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fatchap
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Christmas has come early for me, yesterday I finally got Red Carded from Battersea Power Station.

I am barred permanently from delivering to the site. My boss however does not share my joy and happiness, but he has no idea of the sheer hell and stress it was to deliver to that place, told him on numerous occasions how bad it was but he just laughed. 

The logistic side of the delivery system there is not geared toward multi drop drivers. Its based on a lorry being booked in with say 8 tonne of steel that is going to be on site for several hours and said lorry driver basically has all day with nothing left to do when he leaves site except head back to his yard. I however have most of South West London still to cover delivery and collection wise. And I have been getting pretty stressed lately, 

Yesterday I had a hand test bucket to deliver, that was it. I was booked in at 10.30am, arrived at 10.25, just because your booked in at 10.30 does not mean you will be going in at 10.30. At 11.15 I was still sitting in the que despite the traffic marshalls knowing I was there, I gave them my booking reference and they confirmed I was booked, then walked off as usual.

12.00pm now fuming I am finally let in only to be sent to the internal holding area as the loading bay I wanted had an over running delivery. I was told by a marshall to put my hazard lights on whilst in the holding area, by now my urine was boiling and I seriously had the need to kill someone. I had a further 12 jobs to do out as far as Wimbledon and it was now 12.20pm. I told the traffic marshal to "go **** himself. My boss was now ringing asking about what time I am getting to other jobs, he knows where I am the van has a tracker so starts having a go at why its taking so long to deliver a test bucket. The company I am delivering to are also on the phone wondering where I am. So with the phone going 90 to the dozen and the traffic marshall I told to go **** himself asking for my name, I have lost me rag and promptly exploded, Rammed the van into reverse and backed out of the holding area, this got the attention of the Banksman who has started blowing his whistle and waving his arms. I stopped and he screamed through the window NO REVERSING WITHOUT BEING BANKED. He also got told to go **** himself. Out came the camera and his phone. Called the main contractor Mace, who sent over a man in a brand new Hi Viz, spotless steel toecap boots, gloves, safety glasses and a clipboard. After listening to what can only be described as ******** he issued me with my dream, a red card for" Flagrant disregard for the safety method statement"  And I was to be removed from site immediately and never ever ever return. They will inform my employer, I gave them the contact details, And got the hell out of Dodge.

I have this tremendous sense of well being now. Boss seems to think me apologising will get me back in but he can go **** himself as well.

Edited by fatchap
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It's nonsense that you should be put under that kind of stress for just doing your job -  and quite honestly I blame your boss. There's nothing anyone in your firm can do about the slow system at Battersea, least of all the driver on site. That's just how it is and from what you say it's a recognized problem. Therefore the inevitable delay should be factored into your schedule. 

Any reason why it's not?

Edited by Retsdon
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I think that anyone in their right mind would have done exactly the same as you, so good for you.

Perhaps if more did the same, then the 'non' deliveries would impact on the main contractor and it would force them and/or the employer to get their act together.

I've been on sites where 'site procedures' and 'health & safety' bore no relationship whatsoever to common sense. You have my sympathy, but it sounds as though that problem has now been resolved, for you anyway.

OB

 

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22 minutes ago, Retsdon said:

It's nonsense that you should be put under that kind of stress for just doing your job -  and quite honestly I blame your boss. There's nothing anyone in your firm can do about the slow system at Battersea, least of all the driver on site. That's just how it is and from what you say it's a recognized problem. Therefore the inevitable delay should be factored into your schedule. 

Any reason why it's not?

Simply put.....money, all my company cares about is its customers get their materials delivered on the day at the time they have asked and they pay promptly. 

I have always argued that Battersea power station should be done on its own by one van, maybe another delivery or collection added on but not done on a full route, its just not possible because you just have no idea how long you are going to be held up there..

But get told that using one van and one driver for just one job is not financially viable. But customers not getting their gear because of stupid site rules and booking times/slots on other sites is also not financially viable. They just don't listen because they are not out there on the roads they have no idea what its like, My boss is under the impression that all the traffic lights in London are constantly green, there's possibly 10 other vehicles tops on the road, no congestion at all the congestion charge took care of that, and when we get to the site, the contractors are waiting outside for us mob handed to take in their delivery/or collection.

I have reached the conclusion that traffic marshals know or are trained to say 3 phrases when you turn up on site...

1 who is it for?

2 Have you rung them?

3 Your not booked in.

After that they are of no use at all.

 

Edited by fatchap
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I know how frustrating it can be, I'm a warehouse supervisor and we approach the task with a more relaxed attitude, but I can see how things with a big warehouse can get out of hand ours is starting to get H+S silly.

