I got a telling off today when I turned up to load bagged aggregates on a curtainsided trailer in the open air because I didn’t have- get this- a pair of hi-vis trousers.
Hi-vis vest, hard hat, safety boots, eye protection, and I was required to remain in the cab at all times during loading but apparently I was in mortal danger because I wasn’t wearing bright orange clown’s trousers.
Is there no end to this stupidity?
I’d say they were right to ask you to put hi vis trousers on.
No, stupidity knows no limits.
That’s got to be one of the more stupid decisions mind.
I’d have asked them what class of EN471 they work to, and enjoy the puzzled looks.
EN471 Class 1 = Lowest standard for visibility. This can be a vest with one band around the middle and one over each shoulder.
Fluorescent material > 0,14 m²
Retroreflective material > 0,10 m²
Or
Combined material
Fluorescent reflective > 0,20 m²
EN471 Class 2 defines an intermediary visibility level.
1 horizontal band and 2 shoulder bands or,
2 horizontal bands and 2 shoulder bands or,
2 horizontal bands
Trousers need 2 horizontal reflective
bands circular on each trouser leg
Bib and brace trousers: 1 horizontal band
around the torso, 2 horizontal reflective
bands circular on each trouser leg
Fluorescent material > 0,5 m²
Retroreflective material > 0,13 m²
EN471 Class 3 defines the highest level of visibility.
As Class 2 but with full length sleeves with 2
horizontal circular bands on each sleeve
Fluorescent material > 0,8 m²
Retroreflective material > 0,20 m²
harry most quarry/aggregate sites now have this policy, the funny part is if you were collecting goods you had purchased yourself you are not required to wear clowns trouser’s
now you are your own boss you could have declined the load!
Harry Monk:
I got a telling off today when I turned up to load bagged aggregates on a curtainsided trailer in the open air because I didn’t have- get this- a pair of hi-vis trousers.Hi-vis vest, hard hat, safety boots, eye protection, and I was required to remain in the cab at all times during loading but apparently I was in mortal danger because I wasn’t wearing bright orange clown’s trousers.
Is there no end to this stupidity?
It’s best to treat yourself to a pair of these fancy trousers Harry just keep them somewhere in the deep recesses of the cab as they might come in handy one day and as an owner driver it’ll be a shame to lose out on a load.
I’ve got a pair but refuse to wear them, I’d look like I’d escaped from Guantanamo bay if I did
May as well buy a clown wig, nose and shoes…They wouldn`t miss you then 
att:
May as well buy a clown wig, nose and shoes…They wouldn`t miss you then
. . . and as you walk away from the truck, the doors and wheels fall off. 
I think the simplest idea with this is to simply refuse to enter the site by saying,
Listen mate, if it is that zb dangerous, I don’t want to come in and I would advise you to start looking for another job
bald bloke:
Harry Monk:
I got a telling off today when I turned up to load bagged aggregates on a curtainsided trailer in the open air because I didn’t have- get this- a pair of hi-vis trousers.Hi-vis vest, hard hat, safety boots, eye protection, and I was required to remain in the cab at all times during loading but apparently I was in mortal danger because I wasn’t wearing bright orange clown’s trousers.
Is there no end to this stupidity?
It’s best to treat yourself to a pair of these fancy trousers Harry just keep them somewhere in the deep recesses of the cab as they might come in handy one day and as an owner driver it’ll be a shame to lose out on a load.
That always seems like the quickest solution - complying to their BS - but I’ve got a sidelocker full of this crap that hardly ever gets used and to the casual observer it looks like I’m tour driver for the Village People.
I reckon if you set up a company making something like this, it wouldn’t take long to convince every site in the country all visitors should be wearing them:
Own Account Driver:
bald bloke:
Harry Monk:
I got a telling off today when I turned up to load bagged aggregates on a curtainsided trailer in the open air because I didn’t have- get this- a pair of hi-vis trousers.Hi-vis vest, hard hat, safety boots, eye protection, and I was required to remain in the cab at all times during loading but apparently I was in mortal danger because I wasn’t wearing bright orange clown’s trousers.
