Glad I don’t work for these types of pallet companies as just going in and out of Palletforce is stressful and that’s a single shed (luckily don’t do often).
Only way to do pallet trunking is within the same companies depots, but there aren’t many who have that. Ours do, but pay probably not the best.
I only ever do Palletforce during the day so it’s obviously a lot quieter.
I’ve often wondered what it’s like at night. Manic I suspect. And how the queue works etc. Like is it an actual queue, is it a scramble for the door, do you get called in etc etc.
I worked for a Palletforce company for years before I retired. Mostly I worked days delivering and collecting, but I often did an evening/morning run to Burton.
The queue can be pretty long and there are two lanes; everyone just jogs forward every so often. As you get to the back of the shed, you pull your curtains and when it’s your turn, someone will point you to the correct door (You have a number in your screen so they know which depot you are). Inside, you have to wait for a gap to unload in - I think there are around eight lanes of six or eight lorries all being unloaded at the same time. They take your keys and you stay in the cab - the safest place to be anyway as the FLT’s are bonkers.
Loading is the reverse - only the very furthest depots do both at the same time as they arrive late and leave early; often double manned. We were pretty local so tiped around 7pm/8pm and loaded at 5am.
Once you know the routine (newbies get a sign for their screen so the handlers know) it’s all pretty easy.
Except you don’t just pull back the curtains, you have to heave them around the back doors (both sides) and strap them up. If the poles, internal straps or curtains protrude on the sides for only a few inches the FLTs will take them off completely. Your fault. There are three lanes left, center and right, so for example you’ll be shouted, ‘left middle’ and you park on the left in the center. On Monday night, the queue was stretching from near the gatehouse to KB and it took an hour to get the few hundred yards there and that’s just one shed. KA, the one with the small railings on entering is known as the ‘tyre popper’ if your rear trailer wheels scrape it … There are just too many trucks in the place at one time and any time up to midnight is chaos. I don’t and wouldn’t do it anymore, but you can literally feel the stress all around you.
Glad I don’t work for these types of pallet companies as just going in and out of Palletforce is stressful and that’s a single shed (luckily don’t do often).
Only way to do pallet trunking is within the same companies depots, but there aren’t many who have that. Ours do, but pay probably not the best.
I only ever do Palletforce during the day so it’s obviously a lot quieter.
I’ve often wondered what it’s like at night. Manic I suspect. And how the queue works etc. Like is it an actual queue, is it a scramble for the door, do you get called in etc etc.
I worked for a Palletforce company for years before I retired. Mostly I worked days delivering and collecting, but I often did an evening/morning run to Burton.
The queue can be pretty long and there are two lanes; everyone just jogs forward every so often. As you get to the back of the shed, you pull your curtains and when it’s your turn, someone will point you to the correct door (You have a number in your screen so they know which depot you are). Inside, you have to wait for a gap to unload in - I think there are around eight lanes of six or eight lorries all being unloaded at the same time. They take your keys and you stay in the cab - the safest place to be anyway as the FLT’s are bonkers.
Loading is the reverse - only the very furthest depots do both at the same time as they arrive late and leave early; often double manned. We were pretty local so tiped around 7pm/8pm and loaded at 5am.
Once you know the routine (newbies get a sign for their screen so the handlers know) it’s all pretty easy.
I’ve done both Palletforce and Palletways. They’re like chalk and cheese. For a start Palletforce depot is purpose built for the night trunk operation whereas Palletways is an old US army base
Grandpa:
I’m not going to keep banging my head against a wall with you Franglais, but think back only 10 years and compare it to now. If you think the economic migrants play no part in this you’re living in a dream world.
Why did employers increase the workload to unmanageable levels? If we natives wouldn’t do that level of work previously, who would? Why would employers increase pay when the economic migrants were happy to earn three times what they did back home? Why are the warehouses filled with foreigners? Haven’t you ever sat down and wondered why the logistics sector started to change for the worse at just the time the competitive economic immigrants arrived? Ditto in the warehouses, and retail, and security and the care sector …
I don’t blame the migrants and if we could find a country that would pay three times what we earn an hour now we’d probably all go as well. Yet it is what it is and now even the foreigners can’t hack the workload level they set and everyone is suffering. You’re right when you say the employers and government are responsible, but what is happening now couldn’t and didn’t happen previously without opening the borders to economic migrant competitiveness.
