As above, just wondering.
No, you could have spent all your life sat behind a desk pushing graphs and figures around.
What you do generally need is a CPC.
NewLad:
No, you could have spent all your life sat behind a desk pushing graphs and figures around.
I suspect that is true of many of the latest crop of TM’s, or “logistics co-ordinators”, or whatever fancy title they have these days. Personally I’ve more time and respect for those who have come up “through the ranks” as I did myself before going back to driving. In an ideal world every manager would spend part of his apprenticeship doing the dirty work on the shop floor, the better to be able to enforce in the future that old rule that you should never ask anyone to do a job you can’t or won’t do yourself.It’s something many Japanese firms still insist on.
It’s becoming less and less common in this business though.
Well that explains a lot because I was told that TMs are usually lads that have worked there way up and know the job inside out but I don’t think our TM has ever even sat in a lorry so I wasn’t sure.
I’m not saying it’s not beneficial to have driven a HGV before becoming a TM, I’m just saying it’s not a requirement and in fact many big firms (like when I worked at co-op) won’t touch an ex driver with a bargepole. They only want office wollas.
Yeah well saying that our TM is very good and doesn’t pile on the work so maybe it’s not a bad thing.
NewLad:
I’m not saying it’s not beneficial to have driven a HGV before becoming a TM, I’m just saying it’s not a requirement and in fact many big firms (like when I worked at co-op) won’t touch an ex driver with a bargepole. They only want office wollas.
There’s a very good reason for that; it’s a totally different environment. As a driver, you only see a bit of the office side, and it’s not as cushy as you might like to think. Just as we drivers spend every day surrounded by idiots who are out to kill us (i.e. dozy motorists) so office staff spend their day in an environment where death is just as assured but normally by means of poisoning or being stabbed in the back. Survival is only assured by looking after one’s own skin at the expense of everyone else’s. That’s why drivers always get the blame for everything, because office culture dictates that however badly you ■■■■ up it is always someone else’s fault.
Drivers, on the other hand, tend to speak their minds. Hence they are not always the best choice for an office job in this day and age.
Our TM is a zb idiot, can’t even spell let alone drive a truck, talks a load of bollox too…
I’ve been working in the transport office just over a year now, to put it kindly I can’t wait to go driving ! 
The job is easy enough if you know what your doing but the amount of back stabbing and ■■■■■■■■ that goes on it just makes a good job ■■■■.
Cheers
Jonny 
Old One.
What is the difference between the TM’s office and a porcupine?
The porcupine has the pr1cks on the outside
SWEDISH BLUE:
Old One.What is the difference between the TM’s office and a porcupine?
The porcupine has the pr1cks on the outside
:lol::lol:
NewLad:
No, you could have spent all your life sat behind a desk pushing graphs and figures around.What you do generally need is a CPC.
No you don’t …you don’t even have to be able to ride a bike
Every TM I’ve come across at my company are university men, never seen the inside eh a truck in their life.
nick2008:
NewLad:
No, you could have spent all your life sat behind a desk pushing graphs and figures around.What you do generally need is a CPC.
No you don’t …you don’t even have to be able to ride a bike
Sorry I worded it incorrectly, what I should say is most firms would like a TM to have their CPC.
No and that’s the problem I have found the best TM’s are Ex drivers my personal opinion but that’s what I have found to be true
I’ve had both types, the ex driver and the non driver. Personally I prefer the non driver TM cos you can swing the lead a bit more, as opposed to the ex driver who knows full well what your doing or not doing 
I’ve seen both sides but in reverse if you understand what I mean, I spent 4 years as the supervisor of a small-ish but ridiculously busy logistics operation and spent most of that time being moaned at by drivers who told me I didn’t know what I was doing and that I should get out on the road and see what it’s really like (sometimes not as politely as that!). I ended up taking a small pay cut to go out driving full time instead because ultimately the job got too stressful and I wasn’t enjoying staying in the office until 7pm every night. I have to say that the driving was a breeze in comparison once I got used to it, of course you get the odd stressful day when the weather is terrible or there’s chaos on the roads, but I guess each individual organisation is different and there are offices where it would be more relaxing than being on the road. But to answer the original question, I’d say that every driver should have to spend time in the warehouse/logistics/planning office to see what stresses they face before going out on the road and saying that the planners don’t know what they’re doing.
As it happens now I don’t do any deliveries, instead I do a trunking job at night, it’s the world’s cushiest job and I earn as much/if not more than I was doing as a supervisor in a stressful environment.
My tm is an ex driver. He’s a good old lad but Christ he can moan. I couldn’t give a monkeys what you did in the 60’s I’m not spending my days driving at warp speed trying to match it. 
I’m glad I’m in a van 3 days out of 5 because he leaves me alone then 
I got the experience, i got the paperwork CPC National CPC International, and some office experience from years ago, but no one will touch me with a barge pole, maybe cos i havnt got an Ology
The last firm i worked for had an office clerk. who they put through the CPC to become T/M mainly cos they only wanted to pay £19 grand a year for a proper T/M, and there were no takers at that rate. As a person, he was ok, bit of a company man, a back stabber at most times, but absolutely no idea of running a transport company, how to talk to drivers, and was a book type person, in other words useless.
Give me one of the old style T/M, who had been there, done it, and got the T shirt, who talked my language when i had a problem, and understood what i was saying, who knew the ins and outs of the job, and the problems encountered, and would back a driver to the hilt if he was right, but god forbid if he ■■■■■■ up, and as drivers, we all knew where we stood.
jonnytruckfest:
I can’t wait to go driving !
jonnytruckfest:
The job is easy enough if you know what your doing but the amount of back stabbing and ■■■■■■■■ that goes on it just makes a good job [zb].
Lol, it doesn’t get any better once you get on the road