Wasting time

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

I took 10 packs of Celcon blocks to a building site today, nobody was there but there was a big empty space exactly where I’d put the last load of blocks they had. So I offloaded the lot in the space. My firm expect me to just unload if there’s nobody there.

Got back to the yard to be told that the customer should have been phoned to meet me on site, somewhere between sales and transport this information got lost.

Guess what he doesn’t want the blocks where they are, he wants bricks there.

So tomorrow, on top of the other loads I’m already down to do, I have to go and move all these bloody packs of blocks about 20 feet and to do it I’ll have to bend the rules about slewing the crane behind the lorry too.

Here comes the best bit…the bricks he wants putting where the blocks are, they are being supplied by someone else!

I wonder what the profit on this load will be. :unamused:

You try your best and it’s never bloody good enough. :frowning:

2

Have this building site not got any forks?

Also, have you ever noticed that when you turn up with a delivery, the workers are always on a break and refuse to tip you? :confused:

3

I deliver Thermalite blocks but I’ve only been doing it for just over a month. I’m begining to realise that the job is a pain in the arse! Some of the sites are incredibly tough to get into and then when you have craned off nearly sixty packs off they will quite happily talk to you like dirt!!

There isn’t much I can do about it because of my lack of experience :cry:

Oh well, keep smiling! :smiley:

CW

4

killsville:
Have this building site not got any forks?

Also, have you ever noticed that when you turn up with a delivery, the workers are always on a break and refuse to tip you? :confused:

Nah it’s just one house being built on an existing residential road, looks like they might have knocked down a house that was there before. Truth be told he doesn’t want to cart the blocks 20 feet. He wants them all put on the foundation pad.

I guess the bloke did ask us to phone him and we didn’t, so it’s our fault. This does happen quite a bit to us, having to go back and move stuff…not usually a full load though.

Sites are funny, some of the places we go to are brilliant…they help you out or unload you with the forks, others you get treated like an idiot. There are a lot of foremen who are experts in how to drive lorries too. :wink: Like the one I mentioned before who took out his tape and measured the width of my cab!

Funny business construction…lot of egos around…even if the pay can be good I’m glad I didn’t go into it. I did have a chance too once just after I left school.

5

I did some work for Sheffield Insulations on a rigid. I was told after my deliveries to go to a building site in St.Asaph and pick up ‘some’ rolls of insulation that had been delivered to the wrong site, take the to the site over the road about 500 yards away. You may need to do a couple of trips!!
When i got to the pile of them it was a full artic trailers worth and i was on my todd. I threw about 5 rolls on the rigid, the climed up on the rigid to stack them and thought “i’ll be here till midnight doing this lot”, so i threw them off and left them and came back as i was. They sent me out the next day with a drivers mate to do it. They knew full well when they sent me in the first place i would think, exactly what it entailed and probably expected me to just get on with it!!!

6

Wilde1:
I deliver Thermalite blocks but I’ve only been doing it for just over a month. I’m begining to realise that the job is a pain in the arse! Some of the sites are incredibly tough to get into and then when you have craned off nearly sixty packs off they will quite happily talk to you like dirt!!

There isn’t much I can do about it because of my lack of experience :cry:

Oh well, keep smiling! :smiley:

CW

I don’t think experience will make much difference, I’ve been delivering to sites for a few years now and still get treated like crap and still get suprised by some of the things people expect.

We’ve got a few customers who don’t like me much, because I’m a bit more cautious than our other drivers, with regard to stuff like power cables, mud, trees and bushes. I like to plan what I’m gonna do rather than just jump in, it’s my nature but I think they see it as me being awkward and not just doing as I’m told.

7

Mike-C:
I did some work for Sheffield Insulations on a rigid. I was told after my deliveries to go to a building site in St.Asaph and pick up ‘some’ rolls of insulation that had been delivered to the wrong site, take the to the site over the road about 500 yards away. You may need to do a couple of trips!!
When i got to the pile of them it was a full artic trailers worth and i was on my todd. I threw about 5 rolls on the rigid, the climed up on the rigid to stack them and thought “i’ll be here till midnight doing this lot”, so i threw them off and left them and came back as i was. They sent me out the next day with a drivers mate to do it. They knew full well when they sent me in the first place i would think, exactly what it entailed and probably expected me to just get on with it!!!

