Not “pain and conditions” then?
adam277:
Would you help unload/load a truck/container?
Would you do residential deliveries?
Would you do pallet deliveries without a tail-lift and forklift? (splitting pallets down)
Would you do Multidrop?Personally, I’m getting a little ■■■■■ with having to split pallets down due to lacking a tail lift but its got me thinking what do you guys draw the line at.
I used to work at a place that had a Day trunker and he walked out because they asked him to deliver 3/4 pallets to a local business before he headed off to Birmingham.
The other day I had two pallets @ 500kg to go to a school which obviously didn’t have a forklift and made me think wtf am I doing here.
Blimey you should try weeks of agency work on scaffolding and shuttering which effectively translated as being a scaffolding/shuttering yard and building site labourer to load it/tip it then carry it and help to erect it and strike it on site and a driver to just get it all to/from the sites.The same applied in the case of what was effectively building supplies yard labourer/driver which also included loads of hand balling stuff at delivery points.In addition to a regular diet of local London multi drop.Also ‘Depot duties’ as a council ‘driver’.Also other handball jobs including loading/tipping loose loaded artic trailers from floor to ceiling from front to back.All total zb work not deserving the title of ‘driver’ and which with hindsight,maybe with the exception of the council job,I would generally avoid like the plague and prefer to drive a bus instead. 
My first job when I got my license involved all the above and far worse.
It was with a small island firm and the work was brutal. Monday was “the coal run” which involved 5 x 1 tonne pallets each with 40 x 25kg bags of coal which had to be distributed around the island to remote houses, handballed off a 7.5t truck, carried round the back of each house, opened and emptied into the customer’s bunker. I was absolutely ■■■.ked by the end of it.
Other jobs involved delivering 47kg gas bottles to homes, Manually dropping them off a flat bed, awkwardly getting them round the back of houses and businesses, connecting them and taking away the empties.
There was dray work which could involve up to 70 x 11 gallon kegs being delivered to pubs and hotels, all done manually - and you’d be expected to leave them neatly in rows in the customers’ cellars.
Occasionally I’d be asked to do furniture removals which could be the absolute worst. I have tremendous respect for guys that do that all day every day.
My attitude was that, although I hated most of it, they took me on as a new pass when they didn’t have to and it was the only option where I lived so I didn’t complain and got on with it, accepting the general wisdom that you have spend an apprenticeship doing the shi.te work to eventually get better jobs and over time these hard shifts on the island would be mixed with easy days doing trips to the mainland. After a year I’d only really be doing one or two local days a week.
In the end my back gave in so I went and found tramping work on the mainland and would never consider going back to that type of work but I like to think it’s made me appreciate the easy fridge trunking I do now.
I certainly did most of that and more. The attitude test was important though, and seeing that the ■■■■■ got spread around evenly.
I never really did containers, but where I worked last had a lot of container deliveries. A lot of the drivers would just kip in their cabs for the three hours they took to tip, but a surprising number would pitch in and help out without being asked. I asked about it once and the guy shrugged and said that he needed the exercise. One thing was for sure - if they started to moan about how long it was taking, you could be sure it would take a lot longer. The way to get tipped fast was to join in the chat, get the coffee in and help wrap a few pallets.
adam277:
Grumpy Dad:
adam277:
Grumpy Dad:
No residents don’t like artics in their drivesYou don’t park it in the drive you just block the entire road.
You do when you have to screw it round in a cul d sac
Could always just block the entrance to the cul d sac and run / walk it the rest of the way. No job is impossible!
I get stressed out with the delivery game in the rigid but I kinda want them to give me a van run but put it in a artic just to see how I would get along withit. 60+ drops in a artic bring it on!
I wouldn’t do it, not even in a puddle jumper
Help unload I cant abide sitting if people are working in my trailer, Unless its on a dock/bay and i am not allowed to. Happy to get up and unload a full 26 pallets via pallet trucks don’t happen every day so do when i have to JOB on
simcant:
Help unload I cant abide sitting if people are working in my trailer, Unless its on a dock/bay and i am not allowed to. Happy to get up and unload a full 26 pallets via pallet trucks don’t happen every day so do when i have to JOB on
Not a prayer at DHL, Wincanton or any other major logistics company, I don’t even offer.
