As a section of society Lorry drivers certainly have their odditys! A temp job i have just left had two short stay drivers, the first left because he was new. He only had his licence six months and found the 24k salary for 45 hours ‘restrictive’, he went off to pastures new to go tramping and get overtime. I dare say he has all he can handle right now!! The second was an experienced ‘old hand’ who had previously run his own trucks and gone bankrupt. He solved his money problems by stealing the diesel from his truck, i don’t mean a little bit for his car or something like that, it was huge drums, daily, and he sold them to his haulier buddies. Despite warnings he carried on and got the sack!! Money problems sorted!! Not sure if the guys who bought diesel off him will give him a job though.
I’m having a bit of a wrangle myself trying to get paid for a job i done at Stobarts in August, its still not resolved yet and it was a 13hour plus shift. Hopefully i will have been paid this week for it. When i was in Stobarts last i was in at 8.30am and it was 11am before anyone found me a truck and fathomed out what i was supposed to be doing. The other driver who started at the same time as me went home without telling anyone so i let them look about themselves and kept shtump!! Whilst waiting i got to overhear some things the office guys have to deal with apart from dissapearing drivers, lack of trucks etc. First one was ringing around three agencys to see which of their drivers had pinched the floor mats out of the Scania they had been driving, second was a call to a clamping company to sort out a release for one of their drivers and the third was looking into defending a disability discrimination case case regarding an agency driver who had been sent home because he had been wearing ‘Kevlar’ capped boots instead of ‘steel toe caps’. How did they know or how could they tell? I daren’t ask.
Last Monday morning seen me up in Skem. Nothing like being made to feel welcome. Get your car out of here and take in around the corner. Then walk down an alleyway
Through a gate with a magic code number
down a long track
and back out onto the road
and low and behold im back in!!
I’m sure its a great company but what a depot the Skem one is. I didn’t have a good experience there at all. I get given a set of keys and a delivery note and off i go, after my delivery i fone in and get given a collection to take into the Stoke depot. “Just reverse up here drive and open your curtains”
That was just a reminder that doing curtainside work in the bad weather is a bad idea. Meanwhile, after heading south and leaving the bad weather behind i get to the Stoke depot. What a laugh !!!
Gatehouse mans says, tuck your straps in or i can’t let you in. So i gets out and trys to tuck one in and it won’t go unless i open the clip and there is no way i’m doing the whole truck at the gatehouse. So i say, no go. He asks me again so i say “fast forward to whatever you are going to do if i don’t do them because i’m not doing them”. A ‘Lady’ appears!! She looks the type who is used to dealing with pillock drivers like me !! Same dance, no straps clipped in then you don’t come in, fine. I ask the guy behind me to reverse up and she stops him, i’m about to lower the legs and drop the trailer where it is and two gaffers turn up. I’m aware that the situation is getting out of hand and its all a mountain out of a molehill so to cut a story short i say let me in and i’ll clip it up in a parking bay. Gaffers say ‘fine’, ‘Lady’ says NO ! Anyway, in i go and them lot argue the toss about it for ages !!
Clipped up nice!
Just to add, if i had know i had to have it clipped up then i would of clipped it up in the first place. Turns out as well, after seeing the planners in Stoke, i havn’t got the run sheets i need and other assorted paperwork, planners numbers or anything. My gut feeling was that this depot (Skem) was pants.
They gave me a delivery to ASDA in Wigan. Now i always thought the security guards checked you for stolen goods or goods on board that you shouldn’t have. Turns out that they are looking for ‘illegal immigrants’ !!!
So, there you go, ASDA, Wigan security could put our own border controls to shame !!! Mind you, they’re a bit daft in Wigan, they probably think you get a £1000 reward and not a £1000 fine for each one you find !!
Next day i’m off to NYK in St.Helens. I love driving rigids.
I have about six drops, one pallet per drop, a pump truck and a tail lift. Sometimes it doesn’t get any better. I do like this type of work, pull up, get your pallet off, shove it in a doorway and say to someone ‘sign here’ and you’re off. Hows this for a load.
Now i was given a mobile fone to contact the office and i can’t resist looking through at the sent messages etc. !! 
News i was in the army and i can tell you the acommodation is crap. Its good for the officers but we are like mushrooms, fed crap and kept in the dark. Craig, Wigan.
That was a text in the fone, looked like it was to a radio station or summat. Now bear with me here !! When i got back to the depot, i did a colection on the way, i drove into the warehouse and up against the dock and the guy says pump your pallets off to the forky and then park your wagon up outside in the yard. OK i says. Forky says, see that wagon next to you, we asked him to do the same and he refused and stormed off saying he going back to Afghanistan and how he’s better off in the Army !!! Not sure if that was Craig. The forky said ‘it’s not that bad here is it’ i said i don’t know, i havn’t been to Afghanistan but it seems fine here to me !!
Then i have another day back on the containers.
Now just like the thread we seem to have going every week…" what did i learn this week", well i learnt to throw a stone a the dogs kennel to see if there is actually a dog in it and how long its chain is. This saves you falling arse over ■■■ and losing your delivery notes and tacho in an attempt to get away from a rotty. “Make sure you get a trem card with that load Mick”, yeah ok, wil do.
It was the most illegible fax i have ever seen in my life, it was unreadable. Not that i’d know what to do if i could read it as i don’t have ADR!!
And this week i’m to be found in this
Trundling up and down the M62/M6/M5 and back. Mind you, i nearly didn’t get out the yard with it, after pulling the indicator stalks backwards and forwards and revving up, smiling and waving goodbye to the boss for what seemed like about ten minutes
I eventually found the gear change on the dash!!!
Took off with a jump and i never looked back since. Keep your eye out for me and keep safe, there some nutters out there !!
