OK, this is via a friend of a friend on Facebook. I don’t know the driver personally, or who they work for.
Here is the story as I have read it. Driver was given a long distance run, rather than the mid distance run he was promised. Wasn’t happy as told them he needed to be back home that night without fail. Whilst out they added a collection onto his run that was out of his way and needless to say he ran out of hours about thirty miles away from base. Rang up his traffic office and asked for someone to pick him up from where he was parked, to be met with some stroppy little kid telling him nobody was available and he’d have to night out. Driver advised them he wasn’t nighting out as (a) didn’t have night out gear and (b) had already advised them he needed to be back that night, this was met by abusive comments from stroppy office runt. The driver said ok ring me back in ten minutes and I’ll sort something. The traffic office rang back after ten minutes, same stroppy kid on the line. The driver advised him he was all sorted out now as his wife was picking him up and they’d find the keys under the front bumper. Apparently his phone has been ringing virtually non stop ever since.
Now I don’t know what it was that made me laugh about this, the fact that someone has finally stood up for themselves, or that drivers still ‘hide’ keys under the bumper of trucks for other drivers.
It was this driver’s wife that posted this on Facebook. Apparently she was furious she had to turn out to ‘rescue’ her husband, after his company just abandoned him. I am guessing she must have missed one of her soaps in the process…
Would have made me laugh even more, if the driver has taken the keys back to the yard and personally handed them to the stroppy office runt…Now that would have been worth being a fly on the wall…
Just out of interst…don’t drivers stand up for them selves at work ?
LIBERTY_GUY:
It was this driver’s wife that posted this on Facebook. Apparently she was furious she had to turn out to ‘rescue’ her husband, after his company just abandoned him. I am guessing she must have missed one of her soaps in the process…
comet:
Maybe so but the job would be be a better one if more stuck up for themselves.
You’re assuming that it’s based on truth then ?
Prior to digi tachos and recording working hours for the WTD, it was quite a common practice amongst drivers to lift the tacho chart if close to base and just write the final mileage in when you got back. With digi tachos you are stuffed though, as it records no card in the device, plus DVSA no longer just work ‘office hours’.
Can’t drive the truck, can’t stay with it either so sounds like the driver had no other choice, if they were being complete ■■■■ ends in the office. Judging from her comments she waaaay too peed off for it not to be based on actual fact.
comet:
Don’t understand the problem here,driver used his own noggin to get home !,he ran out of time end of…sod the office.
Disagree, if his employment contract includes nights out as and when then he need agreement from the TM (or whoever has the authority) to have a run that gets him home. IF he had that agreement then when given the extra pick up the likelihood of not making it back should have been raised there and then with either the pick up being removed from the run, or something put in place so that calling in with an hour or so driving left would enable someone to set off to a suitable meeting spot.
Just doing the run, running out of time and then ringing in demanding to be collected is highly likely to result in “abusive comments from the stroppy office runt” and maybe a disciplinary too if he didn’t return to the vehicle after 9/11 hours rest to return it to base.
LIBERTY_GUY:
OK, this is via a friend of a friend on Facebook. I don’t know the driver personally, or who they work for.
Here is the story as I have read it. Driver was given a long distance run, rather than the mid distance run he was promised. Wasn’t happy as told them he needed to be back home that night without fail. Whilst out they added a collection onto his run that was out of his way and needless to say he ran out of hours about thirty miles away from base. Rang up his traffic office and asked for someone to pick him up from where he was parked, to be met with some stroppy little kid telling him nobody was available and he’d have to night out. Driver advised them he wasn’t nighting out as (a) didn’t have night out gear and (b) had already advised them he needed to be back that night, this was met by abusive comments from stroppy office runt. The driver said ok ring me back in ten minutes and I’ll sort something. The traffic office rang back after ten minutes, same stroppy kid on the line. The driver advised him he was all sorted out now as his wife was picking him up and they’d find the keys under the front bumper. Apparently his phone has been ringing virtually non stop ever since.
Now I don’t know what it was that made me laugh about this, the fact that someone has finally stood up for themselves, or that drivers still ‘hide’ keys under the bumper of trucks for other drivers.
The question should be if he was 100 miles from home what would he have done, now I would love to here that answer
Still going on about how annoyed she was this morning.
