S. Elmsall …
Was anyone there on Wednesday 
. The site was covered in dummies.
“Yes, we are refusing your load because YOU ARE NOT PUTTING THE PALLETS IN STRAIGHT ENOUGH LINES” 
.
Paperwork signed as follows :
14 pallets accepted
18 refused, ref P.Tetley
Due to driver being uncooperative
Hands up for what my reaction to that was
I take it that you too are now banned from there? Feels good, doesn’t it! 
Lucy:
I take it that you too are now banned from there? Feels good, doesn’t it!
No, I’m not. Much to my annoyance. I tried my best though.
Better luck next time…I found the “refusing point blank to tip it” method worked a treat, but then I had my then gaffer on the phone to them saying the same thing. By the time they’d had a repeat performance from another of our drivers 10 minutes later, they gave up and banned the whole firm…
…we were, as I’m sure you can imagine, gutted.
Ps. This was with a container, mind, so we weren’t desperate for the contract. Helps.
Lucy:
Better luck next time…I found the “refusing point blank to tip it” method worked a treat, but then I had my then gaffer on the phone to them saying the same thing. By the time they’d had a repeat performance from another of our drivers 10 minutes later, they gave up and banned the whole firm……we were, as I’m sure you can imagine, gutted.
Ps. This was with a container, mind, so we weren’t desperate for the contract. Helps.
Like everyone involving me, there’s a story to it and it will follow soon.
Netto at South Elmsall was the first site I ever got banned from - had a right rare up with the security there about 8 year ago. Used to do a trunk run from there warehouse in Reading to collect frozen stuff then bring it back to Reading, oh, and one delivery on the way there in Hoddesdon, getting banned off that site was the best thing that ever happend, they are a crap company.
Rob, next time use their electric pallet truck to rip the bottoms out of the pallets as well as leaving them spread all over their loading bay. It worked for me 
Simon:
Rob, next time use their electric pallet truck to rip the bottoms out of the pallets as well as leaving them spread all over their loading bay. It worked for me
what make’s you think he never 
So the story goes thus :
Wednesday morning in Birch yard I’m told I’ll be loading at Macaws at Nelson for Netto’s so I enquire as to who will be unloading the trailer.
‘You will’.
‘Oh okay. So how much extra are you paying me then, on top of my normal hourly rate?’
‘Nothing’.
‘Well in that case the stuff won’t be coming off the trailer’.
‘Why’s that then?’
‘Because I’m employed as a class 1 driver, not a warehouseman’.
‘This is how Netto’s work though’.
‘Fair enough, but I’m still not self-tipping. I’ve been banned from there before [actually a lie] so I can’t go anyway’.
‘You’re not banned with us’.
‘True, but if they recognise me then the job will be moofed’.
Anyway, Mark comes on the phone and asks what the problem is so I repeat it all back to him.
‘Well I didn’t know about your history with Netto’s but as I haven’t got anyone else to do this run and it’s due there at 0800 (it’s 0730 now and I’m still at Birch and have to get up to Nelson, get loaded and over to Netto’s yet) I need you to do this one please. Will you do this one for me and now I know about your problem with Netto’s I won’t send you there again?’
Thought was fair enough and he’d come half way to meet me so I agreed.
Got loaded and got over to Netto’s for about 1040. I thought that it was still booked in at 0800 so decided not to stop at Pearl’s beforehand as that would just be taking the 
, so went straight there. I later learned that it had been rebooked for noon after I’d entered site so could have got my breakfast first rather than waiting until I got out, which was to be a big mistake.
So I book in and am given my ‘drivers’ red vest which was reluctantly donned and sent to bay 52 where I backed on. Went and booked in :
‘Have you driven an electric truck before?’
‘No, sorry. Only diesel ones…’ ‘…Yes I have’.
‘Sign the book then please’.
So I made up some random name and awaited a key to be returned for a truck. Didn’t have to wait long and soon I was on my way. Two minutes later I was back again waiting for another truck as the battery was low on mine and although ran around okay, didn’t have enough juice to lift the pallets.
Off again after five minutes and merrily pulling the pallets off and depositing them in my ‘lane’ in roughish lines.
