offer is my best.
booking times are there for a reason, if a company has got 10 deliveries booked in for the day, it gives them all a time to be there for, so they don’t all turn up at once
if they got rid of the booking times, what would you be complaining about on here next?
“i got to my delivery, and there were 9 others in front of me, and it takes an hour per delivery to unload”
sorry mate, but, it is one of them things that you will have to live with
ricardo62:
Just a thought ,one of my biggest hates with the job when i was driving , was timed deliverys , ie 8.00 wellingboro or so and so place at 9 o clock am , when living in ipswich that meant early starts ? and as soon as you were over 15 mins late the fne wld start ringin with were are you and why are you overdue etc etc , so making your day stressfull? why cant deliverys just be either am or pm with no times , just get there when you get there? it would make the job so much more enjoyable and easier less stress and no rushing about , your thoughts on above what do people think on here ■■ and by the way before everyone starts saying the obvious ie there wld be loadsa containers all turning up in one go , yes thats poss but then just unload as and when , but what really annoyed me was after getting my ear chewed by the boss moaning that i was a bit late , i asked when i got to most of my deliverys what the urgency was ? and most of the time they said none ? we arnt waiting for it and didnt even know we were getting a delivery that day ? sometimes the places id go to would only get 1 container a week ? so why all the stress ■■?
Welcome to the way the German transport industry works 80% of general goods are timed deliveries here 
The German industry have realised that warehouses are expensive to build and to run, and thats a lot of space on those 200,000 trucks running about in Germany evreyday, so why not store it on them,and low and behold the timed delivery was born. as long as you have good planners, you soon get used to it
Geoff
shuttlespanker:
booking times are there for a reason, if a company has got 10 deliveries booked in for the day, it gives them all a time to be there for, so they don’t all turn up at onceif they got rid of the booking times, what would you be complaining about on here next?
“i got to my delivery, and there were 9 others in front of me, and it takes an hour per delivery to unload”
sorry mate, but, it is one of them things that you will have to live with
That would be ok great just doss on the bunk for 9 hours ? and get paid for sleeping ?
I know exactly what you’re saying Ricardo, i work for a firm who do timed deliveries, i’ve moaned & bitched about it to my TM, i’ve been told that it’s an ‘added service’ as it’s a very competitive market at the moment & every little helps.
Customers can ring our lot right up until 4pm for a delivery the following morning, this usually means that if said customer is 3 or 4hrs drive away someone is going to have to get up about 3am if the delivery is timed for 8am. Then, when you arrive at your drop at 8am, you’re usually told to park up whilst the customer sorts/loads their own vehicles 1st. Wtf did i have to get up at 3am for then? Why not have your timed delivery for 9?
On the transport side of things my lot run 100% legal, so the option to say ‘sorry, i don’t have the hours to do that’ is always there, & tbf, there’s never any grief from the planners, they’ll try & sort you something else. If however, you get back to the yard mid afternoon & there’s no work to be done, we’re parked up, meaning you’re now in a position to start early cos the customer wants his load at 8am. 
ricardo62:
shuttlespanker:
booking times are there for a reason, if a company has got 10 deliveries booked in for the day, it gives them all a time to be there for, so they don’t all turn up at onceif they got rid of the booking times, what would you be complaining about on here next?
“i got to my delivery, and there were 9 others in front of me, and it takes an hour per delivery to unload”
sorry mate, but, it is one of them things that you will have to live with
That would be ok great just doss on the bunk for 9 hours ? and get paid for sleeping ?
at which point, your boss would realise that the job is not worth doing and sell all his trucks, and then you would be out of work
shuttlespanker:
ricardo62:
shuttlespanker:
booking times are there for a reason, if a company has got 10 deliveries booked in for the day, it gives them all a time to be there for, so they don’t all turn up at onceif they got rid of the booking times, what would you be complaining about on here next?
“i got to my delivery, and there were 9 others in front of me, and it takes an hour per delivery to unload”
sorry mate, but, it is one of them things that you will have to live with
That would be ok great just doss on the bunk for 9 hours ? and get paid for sleeping ?
at which point, your boss would realise that the job is not worth doing and sell all his trucks, and then you would be out of work
bugger theres always a downside!!!
