RIPPER:
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 ■■?
So Granda says I’ll just do the 90% of customers thanks. 
Santa:
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.
I can see your point about everyone is different, but times your one shed at Palletways by five and you have a deadline of 30 minutes for the whole lot. It isn’t going to happen, is it. It’s why the job is on permanent advertisement.
What I’m trying to say is that the ‘good’ or doable jobs at my age are now a closed shop, you can’t get anywhere near them. What’s left are the four companies in this area who predominantly used foreign labour and now can’t get anyone to do the work. They’re the multi-drop, physical labour types. The op is one example, another is being given by an agency to a private company, who subcontract you out to one of the four (Hermes) and try to convince you it’s a drop and swop with Royal Mail.
OK, downgrade and go class 2 and this is the sort of thing I’m being offered.
https://tomorange.co.uk/hgv-class-2-driver-50-hrs-p-w-whetstone/
We all know that vacancy is still going to be on offer six months from now! ‘Ripper’ suggests the type of job I could do, but they’re just not available. Honestly guys, wait till you get in your late 50’s, or even near mid-60s as I am now and these are just impossible jobs. I wouldn’t even attempt them and put myself through the stress and possible physical injury that might occur.
Today, I’ll also start job hunting for work outside driving and see if there’s anything else available out there.
Grandpa, with the greatest possible respect it’s possible to talk yourself into a mind-frame, i’m older than you i suspect but have no trouble working blokes half my age under the table if i needed to, its attitude as much as anything, there’s blokes past retirement age still piloting car transporters about and you won’t much more demanding work than that these days other than plant and handball shop/pub dels.
No i wouldn’t do multi drop pallet work, whether artic or rigid because imho it’s bloody horrible work and the vast majority of the planners and bods behind the desks i’ve met so far are ‘unprintable’, let alone the miserable as sin forkies, but others thrive on and seem to enjoy it, each to their own eh?
Foreigners doing all the hard work?, don’t think so mate not once they get their feet under the table, but there are exceptions in everything, some nationalities are more bolshy than others and Brits are in no position to lecture others on this subject, but some of the foreigners try to make their new work place a bit of closed shop where they rule and try to discourage others, that’s happened not just in driving by the way.
I had a very interesting Lithuanian lad who i trained up a while ago, young capable wanted to learn and very smart, one thing that stuck in my mind why he wanted to work here…‘‘the English work here for years, they don’t stay at rubbish companies if there’s an alternative’’ 
" hello, I’m interested in the job you have advertised, where will I be going ? "
" Palletways "
" Goodbye "
Trukkertone:
" hello, I’m interested in the job you have advertised, where will I be going ? "" Palletways "
" Goodbye "
They don’t usually tell you that until you actually get your paperwork. Mine op was described as a straight two trunk job. Look on it as a kind of surprise. 
Juddian:
Grandpa, with the greatest possible respect it’s possible to talk yourself into a mind-frame, i’m older than you i suspect but have no trouble working blokes half my age under the table if i needed to, its attitude as much as anything, there’s blokes past retirement age still piloting car transporters about and you won’t much more demanding work than that these days other than plant and handball shop/pub dels.No i wouldn’t do multi drop pallet work, whether artic or rigid because imho it’s bloody horrible work and the vast majority of the planners and bods behind the desks i’ve met so far are ‘unprintable’, let alone the miserable as sin forkies, but others thrive on and seem to enjoy it, each to their own eh?
Foreigners doing all the hard work?, don’t think so mate not once they get their feet under the table, but there are exceptions in everything, some nationalities are more bolshy than others and Brits are in no position to lecture others on this subject, but some of the foreigners try to make their new work place a bit of closed shop where they rule and try to discourage others, that’s happened not just in driving by the way.
I had a very interesting Lithuanian lad who i trained up a while ago, young capable wanted to learn and very smart, one thing that stuck in my mind why he wanted to work here…‘‘the English work here for years, they don’t stay at rubbish companies if there’s an alternative’’
I’m 64, near 65. I can kind of see your point as it looks like I’m being too picky, but at my age I tell the agencies and employers beforehand that I can’t do un/loading or multi-drops. Yet that’s the only work available and they all tell me it’s one drop, or no handball – a bit like the Royal Mail job offered turned into Hermes sub-depot multi-drops.
I’ll do a distance run and a collection on the way back, nights out if required, long hours … It’s just that I know what I’m capable of and what not. I’ll do the driving, but no longer the physical side of it. I know I can’t work blokes half my age under the table, I wouldn’t even try. Work isn’t a competition, it’s either something you can do, or not and I’m aware of my limits without having to going on the sick through injuries to prove it. How many near 65 year olds do you see in the transport offices of companies like Stobart’s, Warrens, or Hermes?
