I’m currently say in a Tesco RDC, the first time in quite a few years.
I walk in and the first thing that’s changed is the key exchange. Now you get given a mini bullet ■■■■■■■■, must be to keep drivers happy whilst reading this months CM.
Next is what looks like a school dinner lady with a trolley in front of her looking very bored, I don’t think she was allowed to exchange her keys.
Seriously though, tescos are tiling the ■■■■ with this too little too late gesture.
They have three services a day 1 mud morning, 1 at lunch time and 1 about tea time. Each 1 is 30 minutes long and serves similar food to snack vans at similar prices, only there’s no hot plate just the food in metal containers going cold and maybe cultivating bacteria.
So if your unlucky enough to be here between those times you can also contract listeria at the same time.
So now after years of no canteen facilities for visiting drivers they now give you salmonella for 1.5 hours a day within a 24 hour operation.
I hear that when you arrive at a Tesco RDC now, you have to tether your truck to the pole outside the loading bays.
What, like a goat?
If this is Livingstone, then I hear it is far from a “one hoss town”…
Maybe they are using beef as substitute, because there’s a local shortgage of horse? 
This is how we get patronising around here, but in other parts of the country the only way one gets patronised with burns is at the crematorium. 
So let me get this straight -
You whinged and gurned when they had no food and now your whinging and gurning because they have food .
What standard of service would you like sir ? Reservations at the Blue Duck , The Ritz ? Chauffeur driven limo/private helicopter/ private jet to whisk you off for dinner while your tipped ?
beefy4605:
So let me get this straight -
You whinged and gurned when they had no food and now your whinging and gurning because they have food .
What standard of service would you like sir ? Reservations at the Blue Duck , The Ritz ? Chauffeur driven limo/private helicopter/ private jet to whisk you off for dinner while your tipped ?
No, just a little more than what they are offering now
Scrap that last comment, actually it still shows how little regard they have for visiting drivers.
And to be fair if drivers or screwdrivers i shall call them stopped pulling of bays with red lights still on,there would be none of this,just be patient we are getting paid for sitting on our arse …!
The problem lies with a small minority of half witted drivers who can’t follow simple instructions, these are the one’s to blame not Tesco.
You, as an individual are now lumped together and treated like an idiot who cannot be trusted to preform even the simplest of tasks, in time if you regularly go there you will probably find attitudes to yourself will change.
As for the food I eat in the canteen quite regularly, it’s not A la Carte but at £1.52 for a hot meal what do you want it’s better than what is served up at the majority of roadside vans that I have ever visited or perhaps like others who post on here you are anti Tesco? for whatever reason.
mike68:
The problem lies with a small minority of half witted drivers who can’t follow simple instructions, these are the one’s to blame not Tesco.You, as an individual are now lumped together and treated like an idiot who cannot be trusted to preform even the simplest of tasks, in time if you regularly go there you will probably find attitudes to yourself will change.
As for the food I eat in the canteen quite regularly, it’s not A la Carte but at £1.52 for a hot meal what do you want it’s better than what is served up at the majority of roadside vans that I have ever visited or perhaps like others who post on here you are anti Tesco? for whatever reason.
This isn’t in the canteen, it’s in the waiting room
Its simple really isn’t it, all visiting drivers to canteen and put screens in there with numbers on for when your truck is finished with - drivers get food, drink and more importantly toilets, Tesco get the safety sorted and everyone is happy, no scratch that - there will still be some who will moan that the tea costs 75p.
brados:
Its simple really isn’t it, all visiting drivers to canteen and put screens in there with numbers on for when your truck is finished with - drivers get food, drink and more importantly toilets, Tesco get the safety sorted and everyone is happy, no scratch that - there will still be some who will moan that the tea costs 75p.
bear with me here as i dont do the job you do… is this (above) how it works? or how you think it should??
All I ask is for plenty of comfy seats, clean surroundings and access to a toilet and brewing facilities, even if thats just a vending machine. I think the set up at Tesco Widnes is fine. We shouldn’t be in their long enough to be worrying about anything else.
Don’t think its the way forward for our industry to be pressuring RDCs to lay on great hot food in nice canteens so drivers can get their feet under the table, we should be collectively charging substancial demmurage and pressurising them to vastly improve turnaroud times so we can get back on the road earning money for our firms. The lost productivity because of RDCs taking the ■■■■ is criminal.
rigga70:
And to be fair if drivers or screwdrivers i shall call them stopped pulling of bays with red lights still on,there would be none of this,just be patient we are getting paid for sitting on our arse …!
what he said ^^^
rob22888:
All I ask is for plenty of comfy seats, clean surroundings and access to a toilet and brewing facilities, even if thats just a vending machine. I think the set up at Tesco Widnes is fine. We shouldn’t be in their long enough to be worrying about anything else.Don’t think its the way forward for our industry to be pressuring RDCs to lay on great hot food in nice canteens so drivers can get their feet under the table, we should be collectively charging substancial demmurage and pressurising them to vastly improve turnaroud times so we can get back on the road earning money for our firms. The lost productivity because of RDCs taking the ■■■■ is criminal.
No. What HE said!
One problem with demurrage. One thing charging it and expecting to be paid for it when delayed but would the haulier accept a hefty fine when being late for a delivery? It works both ways. Sometimes best not to wish for certain things!
I had that wee women push her trolley towards me at Livingston it smelt really good and my belly was rumbling, as i reached into my pocket for my wallet i realized it was locked in my cab about 10 mile away down the bottom of the yard, aweeee bastart it was torture.
How many depots have you been to where the “waiting room” is a 2m cube with a tiny barred hatch through which all your conversations with Transport Office staff have to be shouted through the grill… Then the “seats” are metal benches with burrs on the edges, with bare cold metal on the top just perfect for cutting shreds out of your plus fours, and bringing down your grapes you’d thought you’d got rid of already…
When “your number is up”, that’ll mean you’ve just dropped dead, rather than anything handed to you at the hatch as well. 
“Tea?”
“I’ll just book you off, and you can pop along to the canteen…” 
I work for a well known supermarket chain. They’ll never improve/build new facilities for third parties for one simple reason. It costs money. It would cost money on the initial outlay and cost money for upkeep. Money which will be lost when the small percentage of drivers abuse/break the facilities causing the rest to be tarred with the same brush.
RDC’s want one thing, to get as many boxes out of the gates for as little cost as possible, and f*ck the rest. If they can save a tenner by cutting back on facilities, they will do. It all goes towards their yearly profits.
Drivers should just be free to stay in their cabs, ■■■■ all this waiting room bs… 