After I’d taken 8 of them off the warehouse manager comes over to me :
‘They’re no good like that’.
‘Like what?’
‘All over the place’.
‘What is?’
‘Your pallets’.
‘And?’
‘You need to put them in nice neat lines’.
‘Why?’
‘So that we can get our long forks underneath them to be able to pick up 3 pallets at a time’.
‘[pointing at the pallet truck] Be my guest then!’
‘No, you’ve got to do it’.
‘I’ve got to do all’. 
‘Just straighten them up about then yeah?’
‘No! You tell the drivers who come here it’s a self-tip and that’s exactly what I’m doing. If you don’t like where I’m putting the pallets then either sort them out yourself, tip the load yourself or shut the up. What you do with the pallets after I’ve taken them out of the trailer is nothing to do with me and I couldn’t give a hoot what you do with them to be perfectly honest as long as you don’t put them back on my trailer. You should be flaming well grateful that I’m even taking them off the trailer for you considering that that is actually YOUR job anyway’.
Anyway, some of the pallets were getting broken - accidentally - as the pop was on euro pallets and of course the pallet truck is designed for Chep’s so you’d think you were in line to lift them up but then suddenly you’d hear the distinct sound of the pallet cracking and the arse falling out of it. This was seen by said warehouse man :
‘All those pallets that you’re breaking will be going back’.
‘Well take them off yourself then if you don’t like it’.
‘No that’s your job’.
‘No, WRONG, it’s YOUR JOB’.
‘Well we’ll just refuse the whole lot’.
‘Do it then, save me taking anymore off. I’ll take them all back, it’s no problem to me pal. And while you’re at it, ban me too and put it in writing so that I don’t have to come back to this hell-hole ever again’.
‘Why can’t you put them in line like the driver at the side of you is doing?’
‘Because he’s a mug, bowing down to you and doing whatever you say - a true company man and it up for the rest of us’.
At that point I’d taken so many pallets off that with the warehouse itself being dark and the trailer curtains being a dark colour I was really struggling to see where the pallet truck forks were going in the trailer. I went to grab the bay light to shine in the back but there was no bulb in it.
‘Is it any wonder the pallets are getting broken when I can’t even see the things. There isn’t even a bulb in the light’.
‘Everyone else manages okay’.
Anyway, after pulling 14 pallets off he went over and lifted up the ramp so that I couldn’t take anymore off and then walked off and disappeared. I ditched the truck, went back to the desk, got my keys and went and sat in the wagon.
Ten minutes he came out and handed me my paperwork :
‘Pull off the bay and leave site please’.
The paperwork said :
14 pallets accepted
18 refused, ref P.Tetley
Due to driver being uncooperative.
Meanwhile, Archbold’s driver and company man Mick ‘I’ve got Archbold’s bed linen and underpants’ (sorry Jim ) came over and asked what was going on so I told him.
He’s the sort that would jump off a bridge if the company asked him to.
I pulled into the lorry parking area, with the rear doors still open, and belled chaos-control and told them. Their response was basically in support of me because I’d done my bit of taking the pallets off and it’s not my job to put them in nice neat lines for them. Maybe I should have brought my tape measure . They said to strap the load up and take it back to Macaws and to make sure I got a receipt for it, so that’s what I did. Trouble was, unknown to me, they’d returned two pallets which were damaged at the bottom and just dumped them in front of each other on the trailer so instead of using 2 straps criss-crossed across the remainder of the load I now had to use 8 straps to strap in these two returned ones, two on either side of them. This took the best part of 45 minutes as the wind was blowing a bit and flapping the curtains like mad.
Returned to the cab to find 12 missed calls from chaos-control and after belling them up they asked if I’d just go back on the bay, do exactly as they asked and get shut of the load. I agreed to go back on the bay and finish tipping but I wasn’t going to make any effort to get them in exact straight lines. This was agreed and so I went back to the desk and presented them with the paperwork again.
‘I understand you want the remainder of this stuff now?’
‘[Looking at the paperwork] No. Take it away’.
But, but, where’s my ban■■? 
No ban.
