Well done, gingerfold, I have worked for employers where the driver would have been awarded the DCM for that mistake.
(Don’t Come Monday)
Retired Old ■■■■:
Well done, gingerfold, I have worked for employers where the driver would have been awarded the DCM for that mistake.(Don’t Come Monday)
If we had a trailer unsheeted ready to tip then it had to wait until morning the driver would have had to re-sheet it,temporarily,it dosen’t make sense to me this dozy ■■■■ left it uncovered over-night when he had sheeted for the trip from Hull.So no,he would have incurred our wrath and dependant on his previous (if he had any!) he would have either been fired or at least got “one” in writing,but then again although we did have to suffer a wally or two or three over the years none of them from memory were as stupid as this ■■■■ seems to have been 
Cheers Bewick.
I rest my case! 
Bewick:
Retired Old ■■■■:
Well done, gingerfold, I have worked for employers where the driver would have been awarded the DCM for that mistake.(Don’t Come Monday)
If we had a trailer unsheeted ready to tip then it had to wait until morning the driver would have had to re-sheet it,temporarily,it dosen’t make sense to me this dozy [zb] left it uncovered over-night when he had sheeted for the trip from Hull.So no,he would have incurred our wrath and dependant on his previous (if he had any!) he would have either been fired or at least got “one” in writing,but then again although we did have to suffer a wally or two or three over the years none of them from memory were as stupid as this [zb] seems to have been
Another time another place and I would have fired him, but the stupidty that occurs every day, yes and I do mean every day, with drivers means I could fire 4 or 5 daily. (I did once fire 4 in a day many years ago, must be something of a record??), so this one got away with it. I think they’ve worn me down over the years. But there’s one thing for certain drivers ain’t what they used to be and that’s a fact. You are lucky to be out of it now Bewick.
Hear hear Dennis the only thing they have to do nowadays is steer the lorries ooops I meant trucks
Everything else is done for them ie planning directions(■■■■■■■■■
That’s just my observation of some of today’s “Drivers”
Lorries may have evolved better but I’m sure the standard of “Drivers” hasn’t
So, going off at a slight tangent and continuing the theme of drivers’ stupidity.
This morning’s main disaster (not the only one I might add) is a very, very experienced driver who tipped at Port Talbot yesterday. Re-load scheduled at Cardiff this morning so he runs from Port Talbot to Newport to park overnight. (Last time I was in South Wales I could have sworn that Cardiff was nearer to Port Talbot than Newport, but then again what do I know). At Newport my driver gets stuck so enlists the help of another driver to tow him out. Full marks for initiative, BUT, in the execution of the tow our helpful friend rips the bottom out of the radiator of my truck. So I get the phone call at 6.00 this morning to inform me that there’s a leak from the bottom hose. a slight understatement, because there is no longer a bottom hose attached to the radiator. The local garage in Newport will assist and replace the radiator and relieve me of £1,050 for their help. So I have a better plan, send a spare unit on my plant trailer with a garage lad and recover the casualty, still a cost to the business plus a dis-satisfied customer in South Wales because we’ve cocked on his backload.
I feel the award of a DCM is merited in this case.
gingerfold:
So, going off at a slight tangent and continuing the theme of drivers’ stupidity.This morning’s main disaster (not the only one I might add) is a very, very experienced driver who tipped at Port Talbot yesterday. Re-load scheduled at Cardiff this morning so he runs from Port Talbot to Newport to park overnight. (Last time I was in South Wales I could have sworn that Cardiff was nearer to Port Talbot than Newport, but then again what do I know). At Newport my driver gets stuck so enlists the help of another driver to tow him out. Full marks for initiative, BUT, in the execution of the tow our helpful friend rips the bottom out of the radiator of my truck. So I get the phone call at 6.00 this morning to inform me that there’s a leak from the bottom hose. a slight understatement, because there is no longer a bottom hose attached to the radiator. The local garage in Newport will assist and replace the radiator and relieve me of £1,050 for their help. So I have a better plan, send a spare unit on my plant trailer with a garage lad and recover the casualty, still a cost to the business plus a dis-satisfied customer in South Wales because we’ve cocked on his backload.
I feel the award of a DCM is merited in this case.
Sorry to hear that pal. I’ve been in these situations before; you try and use your initiative to get yourself out the mire - if it works, you’re a hero, if it don’t… well you know! You can see now how and why a lot of the big fleets have gone down the ‘don’t touch anything’ route.
Having said all that, you can’t legislate for out & out twonks 
From a driver’s point of view, it’s probably a bit like the overload scenario-
If you run two tonnes overweight and get away with it, you’re a hero. If you get caught, you’re the biggest knob in the world & you get the sack.
