Is it just me, but watching Stobart’s last night, Phil the Scouser was delivering to the Tesco store in Ulverston, Lake District, on a hill. Struggling with cages of reasonably light ambient goods & then he came to the cages of pop, on the wet deck, running down hill !
I was so glad that the program highlighted the problems we can come across in our everyday duties.
That delivery was potentially Fatal, if he’d been behind the coke/lemonade & couldn’t slow it down, that cage could have come off the back of that Poxy tail lift, straight on top of Phil. Then he was struggling to hold the rest of the cages in the wagon.
Where was Tesco/Stobart’s Risk assessment for this store delivery, 1st point I would put across would be that this delivery Will be a 2 man delivery (meaning 2 men on the back of the wagon, not 1 on the wagon & 1 doing Tesco’s back door staff’s work for them) along with all the usual BS of PPE.
At the risk of being accused of “Eddie bashing”, I thought exactly the same, in fact, when I saw him get behind, between the cages and the tail lift, I thought “■■■■ that for a game of soldiers, get out of the way and let the ■■■■■■■■ go”!
Bernard
While I agree with you I would imagine the factors are cost.
Stobart are probably the cheapest bidder (I know there’s the whole who owns what issue)
They are doing for a price if you put two men on the cost goes up and someone has to pay.
Tesco will ask why the price has shot up and Stobart won’t want to absorb the cost.
Also as he proved last night the drivers are doing it.
Had he slammed the doors shut and went back and highlighted how dangerous it was then there might be a case.
As it was he completed all his deliveries in crap weather and set a standard for others to follow.
If you know go in and claim it’s a two man job they’ll point out he does it every day with no issues.
Remember management and planners don’t see what goes on out there they are reliant on drivers telling them.
If you just drop and empty trailer and chuck completed pods back at them how do they know there’s a problem.
No good waiting until someone dies then coming out of the woodwork saying you knew it would happen
I didn’t look to me as though he had lowered the back of the unit,so sending the front of the trailer down, nor had he raised the back of the trailer, thus getting a level floor.
Soldier z:
While I agree with you I would imagine the factors are cost.
Stobart are probably the cheapest bidder (I know there’s the whole who owns what issue)
They are doing for a price if you put two men on the cost goes up and someone has to pay.
Tesco will ask why the price has shot up and Stobart won’t want to absorb the cost.
Also as he proved last night the drivers are doing it.
Had he slammed the doors shut and went back and highlighted how dangerous it was then there might be a case.
As it was he completed all his deliveries in crap weather and set a standard for others to follow.
If you know go in and claim it’s a two man job they’ll point out he does it every day with no issues.
Remember management and planners don’t see what goes on out there they are reliant on drivers telling them.
If you just drop and empty trailer and chuck completed pods back at them how do they know there’s a problem.
No good waiting until someone dies then coming out of the woodwork saying you knew it would happen
Mention it and get it recorded.
You can tell them as many times as you like - you will in 99.9999999% be totally ignored.
They all work on the ‘risk/reward’ principal. You take the risk, they take the reward and if it does go ■■■■ up the amount of compo and size of fine or penalty they incur is limited.
That of course is unless you were trained correctly but you chose to ignore the training provided unless you can prove otherwise?
Do it once - do it forever! Enjoy what you voted for.
It didnt look like he raised the air on the trailer at all though to compensate for the incline. My trailer arse would have been in the air and the unit dumped to the ground.
And he didnt raise the mid lift when stuck in snow on his last drop, (could have been tag overload so I’ll let him off on that but still I doubt he was heavy over the pin by the time he got to his last drop)
FarnboroughBoy11:
It didnt look like he raised the air on the trailer at all though to compensate for the incline. My trailer arse would have been in the air and the unit dumped to the ground.
And he didnt raise the mid lift when stuck in snow on his last drop, (could have been tag overload so I’ll let him off on that but still I doubt he was heavy over the pin by the time he got to his last drop)
Some tail lifts don’t reach the ground when the arse end is raised too high but I haven’t seen the programme so can’t really comment precisely!
FarnboroughBoy11:
It didnt look like he raised the air on the trailer at all though to compensate for the incline. My trailer arse would have been in the air and the unit dumped to the ground.
And he didnt raise the mid lift when stuck in snow on his last drop, (could have been tag overload so I’ll let him off on that but still I doubt he was heavy over the pin by the time he got to his last drop)
Some tail lifts don’t reach the ground when the arse end is raised too high but I haven’t seen the programme so can’t really comment precisely!
Yes that is true, or he could have spun round and done the opposite, unit up in the air and trailer dumped to the ground, it did look like a bugger of an incline though no matter what you do.
We have to deal with this sort of thing every day at the co-op! One of the worst is Lyme Regis and the Tesco lorry is double manned ( we are not!). The driver of the tesco wagon told me they can’t adjust the level too much on the trailers because the automatic tail-lift flaps won’t operate because they have some kind of angle sensor on them. I have not seen the programme yet so don’t know if this was the reason.
Complaints are up against Tesco Policy, the first obstacle will be advice from others to “not make waves”, which could result in you or your agency being banned from the site.
Stores are supposed to have ramps available to help level the trailer, but it is frequently too much trouble for the shop to get them.
Romford Roneo Corner and Bexhill used to be, and may still be, stores where the trailer cannot be levelled unless it is dropped off the unit. However the extra time needed to couple and uncouple will infringe the store’s turnaround time which may be the way to go.