My first job was as a coalman. Fill 1cwt sacks from a hopper. Walk and stack them on the truck. Deliver to houses. Occasionally running them through the house. Often up steps etc. Narrow alleyways to get down to avoid the long run.
Couldn’t do it now. But every job since has cleaner and easier.
And when I went home it wasn’t to a “shoebox at bottom of the lake”!
Times change, but I’d still give most things a go.
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Santa:
I certainly did most of that and more. The attitude test was important though, and seeing that the [zb] got spread around evenly.I never really did containers, but where I worked last had a lot of container deliveries. A lot of the drivers would just kip in their cabs for the three hours they took to tip, but a surprising number would pitch in and help out without being asked. I asked about it once and the guy shrugged and said that he needed the exercise. One thing was for sure - if they started to moan about how long it was taking, you could be sure it would take a lot longer. The way to get tipped fast was to join in the chat, get the coffee in and help wrap a few pallets.
^
This
If it was a handball job, probably a bit of a masochist but get pleasure out of excercise. No way could i sleep in the cab or sit around if there was unloading to do. The 12t i mentioned was an exception and had a lot of the staff out helping including the senoritas but the garden centres we deliver to most dont have flt’s and anything up to 5t is the norm. Burns calories/keeps you fit and strong though, you’ll live a lot longer too. Sitting around doing the least possible is the road to your bodies ruin…
Containers…
No. When ever I’ve shown up with a twenty or a forty, there’s been a team of (hired for the day) oompaloompas ready to get in and hump the load off. I’m not gonna be the one putting a man out of a job for the day. Nowadays a lot of loads are on one way pallets.
Residential, yes, been there done that. Did a complete forty footer flat with paving slabs to a private address by hand once. Took three hours and they gave me a twenty (which was like doubling my weeks wages back then)
Split pallets, no, you wanna count it and rack it, you count it and rack it.
Multidrop, yes, started off in a Ford D series doing bathroom deleveries along the south coast. Don’t think I’ve ever come home so dusty and dirty in all my life. Hats off to the multi-drop men, I couldn’t do it now.
Been driving on agency since February when I passed my class 2. Done all of that and worse. Driving an old bin wagon full of rats was probably the worst. The smell was horrific and it only became bearable when you were driving along with the window open, but then it hit hard when you stopped and you had to shut the window. But then it was time to get out and drag those bins onto the back. Restaurants and butchers were the worst. Rotting meat, blood and maggots splashing up your legs as you tipped their large industrial bins. Pretty horrific experience all round
I’m class 1 now anyway, doing general haulage and a few pallets
I was doing tyre delivery for Michelin for a bit. Full 18t of tyres. Had to roll them all off the back st Costco tyre centres. Then take all their scrap tyres which was 1/4-1/2 a wagon that I had to manually lace in the back, then back to Michelin and unload the scrap again. £9.50 hr at the time, but it’s got me where I am today 
Stinka:
Been driving on agency since February when I passed my class 2. Done all of that and worse. Driving an old bin wagon full of rats was probably the worst. The smell was horrific and it only became bearable when you were driving along with the window open, but then it hit hard when you stopped and you had to shut the window. But then it was time to get out and drag those bins onto the back. Restaurants and butchers were the worst. Rotting meat, blood and maggots splashing up your legs as you tipped their large industrial bins. Pretty horrific experience all round
You know that point when you think you’re really hungry and order the large breakfast instead of the small, then read something and wish you’d just ordered toast
I wouldn’t have done any job that didn’t involve opening an arsedoor and putting a pto into gear!
Pete.
I`M gonna break the norm…been there, done it years ago, now i do the job i have been employed to do…thats to drive from A to B…its up to others to arrange unloading/loading…and if i was offered a job where i had to do it as part of my routine, i would have to say Thanks but no Thanks as i am no ones lacky.