That’s one of my favourite things, jumping up and down off the lorry…especially when the blokes on site are just ignoring the fact that you’re struggling.

Had one this morning, half a dozen 6M lengths of 4" plastic pipe to unload, I’m on the back, four blokes stood 5 yards away watching me as I pass them down off the side gently, none of them moves to take them away. So I just slung them down in the end. The end of one of them broke and the bloke who watched me struggle moaned about it!

8

Theres some construction work going on in South SHore Road in Felling,
I had occassion to deliver a Cullen pallet there once, got there at 1150 to be told I was ‘lucky’ cos they were going on lunch at 12.

They refused to tip me for 1 pallet and refused to ket me take it off on tail lift.

Parked my vehicle across the entrance, put it on break, put note in window saying driver on early break, locked it and walked to Greggs.

Came back 1 Hoi Sin Duck Tortilla wrap and a botle of Diet Coke later.
Lots of cars wnating to be out and THEIR early lunch well and truly ■■■■■■ up!

I thought I was going to be buried in concrete and never seen again.

It was my last pallet that day, and once the screaming had stopped and the foreman had realised that his lot had drawn first blood so to speak, we agreed this would not happen again.

I got a lot back from that. Wouldn’t do it again though. Maybe…

9

So I went and moved them, thankfully I could do it without reloading them and moving the lorry…I’m not gonna moan too loud anymore because he gave me a fiver tip! :blush:

10

Got to a site down in Berkshire with a 17m cherrypicker to work on some eaves and guttering.

I had tried to contact the customer to get directions but no response to text or calls. Eventually found the site. Got there for 1pm, due there for 130 and found a place to park. Next to a temporary fence and a carpark. As in, the fence was between me and the carpark. Then trundled off to the office to find the site manager.

Eventually found him, apparently he didn’t know how to work a mobile :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: and the message icon had been flashing on his phone ‘for ever’ :open_mouth: :open_mouth: He also told me that I had to go for the induction. I queried where I’d parked, he said it was fine and to leave it there. So I did.

Got back after a half hour induction to find a small riot happening. Seems a truck delivering had been given the wrong exit route and the trailer was buried up to the axles and there was a 100t crane on site trying to lift him out :open_mouth: So that route was blocked. Returned to the cab to find someone had broken in to try and shift the truck as it was blocking the “other exit”. One of the builders even admitted to doing it as he wanted to go for his lunch.

Got on the phone to the office and spoke to the boss, who was less than impressed. Spoke to the site foreman who couldnt give a [zb]. all he cared about was getting the work done as the homes were being opened the next day and they’d have to pay penalties if they were late.

Then came the crunch. Truck wouldn’t start. They’d smashed the ignition barrel off too to get it moving… :open_mouth: :laughing: :laughing:

Recovery people arrived at 3pm. Crane had ‘difficulties’ and although could extract the trailer, unhitched, from the truck couldn’t get the tractor out as had some other problems, so that route was still blocked.

Recovery had to get a wagon in to extract me as they couldn’t fix the ignition and the foreman looked like he was gonna pop a vein or something!

I was towed offsite at 5pm, and that was when the other truck was able to clear site too. So not only has the builders not gone to lunch they were late leaving site too, expecting to finish at 3pm.

My boss was livid, and charged the “repair” and callout to the company involved as it was their contractors effectively that caused the problems.

Didn’t get to work, but spent a while hanging around…

These days I try to be careful of all customers, building sites and the like. They want everything done “now” and in their way even when they go against h&s. One locally they wanted me to put the cage on the roof, with the customer working on the roof above the cage but with their safety harnesses clipped to the cage.

Number one, if they’re outside of the cage they don’t clip on. Number two, I can lean the machine near the roof and they can lean in it, but as with No1 they can’t clip on, as they’re outside.

Needless to say when the site foreman tried to go above my head and I offered him the H&S point of view and a managers number he backed down pretty quick, but he was still fuming.

