I know that I said I wouldn't moan but I feel justified in doing so.
On Monday I started work at 0340. For those of you who know these things and for those that don't it means that I need to be finished and signed out at 1840. In the event I signed out at 1845.
The consequence of this late finish meant that I was unable to start my route on Tuesday at it's normal time of 0345 unless I reduced my break to 9 hours from 11.
The conversation went along the lines of
Assistant Shift Manager - Why can't you reduce your break to 9 hours.
Me - Because I'm cold, wet and tired. You give me some help tomorrow and I'll do it! If not you'll have to change the start time to 0545.
ASM - They're not going to want a route running 2 hours late.
Me - Sorry. I'll compromise though. You leave the start time at 0545 and IF I wake up in time and IF I feel OK then I'll reduce the break and come in.
ASM - OK.
I then went home and to bed. I woke up at 0330 and feeling OKish decided to head in for 0440. Only an hour late for the route. Not too big a problem.
ASM - Don't forget to sign for your collection.
ME - What collection... this isn't on my route... This isn't my route... What's going on.
ASM -Oh we changed your route... You're not due in till 0555.
Me - Thanks for the phone call and the lost hour of much needed sleep. Tell me... What was the conversation that we had last night before I left?
Yet another 15 hour day followed.
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Sunday 26 April 2009
Dear readers,
I feel that I must apologise once more for the lack of posting on this blog but I feel that there are only so many times that you can read about and look at pictures of dodgy loading. In this respect I believe the phrase is Same S*** Different Day
This time I feel the need to sound off about route planning.
On the whole my routes seem to run in a fairly logical order now that they’ve been re-arranged and had drops taken off to make them achievable even if the timing leaves a lot to be desired. As a company we operate on timed deliveries. Every unit has a given delivery time and a delivery window e.g. 0700 – 0800, 0800 – 0900 etc etc. Well that’s how it used to be all those years ago when deliveries used to run on 1 per hour unless you had 2 in the same place.
These days however we seem to be on the principle that we don’t need to drive through heavy traffic from one to the other as we now seem to be 0700 – 0800, 0715 – 0815, 0745 – 0845 etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind working for a living and the job is physically tiring but there’s only a level of fatigue that can be reached before we all start getting dangerous on the road. Yes we have breaks that we’re supposed to adhere to after a certain amount of time driving and a certain time working but try finding many of my colleagues adhering to those and they are in the minority. We have to work them to keep up with our delivery times.
A couple of my friends are airline pilots and have both commented that with the hours we work and how tired I appear when I see them that if I was working with them they would be telling me to report sick with fatigue.
The trouble is that the lorries only earn money when they’re fully loaded and working. Our planners have managed to do this and cram extra drops onto the vehicles but only by using data from our quietest time of year when there are light loads on the vehicles. Come our busy periods, school holidays, Christmas etc. then we seem to be struggling to keep up. Drops get failed, drivers run out of time and have to be collected, not all the routes can be loaded onto the vehicles, we even at times run out of vehicles so we have drivers waiting for 4 – 5 hours sometimes to take out their routes. Our maximum working day is 15 hours from start to finish. If you have a 12 – 13 hour route you have problems because anything you fail has to be added to the loads for the following day.
Even the weather can play a factor with the recent snow that we had. On the first day London came to a virtual standstill and all drivers were told to get back to the yard under their own steam regardless of what drops were failed. It took us two weeks to recover from that week of disruption.
From now on I shall try to enlighten you more about the life of a UK HGV driver rather than continually moan about how bad it is.
Until the next instalment…
I feel that I must apologise once more for the lack of posting on this blog but I feel that there are only so many times that you can read about and look at pictures of dodgy loading. In this respect I believe the phrase is Same S*** Different Day
This time I feel the need to sound off about route planning.
On the whole my routes seem to run in a fairly logical order now that they’ve been re-arranged and had drops taken off to make them achievable even if the timing leaves a lot to be desired. As a company we operate on timed deliveries. Every unit has a given delivery time and a delivery window e.g. 0700 – 0800, 0800 – 0900 etc etc. Well that’s how it used to be all those years ago when deliveries used to run on 1 per hour unless you had 2 in the same place.