It’s not difficult Franglais, if you’re working you don’t even need google to spell out the collapsing logistics industry from what it once was, you can see it with your own eyes. Would you recommend HGV as a career now from ten years ago? Yet there is one section that will do it and they arrived in their tens of thousands and share a large portion of blame from the mess it’s now in. They came to compete and instead destroyed the job.
transportoperator.co.uk/2016/01/29/3568/
‘Transport Operator has questioned ten former truck drivers about the reasons why they left the industry. They all cited stress as a major factor – highlighting unrealistic scheduling and aggressive micromanagement by telematics, overzealous enforcement, and the aggressive or distracted behavior of other road users as key irritants.’
theguardian.com/commentisfr … -no-unions
‘The Road Haulage Association says it is short of 60,000 drivers, with an ageing workforce shedding another 40,000 by next year. Employers told the committee how hard they try to attract drivers – but plainly not that hard. They all want ready-made, fully trained drivers with several years’ experience. Many turn abroad, hiring 60,000 mainly eastern Europeans …’
Good link you provide there. It does recognise that immigrant labour has an effect, of course it does, and also shows how lack of effective Government is affecting this country more than it should.
“Here’s an obvious need for a wages council, to set national pay rates and to stop companies undercutting each other. But they were abolished by Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher.”
“Road Haulage Association poll of its companies found a majority perversely voting for Brexit. Small operators feared EU competitors with tanks full of cheap EU diesel moving in on their business. Yet many are using eastern European drivers to keep pay low. Their fears were unrealistic, as the report finds just 1% of British trade involves foreign companies taking UK haulage business. But the Brexit vote swung on just such myths.”
“The story of road haulage is mirrored time and again in British industry, with employers failing to work collaboratively, unions too weak to force good pay and conditions, and no government intervention. Ministers boast that once again we have an industrial strategy. If it doesn’t apply here, why bother?”
Grandpa:
I’m not going to keep banging my head against a wall with you Franglais, but think back only 10 years and compare it to now. If you think the economic migrants play no part in this you’re living in a dream world.
Why did employers increase the workload to unmanageable levels? If we natives wouldn’t do that level of work previously, who would? Why would employers increase pay when the economic migrants were happy to earn three times what they did back home? Why are the warehouses filled with foreigners? Haven’t you ever sat down and wondered why the logistics sector started to change for the worse at just the time the competitive economic immigrants arrived? Ditto in the warehouses, and retail, and security and the care sector …
I don’t blame the migrants and if we could find a country that would pay three times what we earn an hour now we’d probably all go as well. Yet it is what it is and now even the foreigners can’t hack the workload level they set and everyone is suffering. You’re right when you say the employers and government are responsible, but what is happening now couldn’t and didn’t happen previously without opening the borders to economic migrant competitiveness.
It’s not difficult Franglais, if you’re working you don’t even need google to spell out the collapsing logistics industry from what it once was, you can see it with your own eyes. Would you recommend HGV as a career now from ten years ago? Yet there is one section that will do it and they arrived in their tens of thousands and share a large portion of blame from the mess it’s now in. They came to compete and instead destroyed the job.
http://transportoperator.co.uk/2016/01/29/3568/ ‘Transport Operator has questioned ten former truck drivers about the reasons why they left the industry. They all cited stress as a major factor – highlighting unrealistic scheduling and aggressive micromanagement by telematics, overzealous enforcement, and the aggressive or distracted behavior of other road users as key irritants.’
