Safety boots and Jobsworths

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

I don’t like the insane policies companies have these days, i don’t even mind jobsworths because when it comes down to it, we are in the middle of a economic meltdown and if its company policy not to be allowed in without steel toecap boots, and the security guard makes an exception then a manager see’s you, then he could be out the door. Most security guards are as disposable as agency drivers.

I don’t expect them to break company policies and risk their jobs for me as a stranger.

But things that annoy me are the way some just are brainwashed.

I can understand a SG saying sorry mate can’t let you in because we have this daft company policy about steel toe cap boots, sorry. But what annoys me is when they believe all the crap and give you a lecture you aint wearing steel toe cap boots your feet could get crushed etc… you say get a grip i’ll be parking on a bay and walking to the goods in office, if a truck is driving over me, the last thing i,'ll be worrying about is my feet. Plus if a truck does run over my feet, the steet caps are likely to bend and cut your toes off :smiling_imp:

Like walking into work a few months back, went in the wrong way because there were workmen messing about with electrical wires, i got a lecture later on about i could have gotten run over by a truck walking in that way. Thinking yeah because when i walk into the depot suddenly i dont watch where i am going and walk out in front of trucks. Was going to tell him this but thought whats the point, he was convinced if i didnt cross at the proper crossing i’d get run over by some truck.

22

darkseeker:
:lol: The main problem I have actually (don’t take this as racism) Foreigners on the gate - What’s the point in putting someone there, who should tell you where to go, what to do and the site rules - when you can’t understand what they’re saying because they can only just speak english!!?

I went to an m&s rdc down south (can’t remember where) a few weeks back, typical black guy on the gate, wouldn’t get of his arse to talk to me, couldn’t speak english well at all and generally made hard work of it all - luckily another driver (who was a fair bit older than me) managed to hear and understand and translated for me otherwise I’d still be there going “eh, sorry I can’t hear you, what was that…” :laughing: And to cap it all off it took the numpties 3hours to tip 1 (yes one) pallet :imp:

Classic

23

darkseeker:
:lol: :laughing: :laughing: WHY do they give themselves the grief though!?

I’ve only had one who gave me much of a problem sofar, can’t remember what it was all about to be honest but I wasn’t having a good day and I got something along the lines of “that’s no good to me, I think you’ll be going back with it” You know the sort…

“no problem” I smiled, “I can go home earlier now then” :laughing:
“but what about your drop?” (starting to sound a bit more amienable)
“what about it?” Jangling the keys and opening the cab “they can’t sack me - I’m agency” :laughing:

I was tipped 10mins later :laughing: I guess they needed whatever I had for them :grimacing:

That is always the answer. Stay cool, stay calm, remember that you’re delivering/collecting something they require. If you drive away questions will be asked, and as long as you have been professional, it won’t be you that gets the bollocking.

24

Wheel Nut:
Well there was one which ran to conclusion that sticks in my memory…

After a long night on the beer, we headed back in the morning to be met with a welcoming committee of many people in suits, white coats, and hygiene hats. Where have you been? You should have been here last night. Phil (Anglia Oils) told me that you left Hull at around 13.50. Amongst the crowd I spotted Bob, who was trying to get a word in. “I was here until 8pm waiting for you last night!”

Well we were here at 16.30 but were sent away, “who by?” “who did you speak to?” Brian explained that the security guard would not call anyone for us and just told us to come back at 8am, in fact he suggested we were lying when we asked him to contact our new friend & ally which was Bob :stuck_out_tongue:

Except ofcourse its as simple as: If “Bob” had called the gate house & said 2 late & very urgent deliveries are expected, let them straight in." So all in all, it was his fault. SG had probably been told upon starting “we don’t accept any deliveries after ■■.■■ time”.

Not that i’m in any way sticking up for SG’s.

Think of all that beer money you could have saved if Bob had had his thinking cap on.

25

isn’t it amazing how fast someone’s attitude can change when you’re on your way out the gate with their goods :laughing: many a sour faced goods in bloke has suddenly become my best mate when i cheerily wave goodbye and go to walk out the door :laughing: how awful must your life be to make you greet every driver as if he was a leper?

26

I think most of these places easily forget the real reason you are there and that is you are bringing their goods or services that they have asked for or ordered, you are not trying to get in there for fun or cos you want to.

27

JISL to ESL:
I find these stories …interesting but no-one ever completes the tale.

OK.2. The H & S prat banned you from the site. Have you challenged him or the company?

From what you say he didn’t have a leg to stand on, if you were wearing the correct footwear.

Banning for no justifiable reason can be construed as a restriction on trade.

Discuss…

well AFAIK he’s still banned, our firm had a word with the company involved but mr H&S came up with a BS reason and his word is law, sadly because they’re a big company and we’re a small haulage firm they can do whatever they want in these hard times, if we don’t like it they can always find another haulage firm to do the work and that’s that.

