What is the most boring shift you have ever had to do?
As an agency driver, I go to work prepared for anything but never this shift, I laughed at the TM when he told me what I was doing tonight…
Jump in that unit over there, get loaded with 24 pallets, drive 100 yards and get unloaded by a different forkie, I have done 49 mins driving in a 12 hour shift, only done 7 loads as the factory is running a bit slow.
I did ask why not just use the fork lift but it’s apparently an elf an safety issue, we live in a very crazy world, the agency have probably charged the company about £160 for me to move 168 pallets 100 yards.
Running sand and shingle to Smiths Concrete at Cassington from Ducklington. About 11 loads per day (12 if they’re busy and it’s school holidays-A40 you see). It’s mind numbing after the first 3 loads and you’ve got those stupid traffic lights at Cassington that leave you waiting to turn even when there’s nothing coming towards you. Add to the fact it pays a good bonus so whoever is working with you will normally drive flatout all the way there and back just adds the feeling of despair…
Matty72:
What is the most boring shift you have ever had to do?
Only a few weeks ago i was spare driver as a couple of loads got cancelled and spent about 7 hrs sat in the canteen watching bleeding daytime tv, those 7 hrs felt like 14 hrs and in the end went home and didn’t do any work
Many years ago, I was at Wisemans, when they were in Taunton. It was a bank holiday, so they had 10 relief drivers on duty, in case it went wrong. I was one of them. At the time, it was £5.30 an hour, TRIPLE time and 10 hrs min.
I was the only one to go out. I had to go to Bridgewater and collect 8 x 2litre green and 8 x 2ltr blue which had been overordered.
When I got to the garage, I was asked to leave them as they were selling.
When i worked for Tesco Brackmills, doing Kiln Farm change over, 3 loads per shift and so boring it made me get a more interesting job and stick Tesco’s high pay and pension.
I went in for a 9hr shift and ended up doing a delivery 1 mile up the road which took about 10mins, managed to drag it out for 5hrs though make it worth while going in
While working for The AA doing recovery on nights, started my shift one night doing an 8pm til 5.45am. Sat the whole night in a Tesco carpark in Springburn, Glasgow waiting for a job. Not a single job untill 15 mins before my shift was due to end. Fortunately it was just a local job and didn’t take too long. But 9hrs in a Tesco carpark has to be my most boring shift I have ever done.
2 I have done in past stand out first one I did was as follows
Empty trailer from Normanton - CCE Wakefield swap trailer return loaded to Normanton x 3 a night did used to get 13hrs a night in with that tho lol
2nd one at Asda - Asda Normanton - Asda Doncaster (store) wait ten hours to tip whilst I watched Beatrix Potter, Black Christmas and Eragon at local cinema, finally get to tip then return to Asda Normanton
When I was on the tippers, the road lorries used to do internal work occasionally when there was a problem with either the processing plant or the internal dumpers.
The worst of them was loading from the back of the plant, driving a hundred yards, tipping on the stockpile and driving back…repeat until brain dead ( usually about an hour ) then carry on repeating for another 11 hours! Usually two of us so at least we could have a natter on the cb but still mind-numbingly boring, non-stop apart from a very short break, and very dusty…
If you had really ■■■■■■ someone off, you got to have another go tomorrow…
Yesterday…!!!. Ran from Clacket lane to Winchester 40 ft dv household goods 3hr unload then to Swindon reload. Yeah household goods again 7hrs 20 mins finished a 450 page book after 4 hrs so decided to muck in and help (Don’t tell the h+s crew ) Parked at Membury at 20.00 back to fxto tip and turn home for 10.30. Pays the bills but can be mindnumbing at times… Just to add a grand total of 254kms and 14 1/2 hrs
I’ve done a few: eight hours driving a chair in Blake’s canteen for a start. Five trips a day between the Ford foundry at Leamington and the tip next to Magna Park was pretty boring by the second week.
The worst ever was working for the firm that supplied suspension legs to the Rover factory at Longbridge. They had a small factory unit in Redditch and they had to stack the legs into stillages in the right sequence. I spent a month working for them starting every evening at 8 PM until 6 AM. In that time I would make one or, on a busy night, two trips to Longbridge (15 miles each way). I asked if I could go home and put my feet up but leave the phone on; but they wouldn’t allow that - I had to sit there all night with nothing to do, and not even a comfy chair to go to sleep in.
Matty72:
What is the most boring shift you have ever had to do?
Only a few weeks ago i was spare driver as a couple of loads got cancelled and spent about 7 hrs sat in the canteen watching bleeding daytime tv, those 7 hrs felt like 14 hrs and in the end went home and didn’t do any work
would have to agree hated with a passion being a spare driver at asda same thing 8 hours sat on an uncomfy chair with daytime tv on!
Piston broke:
When I was on the tippers, the road lorries used to do internal work occasionally when there was a problem with either the processing plant or the internal dumpers.
The worst of them was loading from the back of the plant, driving a hundred yards, tipping on the stockpile and driving back…repeat until brain dead ( usually about an hour ) then carry on repeating for another 11 hours! Usually two of us so at least we could have a natter on the cb but still mind-numbingly boring, non-stop apart from a very short break, and very dusty…
If you had really ■■■■■■ someone off, you got to have another go tomorrow…
Have been lumped with the Spare Driver shift a few times, don’t even get close to lorry most of the time. Now if the TM tells me I’m Spare I give him my mobile number and head back to the car for a snooze - I find if you’re out of their sight, they forget about you. Then after about 7 hours I’ll wander in to the Office, ask if anything needs doing, if they say No, I’ll disappear - 8 hours min shift, easy money but seriously boring…!
Did it once, after 7 hours they asked me to run a unit over to the garage (3 miles away) and then someone would pick me up then I could knock off; so dropped the unit to the garage, couldn’t be bothered to wait for the lift so walked back in the sunshine with a cuppa tea from the nearby burger van.
) then carry on repeating for another 11 hours! Usually two of us so at least we could have a natter on the cb but still mind-numbingly boring, non-stop apart from a very short break, and very dusty…
Just to add a grand total of 254kms and 14 1/2 hrs