Oh, and it was raining too :frowning:

11

if you did not get the ok to drop the load in that position or get any delivery notes signed what would have happened if the site had denied all knowledge that you even delivered the blocks?

12

Andyroo:

Mike-C:
I did some work for Sheffield Insulations on a rigid. I was told after my deliveries to go to a building site in St.Asaph and pick up ‘some’ rolls of insulation that had been delivered to the wrong site, take the to the site over the road about 500 yards away. You may need to do a couple of trips!!
When i got to the pile of them it was a full artic trailers worth and i was on my todd. I threw about 5 rolls on the rigid, the climed up on the rigid to stack them and thought “i’ll be here till midnight doing this lot”, so i threw them off and left them and came back as i was. They sent me out the next day with a drivers mate to do it. They knew full well when they sent me in the first place i would think, exactly what it entailed and probably expected me to just get on with it!!!

That’s one of my favourite things, jumping up and down off the lorry…especially when the blokes on site are just ignoring the fact that you’re struggling.

Had one this morning, half a dozen 6M lengths of 4" plastic pipe to unload, I’m on the back, four blokes stood 5 yards away watching me as I pass them down off the side gently, none of them moves to take them away. So I just slung them down in the end. The end of one of them broke and the bloke who watched me struggle moaned about it!

Get your boss to buy you a tipper then you can just tip it all off in a big heap :laughing:

13

mikermhh:
if you did not get the ok to drop the load in that position or get any delivery notes signed what would have happened if the site had denied all knowledge that you even delivered the blocks?

The ■■■■ would have hit the fan I guess, but my instructions are to offload it if I can, even if there’s nobody there.

If I think I can’t do it or the stuff might be right in the way (e.g blocking the gate), then I phone the office.

I agree that it’s a bit of a chancey way of doing things, but ours is not to reason why, etc…

14

andyroo…
What site was it? pm me if u dont want everyone to know…I fix plant tyre and truck tyres around east anglia with 2 other vans…I get loads of hasssle from building sites as well…didnt the site have a tele to move the blocks?

15

jayeastanglia:
andyroo…
What site was it? pm me if u dont want everyone to know…I fix plant tyre and truck tyres around east anglia with 2 other vans…I get loads of hasssle from building sites as well…didnt the site have a tele to move the blocks?

It’s only a little tiny one house site, the only plant they’ve got is a cement mixer. :laughing:

16

and they are the worst for puncture repairs.If a tyre is scrap they dont like it…

17

It’s just sites generally. Unless you are delivering to and collecting from regulars it’s unlikely to be different.

Typically I would deliver a digger and a dumper to a site, the buckets are neatly stowed in the dumper and they are parked somewhere out of the way.

When I return I may have to hunt for the dumper, empty it and take it round an obstacle course just to get near the machine. There’s usually a couple of buckets nearish to the machine and the other is a treasure hunt job, inevitably somewhere where you can’t quite reach it with the arm. They have to be dragged, pulled and pushed into place.

If I win the lottery I’m going to buy a Hercules to deliver them with. See how they like it.

18

mikermhh:
if you did not get the ok to drop the load in that position or get any delivery notes signed what would have happened if the site had denied all knowledge that you even delivered the blocks?

On Tarmac and Hanson delivery notes it has something along the lines of ‘The driver must use his best endeavours to obtain a signature for the material’. I’ve always taken that as ‘turn up, if their not there then tip it and go’.

I’ve done it many times and usually leave the ticket under a suitable rock or in a digger with a brief explanation. Sometimes they moan but if they’ve ordered something then they should be there to collect it shouldn’t they? :unamused: :smiley:

19

Aah fond memories of my days on the hiab not.Most brickies etc speak to you like ■■■■ and run a mile when you eventually get into the site :unamused: :unamused:(same as most places) .Funny how the roofers were totally different with you though .They always wanted the packs of tiles on the roof so they could handball them off there instead of running up and down ladders with 3 at a time .I dont miss the building game deliveries one bit :smiley: :smiley: , but each to their own.

20

so they could handball them off there instead of running up and down ladders with 3 at a time
dont think they are allowed to do that now…H&S…