I would like to personally thank Nick & Dave and their forebears and my boss for shortening my working day and making me less efficient as a business TOOL without a brain or any common sense.
Let me explain: I’m a tramper, I go out at the start of the week all packed up nicely with all I’ll need to get me through the coming week safely and within the law and the ‘requirements of the business’ and performing all ‘reasonable management requests’.
Everyday is pretty much the same, deliver, collect, deliver etc and at the end of a very tiring, up to 15 hour day I start to look for somewhere to get my head down. All I need is a nice spot with a shower, toilet facilities and is safe. Now MSA’s are out because my company won’t pay the charges (even though it is a business expense) or they are full of, well let’s not get upset. So as an alternative I end up at the side of the road with my bag of wet wipes, jerrycan of cold running water, cheap camping stove, toilet roll and susceptible to the criminal community. Should my back doors be tampered with (no smutty remarks please) then my boss says I should be more careful about where I park and I am responsible for my load.
Anyway, to stop this turning into a rant, what I’m really saying is how many ‘working hours’ are lost and how many times is the law broken by drivers simply looking for somewhere to park ‘properly’ for the night. I tend to start looking or thinking about somewhere a couple of hours before I’m due to stop and if I actually find somewhere I’ll stop up to an hour earlier than planned to stake my claim!
If I know somewhere ‘secret’ to park I’m bloody sure everyone else seems to know where it is too!
A few missing items or a missing tank of fuel or slashed curtains might make your boss see the light, especially when you tell him that you heard the guy piercing the fuel tank, but aren’t going to challenge them to protect your bosses ■■■■ when he can’t be arsed spending 20 quid (which he can claim back) to protect it.
I’m lucky that I’ve never yet been told where I can and can’t park up, because I think I’d just tell them to shove their nights out up their arse then.
I normally prefer truck stops to services, and they’re NORMALLY (but not always) cheaper and safer too, but if I’m running upto my hours and I see a services and it’s not an area I know, then in the services I go.
Other half generally has places that he goes to if he is in a certain area, failing that he phones me, I get on google earth and find him a layby on the road or an industrial estate somewhere on the route within the time frame he gives me. He does usually tell me where he can get to, and I check around that area or work backwards from there to find somewhere.
Not always ideal, as he does tend to shout at me if the layby is full
Trucker’s Girl:
Other half generally has places that he goes to if he is in a certain area, failing that he phones me, I get on google earth and find him a layby on the road or an industrial estate somewhere on the route within the time frame he gives me. He does usually tell me where he can get to, and I check around that area or work backwards from there to find somewhere.
Not always ideal, as he does tend to shout at me if the layby is full
You made me smile anyway! So his boss has YOU working for him for nothing - just what the country needs - more entrepreneurs to make us great again! Not having a go but that just says it all.
Trucker’s Girl:
Other half generally has places that he goes to if he is in a certain area, failing that he phones me, I get on google earth and find him a layby on the road or an industrial estate somewhere on the route within the time frame he gives me. He does usually tell me where he can get to, and I check around that area or work backwards from there to find somewhere.
Not always ideal, as he does tend to shout at me if the layby is full
and once he gets parked up , does he give you a wave out of his window on google earth ?. LOL
Trucker’s Girl:
Other half generally has places that he goes to if he is in a certain area, failing that he phones me, I get on google earth and find him a layby on the road or an industrial estate somewhere on the route within the time frame he gives me. He does usually tell me where he can get to, and I check around that area or work backwards from there to find somewhere.
Not always ideal, as he does tend to shout at me if the layby is full
You made me smile anyway! So his boss has YOU working for him for nothing - just what the country needs - more entrepreneurs to make us great again! Not having a go but that just says it all.
Erm, might be missing something here, it has been one of those days at work, but why does helping my partner find a parking place for the night mean that I am working for his boss?
When I was tramping, my boss wouldn’t pay for parking.
