Been meaning to ask this for a while but recently I have noticed trolley dolly’s in lay-bys at 3am in the morning curtains closed lights off etc, nothing unusually I know. But I had always thought or assumed probably naively that TD’s just did day work and returned to the RDC at the end of the day to re-load for the next day. Do they all do tramping or just a select few
Do they leave an RDC with so many drops on it cant be done in one day or the supermarkets they do are so far from the RDC they have no choice but to stay out the night
THEY MUST REALLY BE POPULAR IN BUSY LAY-BY’S AND MSA’s at night time
Keystone distribution do nights out, but thats only because some of the stores we go to are as far away as Lands End and a shift cant be achieved in just one day. But sainsbury’s don’t do nights out. It’s just the drivers often do 2 or 3 seperate deliveries, often not having their breaks at the depot so they’ll just have their breaks out on the road like every other driver. Of course RDC’s are a 24/7 operation so you’ll get drivers needing to have breaks at all different times of the 24h system. When ever you see them with curtains closed its just them trying to sneak in a quick 30 minute shut eye, they’re never there for long.
When I have my break at 3/4am I draw my curtains and get some shut eye, and I’m not a tramper, or a trolley dolly for that matter, just saying they might be on ‘normal’ break and getting some kip
Don’t even go there, I was well up for watching some of that, thought my luck was in, turns out it was four old birds debating, and not even mass debating at that. I guess I should have seen it coming, itv is unlikely to show ■■■■ on lunchtime weekdays.
This time of year when things getting busy loads of hire motors in, deliveries were earlier in the year you would have three stores on now have just the one, start to run out of motors and stuff.
Do quite a bit of trunking as well, but somtimes when they are really busy will not do trailer swaps and send drivers all the way down, and do an overnight. Never done overnighters with a supermarket but known drivers who have.
Not with a supermarket but AAH doing chemist shops out of Glasgow used to be a couple of runs to the far north which where overnighters. They have scania 18tonners with sleeper cabs, went up to Wick, Thurso etc… on one, another one was Inverness then Elgin, Buckie, Fraserburgh.
Most of the trucks you see in laybys with their curtains pulled are probably just on a break, but you do get nights out with supermarkets, not often, but Cornish stores on a weekend in the summer can cause drivers to run out of time.
Don’t even go there, I was well up for watching some of that, thought my luck was in, turns out it was four old birds debating, and not even mass debating at that. I guess I should have seen it coming, itv is unlikely to show ■■■■ on lunchtime weekdays.
lol you’re driving when that stuff is on. You just be happy with Alex Lester.
garnerlives:
When I have my break at 3/4am I draw my curtains and get some shut eye, and I’m not a tramper, or a trolley dolly for that matter, just saying they might be on ‘normal’ break and getting some kip
I dont shut my curtains - I just put my feet across the seats, head on the window, close my eyes and ZZZZZZZ for 20 minutes
Mind you, I ache badly afterwards though
My dad does agencey work for Arla, and he got stuck in Leeds overnight last week because he ran out of hours due to traffic chaos, so it can happen by accident.
No Sleeping bag, pillow ar anything. He wasn’t impressed
Not sure about now with the Stobart/Tesco contract but before it Tesco NDC (National DIstribution Centre) Milton Keynes used to trunk trailers up to Fleetwood for unaccompanied shipping to Ireland. I think that round trip of around 400 miles would be tight in a shift. (do able given no hold ups at all).
Most co’s RDC’s are usually designed to be within 4.5 hrs driving of each other so trunks going a long way out from the NDC can be stage hopped to final destination.
Then each RDC deilivers to stores within 4.5 hours.
Almost all of B & M Bargains stores are within 4.5 hrs of Blackpool… it was designed that way. But now they’re moving the DC to Liverpoool!
some of the shops have timed deliveries , & it very much depends on the workload & distance for the night , i once helped a friend out from an agency , he had two drops to make then back to rdc , was then told to collect a trailer for another tip , but couldn’t deliver till 0500 so i had a waiting time of nearly 5 hours ! fridges make a crap noise in built up areas so i just headed for a layby on a local bypass