So off I went to the security gate with the trailer sealed up. I was really looking forward to him asking to look in the back as I would have said :
‘Yes no problem. Just make sure the doors are closed properly when you’ve finished’.
But he didn’t. He just took the red vest off me and let me out.
Still no ban.
Of course, by this time it was nearly 1500 and Pearl’s had shut but I was bloody starving. I went up to that one just on the junction with the A1 from South Elmsall if you’re heading northbound. Can’t remember what it’s called but they do a nice breakfast there and are open while 1600 too. If it wasn’t for the price of it £4.50 - it would get a Rob K seal of approval.
Great stuff Rob.
Have you asked to see Nettos insurance paperwork that insures you for driving an electric truck that you’re not fully trained on?
ianyng:
Great stuff Rob.
Have you asked to see Nettos insurance paperwork that insures you for driving an electric truck that you’re not fully trained on?
No, could never be arsed with any of that to be honest. Never been trained on them anyway but I’ll turn my hand to most things and if I can safely drive a 44 tonner then I’m sure a leccy pallet truck doesn’t take much working out.
I just hate the place and it’s a principal’s thing. Same goes for Aldi and Lidl. If we don’t all stick together on it now you’ll be doing it everywhere you go - Tesco’s, Asda’s, etc etc. You watch, I’ll be referring back to these words in years to come when you all start ranting and raving about self-tipping at all the RDC’s.
What I didn’t mention above (because I’d forgotten) was that there was a 45ft container back on alongside me on bay 53. The guy got out, came inside, got one of the warehouse lads to get him a stack of pallets and promptly started hand-balling the contents (right to the back doors, floor to ceiling) off on to the pallets.
‘What are you doing?’, I says to him.
‘Eh?’
‘Why are you unloading the container?’
‘This is what we do’.
‘Says who?’
‘My gaffer’.
‘You’re off your head. The container is nothing to do with you, it’s theirs and all you’re doing as driver is bringing it from the dock to the delivery point for them to do what they want with it and then take it away. It’s not your job to unload it, it’s theirs. Are you getting a nice tidy bonus for unloading it’.
‘No but we get paid £360 top line and that includes unloading the boxes’.
‘You seriously need your head examining pal’, and off I went leaving him to it.
MUG.
Most companies don’t insure drivers inside the containers, so he shouldn’t be doin’ that.
As for askin’ for insurance paperwork for eleccy pallet trucks, I just like to be ■■■■ awquard Rob.
You’re my hero.
kitkat:
Simon:
Rob, next time use their electric pallet truck to rip the bottoms out of the pallets as well as leaving them spread all over their loading bay. It worked for mewhat make’s you think he never
Ah well, you did anyway and it still didn’t work , never mind, better luck next time (if there is one)
Rob, objectionable [zb] though you can be, you’re a man after me own heart lol
I arrived at Orion’s in Milton Keynes Thursday morning at 0730 after leaving Duisberg at 1715 the previous evening. Due to holiday traffic and roadworks (Thursday was a Bank Holiday in Germany and many of the [zb] turned it into a long weekend), I was on the limits of everything! Driving time , spreadover etc. 8 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive.
I stop at the gate and was spoken to by 2 seriously decent Sercurity Guards!! Cracked a joke with them and he told me to back onto Door 3 when it was clear. I looked and spotted straight away that there was no bay there!!! Yet doors 4 and 5 had unloading bays ■■? I just knew what was coming lolol
Anyway, I backed onto door 3 and walked over to the Security Guards after taking all my padlocks off. asked the Guard about the seal. At this, a skinny little runt of an 18 year old who was sat on his forklift shouted over the yard at me? the Guard?? I know not at whom.
We both walked over and I was making a few comments to the Guard about this little runt at which he was laughing. As we got close, the runt said “I can’t tip this” “Why not?” asked I. Because those bars are in the way, he replied.
I might add I was pulling my usual trailer which has 4 floor to ceiling load restraining bars in. I looked into the back of the trailer. “If you can’t touch those bars, how are you going to unload it then?” was my question.
“I don’t unload it!!! You get up in there and tip it yourself!!” he said with more than a hint of scorn in his voice.
Now I had been up all night, driven from Duisberg in Germany, been sat in traffic, was shattered and had sore eyes. Not a good recipe for a skinny little runt to talk to me like that.
