Handed my notice in Friday, its a long one - I said I would be happy to work until the end of May, I thought this was being helpful by providing them with ample time in which to source a replacement and possibly some overlap for on the job training if they wish. This also suits me as there is not a lot about at the moment, and will also coincide with a my reaching the magic 25 which should provide more options for driving jobs.
I’m not after a sympathy vote or anything 
, I’ve made my decision based on the situation, and several others preceeding it. It’s a shame I think because some days its quite a nice little number, off the beaten track, down the backroads, nice scenery etc. But that can’t make up for me constantly getting injured and taking unpaid time off, the wages are also not at all transparent, so you never quite know if you are being paid properly. It’s always been enough money so i’ve never really kicked up.
Some of you may have followed the various overweight saga’s on here a while back, so thats another good reason, because it still happens far too regularly. I’m on my own a bit with that, because the ones who haven’t ever been caught are massively blase about it as you tend to be.
The major problems are the weights i’m expected to deliver on my own by hand, into difficult positions. I have no pension, and nor am I ever likely to have given the rent or buy trap my generation finds itself in, leaving precious little cash spare. So i’ve got to maintain my health somehow in order to work for the next 40 years, and then probably until I die. Once you screw your back up, there is no return. Given my qualifications, or distinct lack thereof, I will be driving in some variation for the forseeable.
I was, however, after the opinions of some on here about the general job. It’s £8.80/hr so relatively high for 7.5tonners, I guess, doesn’t cover the risk involved though in my opinion. Would you do it?
Big bales of hay, straw and silage. The silage weighs minimum 250kg each, the big bale hay and straw is at least 300kg+. We deliver to end user so its expected to go through doorways, up steps, stacked into barns etc etc. You know how little clue joe public has about the realities of delivering stuff. Most of the elevated classes we deliver to have never actually had a job in their lives.
Gets loaded on with a tractor if one is available, if not we have to park up next to a high stack, climb up, push it on ourselves and hope for a lucky bounce. We can use the forklift to sort the stack out a bit if its squiffy, but you have to be careful about piercing the silage bales, and it can’t really get much of a purchase on the hay and straw.
Comes off by hand, 99% of the time. Here are a couple of clever/stupid ideas i’ve had to use to get some bales where I want them;
Tying onto a barn and carefully driving away to drag the bale along the bed, so hopefully I can reverse it into place and push it off. Hoping you don’t pull the barn down. A crane would have sorted this.
Trying to recover a mouldy bale (olympic weight lifters deadlift less than this, so there weren’t many options), tying onto the skip, running the strap over the top of the cab, attach to the bale, reverse back slowly, using the pallet as some kind of ramp, and it drags the bale up. You hope, usually takes more than 1 go. A crane would have sorted this as well, cheaper option would be a winch.
Most of the time its attempting to roll them about - we have no sack trolleys, there simply isn’t a manual handling technique for this, you just apply brute force and hope it moves before your back does. Lost count of the amount of mornings i’ve had to be assisted out of bed, or recovered from the sofa due to not being able to move. Ok, so 20-30 years ago, this would have been normal carry on, but times have changed, and while there is equipment available (such as a HIAB) i’m simply saving my employer money at the expense of my back. I think thats called being a doormat.
The more succesful deliveries you make, the more the customer will expect the following time, Guaranteed. I am surprised Murphy hasn’t published some kind of law to this effect.
I laid down in my resignation letter that these items should be delivered by lorry mounted crane to the extent of the cranes reach, and no further. If the customer wants more then they need to arrange for mechanical handling equipment at their end, or we should be able to offer it (crane/moffat). I suggested that if we are going to be doing this kind of work, we should have procedures and equipment in place that allows us to meet the demand of the customer. At the moment everything is a bodge, but as long as the work is completed what incentive have they for introducing a change? I sent them links to a couple of cheap trucks with cranes from Walker Movements, around the £8k mark, that is by no means a prohibitive cost for a bouyant company, one would suppose.
I don’t elevate myself because I can drive articulated. I’ll do whatever pays, I’m not afraid of manual handling, quite the contrary, I work hard and i’ll do small bale hay or 20kg bagged feed all day long, and regularly do. I enjoy a good work out (saves a gym membership), as long as its within the limits of common sense. I just want a job where I can run legal, without killing myself physically.
I’m probably a bit of an idealist still, and being young-ish most peoples’ opinion is what the hell do I know. Maybe they are right.
Be interested to hear your thoughts, good or bad, on anything i’ve mentioned.
The right choice or am I throwing away a perfectly good (well paid?) job for some trivial crusade.
Thanks folks.
OMG 
Basically an old beet fork with a tine removed and rubber hose stretched over the prongs.