So: reverse on bay or outside shop and level trailer. Ask for toilet and then return, unlock trailer and unload/reload. Recouple etc if required. Ask for washroom to clean hands, return to vehicle and only then ready to leave site. Play them at their own game.
FarnboroughBoy11:
It didnt look like he raised the air on the trailer at all though to compensate for the incline. My trailer arse would have been in the air and the unit dumped to the ground.
And he didnt raise the mid lift when stuck in snow on his last drop, (could have been tag overload so I’ll let him off on that but still I doubt he was heavy over the pin by the time he got to his last drop)
Some tail lifts don’t reach the ground when the arse end is raised too high but I haven’t seen the programme so can’t really comment precisely!
Yes that is true, or he could have spun round and done the opposite, unit up in the air and trailer dumped to the ground, it did look like a bugger of an incline though no matter what you do.
I personally would have turned around so that the cages couldn’t ‘follow’ me down to the tail lift. Of course using the cage wheel brake (if fitted) or something like a chock would help.
I’m sure Sommerfields used a rubber strip or something to put behind the wheels which was apparently very effective?
roughyed:
I didn’t look to me as though he had lowered the back of the unit,so sending the front of the trailer down, nor had he raised the back of the trailer, thus getting a level floor.
I didn’t watch the programe, but all Tesco stores go out with a risk assesment attatched to the store map and delivery note, everyone I have had has said to level the trailer with the air suspension before delivery. Not sure which type of trailer he had, but the older tailifts are ok, the newer ones can sometimes not let the ramps down if the angle is not correct
Here’s a idea , why can’t they just limit the weight of cages in the first place , put all the heavier stuff at the bottom with lighter on top …
Don’t tell me this can’t be done as I’ve done tesco , asda and some smaller cash and carry type jobs and they all pack one cage full to bursting point with soft drinks and the next with toilet rolls , I do have a idea why this is done within tesco and asda alike and think its all down to the ease of work for the cage and store shelf stackers , so lack of walking around various isles is placed higher than the safety of the underpaid driver.
This thread is aimed at all the big supermarkets who keep shoving H & S down our throats, day in-day out !
Cost is obviously a big factor- 2 men are more expensive than 1 man (on minimum wage )
So if you can’t level the tractor/trailer by using the air suspension or parking the other way round, why can’t Tesco supply an extra person to help unload (duck down & wait for all ther flack re- “We’re not insured to enter the back of a lorry” CRAP ! )
Wagman is right.
The weight of the cages could have been even’d out, they know this store has issues so why fill a cage up with coke or drinks, why not put a couple of layers of coke on a few cages then put cereals, crisps, bogroll etc on top to utilise the space but still get the weight on.
The training for this work is a lot of common sense, on level ground, but I bet Stobbarts & Tesco Trainers never take a new driver to a 1 in 8 hill to train them how to take half ton cages of coke off the back of a 5ft high tail lift !
I would write out a Near Miss report every time I had issues like this, if every driver was to use Near Misses as they are intended for perhaps when the inevitable happens, something might get done about it. (after the courts & lawyers had finished with the management & they’d still blame the driver for not carrying out his duties in the correct manner ! )
(I think there was a thread on here a little while ago about a driver getting killed by a cage falling off the back of a tail lift )
It’s quite simple really, just handball a few cases of pop off the top. Sure you shouldn’t have to but with bad weather like that making the floor slippery it makes it a little bit lighter and safer. Then just get one of the empties and put the extra in that.
To be fair though, blame the warehouseman for over loading the cage in the first place. The cage/order should have some kind of assignment number so that they can trace it back to the picker. The only reason it’s overloaded like that is so the picker can get more boxes in a cage hence saving time and being able to pick more orders in the warehouse. I bet if the company looked at the rest of his orders for that day then all the other cages would be similar.
The poor driver has to deal with it at the other end. Really he should of reported it.
I have raised this issue before re: milk deliveries to aldi stores where the actual loading dock is on a slope.
The thing to do, as well as raising suspension, is to make sure that the shops cages are pulled forward and barred off/strapped seperatly beforehand , each row if needs be. At least then its only a few at a time and the ones you want rolling at you. Any extra heavy cages split down.
If the cages are especially heavy still for unloading, then balls to h&s, I would have someone from the shop on the wagon helping. Either that or no delivery.
martinviking:
Is it just me, but watching Stobart’s last night, Phil the Scouser was delivering to the Tesco store in Ulverston, Lake District, on a hill. Struggling with cages of reasonably light ambient goods & then he came to the cages of pop, on the wet deck, running down hill !
I was so glad that the program highlighted the problems we can come across in our everyday duties.
He’d not raised the suspension on the trailer nor dropped it on the unit. I’d have told them to ■■■■ off and let someone else risk themselves to deliver tins of beans.
Agree with all the posts but surely someone who works in the health and safety sector must have seen this and needs to jump on this with william stobart and andrew tinkler to get it sorted out cheaper a second man than jimmy getting trapped and falling backwards of tail lift with legs trapped broken back and broken legs maybe even bashed head many many thousands in compensation as well as time lost from work cheaper with a second man i think.
Whats all the speculations about,i just read its an Eddie Stobart driver…if anyone can do that delivery a Stobart driver can,he can do just about anything! toscos and Stobarts…a marriage made in disaster!!
)
)
)