I was asked to lie to a customer, just blame equipment failure, I was told, this was to hide the fact that I had been sent to another drop before them and they had been waiting for their goods for two hours before I arrived. I don’t enjoy being put in this position, but this occurred to me, when does lying to the boss become unacceptable, when it is ok to lie to customers?
Whats your experiences?
At one firm every time we were late for a drop we’d had a blow out on route, happened several times a week
mutley:
At one firm every time we were late for a drop we’d had a blow out on route, happened several times a week
Ditto with ours, several times I’ve got to a drop, to be confronted by forkie…“u had a puncture didn’t u drive?”
News to me is my usual reply 
Yes i have been asked to give the statutory '‘vehicle broke down’ lie by previous employers…takes some brains to come up with that crap, no doubt the customer’s heard it a millions times, and no i didn’t give it.
I don’t get lying to a customer, it invariably gets found out later and all trust is lost from that moment, if the load can’t get there till the next day just bloody say it so the customer can re-schedule too.
Conan the Librarian:
mutley:
At one firm every time we were late for a drop we’d had a blow out on route, happened several times a weekDitto with ours, several times I’ve got to a drop, to be confronted by forkie…“u had a puncture didn’t u drive?”
News to me is my usual reply
Lol, same as that many times in the dim and distant past. I don’t mind lying to a customer and saying I’ve had a puncture, I just wish the traffic office had let me know I’d had one too, rather than just telling the customer.
Never really seen the point of it, if I’m running late these days the traffic office let the customer know I’m running late, and what my ETA is, and tell them the real reason.
Worked at 1 place and it was puncture everytime, it came to a head with a customer getting intouch with the Head office to either get our lot to change tyre suppliers or stop telling fibs.
Hiya it was the norm many years ago. don’t tell the customer where you,ve loaded from
or don’t say where your taking it so the middle man didn’t lose his cut. one time i took a
load of manganese from Sheffield to Hyde. i met up with a chap who said tip the load up
on some waste ground. there was a rough JCB and a Blue AEC marshall. i said to the chap
why tip it here i’ll not say to the scrap yard where its gone to…no tip it up…
the next morning i was tipping fine sand at Brymbo steel works. i was in line for the
weigh bridge when a familiar looking Blue AEC marshall pulled up behind me. i said hello to
the driver …smiling…the AEC was at least 4 ton over loaded.i had a 8 wheeler MAN.
John
I think you’ll find that most drivers don’t need to be asked to “Lie” to get their collective necks out of the noose.
No allowances are really made for any “poncing about” done sitting in traffic jams for example. If there’a a jam, you’re expected to take the back roads around.
Don’t mind helping the lie along. Sometimes when a job has gone pete tong our usual was a break down and always the same story so you never got caught out later.
Asked to do it multiple times. I do remember one day when each customer was told a different reason so that day I had a blow out, fridge not running in the morning, broke down allsorts. When really it was just they had combined 2 runs into one so half the customers got afternoon and evening deliveries when normally they got the stuff first thing in the morning.
My attitude always got the better of me so after a few “why are you late?” you start getting short with the customers but it’s your boss your fed up with.
The last place I worked must’ve have had a terrible tyre supplier, the amount of times I was meant to have had a blowout was unbelievable.
Of course, every single one was news to me until I was told about it at a drop.
I never had the puncture excuse used, it was always a vosa checkpoint that I’d been caught up in. Don’t know why they thought that was a better excuse to a customer! As several have said though, it would be nice if they’d told me the excuse before I got to the customer!
i lost it one time when i went to Overs Removals (Salisbury)with wrap one time. i’d done London monday
tipped out(stafford) on my way home(holmes chapel)loaded Winsford next day and trollied down to Salisbury. got there
just after dinner(should have been there for 8 am) the Overs chap said i was an idle bast…d and wasn’t fit
to have a job having days off and not ringing in…WOW did words fly as i drove off out of his yard back for
Winsford… someone chased after me and talked me into going back…plus i got tea and a fiver.it was in the
1980,s.that was a traffic clerk talking sh.t saying i’d had a day off.