A mirror vision of industrial failure – the UK lorry trade | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian ‘The Road Haulage Association says it is short of 60,000 drivers, with an ageing workforce shedding another 40,000 by next year. Employers told the committee how hard they try to attract drivers – but plainly not that hard. They all want ready-made, fully trained drivers with several years’ experience. Many turn abroad, hiring 60,000 mainly eastern Europeans …’
Ironically there obviously seems to be more East Euros having rightly made the choice to stay at home an earn less in a lower cost of living economy doing better quality work.Than earn around 100% more,or more like 10% more in real terms,per hour.For a job that requires 100% less driving and 100% more boring/heavy physical non driving work done in a shift.
Also do we hear these same issues within the German/French/Italian/Scandinavian road transport industries for example ?.IE possibly not as politically hamstrung regarding the premise of a truck being that of moving a lot of freight over a long distance.
Although having said all that possibly ‘our’ issues have more to do with an unrealistic retirement age regime.With me also being able to to understand and agree with everything which you’ve said,but not even looking for HGV work.
Aside from the odd one here, we all know what went wrong. If you have free movement of labour people are going to gravitate to the more advanced economies and what was once a career became a stressed out and competitive ‘gig economy’. The unions have largely disappeared and it’s now a free for all.
I’m in the process of accepting Royal Mail till just after Christmas and then start looking all over again. A bit here and a bit there existence. The ones returning home have cottoned on that the job now isn’t what it was, but that has yet to filter through to the businesses that for a decade took piling on the work which the East Europeans would do and take it for granted.
I’ve now realized it’s not a shortage of drivers, it’s a shortage of those capable of doing the hard physical work and the amount now required. I have around another year left of this until I start thinking of retirement and I know already it’s going to be the hardest year of my life. Hopefully I can see it through at my age without maximum stress or injuries due to the physical labour now involved, but I wouldn’t wish it on those younger that have years left to do.
Grandpa:
I’ve now realized it’s not a shortage of drivers, it’s a shortage of those capable of doing the hard physical work and the amount now required. I have around another year left of this until I start thinking of retirement and I know already it’s going to be the hardest year of my life. Hopefully I can see it through at my age without maximum stress or injuries due to the physical labour now involved, but I wouldn’t wish it on those younger that have years left to do.
Ever considered getting on container work?
Physically, about as easy as it gets. Sticking pins may need a hammer taking to em, but thats about it.
Grandpa:
I’ve now realized it’s not a shortage of drivers, it’s a shortage of those capable of doing the hard physical work and the amount now required. I have around another year left of this until I start thinking of retirement and I know already it’s going to be the hardest year of my life. Hopefully I can see it through at my age without maximum stress or injuries due to the physical labour now involved, but I wouldn’t wish it on those younger that have years left to do.
Ever considered getting on container work?
Physically, about as easy as it gets. Sticking pins may need a hammer taking to em, but thats about it.
Applied to a local container depot directly a few weeks ago which was advertised through an agency. The job didn’t exist and I suspect it’s another one of those that I would have been sent to somewhere else to the ones no one else will do … Not the first time that’s happened. In my experience, I’ve given up believing anything agencies tell me anymore. The op was an example of something advertised as a two drop trunk because if they’d have mentioned what it actually was no one would touch it. Although it’s seasonal, Royal Mail nights from what I’ve heard is doable.
Grandpa:
I was recently offered a job at a very low rate, but because I lived close by I decide to give it a go. It lasted three nights and by common agreement it ended. I offer this as a contender for the top ten impossible fixed deadline jobs in the UK.
1/ Rugby to Wellingborough, load and onto Palletways at Litchfield. (Those who have been to Palletways Litchfield will now be laughing as the timetable gives 30 minutes to get through the multiple sheds).
2/ Part unload at SC depot and onto the main hub nearby. Continue unloading from two to four sheds.
3/ Drop trailer.
4/ Pick up trailer.
5/ Pre-loaded full load back to Rugby.
6/ Drop trailer.
7/ Pick up trailer.
8/ Run back empty to Palletways Litchfield.
9/ Drop trailer.
10/ Pick up pre-loaded trailer.
11/ Go through all sheds again to top up the pre-load.
12/ From Palletways back to Rugby.
13/ Drop trailer.
14/ Run solo to nearby.
15/ Pick up trailer to take back to the yard.