These days however we seem to be on the principle that we don’t need to drive through heavy traffic from one to the other as we now seem to be 0700 – 0800, 0715 – 0815, 0745 – 0845 etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind working for a living and the job is physically tiring but there’s only a level of fatigue that can be reached before we all start getting dangerous on the road. Yes we have breaks that we’re supposed to adhere to after a certain amount of time driving and a certain time working but try finding many of my colleagues adhering to those and they are in the minority. We have to work them to keep up with our delivery times.
A couple of my friends are airline pilots and have both commented that with the hours we work and how tired I appear when I see them that if I was working with them they would be telling me to report sick with fatigue.
The trouble is that the lorries only earn money when they’re fully loaded and working. Our planners have managed to do this and cram extra drops onto the vehicles but only by using data from our quietest time of year when there are light loads on the vehicles. Come our busy periods, school holidays, Christmas etc. then we seem to be struggling to keep up. Drops get failed, drivers run out of time and have to be collected, not all the routes can be loaded onto the vehicles, we even at times run out of vehicles so we have drivers waiting for 4 – 5 hours sometimes to take out their routes. Our maximum working day is 15 hours from start to finish. If you have a 12 – 13 hour route you have problems because anything you fail has to be added to the loads for the following day.
Even the weather can play a factor with the recent snow that we had. On the first day London came to a virtual standstill and all drivers were told to get back to the yard under their own steam regardless of what drops were failed. It took us two weeks to recover from that week of disruption.
From now on I shall try to enlighten you more about the life of a UK HGV driver rather than continually moan about how bad it is.
Until the next instalment…
Wednesday 8 April 2009
Why I hate my job.
Well dear readers it has been a while since I updated you with the latest happenings on the road with a national food distribution company. I hope you’ve been wondering if things have improved… Well dear reader I can assure you that it hasn’t.
The main problem we seem to have is with the loading of vehicles at the moment. For example, chicken for the famous military based fried food outlet is supplied in trays of 25kg (55lb for our American friends). This might not sound a lot but when you have to move 27 of them over 4 deliveries it does turn into a lot of weight, moving them means that they have to be taken off the pallet onto dolly wheels and then into the unit for delivery.
Health and Safety guidelines for manual handling say the following weights should be handled… Shoulder height – 10kg, Elbow height 15kg, Waist height 25kg, Knee height 15kg and ankle height 10kg.
This Monday I had 6 trays on one pallet with no dolly for drop 2. I then had the 27 on a pallet for drops 5,6,7, and 8. the pallet hadn’t been wrapped to secure it and with no dollies. Moving this around was very slow.
The main problem we seem to have is with the loading of vehicles at the moment. For example, chicken for the famous military based fried food outlet is supplied in trays of 25kg (55lb for our American friends). This might not sound a lot but when you have to move 27 of them over 4 deliveries it does turn into a lot of weight, moving them means that they have to be taken off the pallet onto dolly wheels and then into the unit for delivery.
Health and Safety guidelines for manual handling say the following weights should be handled… Shoulder height – 10kg, Elbow height 15kg, Waist height 25kg, Knee height 15kg and ankle height 10kg.
This Monday I had 6 trays on one pallet with no dolly for drop 2. I then had the 27 on a pallet for drops 5,6,7, and 8. the pallet hadn’t been wrapped to secure it and with no dollies. Moving this around was very slow.
It gets worse though. On Tuesday I had one of the worst loads I’ve ever had. 27 trays 
of chicken on a pallet and not wrapped properly as I would expect. At least he put some dollies on board. This particular loader saved his special effort for the frozen food. The photos you can see show drops 2 & 3 and 4 & 5. In both cases he’s stripped some of the first drop off, forklifted the next pallet on and then put the remnants of the first drops back on top again.
of chicken on a pallet and not wrapped properly as I would expect. At least he put some dollies on board. This particular loader saved his special effort for the frozen food. The photos you can see show drops 2 & 3 and 4 & 5. In both cases he’s stripped some of the first drop off, forklifted the next pallet on and then put the remnants of the first drops back on top again. 
Apparently you can get the sack for slapping another employee so I can’t exact retribution the way I’d like. Official complaints have been made.
Lets see what fun we have on Good Friday… I can hardly wait.
Lets see what fun we have on Good Friday… I can hardly wait.
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