Is it only where i go or do most of you finfd that any type of so called ‘high vis’ vest renders you completely invisible to anybody not driving a truck whenever your working. Its powers of invisibility also seem magnified if the person looking through you is apparently the one you most need to get in contact with.
Also. After making contact, the person talking to you usually seems stricken with an inability to speak in complete sentences, usually just able to manage short, abrupt incomplete instructions before being distracted by something shiny elsewhere in the office.
I know this is not everywhere as sometimes im sure ive heard a thank you being uttered and have even been asked straight away if i needed help without waiting at the window for ten minutes.
The best part is when you dont wear your hi-viz at a large depot or RDC, you soon get noticed and put in your place then usually by some jobsworth security bod with nothing else to do.
Oh good grief, I thought it was just me. This happens with monotonous regularity in most places, but there are lovely exceptions thank God.
I was working at Linpac in Louth over the last couple of weeks, and they seem to have taken on some ex railtrack staff, either that or they’ve got a cheap job lot of railtrack colour hi(low) vis vests, you know, the orange ones.
Apparently, this is becoming the new colour of safety. The person I spoke to was not happy when I asked why the new colour and didn’t accept his explanation, he was under the impression that the emergency services wanted the change, because too many people were looking like coppers and and ambulance crews, but that is crap and told him so.
I then informed him that this colour was more for persons working at height and persons working in or near undergrowth.
The reason for this colour is that it doesn’t attract insects like the yellow does.
When I was an instructor on board a training vessel ■■■■■■■ alongside, I wore a yellow flotation suit, and the students orange ones, we instructors used to attract insects, but the students didn’t(no comments please about flies round [zb], Ta)
When I did a bit of free lance driving a company based in Northampton phoned me and asked for me to take out a night truck urgently, after agreeing an hourly fee af 15 quid an hour as it was night time I arrived on sute and entered the traffic office to be asked where my HI-VIS vest was. “I didn’t bring one”
“Then you can’t work for us”
“please yerself” I said and went to go home but was chased to the car park by some guy who said that the trunk was vital so they would forget it this time, next day they called me back at the same 15 quid an hour and they had the same reaction about the vest. “We will be reporting you atitude to you employer” said the idiot in the office.
“I am my employer and I do what I want, if you want me to do the job stop complaining, if you want me to wear a silly vest then loan me one”
Do you really think those silly little vest save you from being run over It’s like road construction guys wearing hard hats Do they expect some of the tarmac to fly up above their heads, then drop down on them
Or surveyers in the middle of a field do they expect a passing crow to drop a brick on their heads
I have a system for Hi-Vis and hard hats, I don’t have either…if anybody requires I wear them then they can lend it to me. If they wanna argue they can wait a while longer for their goods, delivered by someone else.
How I’ve managed to stay alive without a yellow vest is beyond me.
Pat Hasler:
Do you really think those silly little vest save you from being run over It’s like road construction guys wearing hard hats Do they expect some of the tarmac to fly up above their heads, then drop down on them
Or surveyers in the middle of a field do they expect a passing crow to drop a brick on their heads
H&S is all ■■■■■■■■, when I was delivering for plumbers merchants to building sites, I’d have to wander round looking for the plumbers half the time cos the site managers, security guards, gate keepers and banksmen are too ■■■■■■■ lazy to do their jobs. As long as I wore a hat, vest and boots (if they insisted) they let me bugger off clambering over, around and under god knows what. Yellow vest is bugger all good when you fall down a hole!
Dunno if any of you guys get it, but in the T & D mag a good few months ago they had a feature on H & S in Shobba at the back.
One of the pictures was a pic of a driver stood in the doorway of a warehouse wearing his hi-viz vest but the vest had been completely exaggerated with HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE amounts of light and reflection bouncing off it, lighting up the inside of the warehouse like a football match stadium at night . It depicted a couple of warehouse guys stood in the far corner of the warehouse looking at the driver, shading their eyes with their hands saying, ‘ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT DRIVE’, we’ve [zb] seen you ’
Had me laughing for weeks that did , so true though .
Well I do hear about all the trouble drivers have at RDC’s NDC’s and even local drops!
Well I for one have only ever had a problem once in my driving history so far!
Most places I have delevered to including major NDC’s LDC’s have always been allright with me! OK I have had to wait a while to drop but on the whole I for one have had an OK response from gatemen and others! I have never had a H&S person talk to me or even a complaint from anyone because I have tried to delever to them late or otherwise!
