We’ve all heard that old expression when being offered dodgy goods in a pub, and as I was filling up with petrol yesterday and watching the Tesco artic being unloaded outside the Tesco Express, I wondered if cages or pallets ever go missing in this day and age of scanners and barcodes? Do high value items like cigarettes and alcohol go with the main food delivery or do they go in a seperate delivery?
Supermarket drivers, do you have to physically check the contents of each cage and count the bottles of milk and microwave meals in the back of the trailer that it corresponds with your manifest? If you work for Argos or something, do you have to climb in the back and check that you do actually have 100 flatscreen tellys, 80 microwave ovens and all the assorted toasters and irons that should have been loaded?
I just wondered what sort of responsibility lies with the driver once he’s told he is loaded and leaves the yard or distribution centre? Is it possible for the forkie to ‘forget’ to load a pallet, and then it just disappears?
Sorry if it’s a stupid question, but although I have C and CE, I’ve never had to use them yet so have no idea how shrink wrapped pallets, cages, and manifests work?
tesco trailers have an electronic seal on the back,if the handle is moved after loaded and before you get to the delivery it changes.or if they use stobart trailers its got plastic seals,then the stuff is checked at delivery.
Did some work for Asda recently, you just have to count the number of cages/dollies/pallets you deliver. Driver shouldn’t break the seal on back of trailer, but most back door staff to lazy to come and check it. Trailers must always be sealed even when empty.
I also had my cab searched by in store security staff, which meant stopping unloading, unlocking cab, waiting for guy to stick head into cab, locking door, recommencing unloading.
Some food distribution companies, require the driver to count every box going into the outlet (especially fresh meat products) and report discrepancies over £30 immediately to their customer services department. They also have auditors driving round who will randomly check as drivers unload.
Used to talk to a chap down the local occasionally who worked for TNT in a 7.5t. Used to always be flogging stuff he’d ‘found’. Never forget the day he offered me a big barrel of face moisturiser. When I said no his reply was ‘fine ■■■■ ya, stay ugly then.’
We have to count the number of cages/ pallets and make sure that this corresponds with the run manifest and that the “destination label” on each cage/pallet is correct for the store we are delivering to. If delivering to more than 1 store on the same run we have to be particularly careful not to mix them up.
It gets “interesting” when stock is thrown on top of other cages/pallets because room is limited and loaders are trying to ensure “trailer fill” is maximised to achieve the planners KPI target (and one suspects bonus). Had a few miss-loads recently which have meant return to depot or deliver unscheduled if in the area.
I make a point of asking the store staff to check the seal before I break it and, if they can be bothered to hang around after the stock is offloaded, get them to check and record the seal before departure. If they don’t I seal and record the number, comment on the run manifest, and photograph the seal as this will put a date and time stamp on the jpeg file. As for temperature checks most store staff wouldn’t know how to read a control panel so accept what they are told by the driver.
You wouldn’t expect me to comment on high value stock that we may or may not carry would you?
We had a complete pallet of luxury biscuits refused at a supermarket dc as it was not on delivery notes, tried to return it to biscuit factory but they were adamant that there was nothing rejected and nothing to return, and would not give us a returns reference. It took us over a year to get through them and they were past best before date by the time we finished!
Years ago the company i worked for did store deliveries for Tesco ( probably to butter them up ) …everytime i did one i made sure i did not stop between the RDC and the store and i always got the back door guy to break the seal and one day the guy was really checking my load and he looked a bit flustered and when i asked him what was up he said that the load i delivered yesterday had a pallet of wide screen tv’s missing and the RDC was adament they had put it on the truck and the store said they never got them !!
was i glad i always got the guy to break the seal !!
