Grayham:
One of the reasons I took my class one was to get out of the multidrop stuff.
One of the regular jobs my agency tries to give me is a Chinese/Indian food company in Nottingham, I did do it one week, Multidrop in an artic. You do get a drivers Mate, but he’s only much use if you can speak arabic or punjabi or whatever it is, also on getting in the cab and turning ignition on the radio is tuned into Mustafa Chant FM or something, (I gave Mr Indian a culture shock by giving him Kerrang Radio all day) anyways…40-50drops? in the artic.
You pull up at Chinese takeaway and eventually they open the door, and just stand there eating noodles pointing you to where they want the stuff putting, some upstairs, some down in the cellar, some in the freezer. I was trying to tell the Mate that it was a ■■■■■■■■ and there was no way we should be doing all that for H&S reasons but he didn’t want to know, was too afraid for his job.
Final straw was when we got to some town, crawled through the town, down the high street looking for this takeaway, we are going down this high street, which is actually quite narrow and theres busses coming the other way, me having to go up the kerb and the bus having to do the same to get past each other, which is pretty scary think to be doing when the pavements are full and people are stepping into the road as pavement is full… there there ! says Mr Indian… I look at Joe Bloggs Chinese takeaway, and the road and the busses and the pedestrians… No chance I say, not stopping here, would cause chaos and far too dangerous for all the peds…In the end I drive past and turn round a few miles further, and come back up the high street the other way, looking for a bustop or alleyway, anywhere to park… theres nowhere… “we must stop” says Mr Indian. Not a chance says
I, we can’t stop here, they’ll have to send it on a van to be here at 7am or something, no way you can stop an artic here at 2pm.
Mr Indian gets on his phone and speaks in Punjabi to his bossman, he says “phone” and tries to pass phone to me, I say just tell him we can’t do it, not safe, and we are heading for the next job… “He say must deliver, go back.” Tell him no chance, its coming back says I… He keeps trying to pass the phone to me… EVentually I screach to a halt in a busstop and take the phone… bossman say I must deliver… tried to explain about the traffic and busses and the pedestrians, not safe… Was like talking to a brick wall… So I say “its coming back” and hang up…
2mins Later my Agency phone up, “We understand your refusing to do a drop for Blah company?” Yes thats right, its not safe etc etc explain etc etc…
Agency mhmm listen mmhmm not really interested in what I say is obvious…
“You must do the drop”… Its not gonna happen says I… Its coming back…
“If you don’t do the drop your not going to work for us anymore”… Fine then if thats the way you want it, I’m still not delivering it, its not a safe place to stop… Bye (hangs up)
We carry on missing this drop, do the rest of the ■■■■ takeaways, more upstairs downstairs dfreezers steps, Nobody helping just standing there watching… get back to yard, park up, go home etc…
Monday Morning…“phone rings - Agency”
“Hi its X, about last week”… “Very angry company got us to give them a driver for Saturday on a van to deliver that load”… “We phoned him up to see what he thought of it and would he have parked an Artic outside that Takeaway?”… Seems whoever that van driver was he claimed it was virtually impossible to park a van there and offload, said no way he would park an Artic there, He backed me up without knowing the whole story… “We’re very sorry about what was said, will you still work for us?”
So you see, Artics does not mean no Multidrops, it just depends what company your sent to… I’ve never been back to that particular company, but there are two Asian food companies in Nottingham run by brothers, and the other one I have done a few days for… although its usually only about 6drops with a mate, so thats doable, 50 is not on.
Darkseeker, I have done the Multidrop on Brakes out of Bilsthorpe, I know exactly what your talking about, its a ■■■■■■■■ putting stuff in customers freezers and store cupboards on your own with nobody helping, I told them what I thought about it. Try to avoid that place now but sometimes you just gotta accept it as thats all thats offered.
I rush from one drop to the next, get there as quick as I can and tip it myself as quick as I can but it’s still no good! I find it the worst, most degrading, most stressful job I do and it’s one reason I’m willing to get myself into another grand’s worth of debt to get my class 1 (or at least have a damned good go)!
Any advice would be much appreciated.
): it seems that company I am working is happy with me and they might want me for longer, but then I had an offer to do some sprinter work to France and Europe, and that what I would really fancy to do…