Is there no end to this stupidity?
It’s best to treat yourself to a pair of these fancy trousers Harry just keep them somewhere in the deep recesses of the cab as they might come in handy one day and as an owner driver it’ll be a shame to lose out on a load.
That always seems like the quickest solution - complying to their BS - but I’ve got a sidelocker full of this crap that hardly ever gets used and to the casual observer it looks like I’m tour driver for the Village People.
+1
I dont have a company uniform etc but if i turn up somewhere and they tell me to put boots, hi-vis and hard hat on i always reply with certainly sir, no point arguing, there the rules.
Saaamon:
I’d say they were right to ask you to put hi vis trousers on.
Please, please tell my you’re not serious!!!
I did however hear a funny story this week, 3 police ‘Matrix’ vans (full of hard case coppers) followed a van onto a Runcorn building site & pulled the driver out, pinned him to the floor with 3 of these afformentioned hard knocks on his back when it became obvious they’d got the wrong bloke. The superintendant for the site flew down the stairs from his office & ‘squaired up’ to the head honcho copper and infomed him that; “you don’t come onto this site untill you’ve signed in & recieved permision from me to enter the working area”!! The copper started to try & regain the upper hand in the argument when the ‘super’ waived a hand to shut him up & said, "get off my site & don’t come back on without a hard hat!!!
True story!!
Ross.
It seems like every factory has to out-do the one down the road by dreaming up some ever more ludicrous rule.
I’m fully expecting to have to wear a hard hat with a battery-powered whirling yellow beacon on the top within the next year or so.
Make sure you don’t get the wrong colour hat.
Harry Monk:
I got a telling off today when I turned up to load bagged aggregates on a curtainsided trailer in the open air because I didn’t have- get this- a pair of hi-vis trousers.Hi-vis vest, hard hat, safety boots, eye protection, and I was required to remain in the cab at all times during loading but apparently I was in mortal danger because I wasn’t wearing bright orange clown’s trousers.
Is there no end to this stupidity?
If this is the case i’d be suprised if any forwarder/haulier was not advised of the site requirements beforehand.
I was. I was told I needed full PPE. It just seems to have got a bit fuller. 
Harry Monk:
I was. I was told I needed full PPE. It just seems to have got a bit fuller.
They get worse don’t they. Should of asked them to forward a risk assesment for the site as your insurance requires it too, although i suspect that if you pull this malarkey you won’t get to much work off them and get known as an awkward arse. Probably just best buy the kecks !!
I find it funny when I go on the docks they say I should wear a hard hat when picking up a box I hope the hat save me if the box was to fall.
Suedehead:
att:
May as well buy a clown wig, nose and shoes…They wouldn`t miss you then. . . and as you walk away from the truck, the doors and wheels fall off.
It is a Renault after all!
Bardon are worse, as they don’t allow drivers to wear all orange as that’s what quarry workers wear, and by wearing green tops and orange trousers they can tell who drivers are. Personally, I just think anyone rolling up in an 8 wheeler truck is a driver
Our company constructs sports facilities, football pitches, astro turf, 3G surfaces and such. As a result we come under the “construction” bracket, I can’t even count the amount of site inductions I have done, especially if we are installing new facility’s into a new build school, we are usually just a subcontractor to a massive construction company in that case.
Kier construction group take your hand print on a machine and you then use it to get in and out of site… No joke! There were plenty of unhappy workers who weren’t keen on giving their prints up.
Often an induction on a site like this (if you will be delivering regular) will take up to 3 hours some times even more!
Needless to say all the PPE is required even glasses, just in case as you unload your truck a bug flys into your eye. The only exception to the rule is if it’s raining, as they can fog up and cause an accident apparently, I couldn’t even be bothered to ask where the original hazard had gone now that it was drizzling.