Job includes unloading/loading queues, motorway closures and speed limits, trailer swops unstrap/strap up and a time schedule that states things like ‘arrive at 01.03 minutes …’ You have 11 hours, begin …
This was advertised as a straight forward trunk run and a dozen people later on they’re still looking for drivers …
IMO, it’s not a shortage of drivers, but physically demanding labour and impossible deadlines that companies can’t get the drivers to do many jobs. I’m still looking for a trunk run at my age (60+), the description of which bears even a passing resemblance to that advertised.
Makes me tired just reading that! And glad I went for semi retirement on milk tankers!
Eighteen months to retirement , the way your worrying about the job you won’t make it. If you’ve got any sort of private pension 18months extra paying in will make about a pound aweek difference to it then the state pension will kick in at 65. Get out now before you make yourself ill, Plenty of silly part time jobs about to make your money up to a living wage,thats what I did at 63and I loved it. Sorry if it sounds a bit blunt but if the job affects you like it seems it is give this way some thought.
Old Guys Rule.j
I think he’s trying ( rightly ) to say that there really isn’t many/any ‘silly easy part time’ jobs about.Ironically those that could be are being snapped up by desperate or lazy zb younger workers and then turned to zb because they then ask the guvnor to increase the workload to make their required wage up.Then when they’ve got it they can’t hack it and walk away.While 18 months from pension age ( let alone 5 years for those of us caught in the retirement age escalator ) is as bad as 10-15 years if you’ve only got 6 months worth or less of savings back up even if you haven’t got a mortgage or rent to pay.
The job I do it pretty much ‘silly easy part time’, milk tanker trunking on 4 on 4 off. Semi retirement as I call it
I’m sick and tired of the whole thing. I recently got a group text from a company I’d worked for telling everybody to get ready as they were now going to do Christmas shifts for Hermes. No problem I thought, as I don’t work for them anymore, but probably still on the system.
I then go to my agency and they tell me I’ve got a swop and drop at Royal Mail next for the next few weeks which is fine as it’s what I’m looking for. Today I get a text from the company I previously worked for telling me I start at Hermes on Monday night. I get onto the agency and tell them it’s Royal Mail, not Hermes and they said they’ll look into it. Yeah, I’ll bet.
What has happened is my agency have sold me back to the company I worked for, they passed me onto another company they’re involved with, who have subcontracted me out to Hermes! Hermes is not Royal Mail and nor to my knowledge is it a swop and drop. I feel like a thing being passed around these companies … The lies, the deceit, I’m sick of it.
Grandpa:
I’m sick and tired of the whole thing. I recently got a group text from a company I’d worked for telling everybody to get ready as they were now going to do Christmas shifts for Hermes. No problem I thought, as I don’t work for them anymore, but probably still on the system.
I then go to my agency and they tell me I’ve got a swop and drop at Royal Mail next for the next few weeks which is fine as it’s what I’m looking for. Today I get a text from the company I previously worked for telling me I start at Hermes on Monday night. I get onto the agency and tell them it’s Royal Mail, not Hermes and they said they’ll look into it. Yeah, I’ll bet.
What has happened is my agency have sold me back to the company I worked for, they passed me onto another company they’re involved with, who have subcontracted me out to Hermes! Hermes is not Royal Mail and nor to my knowledge is it a swop and drop. I feel like a thing being passed around these companies … The lies, the deceit, I’m sick of it.
Then finally I get a message saying sorry for the confusion, it’s not actually Royal Mail, but its still parcels! As though they didn’t know the difference between Hermes and Royal Mail! Hermes nights is not a single run, is it, as far as I know it’s multiple sub-depot deliveries.
Grandpa:
I’ve now realized it’s not a shortage of drivers, it’s a shortage of those capable of doing the hard physical work and the amount now required. I have around another year left of this until I start thinking of retirement and I know already it’s going to be the hardest year of my life. Hopefully I can see it through at my age without maximum stress or injuries due to the physical labour now involved, but I wouldn’t wish it on those younger that have years left to do.
Ever considered getting on container work?
