GM = Gone Mad.
I have been banned from places for pointing out the inconsistency of application of rules.
I have been banned from places because I have dared to question the rules.
I have been banned from places because I have circumvented the rules.
I have been banned from places because I have pointed out the inaccuracies of their rules.
I know, nobody likes a smart arse!
But I have had enough and am now in a position where the guys I work for are having to make allowances for this, they do this because they have told me I am a good driver, in that I dont cause damage, I dont moan/whinge and I just get on with the job, albeit if I only do 2/3 days a week, they want to keep me on…But I have got to the end of my tether, I used to enjoy driving, now it has become a chore 
I really love driving, but I think I am going to have to throw it all in because of the rules and petty regulations, shame, as it keeps me sane, but I really do think that psychologically the rules and regs are not conducive to a full and fit active and healthy mind.
I couldn’t do it. Best of luck to you. It’s all I can do not to scream, when I know I have to put on a Cloak of Hi-Invisabilty and a Hat to access a site…
Thankfully that’s not too often!
F-reds:
I couldn’t do it. Best of luck to you. It’s all I can do not to scream, when I know I have to put on a Cloak of Hi-Invisabilty and a Hat to access a site…
Thankfully that’s not too often!
+1 Can’t get on bed of truck with out a hard hat on or ask permission to do so at Travis perkins
I’m actually starting to feel the same myself but for slightly different reasons, the H&S cobblers i can deal with.
My problem is the new lorries are just stuffed to the gills with all this utter crap, stuff i’ve managed perfectly well without for the past 40 bloody years, the modern lorry now gives almost zero driver satisfaction or pleasure, i have no doubt the next one will be a bloody sight worse cos it’ll have all the latest beeping stuff.
But what’s really getting to me now is the news down the grapevine that yet more spying and monitoring equipment is probably going to be fitted to ours, i don’t need monitoring and i don’t need to be told the old chestnut ‘‘if you’ve do nothing wrong you’ve got nothing to worry about’’, not sure quite how much more of this ■■■■■■■■ i can take, the job’s good, very good, if it wasn’t i’d have been looking by now.
You’re not the only one if that makes you feel any better…
The stupidity is so hight that they use this in a nasty way now…
If you will point them out that you will not do this or that because they are breaching their rules - they will call office and make up stories about things you haven’t done as well…
This is why English start to enjoy Romanian only sites now… 
Don’t let it get to you. Get even. I have my hivz gear et al in the side locker. I love it when some jumped up twerp starts to shout at me “hi-viz hi-viz” when I get out of my truck. I take my time to get it out of the locker, straighten it out, and put it on. I sometimes wear my hard hat (if not required by their rules), just to ■■■■ them off. If questioned about excess ppe, I put it to them that they indicate that their place is dangerous, and you can never be to careful. I also like to ask for a banks man when I need to reverse. For safety you see.
Next one I am so tempted to try is to ask the fork lift driver for his keys, when he has instructed me to move the curtains… 
I got told that I had to wear a hard hat today at the entrance to a building site, yet it’s ok to unload a heavy pallet onto a tail lift on a slope onto very uneven ground■■?
Health and Safety is destroying common sense…
Health and safety is destroying common sense +1
I did a drop to a John Islip Street Westminster last week. I had parked up around the corner, and offered to run the four pallets in on my manitou and drop them in the entrance, would have taken maybe 10 minutes total.
The “Logistics Marshal’s” reply was, “yeah that’s not going to happen, health and safety this, and the council that…” so they struggled for 30 minutes to clear enough access for me to get in, squabbled for another 30 minutes about where the four pallets would go. Then took another 30 minutes to actually take the four pallets off, and put them exactly where I was going to put them in the first place 
I was hourly paid so I don’t really care, it was their barbeque to ■■■■ up anyway they pleased. The only time I lost me rag was when someone lent a piece of Arris Fencing up against my cab. I just couldn’t believe it, it all seemed a bit bonkers to me 
Hansons at Kidlington is so hazardous you have to wear goggles and gloves in addition to the usual stuff, just to walk from the cab to the weighbridge.
I leave muddy handprints on the office door and on their paperwork. Nobody said the gloves have to be clean. 
If a site is so dangerous that you need this crap just to walk to the office, never mind the working areas, why have the HSE not shut the site down?
Flashing beacons in quarries. If the machine drivers can’t spot a lorry then why are they driving heavy machinery?
Don’t think throwing in the towel and looking elsewhere because every facet of British Industry is full of the same health and safety nonsense. The best way is by the book for me, job stops in some cases, I’ve been asked to check the load but not allowed onto to load bed to do so. My reply is, well I can’t do both, which rule do you want me to disregard?
I can deal with a bit of hi-vis, and safety boots, that’s fair enough, but handing-over your keys when doing a delivery, and having to have your hazards on in an RDC when driving a huge, noisy 44-ton piece of metal in the middle of the day is what gets up my nose. I would much rather have a massive metal sign put in-front of me when loading and tipping than them taking my keys, especially when at one place a couple of dozy Hungarian loaders lost them. When I get my new truck I’m going to get another random Scania key, and use it as a decoy key, so the sods don’t lose mine again .
There can be times when H&S is implemented in a very idiotic and foolish way. For example, at a RDC for a big furniture firm, with transport ran by a large haulage firm, they painted a load of “pedestrian walkways” around their distribution centre, for the safety of their staff when in the yard. This was all well-and-good, but the walkways were bang in-front of their drawbar units, so close, the driver can’t see people walking in-front of them they’re just too close. It’s that dangerous, people have to walk on the other side of the walkways.
It’s the same when a company my friend worked for limited their vehicles from 56mph to 50mph. There was all this gumpf about it “being good for the environment”, “less emissions”, and “improves safety”, with stickers all over their vehicles about their new “initiative” what was supposed to click-on. They realised after day one that their drivers couldn’t get back to their depot on day trunk runs to the south, they were all falling 30 miles short! Didn’t think about that Mr. Never-Driven-a-Truck Graduate, did you?
Muckaway:
Hansons at Kidlington is so hazardous you have to wear goggles and gloves in addition to the usual stuff, just to walk from the cab to the weighbridge.
I leave muddy handprints on the office door and on their paperwork. Nobody said the gloves have to be clean.
If a site is so dangerous that you need this crap just to walk to the office, never mind the working areas, why have the HSE not shut the site down?
Flashing beacons in quarries. If the machine drivers can’t spot a lorry then why are they driving heavy machinery?
+50 …this crap is finding its way into Canada as well.don’t forget the wear the googles and vest not forgetting a hardhat when driving into the quarry . Also the way we load (no electronic in cab weighers just air gauge back of cab for drives and a gauge on front of trailer) not allowed to leave cab when being loaded ffs full respect to the loader drivers getting the gross near on BUT the dot are ■■■■ hot on axle weights now and most quarry scales overhere the reader is inside the ■■■■ cabin so you have to screw about figuring out axle weights dealing with snooty uni students that (look at you like ■■■■ ,they have to stop playing games on their phones) write the ticket the minute you stop on the scale and get snooty when you say no going in to tip some off/reload.
do I sound bitter ■■■■ right I am a great job being ruined by the quarry companies bringing in " new Canadians" from asia /Europe straight from college to oversee us that wouldn’t know type 101 from 161 . I really dispare how common sense is not common anymore. Ps. I do realise me complaining about “new Canadians” is a bit strange …but there again who in there right mind drives a tipper lol.
“Not allowed to climb on the side of the truck…”
…Getting the grab operating will be fun then.