Having said that, I think I would be treating the “parking at Newport” seriously, especially as he seemed to be trying to park in a mud bath.
gazsa401:
Hear hear Dennis the only thing they have to do nowadays is steer the lorries ooops I meant trucks
Everything else is done for them ie planning directions([zb])
That’s just my observation of some of today’s “Drivers”
Lorries may have evolved better but I’m sure the standard of “Drivers” hasn’t
You are 100% correct “gaz”,and from what I see,hear and read almost the whole industry nowadays is populated by a greater number of “Richard Heads” than it ever was in my day 
However,it’s not just the drivers but current management teams that are even more removed from reality as the years go by,but then again the industry appears to survive against all the odds,i.e.,fuel and general running costs costs,equipment costs,legislation,Planners who have never done “the job” and generally management who only operate by “what the book says” Oh! and customers who nowadays have little or no loyalty as they are now run by “number crunchers” who are only interested in gaining their own “brownie points” as they try to ascend the slippery pole of promotion 
Great industry to be involved with,I don’t think so somehow 
Cheers Bewick.
Retired Old ■■■■:
I rest my case!
So then ROF you are condoning the stupidity of this “■■■■■■■■■” driver who left a load unsheeted overnight are you,I hope not unforgivable as far as I’m concerned, Cheers Bewick.
hiya,
No matter how young and inexperienced the driver may be and no matter if his
tipping time has been knocked back until next day surely he should have the
common sense to re-sheet until the next day, bloody annoying I know but it has
happened to me once or twice, sorry drive we can’t tip you tonight !!! but you
grin and bear it put the sheet back on and hell fire it’s only bright bar the fly is
going to cover it and make sure it remains dry as was requested by the loading
forwarder, you just can’t get the staff, bleedin’ nugget award him the D C M.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
No matter how young and inexperienced the driver may be and no matter if his
tipping time has been knocked back until next day surely he should have the
common sense to re-sheet until the next day, bloody annoying I know but it has
happened to me once or twice, sorry drive we can’t tip you tonight !!! but you
grin and bear it put the sheet back on and hell fire it’s only bright bar the fly is
going to cover it and make sure it remains dry as was requested by the loading
forwarder, you just can’t get the staff, bleedin’ nugget award him the D C M.
thanks harry, long retired.
Aye “H”,the same driver is probably on the “other” thread “giving it large” about something incidental,thats the thread where all the bollox and BS is spouted,makes me badly to read some of the garbage the modern drivers flap their gums about,they don’t know they are born nowadays,they really don’t eh! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Retired Old ■■■■:
I rest my case!So then ROF you are condoning the stupidity of this “[zb]” driver who left a load unsheeted overnight are you,I hope not
No, of course not, Dennis. I would probably have booted him out of the yard!
But if it had happened today, no doubt the employer would have been at fault for not providing adequate training. Which is precisely why you should have forked out the money to send him on my overpriced Loading, Roping & Sheeting Course!
saw bit of a video on how to rope n sheet ( might have been on here ) a young bloke showing how to tie a dolly he did the first two loops ok but then took the end of the rope and passed it through the loop imagine doin that with 100ft of rope at every hook?
Bewick:
Great industry to be involved with,I don’t think so somehow
You’re absolutely correct Bewick, the entire industry is a shambles from top to bottom, start to finish. Some of us “old school”, (60 years in my case since I first got hooked on lorries as 5 year with my first ride in a pre-War Leyland Lynx) despair of it. Drivers moan about low wages, well I’d love to pay more but we waste hundreds of pounds every week through their mistakes and damage. Okay, we’'re not perfect every time in the office but really, you wouldn’t believe the customers we have to deal with and the problems they cause through wrong information, changes to jobs, etc. etc. If there were no drivers and customers the job would be a doddle.
gingerfold:
We had a claim in early December last year with a load of steel bar on a flat from Hull to Willenhall. Driver had sheeted it at Hull as told to do, got to the delivery 4.00 pm ish, told he would be tipped so unsheeted then told no it would be 7.00 o’clock next morning, so driver didn’t re-sheet and it rained during the night. 75% of load rejected as wet and sent back to Hull. Insurance claim submitted under our GIT and the assessor reported back to me last week. There will not be a claim paid out, the Hull supplier has “mixed” the wet bar into other loads (good man), and it seems that the Willenhall customer is always trying it on to get a price reduction. The only problem is that we won’t get paid for transporting the load from Hull to Willenhall and back again. I don’t normally “tramp” drivers like that these days but we were a bit quiet that week. The same week another driver imploded a powder tanker so it was not a good week. The trials and tribulations of transport eh? Incidentally the driver with the wet load is a young driver, rare these days, and is a good sheeter, taught by his dad an old time driver. He admitted he messed up big time, so not much I could say to him apart from the usual.