I donno but , for me most have been OK and done their job OK!, Is it time we need to look at ourselves as drivers, We are delevery people after al,l and if we arnt at our best we arnt doing the job we should be doing because we are the 1st point of contact for the company we are driving for!
Do the drivers who wear hi vis in the cafe and pubs think it makes them look cool? Is it some kind of fashion statement that others should follow?
Also the filthy == who wear a hi vis to couple a trailer and then climb into the drivers seat with grease all over the vest.
When I use to deliver to ICI at Wilton we were banned from wearing Yellow hard hats because the supervisors wore them, White hats for office workers and visitors and red hats for Staff. There arent many more colours left in the hard hat range
In the next couple of days I’ll be delivering to UPS and TNT in Holland and two big RDC type places in Germany and at not one of them will I see a single person wearing a Hi Viz. Not security, not the loaders/unloaders, not the office staff and not any driver.
You would think there must be death and serious injury happening on a large scale without the use of the all protecting Hi Viz but I’ve been going in to these places for a good few years now and never seen or heard of an incident.
UPS and TNT depots in the UK, do HI Viz jackets need to be worn there? I’ve never delivered to one in this country so wonder if the rules are different between the UK depots and the Dutch ones.
Tnt newsfast at knowsley even have hi vis mirror covers that you put over your mirrors when you are ready for loading they have clear pockets in them which you have to put your keys in aswell talk about a [zb] overkill
Arrive at gate and press button on the intercom. Security answer with a “Good Morning” and I tell them who i am and what product i have on and the open the barrier and tell me to go to the goods in office. Park truck and wander across the yard, wearing whatever I have put on tomorrow morning, no special requirements regarding footwear, Hi Viz or anything else. See the Goods In lad who will also be friendly and he’ll have a quick look at the paperwork and direct me to a bay. I can then either sit in the cab or go back into Goods In and use the coffee machine, guess which one i’ll be doing? In a short period I’ll be tipped and have the CMR signed. They give me an exit code and I drive to the barrier and give the code to security, they will open the barrier and that’s it. At all times the keys will be in my possesion.
Delivering to a building site I was told “everyone must wear one on this site”.
“I’m unloading in the road not on your site.”
“Er…I’ll tell the teleporter driver not to unload you unless you are wearing one”.
“OK I’ll put it on & then remove it when I’m inside the truck unloading.”
“Yea thats fine.”
Working on a large building site I got out of the cab for a Pee up against the wheel, I was at least 500 yards from the nearest work in progress & parked up on a road at the edge of the site. The security guard saw me & tried to get me thrown off site for not wearing a safety hat !!!.
Doing recovery work myself & another driver were loading a car onto his vehicle, we were both wearing HI VIZ coats, there were two recovery trucks with flashing ambers & hazards plus a police car with blues on & a copper directing traffic 10 feet away from us.
Brain dead car driver ignores police officers attempt to stop him & hits my mate & his truck & then tells copper “So whats your problem ?, its only a workman.”
Doing muckaway type work I always wear one, & a safety hat, as it makes good sense with a JCB bucket swing around.
Wincanton’s issue orange vests to managers and yellow vests to the rest of the staff. At least you know who to aim at when they walk behind your vehicle while your reversing.
Costco & Burtons biscuits insist that all vehicles are chocked while being loaded and unloaded and that you hand in your keys. Doesn’t make them unload you any faster.
Noone believes I’m the driver if I’m not wearing my vest
It’s like the other day when I drove into the yard in a 3 pallet removal van. The first question I was asked was:
“Did you drive that?”
“Yes.”
…
“Do you have a heavy goods license?”
…
OH MY GOD. WHAT KIND OF A STUPID QUESTION IS THAT?
As for the orange vests, you’re taught on your ADR that orange is the last colour you see before you go unconcious/die. Thats why the explosives diamond is orange.
well on reading some of these threads i couldnt help but tell you all that
I am a professional driver…i always carry all the equipment for any job that may arise…boots…gloves (leather and rubber) hard hat…hi vis vest…and coat etc…so there should be no reason to either be turned away…or to turn away…most companies demand a hi vis at least nowdays and for me this is normal…however…i did have one slight problem down at a company called Amylum a while ago when i was told that my red hard hat was not suitable because of its colour in case i was confused with one of their fire fighters…i had to laugh but they loaned me one of their white ones…
have a nice day
whats this problem that people have got about wearing H&S equipment.i wear safety boots ,hi vis vest,gloves,and dont find it a problem.surely theres more important things to worry about.
. So true though 
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