Pointing a finger at him, I informed him “you can [zb] right off, sonny … your load, you tip it” Don’t you swear at me, he came back with lol I then informed him that I would do more than swear at him if he spoke to me like that again and if they wanted the load then he best get his little skinny arse in the trailer and tip it himself!!! All said with more than a few [zb] thrown in, of course lolol
The Guard was wetting himself at this (turned out he hated the kid who was a cocky little devil). You had best take the load back to where it come from then, this kid told me… fine by me, I said. I’ll get paid for 2 trips
I went into the cab and phoned our Dutch TM who hit the roof lolol IN MY FAVOUR!!! Told me I was under no circumstances to get into the back of the trailer and he would ring the customer right away!!!
Now the thing in my favour was we pick these loads up from Duisberg and they are already sealed etc!! As Coffee knows, these loads are high value and just to pick the trailer up, we have to show passports (that applies to ALL nationalities). So we have no idea what is in there… all we know is how many pallets…in this case 64 (32 euros doubled up)
while I was waiting for a return call, a Manager came out and asked what the problem was. I told him a)I didn’t like the attitude of his forkie and b) I hadn’t driven all night etc to then have to tip the trailer myself when they had proper unloading bays there. He informed me it was standard practise! I then informed him that under CMR conditions, it is standard practise that the driver IS NOT to get into the trailer!! As it was a sealed trailer which I had had no control over, I was not allowed to go into the trailer. While talking to him, my Dutch TM rang back. I told him to speak to this Manager. I heard the convo despite the Manager holding my mobile to his ear lolol He basically told him that if he wanted loads from Germany in the future, he had best get someone to unload them as it is NOT standard practise in Europe for drivers to unload trailers run under CMR conditions lolol He gave this guy a right rollocking. The upshot was one very red Orion Manager, a very chastened forkie and a very happy driver who was laid on his bunk as they tipped him whilst he was sat on a bay lolololol
I had heard our TM tell the guy that if I was to tip the trailer, I was under no circumstances responsible for any damage and as our TM knew me a lot better than he did, he could guarantee I would tip most of it out of the trailer ‘by mistake’ PMSL
Can’t wait to go there again
mispellings and stars might get past the auto censor , but not me Denis F
TheBear:
Rob, objectionable [zb] though you can be, you’re a man after me own heart lolI arrived at Orion’s in Milton Keynes Thursday morning at 0730 after leaving Duisberg at 1715 the previous evening. Due to holiday traffic and roadworks (Thursday was a Bank Holiday in Germany and many of the [zb] turned it into a long weekend), I was on the limits of everything! Driving time , spreadover etc. 8 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive.
I stop at the gate and was spoken to by 2 seriously decent Sercurity Guards!! Cracked a joke with them and he told me to back onto Door 3 when it was clear. I looked and spotted straight away that there was no bay there!!! Yet doors 4 and 5 had unloading bays ■■? I just knew what was coming lolol
Anyway, I backed onto door 3 and walked over to the Security Guards after taking all my padlocks off. asked the Guard about the seal. At this, a skinny little runt of an 18 year old who was sat on his forklift shouted over the yard at me? the Guard?? I know not at whom.
We both walked over and I was making a few comments to the Guard about this little runt at which he was laughing. As we got close, the runt said “I can’t tip this” “Why not?” asked I. Because those bars are in the way, he replied.
I might add I was pulling my usual trailer which has 4 floor to ceiling load restraining bars in. I looked into the back of the trailer. “If you can’t touch those bars, how are you going to unload it then?” was my question.
“I don’t unload it!!! You get up in there and tip it yourself!!” he said with more than a hint of scorn in his voice.
Now I had been up all night, driven from Duisberg in Germany, been sat in traffic, was shattered and had sore eyes. Not a good recipe for a skinny little runt to talk to me like that.
