in my 5th week of driving now and loving it still. don’t have a social life any more and most of my mates have stopped trying to get me to come out cos i’m always knackered after a 12- 14 hr day and away anyway 3 or 4 nights a week.!!! like i say to them its not a job its a way of life!!! earning more money than i’ve ever known but no time to spend it!!!
couple of gripes tho -
these big rdc’s you get sent to most of them treat drivers like scum and you feel like you are fighting them just to get unloaded of goodsTHEY supposedly want!! also they all want timed deliveries then they hold you up for 2-3 hours to get 8 or 9 pallets off then the next place is hassling you about why you are late. its ridiculous. sainsburys seem the worst they are an absolute joke and getting unloaded there is like pulling teeth ( special shout out to the hams hall rdc!).
my worst experience tho was at a big QVC rdc in liverpool. got there backed on a bay, paperwork in, then sat in the ‘waiting room’ one of the office staff comes back and says they can’t open the back door, granted the roller door is a bit tight but its not that hard to open with a little effort, so i say “ok no problem i’ll just nip around and open it for you” “you can’t come in here” they say," health and safety, insurance" “well how am i supposed to open the door for you? i need to be level with it to get a good purchase to get it up” ( no innuendo intended!)" "well you can’t come in here and do it " then the legendary "if you can’t get it open we will have to send you away " so i reply “for flips sake this is a flipping joke” ( some similar words may have been used instead of flip!) go out side pull six inches off the bay, then have to balence with one foot on the lip of the loading bay and one foot on the truck in order to open the door (which opens after a little effort) back on again then go bak in and recommend they get some stronger lads unloading!! naturally the paperwork took an eternity to come back after this!!! the point is what about my health and safety? it would have been much easier all round, and safer, just to let me in the warehouse and open the door instead of coming out with all the H& S and insurance garbage. it seems the bigger the depot the more the staff treat you like scum and the rules are like something out of a kafka novel, smaller places are generally fine and you can have a laugh with the staff and you get unloaded with no problems.
other thing :speed cameras. i spend a lot of time hurtling up and down the a14 towards cambridge, norfolk. there are a few cameras on that road but most hgv’s seem to go along quite happily at 56 on the limiter . won’t you get nicked by the camers?? i just can’t understand if they are calibrated to know the difference between a hgv and a car?! i thought we are “meant” to go 50 on dual carrigeways like that so will i get nicked for going 56 by one of our yellow cash cows??
anyway moans over, loving the job and having a great time with it. rugby truckstop is a great place for a night out! particularly recommend the gammon!! also the truckstop at lymm is great. birmingham truckstop tho, hmm. a different story/ anyone else recommend some good truckstops??, there seems to be a good one just outside northampton on either the a43 or 45 at a big pub, not overnighted there yet but had a great meal.
looks like big joe is going to get bigger!!! especially after giving up playing 5 a side to go trucking!!
The Red Lion is the pub you are thinking of at Northampton, unfortunately it is not good home cooked food and real ale. It used to be a real good stopping place, I think it has new owners
Be careful about parking there too, you will get tipped fairly quickly in there.
If you can make Rugby, that is more secure, although I hate BP Truckstop, Nightowl.
There arent any decent stopping places in the UK
Some Cameras have a pressure pad in the road surface, some dont.
Its not big and its not clever to get done for speeding though.
I am aware of some of our drivers that used to go up the A14 flat out, and they obviously weren’t getting tickets because they wouldn’t have a licence now!
Trouble is you never know if they are going to alter the cameras so that they do get you.
I go past the camera’s on the A14 Huntingdon regularly and on to the M11, I go through there on the limiter (90km) most of the time and have had no problem so far. As someone else suggests they can fit loops in the road that do differentiate but I am not aware of any on that section at least. Camera’s are normally set at +10% +2mph, so the 50 mph limit plus 10% + 2mph makes 57 the supposed trigger so the limiter at (90km) 56mph allowing for accuracy means you are probably only doing about 53mph, depends on the truck and how it’s set.
Here comes the disclaimer: I have had no problem so far, does’nt mean I’m not going to in the future. The only sure way is don’t exceed the limit.
The cameras are set to catch you on the A69 Newcastle to Carlisle road, especially the one at the bottom of the dip which slows you right at the bottom of a hill.
It caught me doing 51mph.
Of course if it had been in Surrey it would have been 3 lane dual carriageway so I would have been ok then.
Well thats the neglected North for you.
Newbie:
The cameras are set to catch you on the A69 Newcastle to Carlisle road, especially the one at the bottom of the dip which slows you right at the bottom of a hill.
It caught me doing 51mph
Take it that was 51 was in a 40 limit?
Newbie:
Of course if it had been in Surrey it would have been 3 lane dual carriageway so I would have been ok then].
Glad you are still enjoying the job, RDC’s do my head in so I avoid that type of work. However if you get some awkard prat who can’t open your door and won’t let you open it safely, just call thier bluff and see if they turn you away. Once they realise you don’t really care if they unload the truck or not they’ll soon sort something out as they want the goods.
Parking in the UK is a nightmare, but if you are in the A43, A5 near Towester there is Jacks Hill Cafe, used to stop there a few years ago, don’t know what it’s like now. I also used to avoid Lymm and go to a little cafe at a Place called Lower Whitley, a couple of miles from M56 J7 I think, Handy for Runcorn, Chester, even Liverpool if you use the Runcorn Bridge.
Another way to find overnight parking is to pick up a copy of Truckstop News, loads of adverts for cafe’s and truckstops in the back.
Another couple of tips for RDCs.
Have a “spare” set of keys to hand in, but not your car/house keys, you might forget them. (Be VERY careful not to pull off the bay until they are ready for you too).
Don’t wait in the “waiting room”, you will probably catch some unpleasant disease. As you now have your wagon keys in your pocket, wait in your cab, on the bunk or if you prefer, on the drivers seat which will still be in the driving position not collapsed to the floor. When you hand your keys in, tell them you’ll be in your cab asleep and they should wake you when they have finished, (they find it very annoying when they are working and someone else is sleeping ) . Refuse to move off the bay till you are tipped, if they can’t open your back door and won’t let you in to open it, still refuse to move till your tipped.
Health and Safety rules are a zb joke, they have absolutely no place in our industry. If a rule is there, it must be for the benefit of everyone, not just the company employee.
I have been refused access to my own trailer to strap a load on because it is against H & S. If you want to strap it up driver you will have to pull outside onto the road
Another instance I remember was tipping toxic liquid in a chemical works in Oldbury. the chemist came and asked me if I could get a sample from the tanker. when I went onto the top, the health and safety bloke stopped me and made me leave the site to get the sample. I was parked on the road outside some private houses with a glass jar on a piece of string.
These practises are the ones that need changing. Some companies do supply gantries, safety harnesses and specialist equipment. the problem is they are only covering themselves, they are not interested in what happens to you as a driver.
We just got a memo about a factory where we load machinery. We now have to park in a holding area and open our roof and curtains, then drive over a mile to the loading area on public roads, load and then return with no straps to the holding area to fasten the load on The reason is that the booking slots dont allow the staff time to load the trailer if they have to wait for drivers to prepare trailers and secure loads.
Wheel Nut maybe you should refuse to move until your load is secure or ask for a written statement from the Site H&S officer saying that it is safe to move the unstrapped load on public roads. Bet you don’t get one
Other places don’t let you off site unless the load is secure, because they may be partly responible if a load come off, so it can’t work both ways.
Welcome to our world.
) . Refuse to move off the bay till you are tipped, if they can’t open your back door and won’t let you in to open it, still refuse to move till your tipped.