Management these days are that scared of being prosecuted for H+S incidents and the warehouse staff have no other choice in the end but to do as they are told, if they don't they will be the ones who are sacked/prosecuted if there is an incident, and believe me you would not believe some of the things lorry drivers will do, they will walk around the lorry chatting together when you are driving a FLT about, then they bitch like hell when you ******* them and tell them to go stand in a holding area, even though you could easily crush one to death with a 3tonne FLT. Had them try and drive down the side if a lorry while you are trying to unload another lorry creating a crush point then when you tell them to get out they get ****ty with you even though nine time out of ten they are not due for another 3hrs and they expect you to tip them straight away, these are the one who are made to wait to the allotted time and it will take every second of the allotted time to unload them.

So you can kinda see where a warehouse can get to the stage were Battersea is at H+S gone silly and a warehouse getting fed up with some extracting the urine so that they make every driver abide by the rules.

That said you would think they would have some area for a quick drop off point for vans/rigids with say one or two pallets.

 

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It is really up to your boss to sort out...........when delivering to that site, as he well knows, that sort of delay adversely affects the rest of his customers......in such cases, the customer should pay waiting time.......perhaps your boss should approach them and explain the detrimental effect it has on his business and why he can’t afford to have his driver hanging about for hours, and in consequence, he has no option, any future delay of over an hour at the site, will be charged at a per hour cost.........

I dislike jobs worths wasting my time, I well remember visiting the tip because the refuse dept declined to collect several bags of accumulated refuse from a deceased relatives property, I had a day off work to sort things, and disposal of this stuff was one chore I had factored in......I loaded the land rover and arrived at the tip (some six miles away) at 3.30 pm ‘ish only to find the gates firmly locked (they were advertised as scheduled to close weekdays at 5.30pm if memory serves?) I shouted to draw attention to a passing employee inside the yard, and he shouted back that they were closed and suggested I come back tomorrow! With the land rover full to the gunwales with sacks of rubbish, I was not happy (incandescent!!)  I climbed onto the roof of the land rover an hurled the bags over the ten foot high gates, to threats of lord knows what consequences by said employee!...........In the event I heard nothing further regarding  matter!.......why they were closed at 3.30 instead of the 5.30 scheduled time, I can only speculate! as can I, the fact that I heard no more about the matter?

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I know your frustration, I've just retired from container work. Arriving to load or unload, we never knew how long we would be on a bay or waiting for a bay. Arrive 15 mins either way of your time and get fined. Then you could be anything from 1 hour upwards. Not unusual to be 12 hours or more, even over 24hrs. Not good when you're paid by miles covered.

I was banned from quite a few distribution centres for telling it how it was.

Good luck with your boss

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4 minutes ago, panoma1 said:

It is really up to your boss to sort out...........when delivering to that site, as he well knows, that sort of delay adversely affects the rest of his customers......in such cases, the customer should pay waiting time.......perhaps your boss should approach them and explain the detrimental effect it has on his business and why he can’t afford to have his driver hanging about for hours, and in consequence, he has no option, any future delay of over an hour at the site, will be charged at a per hour cost.........

I dislike jobs worths wasting my time, I well remember visiting the tip because the refuse dept declined to collect several bags of accumulated refuse from a deceased relatives property, I had a day off work to sort things, and disposal of this stuff was one chore I had factored in......I loaded the land rover and arrived at the tip (some six miles away) at 3.30 pm ‘ish only to find the gates firmly locked (they were advertised as scheduled to close weekdays at 5.30pm if memory serves?) I shouted to draw attention to a passing employee inside the yard, and he shouted back that they were closed and suggested I come back tomorrow! With the land rover full to the gunwales with sacks of rubbish, I was not happy (incandescent!!)  I climbed onto the roof of the land rover an hurled the bags over the ten foot high gates, to threats of lord knows what consequences by said employee!...........In the event I heard nothing further regarding  matter!.......why they were closed at 3.30 instead of the 5.30 scheduled time, I can only speculate! as can I, the fact that I heard no more about the matter?

Waiting time in the transport industry is charged by the minute, is called demurage  and was around £180 per hour last time I worked. The problem is the  bigger the company the better the lawyer and they refuse to pay. Absolutely nothing you can do as a small company or one man band. 

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Just reading a few more reply's, I missed the point that you had been kept beyond your booking slot and this is a wrong this especially as you are multi drop delivery vehicle, you boss should charge and complain to Battersea as they should not book you in if they can not unload you in the allocated time, Battersea need to sort out who is booking in to many vehicles or the warehouse if they are unable to deal with the amount of vehicles, sounds like poor management not that there's is a thing as we know managers never get it wrong.

