Was delivering to a store Friday night, got there and rang the bell. The back door man comes out all cheery “you alright drive? Just starting? How’s your day?” Says “stay they drive I’ll open your back doors for you”. I back on the bay, everything tipped and empties reloaded straight away, signs my paperwork and says “jump in your cab drive, I’ll shut your doors for you”. I drive out, thanking the chap and say “if only all back door staff were as good as you!” He says thanks drive and I’m off on my way.
If only it was always that easy! On the same shift I went to this place and the back door man looked like he’d been dug up and must of weighed 2 stone wet through. All I got were a few grunts out of him.
Just thought I’d share that.
Nice bloke but I’ve got a thing about not letting people touch the trailer, purely because I just don’t trust anyone, what if he hasn’t secured the back door properly causing it to swing out and hit another wagon when you’re reversing, same goes for closing them, maybe the bottom handle went in but the top bracket on the door didn’t… All these things will be going through my mind.
The same goes for buckles on the trailer, I know people are trying to help and I am grateful to them but if you let them do it you can guarantee that once on the motorway there will be a loose buckle flying around. A bit ■■■■ but it’s down to me.
Still sounds like a nice bloke none the less and people like him we certainly need more of.
got to agree do’nt trust anyone to do the job right,i once pulled into stobart sherburn and was dropping the trailer into the warehouse after a fifteen hour shift,the fork truck driver was winding the legs down for me so i thought fine,so i disconnected the leads and pulled the pin and after making sure he’d wind the legs all the way down away i went 
with the trailer following me out of the warehouse,he’d only pushed the push to shunt button 
so i gets out and says what’s happening here,he says i’ve seen the other drivers putting the brakes on like that.
lesson of the day
do’nt trust anyone
his lesson of the day
leave stuff alone if ya dont know what ya doin.
I did check once around the corner upon leaving and I could see in my mirrors that he’d put the things on the doors when he opened them. It did cross my mind that’s its my responsibility etc so I didn’t put all my trust in him, just played it nice. Would felt really rude getting out and checking but I’ll know for next time to say thanks but no thanks if you know what I mean.
It’s no good saying to the plod when a door has took a cyclists head off that the back door man did it
Bet that was a nervous moment about the trailer
Our back door blokes don’t touch the trailer except to check the seal number…
Tarrman, with the Schmitz 13 metres, make sure that you’re parked on the flat if you let them shut the doors. The Schmitz trailers haven’t got a real frame so to speak of so they twist and if the backdoor person doesn’t check properly they can miss the top lugs.
With the SDC 12s and 10s, due to the stupid design of the back bumpers, the back of the box can get twisted and the locking rods miss the top lugs sometimes too 
As you said, best to check round the corner…
Thanks 
Only pulled two 10m and zero 8m as of yet but I’ll make sure I get out and give them a helping hand next time. It was going through my mind whether he had done it right, those doors are heavy, wouldn’t fancy one of those coming loose. Like I say I did check once round the corner but that’s not the point, it only takes a second for summat to go wrong and while I’m still on my probation I’d like to keep my nose clean!
Tarrman:
Thanks Only pulled two 10m and zero 8m as of yet but I’ll make sure I get out and give them a helping hand next time. It was going through my mind whether he had done it right, those doors are heavy, wouldn’t fancy one of those coming loose. Like I say I did check once round the corner but that’s not the point, it only takes a second for summat to go wrong and while I’m still on my probation I’d like to keep my nose clean!
To be honest, one of the locking lugs would probably keep it shut. But you can guarantee you would get pulled over for it…
Some of the 10m are really bad. The one I had on today you didn’t shut smoothly like a 13, you have to give the handle a proper smack to get it lock shut… Happy days