Stinka:
Been driving on agency since February when I passed my class 2. Done all of that and worse. Driving an old bin wagon full of rats was probably the worst. The smell was horrific and it only became bearable when you were driving along with the window open, but then it hit hard when you stopped and you had to shut the window. But then it was time to get out and drag those bins onto the back. Restaurants and butchers were the worst. Rotting meat, blood and maggots splashing up your legs as you tipped their large industrial bins. Pretty horrific experience all round
Haha this made me chuckle. I’ve dealt with this kind of material since I started driving although it’s been in bulkers rather than dust carts. If you think the smells bad you want to try and get to sleep in the summer when you’ve 28 ton of it sitting a couple of meters away 
.
Telt:
My first job when I got my license involved all the above and far worse.It was with a small island firm and the work was brutal. Monday was “the coal run” which involved 5 x 1 tonne pallets each with 40 x 25kg bags of coal which had to be distributed around the island to remote houses, handballed off a 7.5t truck, carried round the back of each house, opened and emptied into the customer’s bunker. I was absolutely ■■■.ked by the end of it.
Other jobs involved delivering 47kg gas bottles to homes, Manually dropping them off a flat bed, awkwardly getting them round the back of houses and businesses, connecting them and taking away the empties.
There was dray work which could involve up to 70 x 11 gallon kegs being delivered to pubs and hotels, all done manually - and you’d be expected to leave them neatly in rows in the customers’ cellars.
Occasionally I’d be asked to do furniture removals which could be the absolute worst. I have tremendous respect for guys that do that all day every day.
My attitude was that, although I hated most of it, they took me on as a new pass when they didn’t have to and it was the only option where I lived so I didn’t complain and got on with it, accepting the general wisdom that you have spend an apprenticeship doing the shi.te work to eventually get better jobs and over time these hard shifts on the island would be mixed with easy days doing trips to the mainland. After a year I’d only really be doing one or two local days a week.
In the end my back gave in so I went and found tramping work on the mainland and would never consider going back to that type of work but I like to think it’s made me appreciate the easy fridge trunking I do now.
Lightweight! Real coalmen took 2 x 112lb sacks (50kg) up to our 3rd floor flat! And there were 5 other flats on our level… 
.
Somewhat spookily, I’ve done all the work you’ve listed there except the coal!
When I was driving I would do most thing EXCEPT splitting down loads, I always refused point blank.
Telt:
My first job when I got my license involved all the above and far worse.It was with a small island firm and the work was brutal. Monday was “the coal run” which involved 5 x 1 tonne pallets each with 40 x 25kg bags of coal which had to be distributed around the island to remote houses, handballed off a 7.5t truck, carried round the back of each house, opened and emptied into the customer’s bunker. I was absolutely ■■■.ked by the end of it.
Other jobs involved delivering 47kg gas bottles to homes, Manually dropping them off a flat bed, awkwardly getting them round the back of houses and businesses, connecting them and taking away the empties.
There was dray work which could involve up to 70 x 11 gallon kegs being delivered to pubs and hotels, all done manually - and you’d be expected to leave them neatly in rows in the customers’ cellars.
Occasionally I’d be asked to do furniture removals which could be the absolute worst. I have tremendous respect for guys that do that all day every day.
My attitude was that, although I hated most of it, they took me on as a new pass when they didn’t have to and it was the only option where I lived so I didn’t complain and got on with it, accepting the general wisdom that you have spend an apprenticeship doing the shi.te work to eventually get better jobs and over time these hard shifts on the island would be mixed with easy days doing trips to the mainland. After a year I’d only really be doing one or two local days a week.
In the end my back gave in so I went and found tramping work on the mainland and would never consider going back to that type of work but I like to think it’s made me appreciate the easy fridge trunking I do now.
Only 11s. No 18s, 22s or proper barrels? I had to move a wooden hogshead (54 gallons) once. Obviously a technique to it using the movement of the liquid inside but still tricky. And hand balling off several pallets of bottled beer that a busy pub sells too…