We used to charge £25 per hour after the first hour waiting time when I was a motorcycle courier, which was a lot of money 35 years ago.

 

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1 hour ago, fatchap said:

They just don't listen because they are not out there on the roads they have no idea what its like, My boss is under the impression that all the traffic lights in London are constantly green, there's possibly 10 other vehicles tops on the road, no congestion at all .....

I don't buy it. He knows. But he's pushing what should be his problem onto you. My guess is that he has company targets to meet on the number of deliveries per van per mile per day, and he's under pressure himself to meet those targets. But because it would raise his head above the parapet he's either too scared or too lazy to send a proper report on the situation at Battersea up the chain, explaining why in this case the daily target is unrealistic and requesting that he be given authority to reschedule the Battersea delivery vehicle accordingly.

So Instead, he tries to get blood from a stone and then blames the stone when it's not forthcoming.

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We are pretty close to those rules at our place for reasons that are completely understandable when you see what some idiot drivers have done. 

 

1. Reversed into a lamp post which needed replacing

2. Through a red light driving in front of a train leaving a shed.. this has happened 6 times to my knowledge. 

3. Wearing "flip-flops" and not toe tectors

4. 20 + MPH in a 5MPH zone 

5. Smoking on a no smoking site

6. Reversing into scaffolding. 

There have been numerous other issues over the years, one of the reasons why rules are put in place, when people dont follow those rules you need to put in place more processes, ie a banksman, We didnt agree with that but it was made mandatory around all our depots because we had not been the only place to have these issues. 

So unfortunately they are put in place for the minority of stupid drivers that are basicly incompetent and would be better suited to dilivering Piza's on a push bike.

 

And just for info, 2 people local to me had been killed (crushed) behind reversing wagons, 1 at Rumenco and another at a local tip reycling centre. 

Lost fathers husbands and sons, went to work and never returned. 

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16 minutes ago, Dougy said:

 

3. Wearing "flip-flops" and not toe tectors

 

There is no legal requirement nor precedent for drivers to drive in any form of protective foot wear. It's not issued by most companies, so to comply with various other companies HS regulations whilst on site drivers have to purchase steel capped footwear at their own expense.  No one can convince me that a driver wearing HS approved foot wear is a safer driver.

As for your other arguments, I  absolutely agree, having spent a while in accident investigation and carrying out assessments for insurance companies on drivers of all classes. Impatience, speed and indifference is what causes "most" accidents. Most accidents as you probably know are also low speed shunts, nudges or touches which can have devastating knock on effects. See a speeding vehicle, run, see a slowly maneuvering vehicle, you rarely give it a second glance.

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1 hour ago, Centrepin said:

There is no legal requirement nor precedent for drivers to drive in any form of protective foot wear. It's not issued by most companies, so to comply with various other companies HS regulations whilst on site drivers have to purchase steel capped footwear at their own expense.  No one can convince me that a driver wearing HS approved foot wear is a safer driver.

As for your other arguments, I  absolutely agree, having spent a while in accident investigation and carrying out assessments for insurance companies on drivers of all classes. Impatience, speed and indifference is what causes "most" accidents. Most accidents as you probably know are also low speed shunts, nudges or touches which can have devastating knock on effects. See a speeding vehicle, run, see a slowly maneuvering vehicle, you rarely give it a second glance.

So then, what happens when he arrives at site and has to leave his cab? He may have to use the lavatory, he may have to unsheet his load, he may wish to use the onsite canteen. Many places will insist upon yellow vest and appropriate footwear for walking on the hallowed ground!

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31 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

So then, what happens when he arrives at site and has to leave his cab? He may have to use the lavatory, he may have to unsheet his load, he may wish to use the onsite canteen. Many places will insist upon yellow vest and appropriate footwear for walking on the hallowed ground!

Before I retired it was generally hi vis orange, trousers, orange vest(even over a long sleeved yellow jacket) long sleeves, helmet, glasses and gloves, hearing protection if required. None of which make a driver a safer driver. Boots are not generally issued to HGV drivers who have to purchase them. Try driving into the sun wearing his vis and the glare reflected back to you from the inside of the windscreen is blinding.

Nothing you wear, with the possible exception of prescription glasses make a driver a safer driver. That's the point I was making about steel toed boots. 

I wore crocs mostly, changing into safety lace up boots or safety lace up trainers and anything else as required once on site, or waiting to book in at security. 

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4 hours ago, Centrepin said:

There is no legal requirement nor precedent for drivers to drive in any form of protective foot wear. It's not issued by most companies, so to comply with various other companies HS regulations whilst on site drivers have to purchase steel capped footwear at their own expense.  No one can convince me that a driver wearing HS approved foot wear is a safer driver.

