what with the driver shortage and all, would someone please say to their agency, " sure i’ll do that multi-drop supermarket job, but I will need a drivers mate to do the handballing" and report back to inform us of the response.
WTF that gonna achieve ?
Great idea, I need a drivers mate so to pay for him please half my rate…
I’ve got a drivers’ mate on Monday, going to Devon. We get a mate for handball weight above 5t. This is total for the day, not one drop. We do have mates for less if a certain job requires it. One such being Reids Bakery in Swansea where the sacks are thrown from the lorry up through a loft hatch where the mate stacks them. We also get them if a delivery can’t be done within loading time restrictions (no way will I attempt to carry 2t in 20 minutes). Some mates are sound, (all ours are agencies) but I’ve had the odd lazy waster who thinks he’s there to just ride shotgun all day.
I’m planning to overdose on Lucozade and coffee on Monday to stay awake; As nice as he is, my mate will bang on about his brothers’ bouncy castle business, lecturing me on 40 foot rubber erections no doubt (oooh Matron!) 
He’ll also describe his relations, many of whom live with him and his elderly parents 
as if I know them or actually care.
drivers are fat/lazy enough as it is.
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?
If you were delivering 18tons of coal it would need three of you and take all day.
Unless you’re the guy Johnny Cash sang about.
But you’re not, are you.
And neither am I.
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?If you were delivering 18tons of coal it would need three of you and take all day.
Unless you’re the guy Johnny Cash sang about.
But you’re not, are you.
And neither am I.
Maybe not. I’ve done 6.5t handball around Bristol on my own and was all done by 11am. Still waiting for my George Cross though…
Cotswoldcrunch:
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?If you were delivering 18tons of coal it would need three of you and take all day.
Unless you’re the guy Johnny Cash sang about.
But you’re not, are you.
And neither am I.Maybe not. I’ve done 6.5t handball around Bristol on my own and was all done by 11am. Still waiting for my George Cross though…
So after you told the boss what you did he said “So what do you want, a medal?” you said “Yeah”, but the boss just grunted?
What time did you start? 
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?If you were delivering 18tons of coal it would need three of you and take all day.
Unless you’re the guy Johnny Cash sang about.
But you’re not, are you.
And neither am I.
Since when have supermarkets been having 18t of coal delivered by hand?
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?If you were delivering 18tons of coal it would need three of you and take all day.
Unless you’re the guy Johnny Cash sang about.
But you’re not, are you.
And neither am I.
Ive handballed 12t of coal a few times. 8-10t is average.
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?
someone to talk to on the way
Here I go, banging on about the old days. When I was a kid, I’d go with my old man to Marston Valley Brickworks and help put 6,000 bricks on a knackered old Hippo and then help chuck 'em off at the other end. When I started driving myself I used to to handball 8,000 bricks on and off a trailer. Load anything from a 33 foot to a 40 foot trailer with fruit and veg from Covent Garden or 880 nets of onions, or cases of Melons etc, Hither Green, or Stratford LIFT, plus roping and sheeting. I’ve done multi drop as well and never had, or even thought of having a drivers mate. Driving for Dimplex on multi drop, it was radiators and storage heaters, along with fire bricks that had to be carried into shops, and some of them were right buggers to get in.
Fair enough if you’ve got something that really does need two blokes, as in cotswoldcrunche’s post but ffs grow a pair.
maga:
drivers are fat/lazy enough as it is.
I was 11stone 6 in March when I came back to flour deliveries. I’m 11st now. Summeister I’dve started at 4am, would’ve started deliveries about 6am.
Euro:
what with the driver shortage and all, would someone please say to their agency, " sure i’ll do that multi-drop supermarket job, but I will need a drivers mate to do the handballing" and report back to inform us of the response.
Handballing isn’t pulling and pushing cages… 
Roymondo:
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?If you were delivering 18tons of coal it would need three of you and take all day.
Unless you’re the guy Johnny Cash sang about.
But you’re not, are you.
And neither am I.Since when have supermarkets been having 18t of coal delivered by hand?
Biggest word was “if”.
Seeing as peterm was talking about the old days, I’ll go back to the seventies when I was a volunteer in my early teens with the T.R.P.S. (Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society). The end (beginning, really) of the line was perpendicular to the BR line - they parked a coal wagon at the right place and we shovelled the coal onto a conveyor. The (small) hole in the side only allowed one at a time, which is why it took a while. Always good to be part of a team…
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?If you were delivering 18tons of coal it would need three of you and take all day.
Unless you’re the guy Johnny Cash sang about.
But you’re not, are you.
And neither am I.Since when have supermarkets been having 18t of coal delivered by hand?
Biggest word was “if”.
So why quote my comment when your response has nothing whatsoever to do with the point I was making?
There are lots of jobs where a second man (or some mechanical assistance) is pretty much essential. But supermarket work isn’t one of them. For what it’s worth, I used to do store deliveries to a well known chain of computer shops. The work wasn’t heavy (dead easy, in fact) but for the Central London stores we always had a driver’s mate so that the high-value stock didn’t get left unattended at any point.
For those who know Tottenham, we do Flourishs’ in Morrison Yard (the old brewery). Pumptruck job but because of parked cars, iffy reverse of the A1010 and the fact that Flourish wont let us use the ground level door (but the old victorian loading stage now with steps cut into it ), it’s a two man job. Absolute PITA, about 8x1T pallets a delivery through doorways with lumps and bumps galore. Even with two men this involves lots of swearing, bashing of pallets, odd splitting of bags etc.
Of course, pushing shop cages onto a taillift is torture compared with this.
But did anyone take coals to Newcastle
Roymondo:
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Sumsmeister:
Roymondo:
Why would you need a driver’s mate just for a bit of supermarket style handballing?If you were delivering 18tons of coal it would need three of you and take all day.
Unless you’re the guy Johnny Cash sang about.
But you’re not, are you.
And neither am I.Since when have supermarkets been having 18t of coal delivered by hand?
Biggest word was “if”.
So why quote my comment when your response has nothing whatsoever to do with the point I was making?
There are lots of jobs where a second man (or some mechanical assistance) is pretty much essential. But supermarket work isn’t one of them. For what it’s worth, I used to do store deliveries to a well known chain of computer shops. The work wasn’t heavy (dead easy, in fact) but for the Central London stores we always had a driver’s mate so that the high-value stock didn’t get left unattended at any point.
Guess I was going off at too much of a tangent for, sorry for the knot in your knickers I seem to have caused. I was trying to draw attention to “if” as I was broadening things out a bit. I’ll follow your lead a bit more closely next time.
[Note to self, don’t be so tangential in future.]