28

Driveroneuk:

Wheel Nut:
Except ofcourse its as simple as: If “Bob” had called the gate house & said 2 late & very urgent deliveries are expected, let them straight in." So all in all, it was his fault. SG had probably been told upon starting “we don’t accept any deliveries after ■■.■■ time”.

He probably did after that :stuck_out_tongue:

But when anyone goes to a company, whether it be sales rep, customer or supplier, their first point of contact is normally the SG. with the bad attitude that many have. At the occasional delivery where the signs point you to reception, even the receptionists are trained by the doctors reception school :wink:

29

When I first started driving I had to deliver a lot to building sites. Mostly they didn’t want the catering equipment I was trying to offload because they were weeks or months behind schedule.

I soon learned that if I asked them for their name so that I could tell his boss who it was that had refused the goods, thereby incurring repeat delivery charges; they almost always changed their tune.

I have found that this still works: security guards, goods in clerks, FLT drivers, yard foremen they are all reluctant to be identified as the person who cost their employer money. (btw — the re-delivery charge was a complete fiction).

I do agree about the problem with SGs not speaking (or understanding) English. It seems obvious to me, that if you rely on the SG to pass on complicated instructions, and to understand all the accents and different types of goods that come to their gate, then they should be fairly fluent in English. What really bugs me is when I am stood in the rain while they make phone calls.

I think that the mobile phone is the best thing since sliced bread for this situation. Whenever I come up against an obstructive individual I try diplomacy first, but if that fails I just phone my office and hand the whole problem over to them; switch to break, and get out the coffee flask.

30

Removing the keys, locking the cab & wandering nonchalently (sp?) off down the road also often has the desired effect.

31

tipped at a site in lambeth,a new block of flats off the kings rd,upon booking in the sg asked whether i had steel toe caps and hard hat,i said i have steel toe caps but no hard hat,so he lent me one,i drove onto site opened the curtains and fl driver took off the pallet,on returning to sign out of site the sg said i asked you whether you had steel toe caps but your wearing trainers why did you lie to me if i knew you were wearing trainers i wouldnt have let you onto the site and it would of cost your company money by not getting tipped,so i replied you asked me if i had any,i replied yes,wot you didnt ask me was am i wearing them,i have a pair at home so i havnt lied and you didnt do your job right by checking…see ya :laughing:

32

:confused: Think I’d best clarify my above post before I end up in trouble…

My comment about the black guy wasn’t aimed specificly at people in ethnic minorities - the complaint would have been exactly the same had the security guard been british with a strong accent (glaswegian for example) that I struggled to understand - the point was I was also struggling to hear him (too many years near guns going off) and he did nothing to help :wink: But I do feel if a foreigner must be given this type of job that a better, clearer grasp of the language would be helpful.

33

darkseeker:
:? Think I’d best clarify my above post before I end up in trouble…

My comment about the black guy wasn’t aimed specificly at people in ethnic minorities - the complaint would have been exactly the same had the security guard been british with a strong accent (glaswegian for example) that I struggled to understand - the point was I was also struggling to hear him (too many years near guns going off) and he did nothing to help :wink: But I do feel if a foreigner must be given this type of job that a better, clearer grasp of the language would be helpful.

Fair enough but it was the sentence ‘typical black guy on the gate, wouldn’t get of his arse to talk to me,’ that was the problem not the fact that you couldn’t understand him.

34

switchlogic:

darkseeker:
:? Think I’d best clarify my above post before I end up in trouble…

My comment about the black guy wasn’t aimed specificly at people in ethnic minorities - the complaint would have been exactly the same had the security guard been british with a strong accent (glaswegian for example) that I struggled to understand - the point was I was also struggling to hear him (too many years near guns going off) and he did nothing to help :wink: But I do feel if a foreigner must be given this type of job that a better, clearer grasp of the language would be helpful.

Fair enough but it was the sentence ‘typical black guy on the gate, wouldn’t get of his arse to talk to me,’ that was the problem not the fact that you couldn’t understand him.

The main factor in this is that it is all too common to put people with a lack of basic communication skills in positions were speaking clear English is an absolute necessity, at a gatehouse for example, site rules need to be communicated etc, if the guard cannot speak English clearly then not only can it be frustrating, it can also lead to unintended breaches of site protocol.

At the end of the day I couldn’t give a toss what colour your skin is, where you go to worship whichever god you choose, how many wives you have etc, just speak English, it’s the spoken language in the country. Now everybody has to start somewhere, but putting somebody with limited English in a position where communicating with people is an essential part of the job does nobody any good, except the people making money out of cheap immigrant labour, it’s not the fault of the guard or whatever, at least they’re working & not scrounging off the welfare system.