Physically, about as easy as it gets. Sticking pins may need a hammer taking to em, but thats about it.
Applied to a local container depot directly a few weeks ago which was advertised through an agency. The job didn’t exist and I suspect it’s another one of those that I would have been sent to somewhere else to the ones no one else will do … Not the first time that’s happened. In my experience, I’ve given up believing anything agencies tell me anymore. The op was an example of something advertised as a two drop trunk because if they’d have mentioned what it actually was no one would touch it. Although it’s seasonal, Royal Mail nights from what I’ve heard is doable.
Surely in Rugby and Lutterworth area there must be plenty of work for you? Magna park in Lutterworth? There must be plenty of RDC work where you just need to reverse into a bay or swap a trailer?
I’m in the Army and I’m doing a bit on the side as and when I can be bothered (day or 2 a week) that just involves trailer swaps with the occasional live load, No handball required. I’ve worked for a few different companies for this agency and none of them ever involved unloading the vehicle myself or any manual labour. This multi drop warehouse operative thing carryfast is on about is alien to me and a several people I’ve spoken to, guess it depends on your location though?
Lutterworth and rugby though i would have thought there would be something that would suit your requirements?
I hope Royal Mail works out for you and you manage to get something that fits after Christmas.
Grandpa:
I’ve now realized it’s not a shortage of drivers, it’s a shortage of those capable of doing the hard physical work and the amount now required. I have around another year left of this until I start thinking of retirement and I know already it’s going to be the hardest year of my life. Hopefully I can see it through at my age without maximum stress or injuries due to the physical labour now involved, but I wouldn’t wish it on those younger that have years left to do.
Ever considered getting on container work?
Physically, about as easy as it gets. Sticking pins may need a hammer taking to em, but thats about it.
I work for a company that does both reefer containers and fridges, mostly fruit, just about the easiest job i’ve ever had physically…open doors back on to bay at 90% of customers, not the best pay but it suits me, not pushed either…maybe you should consider fridge work ■■?
Grandpa:
I’ve now realized it’s not a shortage of drivers, it’s a shortage of those capable of doing the hard physical work and the amount now required. I have around another year left of this until I start thinking of retirement and I know already it’s going to be the hardest year of my life. Hopefully I can see it through at my age without maximum stress or injuries due to the physical labour now involved, but I wouldn’t wish it on those younger that have years left to do.
Ever considered getting on container work?
Physically, about as easy as it gets. Sticking pins may need a hammer taking to em, but thats about it.
Applied to a local container depot directly a few weeks ago which was advertised through an agency. The job didn’t exist and I suspect it’s another one of those that I would have been sent to somewhere else to the ones no one else will do … Not the first time that’s happened. In my experience, I’ve given up believing anything agencies tell me anymore. The op was an example of something advertised as a two drop trunk because if they’d have mentioned what it actually was no one would touch it. Although it’s seasonal, Royal Mail nights from what I’ve heard is doable.
Surely in Rugby and Lutterworth area there must be plenty of work for you? Magna park in Lutterworth? There must be plenty of RDC work where you just need to reverse into a bay or swap a trailer?
I’m in the Army and I’m doing a bit on the side as and when I can be bothered (day or 2 a week) that just involves trailer swaps with the occasional live load, No handball required. I’ve worked for a few different companies for this agency and none of them ever involved unloading the vehicle myself or any manual labour. This multi drop warehouse operative thing carryfast is on about is alien to me and a several people I’ve spoken to, guess it depends on your location though?
Lutterworth and rugby though i would have thought there would be something that would suit your requirements?
I hope Royal Mail works out for you and you manage to get something that fits after Christmas.
I thought so too, Rugby being in a sort of Rugby, Crick and Magna Park triangle. It’s the opposite. There are around four major companies here that advertise continually because they’re so bad no one will work for them. No matter what you’re after and what’s promised, you’ll be channeled through to one of these. I remember going for a promised nights out Scotland run to one of them and when I got there it turned out it was a multi-drop London run! It’s how it is; the ones that used to be available; the Supermarkets have all been filled and no one is moving. The latest promised one of Royal Mail that’s turned into Hermes is an example.