During my time at ASDA Washington we would go to Lutterworth every night with an empty, swap it for a full. Usually didn’t know what was in them unless security told you no to stop on your return, this meant you were full of cigarettes. Never heard of any going missing during the drive but they did find 2000 hidden in the roof of the gym one day. They also caught a driver taking televisions off the back when parked in a layby on the a69, the police drove passed. Another was caught in the back filling shopping bags, he even had a shopping list with him. As for me I did find a box on the floor after tipping & getting notes signed one night, I was eating chewing gum for weeks.
There was a case years ago involving a so-called ‘dark’ warehouse (automated picking inside) where managers and drivers were on a giant scam which involved stock ‘shrinkage’ and diversion to market traders/dodgy corner shops/car booters of large quantities of confectionary.
The company operating the warehouse thought that getting rid of staff would reduce pilferage…it just meant that you only needed a very few people in on the scam to clear a lot of stock out of the back door.
With Tesco you don’t know what you have on, all the paperwork says it ■■ number of cages etc
And I always get the backdoor man to check the seal number before opening up
When I worked at co-op highnvalue goods were put into secure cages whichnwere sealed closed, the cigs were put into clear bags, the cigs were always checked at point of delivery, with the driver present, and damage to the cage or seal and the whole cage was checked, the othee cages were not normally checked although someone used to check stores before loading (every case) then travel to the store (random stores) and check it back off.
I used to regularly carry HV stuff in the prisons, usually boxes of baccy. I still regularly carry full loads of electrical, chocolates, beer & spirits.
Even though the opportunity has been there on many jobs, whether it be electricals, baccy, booze, chocolates Ive never succumbed to temptation, its not worth the hassle, even the temptation of the whole wagon load going astray has been killed off by the advent of trackers.
There was an issue 18 months ago where Id done a delivery to a prison, and as I booked off and walked to my car, the warehouse manager and another guy who turned out to be head of the company security confronted me in the car park & asked could they search me & my car, Id nothing to hide, so I let them look & they found nothing. It turned out someone was stealing pouched of baccy from the tote boxes I & others had been bringing back from that run, so the company was working its way down the chain & eliminating those who came into contact with the load. They finally caught & sacked a yoof in the warehouse for it.
Ive worked with someone who had been sacked for stealing an (8 rasher) pack of bacon, the guy had been working there 10+ yrs. There was a local scandal with people getting jail time for stealing ■■■■ & baccy from the bonded place across the road from the Stockyard, the ■■■■ & baccy where damages, & where sposed to go to the crusher but fell into the car boot
I deliver for a certain big supermarket chain (rhymes with besco…). Normally do chilled but we’re doing more and more grocery stuff at the moment. Quick answer is not a clue. The manifest says how many items are on a cage, but if that’s 80 or 90 odd and there’s another 40- cages to come off, it’s not like you’re gonna stop and count everything off.
So every now and again I shunt in the yard. The key for the castell/salvo/susie locks are on the wall between the bays, so you walk down to the back of the trailer to get the key and you’ll see a half eaten packet of swiss roll on the floor. Pulled a trailer off the bay last week and there was a pallet of TVs, underneath the rear fridge unit. Getting soggier as the fridge is running…
You get to the stores and there’s a tray of sandwiches with one opened and just the crusts left…
The stores know what is happening but the warehouses just are not interested.
And then after all that you get asked if you object to a search of your cab…
All I know is how many cages or dollies I have in. Get to the store, tip them all and reload with empties. All the back door man does is check a number on the cage label, some don’t even do that. The chance of pilferage is high and probably easy but why risk a permanent job for a few quid saved?
It would be easy to take items from the cages when you have more than 1 store to deliver to as you re-seal the back door after the first store and write the seal on the 2nd stores paperwork, but as said whats the point just for a few quid.
…everytime i did one i made sure i did not stop between the RDC and the store and i always got the back door guy to break the seal and one day the guy was really checking my load and he looked a bit flustered and when i asked him what was up he said that the load i delivered yesterday had a pallet of wide screen tv’s missing and the RDC was adament they had put it on the truck and the store said they never got them !! 
