I am writing this blog at the end of another mammoth week
of early starts and late finishes, of rude and unpleasant warehouse
staff and filthy service stations and motorway rest stops .
Congested roads and unrealistic planners who expect the roads to open up like the Red Sea whenever our firm needs to get through.
I have been to small farms that even tractors struggle to get to, building sites that don't even exist on their own paperwork, let alone on maps or sat navs.
This
load was sent back by the dick looking at his phone because there
wasn't a digger in the container with the dumper truck. He wanted both
to arrive together.
I have had enough of sitting around waiting for morons to acknowledge me and then eventually un load me and find myself being grateful when I'm left waiting less than two hours. This clown in the JCB had left me sitting outside this building site from 8 am until 10 because he could basically.
I'm also sick of trudging around the motorway behind shopping trolleys that leave you stuck behind them at 54 MPH and then when you try to get past, they leave you out and coast past you on any downhill stretch hill until you have to start overtaking all over again.
These same shopping trolleys sit at 40 on the A road and then shoot up to 55 on the dual carriageway so you cant get past , then back to 40 again.
I'm pretty laid back about speed usually and don't really rush around but when your left out in the middle of the motorway while some dick rolls past you down hill a few times and then, when about three miles later you finally get past they want to flash you in.
I have loved this job for three years but I have to admit. I have had enough.
Congested roads and unrealistic planners who expect the roads to open up like the Red Sea whenever our firm needs to get through.
I have been to small farms that even tractors struggle to get to, building sites that don't even exist on their own paperwork, let alone on maps or sat navs.
This
load was sent back by the dick looking at his phone because there
wasn't a digger in the container with the dumper truck. He wanted both
to arrive together.
I have had enough of sitting around waiting for morons to acknowledge me and then eventually un load me and find myself being grateful when I'm left waiting less than two hours. This clown in the JCB had left me sitting outside this building site from 8 am until 10 because he could basically.
I'm also sick of trudging around the motorway behind shopping trolleys that leave you stuck behind them at 54 MPH and then when you try to get past, they leave you out and coast past you on any downhill stretch hill until you have to start overtaking all over again.
These same shopping trolleys sit at 40 on the A road and then shoot up to 55 on the dual carriageway so you cant get past , then back to 40 again.
I'm pretty laid back about speed usually and don't really rush around but when your left out in the middle of the motorway while some dick rolls past you down hill a few times and then, when about three miles later you finally get past they want to flash you in.
I have loved this job for three years but I have to admit. I have had enough.
I was at a Sainsburys the other day and they had a system I had never seen before.
Ill
post the picture up when I get the camera back but it was another piece
of evidence to prove that they don't want us drivers anywhere near them.
The bay door had a tube outside and a piece of wire with a hook through it.
The driver has to attach their keys to the hook and then press the button to turn the light red.
The
keys disappear up the tube and then a voice bellows down the tunnel to
wait in your cab, after a while the keys re-appear and the voice
bellows at you again and tells you to go to the office for your
paperwork.
Its like going to see the Wizard of Oz, and just as disappointing.
I have no idea how you veterans manage to stay in the game so long. I admire you and respect you for that.
Anyway enough moaning, here come the pictures
I
was behind my colleague here waiting while he filled up his two fuel
tanks, his ad blue tank and his Moffet with red diesel. Twenty minutes!
I only wanted 50 litres in the Iveco.This was a Homebase depot in Wellingborough and there MPG targets .
The woman on the desk at this was a real cow, she had a face like she had been chasing parked cars and a personality to match her looks. Horrible.
I had a collection to make and she made it seem like I committed the crime of the century, just for arriving.
She told me, when I offered her the reference number I had received through the cab computer
"It means fuck all to me driver" they were her exact words.
I was told I couldn't leave the office to go back to my truck even though they didn't even know what they were meant to be putting on me yet.
Another poor sod turned up with five cartons of Osram bulbs and she wouldn't accept them because they were not on pallets.
I know lots of company's do this but I think its pathetic, its a waste of time,money, fuel and human resources, as well as being demoralising for the driver, but it was the glee and the satisfaction that she seemed to get from telling him this news that annoyed me the most.
You will never be able to rid that sort of behaviour from this Industry.
Its a mind set.
I also went up to Liverpool a few times this week, to the docks and these are the random pictures I took.
If you look carefully my load in the background of this picture, no prizes for guessing what it was.I also went over the tunnels and this is what that looks from above.
I got caught out by the Digital Tacho again this week and ended up doing a 10 hour 37 minute Friday!" Shit , Ill get a telling off for that in a few weeks when they download my card.
Well I saw a silver lining around these clouds and it looked a lot brighter for a few minutes...
but not for long.
Comments (4)
uk has gone to the dogs i have been reading your travels for the past 3mths however i do internation work i refuse to do uk work msa are a shambles toilets food parking i can give you tale which happened to me 3 yrs ago came back from halmond holland parked on a msa overnight i had the mice in trailor nicked a plt of shavers right under cctv guest wot camera not in use it s a dummie msa said not our problom only car park is working order however keep chin up halmond man
Posted by p pullen | November 24, 2009 1:22 PM
Posted on November 24, 2009 13:22
Good to see old Collingwood Dock again, when I worked there somebody beheaded a Chinaman one night and left his torso under that bridge:-)
The place I worked closed because it had silted up so much the coasters loading from there were sitting on the bottom-"nobody" but "nobody" would pay to dredge it so that was that.
I take it you didn't park up overnight there:-)
Posted by graham davey | December 8, 2009 5:38 PM
Posted on December 8, 2009 17:38
Epic! I found this on Google searching for something else entirely, now I'm gonna have to go all the archives :) So long spare time today, but this was a truly great find.
Posted by Joyce Gilbert | December 10, 2009 5:42 AM
Posted on December 10, 2009 05:42
Thanks for your comments makes the blog woth writing,
I didnt park up more "get the hell outa dodge" !!
I went back again the next week its all in the later posts , I post here as well lorryday.com these are the daily pages
Posted by lorry day | December 20, 2009 1:41 PM
Posted on December 20, 2009 13:41