John
3 hours late at booker wellinborough, not a chance of getting in was told to night out for a re-book, it was steak for tea that night so wanted to be home, thought about the usual vosa traffic blow out lie and knew it wouldnt wash, so i went for this one, i went on to explain to the security man that the night before id gave a roma gypsy a lift to london and in return he gave me a parrot as payment, after several hours i noticed that the parrot had gone from the cardboard box i had it in, not to gutted i set my alarm and went asleep, only to wake up 3 hours late because the parrot had turned up and it was perched on the off button of my alarm clock the ■■■■■■■■ gate opened 26 pallets off and checked in 40 mins, and steak and peppercorn sauce for tea that night 
dosent most companies just lie and expect you to do the same for them? there was a co over here recently got a contract for hanging meat…so based on the normal drivers they use,it was a racing certainty that there would be a tragedy within a week…so here we go… out the gates,turn right,up the road,turn right,t junction in town,turn right,build up a bit of speed in town before the 1st lefthand turn,then brake,turn,and throw the lot over on its side… the customer got told the trailer had an axle problem,while the lot got recovered back to yard…the full load of sides of beef were splattered all over the manky trailer floor,so what do they do…get the yardmen to lift thm 1 by 1,stand them up against the wall,and pressure wash the grease off of them,and then rehang them into another trailer.delivered a day late,no problems…theres a few porkies get told by everyone,not only the drivers…the usual with the supermarket stuff from langlands,is that quite often theres a load of frozen fish goes out to strathaven just up the road at minus 25…empty trailer round to langlands to be filled with chilled at plus 3…trailer gets dropped at the cairn for the boat,and comes off at belfast running at minus 25 instead of plus 3 with all the chilled frozen solid…flat panic round to the yard,get it tipped and leave it outside to thaw,then rediliver and take the penalty for a late delivery which is easier than a rejected load…just normal practice if you can quite happily lie through your teeth??
Couple of times we’ve used the “mechanical difficulties” one, although usually it’s when we do a drop too early as the van “needs to be back to cover another run”.
Works when I need an early finish
I just tell it like it is. I won’t lie to cover someone else’s mistakes and if I’ve made the balls up, I’ll just fess up and take the licks.
White lies for a few minutes, ok that’s no great shakes. But the truth will out eventually.
It happens, laugh it off. soon be Christmas.
Some firms don’t know when they are telling lies…
Iv been brought up to tell the truth and be honest never will I lie to cover up a planners ■■■■ up.
Iv seen drivers lying too to try and get tipped,iv heard them all “my mrs has been rushed in to hospital” but then sits out side when tipped 
Well if my wife had been rushed in and it was serious I know my gaffer would say see if you can drop trailer,if not bring the lot back.
mutley:
At one firm every time we were late for a drop we’d had a blow out on route, happened several times a week
First rule of telling porkys is never blame a blow out,a they could ask what tyre was changed if they have got any common sense 
As an owner driver one company I used to subbie for were aiways asking you to give excuses of one kind of another for late deliveries,these over time got more and more fanciful until one day… I picked up a trailor that was supposed to be at the customer at 8am ,this was a delivery that occured 7 days a week and on arrival the customers own vans took the contents and distributed them around London and South coast so it was imperative that you arrived on time otherwise the job came to a halt. I got a phone call at 6am could I do a panic job they would pay extra and so I found myself on my way at 7am with a 4 hr run to get to the customer they had told the customer that the waggon that had set off in the begining had been in an accident and I was bringing the trailor that had not been damaged to them. When I arrived at the customer they were extremly concerned about the original driver who apparently was lying in a hospital bed, I played along with what they had been told del loaded empties and headed back North. Upon arrival back at the depot they all seemed pretty pleased with themselves that they had got away with it until a van arrived with a big box of fruit and a large bunch of flowers the fruit for the driver in hospital and the flowers for his wife with a lovely card from the customer. The traffic manager never missed a beat for the next few weeks he gave regular updates on the drivers progress health wise . The Boss of the firm a couple of weeks later was out for lunch with the Ceo of the company concerned and he was asked of the " injured driver " knowing nothing about the incident but knowing what his traffic manager was like he also blagged it.