I agree with some of the others that this bloke really ought not to have been such a slack bar steward, but the problem I guess you face is if you did give him his marching orders, what are the odds you’d get someone decent as a replacement (assuming there is a sufficiently large pool of younger blokes who can do R&S and are willing to do it to choose from). I think your bloke’s admission he forked up is a start, but when this sort of thing becomes not a one-off but a habit apologies just don’t cut it. If I cocked up this badly I’d expect and deserve a thorough rollicking, but then I’m not in my early 20s and wet behind the ears.
It’s a catch 22 situation really. We’ve all ‘dropped one’ with something or other in our younger days so sometimes it’s better to persevere with a youngster and try and “educate” him. The problem these days is that very few drivers want flat trailer work and about 70% of our work is flats. They don’t want nights out and being away all week. What few new drivers there are coming into the industry are seduced by the Stobart’s programmes and image, they think it’s all clean uniforms and easy curtain sider work, starting at 8.00 am and being home for tea with their wife or partner and kids in an evening. The reality on flat trailer work is completely different and you have to be prepared to rough it sometimes and get your hands dirty, as most of you on here know.
gingerfold:
It’s a catch 22 situation really. We’ve all ‘dropped one’ with something or other in our younger days so sometimes it’s better to persevere with a youngster and try and “educate” him. The problem these days is that very few drivers want flat trailer work and about 70% of our work is flats. They don’t want nights out and being away all week. What few new drivers there are coming into the industry are seduced by the Stobart’s programmes and image, they think it’s all clean uniforms and easy curtain sider work, starting at 8.00 am and being home for tea with their wife or partner and kids in an evening. The reality on flat trailer work is completely different and you have to be prepared to rough it sometimes and get your hands dirty, as most of you on here know.
hiya,
I find a lot of excuses being made for the young “fellah’ mi lad” when there’s no excuse
for his stupidity, they could drag me over the coals or even put me into gaol for what
they may call wrongful dismissal but dismissed he would have been, for Gods sake don’t
ever let him loose with a load of whisky from Scotland to London or he’ll skint you. PS
Oh’ and yes I’ve done plenty and roped and sheeted on a flat trailer.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
gingerfold:
It’s a catch 22 situation really. We’ve all ‘dropped one’ with something or other in our younger days so sometimes it’s better to persevere with a youngster and try and “educate” him. The problem these days is that very few drivers want flat trailer work and about 70% of our work is flats. They don’t want nights out and being away all week. What few new drivers there are coming into the industry are seduced by the Stobart’s programmes and image, they think it’s all clean uniforms and easy curtain sider work, starting at 8.00 am and being home for tea with their wife or partner and kids in an evening. The reality on flat trailer work is completely different and you have to be prepared to rough it sometimes and get your hands dirty, as most of you on here know.hiya,
I find a lot of excuses being made for the young “fellah’ mi lad” when there’s no excuse
for his stupidity, they could drag me over the coals or even put me into gaol for what
they may call wrongful dismissal but dismissed he would have been, for Gods sake don’t
ever let him loose with a load of whisky from Scotland to London or he’ll skint you. PS
Oh’ and yes I’ve done plenty and roped and sheeted on a flat trailer.
thanks harry, long retired.
Well put Harry!!!
GUESTY44
harry_gill:
gingerfold:
It’s a catch 22 situation really. We’ve all ‘dropped one’ with something or other in our younger days so sometimes it’s better to persevere with a youngster and try and “educate” him. The problem these days is that very few drivers want flat trailer work and about 70% of our work is flats. They don’t want nights out and being away all week. What few new drivers there are coming into the industry are seduced by the Stobart’s programmes and image, they think it’s all clean uniforms and easy curtain sider work, starting at 8.00 am and being home for tea with their wife or partner and kids in an evening. The reality on flat trailer work is completely different and you have to be prepared to rough it sometimes and get your hands dirty, as most of you on here know.hiya,
I find a lot of excuses being made for the young “fellah’ mi lad” when there’s no excuse
for his stupidity, they could drag me over the coals or even put me into gaol for what
they may call wrongful dismissal but dismissed he would have been, for Gods sake don’t
ever let him loose with a load of whisky from Scotland to London or he’ll skint you. PS
Oh’ and yes I’ve done plenty and roped and sheeted on a flat trailer.
thanks harry, long retired.
Sorry to cut to the chase, but isn’t it basic logic that you don’t really need 20/30/40 yrs on the road to figure out 
. If the load needed to be sheeted while travelling on the road to protect it from the weather, it’s hardly rocket science to figure out that it will still need covering while parked outside & open to the weather until the following morning . Regards Chris