You need off the agencies mate, they’re crap with a capital C.
They lie and con, just like politicians, and it’s no good trying after lying and taking the ■■■■ out of us for years to plead that they’ve changed (lessons have been learned 
), we’ve learned the hard way you (agencies and politicians) just aint worth the bother.
Juddian:
You need off the agencies mate, they’re crap with a capital C.
They lie and con, just like politicians, and it’s no good trying after lying and taking the ■■■■ out of us for years to plead that they’ve changed (lessons have been learned
Yes, you’re right, only the op wasn’t with an agency and neither was the previous job I tried – curtain sider strapping up scrap metal and waste products. Trying to fling straps 12 feet in the air over a load of sludge and trying to dry myself out and remove the stink with the night heater …
The good jobs with the supermarkets or Royal Mail are now a closed shop. You can’t get near those places anymore.
I’m looking at the type of work I’m being offered … Perhaps I made a mistake in believing there was a ‘variety’ of work and not just the bottom of the barrel work I’m being offered. Time for a possible re-think? I have a genuine UK Master’s Degree, verifiable man management and problem solving skills … I’m beginning to wonder if I’m wasting my time with driving given that I’m now realizing it’s all based around physical work, lies and deceit. Yet that’s all that’s left and why they hand them to the agencies because they can’t get anyone else to do them.
You have to think laterally mate, RM and the supermarkets aren’t all there is, in many cases supermarket work has gone to the likes of the green death or the several logistics giants so ain’t as hot as some would believe any more, some high pay figures being bandied about until you see what shifts are required, let alone the attitudes than can be found within.
One thing hasn’t changed in transport in the 4 decades i’ve been at it, and i doubt it will.
Good jobs are not advertised for a variety of reasons, conversely those who need to advertise are usually places who for umpteen reasons can’t attract or keep good drivers.
I’ve had one job in my life by response to an advert, without peer it was the crappest job of the lot, i lasted 3 months (we were in the middle of an early 80’s downturn) and those childish twerps in the office wouldn’t speak to me after i put me notice in, you have to think outside the box of those places that just carry on year in year out without being really noticed and go and knock on those doors, those companies who don’t appear on these pages with pics of their wagons propping bridges up and such.
Carryfast:
RIPPER:
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 ■■?So Granda says I’ll just do the 90% of customers thanks.
The other 10% are backing onto a ramp or half a dozen unloaders jump into the container to handball it off…STFU Carryfast know-it-all 
Juddian:
You have to think laterally mate, RM and the supermarkets aren’t all there is, in many cases supermarket work has gone to the likes of the green death or the several logistics giants so ain’t as hot as some would believe any more, some high pay figures being bandied about until you see what shifts are required, let alone the attitudes than can be found within.One thing hasn’t changed in transport in the 4 decades i’ve been at it, and i doubt it will.
Good jobs are not advertised for a variety of reasons, conversely those who need to advertise are usually places who for umpteen reasons can’t attract or keep good drivers.
I’ve had one job in my life by response to an advert, without peer it was the crappest job of the lot, i lasted 3 months (we were in the middle of an early 80’s downturn) and those childish twerps in the office wouldn’t speak to me after i put me notice in, you have to think outside the box of those places that just carry on year in year out without being really noticed and go and knock on those doors, those companies who don’t appear on these pages with pics of their wagons propping bridges up and such.
Previously I worked BT RDC night trunks and occasionally the supermarket RDCs at w/ends for years. They couldn’t get drivers and then the floodgates opened. Those sort of jobs are the ones I chose then and the ones I’m capable of doing now, have gone. I ‘knock on doors’ and they’re the same doors that are asking agencies to fill their vacancies because they can’t get drivers.
At the heart of it is everyone is cutting costs and the workloads have become unmanageable. If they can’t even get young guys to do it anymore, I’m not going to be able to do it either. You refuse the worst agency ones and you don’t hear anything from them again. I’ve written to several companies and explained my age and what I’m capable of doing. Again silence. It’s a, ‘there’s the job, here’s the workload, take it or leave it.’ It’s not a question of getting a manageable job, they just aren’t advertised anymore because the ones that have them know what it’s like out here and they’re sticking with them.
RIPPER:
Carryfast:
RIPPER:
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 ■■?So Granda says I’ll just do the 90% of customers thanks.
The other 10% are backing onto a ramp or half a dozen unloaders jump into the container to handball it off…STFU Carryfast know-it-all
So Grandpa says no problem just so long as there will always be half a dozen labourers there to do all the unloading loading.I won’t be involved.Yeah right.The phones at all the prospective container work employers would never stop ringing with all the hopeful applicants.Especially one notable continuously advertising for owner driver container haulers.Nothing in the ad about no loading/unloading duties required but just know that Distance ‘and’ Local doesn’t mean the ‘choice’ of ‘only’ Distance ‘or’ Local and that ‘local’ means loads of loading and tipping ‘duties’ required.While surely the ad would be only too keen to say that the job requires no labouring duties whatsoever by the driver in that case if I’m wrong.