Pointing a finger at him, I informed him “you can [zb] right off, sonny … your load, you tip it” Don’t you swear at me, he came back with lol I then informed him that I would do more than swear at him if he spoke to me like that again and if they wanted the load then he best get his little skinny arse in the trailer and tip it himself!!! All said with more than a few [zb] thrown in, of course lolol
The Guard was wetting himself at this (turned out he hated the kid who was a cocky little devil). You had best take the load back to where it come from then, this kid told me… fine by me, I said. I’ll get paid for 2 trips
I went into the cab and phoned our Dutch TM who hit the roof lolol IN MY FAVOUR!!! Told me I was under no circumstances to get into the back of the trailer and he would ring the customer right away!!!
Now the thing in my favour was we pick these loads up from Duisberg and they are already sealed etc!! As Coffee knows, these loads are high value and just to pick the trailer up, we have to show passports (that applies to ALL nationalities). So we have no idea what is in there… all we know is how many pallets…in this case 64 (32 euros doubled up)
while I was waiting for a return call, a Manager came out and asked what the problem was. I told him a)I didn’t like the attitude of his forkie and b) I hadn’t driven all night etc to then have to tip the trailer myself when they had proper unloading bays there. He informed me it was standard practise! I then informed him that under CMR conditions, it is standard practise that the driver IS NOT to get into the trailer!! As it was a sealed trailer which I had had no control over, I was not allowed to go into the trailer. While talking to him, my Dutch TM rang back. I told him to speak to this Manager. I heard the convo despite the Manager holding my mobile to his ear lolol He basically told him that if he wanted loads from Germany in the future, he had best get someone to unload them as it is NOT standard practise in Europe for drivers to unload trailers run under CMR conditions lolol He gave this guy a right rollocking. The upshot was one very red Orion Manager, a very chastened forkie and a very happy driver who was laid on his bunk as they tipped him whilst he was sat on a bay lolololol
I had heard our TM tell the guy that if I was to tip the trailer, I was under no circumstances responsible for any damage and as our TM knew me a lot better than he did, he could guarantee I would tip most of it out of the trailer ‘by mistake’ PMSL
Can’t wait to go there again
Alright for some.
Thats the difference between doing euro work and local work, Rob!
If yoiu are under a CMR, its a whole new ball game
‘You’re off your head. The container is nothing to do with you, it’s theirs and all you’re doing as driver is bringing it from the dock to the delivery point for them to do what they want with it and then take it away. It’s not your job to unload it, it’s theirs. Are you getting a nice tidy bonus for unloading it’.
‘No but we get paid £360 top line and that includes unloading the boxes’.
‘You seriously need your head examining pal’, and off I went leaving him to it.
MUG.
Spot on Rob and this is why the transport industry is like it is
Kev
Lat time I was at Nettos…
“You’ll have to unload the wagon”
“No I won’t. Firstly I’m not insured.”
“Yes you are. We have an arrangement with your employers.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yep”
“Strange how I don’t know”
“I doubt they tell you everything”
“Well I find that hard to believe seeing as I work for myself and last time I looked I was the only person employed by me in my company. You may have an agreement with the company who’s wagon I’m driving but that’s not me.”
“You’ll still have to unload it.”
“No I won’t…SECONDLY I’m not fit to unload it - knackered back”
“Don’t believe me?”
“There you go.”
“Oh. We’ll get it sorted.”
<me goes back to cab, goes to sleep>
Conor:
Lat time I was at Nettos…“You’ll have to unload the wagon”
“No I won’t. Firstly I’m not insured.”
“Yes you are. We have an arrangement with your employers.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yep”
“Strange how I don’t know”
“I doubt they tell you everything”
“Well I find that hard to believe seeing as I work for myself and last time I looked I was the only person employed by me in my company. You may have an agreement with the company who’s wagon I’m driving but that’s not me.”
“You’ll still have to unload it.”
“No I won’t…SECONDLY I’m not fit to unload it - knackered back”
“Don’t believe me?”
“There you go.”
“Oh. We’ll get it sorted.”
<me goes back to cab, goes to sleep>
Blinding, Conor… absolutely blinding!!!
Good on you
Never been to a Netto. Don’t even know what one is and by the sound of it I don’t wanna go to one either. From what I can make out, is a Netto a warehouse/storage point or something?
Scuse my ignorance chaps but don’t do much UK.
They sound like like a braindead lot going by what you guys are saying