After years driving tankers and a while not driving at all, I started back on curtain siders in April.
Pretty quickly I remembered how much I’d always hated having to roll up ratchet straps, and decided to by a ratchet strap winder.
Only cost 16 quid on Amazon and it makes a tedious, time consuming task so much easier.
A couple of the other drivers have tried to take the ■■■■, but when I’m sat in my cab and they’re still stood in the rain rolling up straps I can’t help but feel a smug warmth.
Does anyone else use one? Or, like my esteemed colleagues, would you just take the ■■■■ out of someone for using one?
Most of the drivers where I am at Howdens do because we’re regularly shifting chipboard loads that have between 12-15 straps and on nights it’s possible to end up doing 4 of them in a shift. New drivers don’t tend to take too long before they see us using ours and get their own.
One guy even has one that fits in a small electric drill, it basically looks like a frisbee with two metal pins.
The item looks useful but it would be something I would insist the company buys.
There is a reason companies are VAT cost neutral & only pay tax on profit; i.e. after all expenses have been offset.
When i did pallets I brought one. It saved me tons of getting wet, soggy gloves and general inconvenience. Everybody that saw me with it was impressed, (though mostly not enough to splash out themselves!)
It’s now idle in the garage as I’ve not been on curtains for a couple of years.
A couple of the other drivers have tried to take the ■■■■, but when I’m sat in my cab and they’re still stood in the rain rolling up straps I can’t help but feel a smug warmth.