Carryfast:
RIPPER:
Carryfast:
RIPPER:
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 ■■?So Granda says I’ll just do the 90% of customers thanks.
The other 10% are backing onto a ramp or half a dozen unloaders jump into the container to handball it off…STFU Carryfast know-it-all
So Grandpa says no problem just so long as there will always be half a dozen labourers there to do all the unloading loading.I won’t be involved.Yeah right.The phones at all the prospective container work employers would never stop ringing with all the hopeful applicants.Especially one notable continuously advertising for owner driver container haulers.Nothing in the ad about no loading/unloading duties required but just know that Distance ‘and’ Local doesn’t mean the ‘choice’ of ‘only’ Distance ‘or’ Local and that ‘local’ means loads of loading and tipping ‘duties’ required.While surely the ad would be only too keen to say that the job requires no labouring duties whatsoever by the driver in that case if I’m wrong.
I don’t really care if it’s container or anything else. I can’t un/load 26 pallets Aldi style and I’m not strong enough anymore to pull back curtains and un/strap loads half a dozen times a shift. Sure, I’ll help and I’m not being bolshie, but I’m not going to risk injury trying to do it on my own. If I were suddenly to say I injured myself trying to do that sort of physical labour, what would the reply be? Something like, why did you attempt to do it when you knew you couldn’t?
Take the latest offer and first lie about Royal Mail, which suddenly turned into Hermes. Second porky is that it involves taking an empty trailer down the road for half an hour and bring back a full one. Full stop, that’s it. That’s rubbish and in many of these promises you have to read between the lines. No one is going to pay you a minimum eight hours for one and a half hours work. You’ll come back with the trailer and they’ll either send you into the warehouse loading, or out on multi-drops.
So why do they lie? Because if they put a workload of something like the op in an advert instead of it being advertised as a two drop trunk no one would do it. We’re manipulated and lied to and we’ve come to accept it as a normal part of the job. There are companies now that have such a bad reputation that no one will touch them anymore and it’s these vacancies that many of the adverts are trying to fill by pretending they’re just normal jobs. I have no problem with driving, I’ll help with some of the physical work, but I’m not joining in with the mission impossible work that’s now standard practice.
Carryfast:
RIPPER:
Carryfast:
RIPPER:
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 ■■?So Granda says I’ll just do the 90% of customers thanks.
The other 10% are backing onto a ramp or half a dozen unloaders jump into the container to handball it off…STFU Carryfast know-it-all
So Grandpa says no problem just so long as there will always be half a dozen labourers there to do all the unloading loading.I won’t be involved.Yeah right.The phones at all the prospective container work employers would never stop ringing with all the hopeful applicants.Especially one notable continuously advertising for owner driver container haulers.Nothing in the ad about no loading/unloading duties required but just know that Distance ‘and’ Local doesn’t mean the ‘choice’ of ‘only’ Distance ‘or’ Local and that ‘local’ means loads of loading and tipping ‘duties’ required.While surely the ad would be only too keen to say that the job requires no labouring duties whatsoever by the driver in that case if I’m wrong.
Fancy that, another sector of the industry he’s never worked in but suddenly thinks he knows everything about it. The reason container companies phones don’t ring off the hook is not all drivers are happy sitting round for hours on end, not because they have to get in back and unload…have you seen the size of some container drivers?! Oh wait you won’t as you don’t work in the transport industry. Let’s just say handballing a full container load would kill many of them stone dead!
If you live in Rugby why don’t you have a drive down to dpd at Hinckley and find
Out what agencies they are using. They will be desperate for agency drivers this
time of year and there night run are dead easy.
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
So Grandpa says no problem just so long as there will always be half a dozen labourers there to do all the unloading loading.I won’t be involved.Yeah right.The phones at all the prospective container work employers would never stop ringing with all the hopeful applicants.Especially one notable continuously advertising for owner driver container haulers.Nothing in the ad about no loading/unloading duties required but just know that Distance ‘and’ Local doesn’t mean the ‘choice’ of ‘only’ Distance ‘or’ Local and that ‘local’ means loads of loading and tipping ‘duties’ required.While surely the ad would be only too keen to say that the job requires no labouring duties whatsoever by the driver in that case if I’m wrong.Fancy that, another sector of the industry he’s never worked in but suddenly thinks he knows everything about it. The reason container companies phones don’t ring off the hook is not all drivers are happy sitting round for hours on end, not because they have to get in back and unload…have you seen the size of some container drivers?! Oh wait you won’t as you don’t work in the transport industry. Let’s just say handballing a full container load would kill many of them stone dead!