As for your other arguments, I  absolutely agree, having spent a while in accident investigation and carrying out assessments for insurance companies on drivers of all classes. Impatience, speed and indifference is what causes "most" accidents. Most accidents as you probably know are also low speed shunts, nudges or touches which can have devastating knock on effects. See a speeding vehicle, run, see a slowly maneuvering vehicle, you rarely give it a second glance.

There is if your unloading on our depot. 

 

Its nothing to do with their ability to drive, its about a company ensuring that anyone on their depot is safe, if someone was to disregard H&S rules and not be corrected by that companies staff then the company who's premises the accident happened are held responsible.

 

Ive heard some excuses for not wearing a hi-vis vest but nothing ever about the sun reflecting off it. If thats the case then take it off when your driving, your safe enough in the cab, even drive in your tartan zip up slippers if you wish, but once you step out of the cab you would normally abide by the rules of the depot your delivering too. Or at least most would, unless of course your Captain Scarlet that day. 

 

Its amazing how many people that have had life changing accidents that never thought anything would happen to them. 

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5 hours ago, Retsdon said:

I don't buy it. He knows. But he's pushing what should be his problem onto you. My guess is that he has company targets to meet on the number of deliveries per van per mile per day, and he's under pressure himself to meet those targets. But because it would raise his head above the parapet he's either too scared or too lazy to send a proper report on the situation at Battersea up the chain, explaining why in this case the daily target is unrealistic and requesting that he be given authority to reschedule the Battersea delivery vehicle accordingly.

So Instead, he tries to get blood from a stone and then blames the stone when it's not forthcoming.

This ^^^. Its all about process and your boss should be on the case. Unreasonable deadlines and deliveries are not your problem. Ring the boss ask what he wants you to do. Wait or leave the delivery. The problem is his not yours. Sounds like a chill pill is in order. 

Not deliveries but much of my work was problems to be solved and reports to be written that were just not possible. No point stressing about stuff outside of your control. Clearly you want to deliver all the consignments but if its not possible with the parameters given then you have to feed the problem up the line. 

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2 hours ago, Dougy said:

There is if your unloading on our depot. 

 

Its nothing to do with their ability to drive, its about a company ensuring that anyone on their depot is safe, if someone was to disregard H&S rules and not be corrected by that companies staff then the company who's premises the accident happened are held responsible.

 

Ive heard some excuses for not wearing a hi-vis vest but nothing ever about the sun reflecting off it. If thats the case then take it off when your driving, your safe enough in the cab, even drive in your tartan zip up slippers if you wish, but once you step out of the cab you would normally abide by the rules of the depot your delivering too. Or at least most would, unless of course your Captain Scarlet that day. 

 

Its amazing how many people that have had life changing accidents that never thought anything would happen to them. 

Unloading, yes. Driving no. The point I was making.

You are safe in the cab, and can remove safety gear, including steel footwear.

Doing assessments I always instructed drivers to remove hi vis before driving. Complying with HS at a customers premises should always be followed. 

Tartan zip up slippers are more comfortable than steel caps and if a driver is a safe driver what does it matter what he wears to drive?

The whole point is no matter what someone may or may not wear to drive it does not make them a safer driver.

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8 hours ago, Dougy said:

Wearing "flip-flops" and not toe tectors

Wearing flip flops to drive should get you the sack.

H&S at most places has gone mad, but the ops problem sounds like poor planning and organising by both his boss and the power station,  as someone else mentioned they should have something in place for quick drop offs, sounds like some jobsworths enjoying making people wait.

 

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11 hours ago, Mice! said:

 

H&S at most places has gone mad, but the ops problem sounds like poor planning and organising by both his boss and the power station,  as someone else mentioned they should have something in place for quick drop offs, sounds like some jobsworths enjoying making people wait.

 

The main problem is the traffic marshals have no common sense, Everything is Black or White to them they do not think for themselves, they are given instructions and they stick to them diligently with no option of leeway whatsoever. You will be on site for instance a matter of minutes, that's all it would have taken to deliver the test bucket, but that makes no difference to them at all, because they follow the schedule to the letter, it makes no odds to them if a delivery is over running as far as they are concerned the bay is occupied and you don't go in until its free, despite the fact there is room for my van to pull up pass the bucket out the window, get a signature and be gone in a matter of minutes not affecting the other delivery at all. One of the loading bays, Boiler House loading bay 4 is the size of a football pitch, but they will still only allow one vehicle in at a time.

Thankfully some other driver at our place will now have the pleasure of the power station, all the best whoever you are.

Edited by fatchap
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