To be completely honest I would much rather deal with an immigrant security guard than an Englishman with ‘Mr McKay Syndrome’ you know the one’s, they wear their hat just above their nose & think they’re conducting a major crime investigation or some kind of military exercise, tossers!

35

That’s not what I meant either SW- I find there’s often a “black guy” on the gate, they’re usually very dark skinned and have a very strong accent - and not great english, that’s all I meant by typical. The fact he couldn’t be arsed to get a bit closer so I could hear him and have a better chance at working out what he’d said was the problem I had with him (should’ve phrased it better really but couldn’t think how to word it, hence me stating in the post it wasn’t meant to be racist). Think newmercman has summed it up for me though :wink:

36

I have been very lucky most my customers i deal with on a week to week basis,only times i have had problems is when i did ayg work many moons back,
I deleivered to ASDA parkhead and the guy at the back door was a complet t osser , was very rude , and obnoxis , DHL guy was in front of me with one small parcel , and he refused to accept it till he tipped me with all the bread (full load ) even thou i told him the parcel guy was here 1st ! launched into one with both us! am 99% sure hes long gone but i could have swore blind the dhl was going to drop him ther and then !!!

2nd time was 1st ever (and last) shift for Asda !, was asked as a fav by ayg to do it as it was a new contract and wanted some off the more steady drivers to do it , went to depot with plenty spare time , asked reception where to go, just my luck was a new start on the desk , had no idea (and yes very little english!) so i asked him to phone the transport office , was passed the phone , to a very abrupt “yes wot do you want?” convo went as …

Me, hi xyz ayg here i have to do a shift for you , can yu tell me where to come around to get office?
Transport, not much off a bloody delivery driver if you cant find office!
Me, its my 1st shift here so dont know lay out and dont want to walk thru whare house
Tm , well ask the bloody security
Me , i already have its his 1st day as well and english aint his strong point !
Tm , ffs bloody idiots together
Me , just tell me where you are and we can talk face to face ,
got instructions , guy never sayed boo to me face to face , but sat me there for 3 hours ! ended up doing a local to clydebank , came back and just signed myself off and went home told ayg never send me there again

37

:laughing: Sounds like they were lucky to get that run out of you - I’d’ve been tempted to hang up and go home :laughing:

38

do what 1 guy did at morrisons bellshill a couple of years ago after he got refused entry to deliver a brand new fridgevan, drop trailer at the barrier, drive through the incoming barrier, go around the other side of the security hut and drive through the exit barrier with a cheery wave as he left, the security guy stood there open mouthed whilst his mate called up the bosses, needless to say i think the guy got banned and his firm had to repair the damage to the barrier but least there was no damage to the new trailer :smiley: :smiley:

39

A few years ago I was loading a bulk trailer somewhere up north.

The loader driver piled up the load (Gluten IIRC) and unfortunately the rope for pulling the sheet over was stuck in the load.
This site had a “no climbing on the truck” policy.

Only way to pull the sheet over was by getting on top and pulling the rope out.
I spoke to the loader driver and was told to use the gantry to get safer access…fair enough i thought.

Anyway i was on top of the load retreiving the rope when i heard…

“OY YOU WHAT THE F… DO YOU THINK YOURE DOING ?”

looked across to see the security guard dressed in his number 1 uniform marching gestapo style towards me.

Conversation went as follows…

me. pardon mate

SG. WTF YOU THINK YOURE DOING?

me. just getting the rope so i can pull the sheet over mate

SG. YOU HAVE TO DO IT FROM THE FLOOR YOU STUPID W…

me. well seeing as the rope is under the load thats a bit difficult

SG. THE SITE RULES ARE NO ONE GETS ON TOP OF VEHICLES

me. well i’ll get down when ive got the rope

SG. IF YOU DONT GET DOWN NOW I’LL BAN YOU FROM SITE.

me. will you now, well the phone numbers on the door my bosses name is Steve, if you want to borrow my phone be my guest. now do me a favour and ban me from site and i wont have to come here again.

SG. Right well hurry up and do what youre doing then I havent seen ya…

Guy was all mouth and no trousers hadnt got the balls to carry through his own actions.

Been in there since and hes as nice as pie now.

40

rocky 7:
I delivered a new unit to a certain RDC the other day. when I got to the gate the Jobsworth in the gatehouse asked me had I got steel toecap boots. I told him jokingly he wouldnt like a kick up, the arse from them, and he refused to let me in because I had spoken to him disrespectfully, he said he wasn,t taking that sort of talk off any young hooligan. He was in his 40s I,m 67, it made my day.hahaha

haha a bit of a ■■■■ lol you get that a good bit like some need the kick lol