Great so now all Grandpa has to do is look for one those numerous Container work ads which will obviously want to big up the fact that the most strenuous part of the job is turning the twist locks and opening and closing the doors. 
Carryfast:
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
So Grandpa says no problem just so long as there will always be half a dozen labourers there to do all the unloading loading.I won’t be involved.Yeah right.The phones at all the prospective container work employers would never stop ringing with all the hopeful applicants.Especially one notable continuously advertising for owner driver container haulers.Nothing in the ad about no loading/unloading duties required but just know that Distance ‘and’ Local doesn’t mean the ‘choice’ of ‘only’ Distance ‘or’ Local and that ‘local’ means loads of loading and tipping ‘duties’ required.While surely the ad would be only too keen to say that the job requires no labouring duties whatsoever by the driver in that case if I’m wrong.Fancy that, another sector of the industry he’s never worked in but suddenly thinks he knows everything about it. The reason container companies phones don’t ring off the hook is not all drivers are happy sitting round for hours on end, not because they have to get in back and unload…have you seen the size of some container drivers?! Oh wait you won’t as you don’t work in the transport industry. Let’s just say handballing a full container load would kill many of them stone dead!
Great so now all Grandpa has to do is look for one those numerous Container work ads which will obviously want to big up the fact that the most strenuous part of the job is turning the twist locks and opening and closing the doors.
Well shouldn’t be hard, there’s plenty of them. That’s also what word of mouth and forums are for.
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
So Grandpa says no problem just so long as there will always be half a dozen labourers there to do all the unloading loading.I won’t be involved.Yeah right.The phones at all the prospective container work employers would never stop ringing with all the hopeful applicants.Especially one notable continuously advertising for owner driver container haulers.Nothing in the ad about no loading/unloading duties required but just know that Distance ‘and’ Local doesn’t mean the ‘choice’ of ‘only’ Distance ‘or’ Local and that ‘local’ means loads of loading and tipping ‘duties’ required.While surely the ad would be only too keen to say that the job requires no labouring duties whatsoever by the driver in that case if I’m wrong.Fancy that, another sector of the industry he’s never worked in but suddenly thinks he knows everything about it. The reason container companies phones don’t ring off the hook is not all drivers are happy sitting round for hours on end, not because they have to get in back and unload…have you seen the size of some container drivers?! Oh wait you won’t as you don’t work in the transport industry. Let’s just say handballing a full container load would kill many of them stone dead!
Great so now all Grandpa has to do is look for one those numerous Container work ads which will obviously want to big up the fact that the most strenuous part of the job is turning the twist locks and opening and closing the doors.
Well shouldn’t be hard, there’s plenty of them. That’s also what word of mouth and forums are for.
Or maybe he doesn’t look the part overweight half arse showing looks like a layabout filthy hi vis grunts when spoken to and smells something awful like he needs a wash
In the end, it turns back onto the poster. Water off a ducks back. Guys, there’s a reason why there are so many complaints and tales of aggravation on here. I’ve seen office staff literally screaming at one another in transport offices. I’ve seen near fights break out amongst driver’s queue hopping. I’ve been sent to jobs advertised as trunking that were shunting and permanent jobs that were holiday relief and two drop trunks that ended up described in the op … I applied for container work through an agency ad I came across, but went to the company directly. The job didn’t exist, but then when then I applied for it to the agency they had something else instead … ‘It’s just up your street’, ‘the last guy said it was doddle’ (I wonder why he left) - The same rubbish advertised all year around no one else will do.
How did it ever get to this state?! Don’t give me all this ‘knights of the Road’ and ‘we can do it’ nonsense, you’re all suffering and you only have to read the forum posts to see that. If you have a manageable job you’re lucky and hold on to it, because the alternative is the rubbish out here that they can’t get drivers for. Do you think these people know something you don’t?
http://transportoperator.co.uk/2016/01/29/3568/ and read the comments.
Do I look as described in the last few posts? Fortunately no. Yet at nearly 65 years old I won’t be joining you in the doctor’s surgery with stress related symptoms, sprained wrists and a bad back either. We all know the job is now the pits and although I’ll hold onto my licence, I’ll also be looking for other types of work away from the lies and chaos that was once a good career choice. I feel sorry for and have all the sympathy in the world for the drivers now competing against each other and being worked into the ground just to keep themselves financially above water, but there has to be something else that you don’t come home to feeling exhausted and stressed every day. I’ve spent four months being shunted around various dead end jobs; the lies, the stress, the unmanageable killer runs … And it doesn’t get any better. Don’t keep blaming the driver, because for those out there that still love the job, you’re a small minority.