Grandpa:
I thought so too, Rugby being in a sort of Rugby, Crick and Magna Park triangle. It’s the opposite. There are around four major companies here that advertise continually because they’re so bad no one will work for them. No matter what you’re after and what’s promised, you’ll be channeled through to one of these. I remember going for a promised nights out Scotland run to one of them and when I got there it turned out it was a multi-drop London run! It’s how it is; the ones that used to be available; the Supermarkets have all been filled and no one is moving. The latest promised one of Royal Mail that’s turned into Hermes is an example.
I live halfway between Rugby and Coventry and although I’ve had the usual ups and downs with my agency, they are generally pretty good at gearing me towards the type of work I’m suited to. It seems to me that you would be happier working at the smaller type of firm who just give you the keys and the paperwork and let you get on with it.
Isn’t it time we stamped our feet a bit more and were somewhat “less co-operative” when it comes to “being managed” by these people?
I was thinking of making myself available on Friday Nights in the run-up to Christmas…
Trouble is, that if you get booked in for a friday night, it is more likely to be chopped and changed about “at the last minute” than any other shift start, I reckon…
NOT good, if you, like me, - like some order to the shifts they have coming in the next week.
It is the side of ZHC work that I try to avoid of course “cancellations and re-bookings” but there it is, nonetheless.
Full timers though - face the prospect of “differing, and flexible arrangements” with the run-up to Christmas, do they not?
Grandpa:
Except you don’t just pull back the curtains, you have to heave them around the back doors (both sides) and strap them up. If the poles, internal straps or curtains protrude on the sides for only a few inches the FLTs will take them off completely. Your fault. There are three lanes left, center and right, so for example you’ll be shouted, ‘left middle’ and you park on the left in the center. On Monday night, the queue was stretching from near the gatehouse to KB and it took an hour to get the few hundred yards there and that’s just one shed. KA, the one with the small railings on entering is known as the ‘tyre popper’ if your rear trailer wheels scrape it … There are just too many trucks in the place at one time and any time up to midnight is chaos. I don’t and wouldn’t do it anymore, but you can literally feel the stress all around you.
It’s funny how different drivers have different experiences at the same places. Yes, the queue could take an hour, but hey ho - you can get even worse on the M25. Along the way, you can read a book or listen to the radio - where’s the stress? Yes, the curtains have to be strapped out of the way, but the FLTs are experts at manoeuvring around them; you know what it’s like and you play the game, I really don’t see the problem. Trunking to Burton, with just one shed, was a doddle compared to before they moved from Fradley with three sheds.
There is plenty of room to turn into the shed doors so if you “pop” your tyres, that is just incompetence.
Franglais:
Ever considered getting on container work?
Physically, about as easy as it gets. Sticking pins may need a hammer taking to em, but thats about it.
Then there would obviously obviously be no problem in finding loads of generic ‘container work’ advertised as distance full load and/or absolutely guaranteed no load handling expected of the driver in terms of handball specifically.
As opposed to the reality for even owner drivers of being at best offered terms of local ‘and’ distance.Which we just know means a few cream jobs shared out on a face fits basis among loads of hopefuls,on the basis of a usual staple diet of collecting and dropping containers at rail heads and carrying out numerous deliveries and collections within a local radius from there.Which we equally just know will involve who knows how much handball work because the consignee and consignor will have no access to mechanical handling equipment on arrival and the driver is expected to work as a ‘team’ player ‘go the extra mile’ and all the other bs euphamisms used to dress up a zb job as something else.
Feel free to prove me wrong by posting any links to job offers to the contrary.If that was the case you can bet the phone would never stop ringing from loads of expectant drivers thinking they’ve struck gold.
Harry Monk:
It seems to me that you would be happier working at the smaller type of firm who just give you the keys and the paperwork and let you get on with it.
More like just give you the keys and say here’s a 9 hour drive involving either a full load out and a full load back or just two drops and possibly one collection take a night out if required.Good luck with that.Oh wait remind us what happened on the Coventry East Anglia run.
