Been doing a few runs On Fridges recently after spending most my career up till now on curtainsider’s and flatbeds.
Came across something I’ve never seen before in my travels, a “free for all” RDC. BHS up near Sheffield. 10 or so bays and rather than being allocated one you just wait until one is free. Now I can imagine this would work ok for a little regional transport company, but a BHS distribution centre with a constant stream of trucks queuing to get in.
I arrived and all the bays were full, about another 3 trucks waiting to go in and the second someone pulled off a bay all 3 make their way towards it, at one point it was literally two artics and a 7.5 reversing towards the same bay.
Lots of arguments in the 2hrs I was there and the warehouse staff didn’t care a jot. Thankfully I got in on the second battle, more out of luck than anything else.
Is this a common thing I’m going to see a lot more of on fridge or a one off?
There some RDC’s about where you get allocated a set of bays and you help yourself but normally I’ve always found them to have some kind of orderly queue, Aldi at Swindon can be a little difficult at times. As you start going to more of them you will get to know their routines.
normally theyb give you the reg no or the name of the company your following,i always ask,but it can go ■■■■ up as i got there the other week, no bays so went to book in and told next on bay as only one waiting,but in the mean time a truck had pulled off and truck whod just arrived just went straight on bay ,i explained the error of his ways and he was good as gold about it,first time there so didnt know routine,which is fair enough.
the only one the seems like the whacky races at times is morrisons kettering,sun morn, cant go in until 6 a.m so you all line up in a orderly que[line in front of entrance],and when he becons you through about 10 trucks head for entrance in one go things may have changed there as havent been on a sunday for ages
We had to load glucose and sugar out of a place in Belgium and it looked like a warzone when you arrived with trucks abandoned all over the place, now in about 99% of loading points you would pull onto the weighbridge, report and wait your turn.
This one had some strange logic about it, there were about 7 loading points and 50 different products being loaded, but the modus operandi was that you parked anywhere you could, walk into the office and fight with already loaded drivers for attention, then you go into the plant loading office and report in, they gave you a trailer registration to follow and a number 1 to 7.
With this information you could walk into the plant and see if the trailer was there, if not you walked around the parking looking for it. If it was there you had time to go to the bar or cafe. When it was his turn, he would drive over the weighbridge and get into position inside the shed. When he came out you could then, and only then go onto the weighbridge, he didn’t need to weigh out because the batch was already weighed in the batch vessels.
It was a really simple procedure once you knew the system, but I have seen many drivers of all nationalities fall out thinking someone has pushed in
,i explained the error of his ways 
and he was good as gold about it,first time there so didnt know routine,which is fair enough.