So I would not hesitate to go out of my way to find somewhere I would believe to be safe (didn’t care if it took more hours miles and time than he would have paid for a truckstop). I’m not a small unfit bloke but if I’d have heard someone robbing my load or fuel I’d have let them get on with it. If the boss had a problem with that it would have been his problem, not mine. My plate, fork and KNIFE were left next to my bunk just in case someone wanted my own stuff inside the cab.
These idiot bosses have to learn one day that its their stuff and their customers, thats at risk when they put these stupid restrictions on where we park.
about 15 years ago i worked for a nob of a boss.
he said do not park at msa’s or truckstops cos you wont get yer money back.
i refused to do nights out, but my mate carried on with nights out.
one night he was robbed and badly beaten up and lost all his possesions.
he claimed and got £35,000 damages off the company.
when it was all over , i said is it worth not paying for parking then.
Firms that won’t pay for parking are just ■■■■■■■■■ imho. The cost is an expense and offset against tax. If they would rather pay it to the treasury than use it to keep you and their lorry safe then they are worth a swerve. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done plenty of industrial estates but if I want to use a services I expect to get the dough back
Trucker’s Girl:
I get on google earth and find him a layby on the road… …he does tend to shout at me if the layby is full.
Does think the images on Google Earth are live images displayed in real time?
No, that was a tongue in cheek bit, I find a layby, tell him its a nice big one with room for loads of trucks, he gets there and there are loads of trucks there, just proving my point always have another one on standby just in case (cos I’m good like that)
Though I have to admit that this thing about double yellowing all the industrial estates is somewhat of a pain!
A couple of weeks ago I was delivering to a place
and when I passed a guy standing near his truck
being loaded he said all right so being polite I said
yes you expecting to carry on to the goods in but
he said no I pulled my card out over an hour ago
and im now over 16 hours but im going to phone
my boss when I get out here and park up for the
night and tell him to stop planning 19 hour days but
its ok I will get paid for it was is reply. Agony aunt
moment over I left thinking to myself why tell a
complete stranger your running bent and next
time don’t ask anyone looking down if there all
right as some peoples reply’s are not what you
want to hear for instance this week alone I know
who as piles and who after to much beer soils
there trousers lol
fredthered:
I would like to personally thank Nick & Dave and their forebears and my boss for shortening my working day and making me less efficient as a business TOOL without a brain or any common sense.
Let me explain: I’m a tramper, I go out at the start of the week all packed up nicely with all I’ll need to get me through the coming week safely and within the law and the ‘requirements of the business’ and performing all ‘reasonable management requests’.
Everyday is pretty much the same, deliver, collect, deliver etc and at the end of a very tiring, up to 15 hour day I start to look for somewhere to get my head down. All I need is a nice spot with a shower, toilet facilities and is safe. Now MSA’s are out because my company won’t pay the charges (even though it is a business expense) or they are full of, well let’s not get upset. So as an alternative I end up at the side of the road with my bag of wet wipes, jerrycan of cold running water, cheap camping stove, toilet roll and susceptible to the criminal community. Should my back doors be tampered with (no smutty remarks please) then my boss says I should be more careful about where I park and I am responsible for my load.
Anyway, to stop this turning into a rant, what I’m really saying is how many ‘working hours’ are lost and how many times is the law broken by drivers simply looking for somewhere to park ‘properly’ for the night. I tend to start looking or thinking about somewhere a couple of hours before I’m due to stop and if I actually find somewhere I’ll stop up to an hour earlier than planned to stake my claim!
If I know somewhere ‘secret’ to park I’m bloody sure everyone else seems to know where it is too!
Trucker’s Girl:
Other half generally has places that he goes to if he is in a certain area, failing that he phones me, I get on google earth and find him a layby on the road or an industrial estate somewhere on the route within the time frame he gives me. He does usually tell me where he can get to, and I check around that area or work backwards from there to find somewhere.
Not always ideal, as he does tend to shout at me if the layby is full
You made me smile anyway! So his boss has YOU working for him for nothing - just what the country needs - more entrepreneurs to make us great again! Not having a go but that just says it all.
Erm, might be missing something here, it has been one of those days at work, but why does helping my partner find a parking place for the night mean that I am working for his boss?
always have another one on standby just in case (cos I’m good like that)