At our place we go out with upto 50 drops for the week and all the company give by way of a booking is the week ending date. 
I’m a real hater of jit/timed deliveries. I think they are one of the major reasons for accidents occuring between trucks, nobody has time to relax and smell the roses whilst under pressure to meet deadlines, hence tailgating etc.
I used to work on tankers where all deliveries were simply marked as “week commencing”, stress free and so simple. I now do frozen deliveries and for the life of me I can’t understand why a product with a 2 year shelf life must be at customer “A” at spot on x o’clock!
My usual response when told by the big supermarket RDC’s that I’m late is to say “yeah I got stuck behind one of your wagons on the way here” or “you kept me here for 5 hours the other day, you aren’t the only customer we deliver to, I’m late because of the knock on effect of your slow tipping the other day”.
Spanky I understand your point of view, and understandably as an operator you’ll have a different perspective than me, which is how it should be. However, sometimes I’ll turn up somewhere hours early and despite there being an empty yard I’ll be told to wait until my booking time, by then of course there may be 6 or 7 other trucks waiting to tip. Surely that can’t be efficient to the operator?
I firmly believe vehicles should be tipped on a first come first served basis. After all, they’ve ordered it in the first place, they obviously want the stuff, we don’t just drive around with a load on looking for anyone who’ll take it.
shuttlespanker:
booking times are there for a reason, if a company has got 10 deliveries booked in for the day, it gives them all a time to be there for, so they don’t all turn up at once
if they got rid of the booking times, what would you be complaining about on here next?"i got to my delivery, and there were 9 others in front of me, and it takes an hour per delivery to unload"sorry mate, but, it is one of them things that you will have to live with
But as you know, the haulage game is all lies! 
then when you turn up at say morrisons two hours before your slot, and ADOLF on the gate ( wage £2.50 p/h ) says sorry drive the ten o’ clocks not here yet and you wait two hours! Then you go in and guess what the queues round the corner and you’re four hours in the queue! As your driving out to ADOLF you say " where’s the ten o’ clock pal? " oh he’s had a blow out on the motorway! Yawn! my favourite = FLAT FIFTH WHEEL! 
splitshift:
COOKiEEES!!:
When you’re “only the agency guy” it doesn’t matter how quickly you arrive at a drop. The “regular guy” would always “have been there an hour ago”.The worst days for this tend to be Fridays, when it seems that every other profession in the world other than the lowly lorry driver knocks off early. You’re then expected to arrive in double jig time - in some cases the expected delivery time can even be before you leave the bloody yard
I couldn’t give a monkeys about what time I arrive at any more and I don’t rush or break speed limits for anyone. I don’t get paid even nearly enough to give a flying [zb] about that. It’ll get there when it gets there, safely, and in one piece. End of.
Yeah mate dead right, everybody & his dog has a POETS day (P**s Off Early Tomorrow’s Saturday) on Friday afternoon except the lorry driver, but I guess we don’t count
I was told yesterday to go from Norwich to Bedofrd, had 6hrs51mins on the clock already, sat nav said it would take 2hrs 45mins so i would be into a 10 hr, said i would do my best but if i didnt get there i would park up and do the rest next morning, anyway traffic was crap and 9.8 mile from Bedford only had 9 mins left so pulled up in an off road and called in saying that was as far as i would get and would finnish off in the morn. (should piont out i was empty and i would be dropping the empty and picking up a stand trailer that was loaded for deliveries today)
anyway, transport rings me 10 mins later as says they need me there tonight and no matter what i had to be there, explained again that i was 9 mins and nearly 9 miles away and wouldnt do it in my time when the planner says ( you ready for this■■?)
“as im the cpc holder i am authorising you to go over your hours and just do a printout and write an explanation on the back that you went over because you needed to get to a safe parking place”
I did ask him when he had been promoted to Traffic Commisioner or when he started working for VOSA and how he thought HE could give me authorisation to go over my hours when its MY licence.
Needles to say i stayed put and carried on this morning and still got the job done…
There is nothing worst than a numpty planner that thinks he’s god.
Madguy