I had the misfortune to be tipping there on Tuesday. After initially arriving at around 10am, the gateman who was pleasant enough and polite, told me to come back at 15.00 (my invisible booking time… Not marked on my cmr).
So off the 50 yards down the road to the truckstop.
I returned at 15.00 and dropped my trailer on a bay. (good idea this why don’t all rdc let this happen!)…
By 1930 I’d started to lose patience so went over to see the gateman ( a different one who was an obnoxious arse)…
Have you any idea how long I’m going to be? I’ve been here over 4 1/2 hours and I think I’ve been quite patient.
“that’s normal here you could be 6 or 7 hours”…
No mate I won’t be that long. I’ll pick my trailer up and you can have the rest after my break
Grumble grumble moan moan he wasn’t happy.
Anyway after another 45 minutes he came over… " I’ve got them to drag the load off you can go"…
Like he’s done me a favour!!!
5 1/2 hours to tip 33 plts!
I’d say he did do you a favour, he’s only the gateman. I wouldn’t think he’s responsible for how long you are there or not !!!
I tip in there quite often, never been out in less than 4 hours but as you say drop the trailer and the times your own so happy days. Both the gatemen I have met there good lads and you can use the canteen.
Run out of time there before let me stay in the yard decent canteen and as coffee stated found the gate men ok 
I used to go there regular and you were not allowed for the unit to be under the trailer whilst being tipped, it was a case of arrive, drop trailer on bay at booking time for a 4 hour tip then pick it up afterwards. Pain in the arse! Sometimes you could drop it in the night before and the shunter would put it on bay for you but that was rare, depended who was on security.
Don’t get so worked up, its money for nothing unless you are on salary. Get a laptop, fill it with Movies or tv programmes you have missed in the week and watch them, or maybe go for a run or stick a bike on the back of your cab and go for a ride
If they let you stay in your lorry i dont see the problem.
skids:
I used to go there regular and you were not allowed for the unit to be under the trailer whilst being tipped, it was a case of arrive, drop trailer on bay at booking time for a 4 hour tip then pick it up afterwards. Pain in the arse!
I prefer it that way. It’s because the yard is too narrow and if you have trailers on the bays with units still attached it makes it very difficult to get on a bay.
Same at Walsall but you can stay coupled up at Stoke due to the yard being wider.
Coffeeholic:
skids:
I used to go there regular and you were not allowed for the unit to be under the trailer whilst being tipped, it was a case of arrive, drop trailer on bay at booking time for a 4 hour tip then pick it up afterwards. Pain in the arse!I prefer it that way. It’s because the yard is too narrow and if you have trailers on the bays with units still attached it makes it very difficult to get on a bay.
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Same at Walsall but you can stay coupled up at Stoke due to the yard being wider.
Bloody hell, you have to jack knife the truck with no units attached to the trailers
Fair enough mike its not the gatemans fault.
And yes its nice to be able to sit in the truck watching films or reading a book. But is 5 1/2 hours to unload 33 pallets of clothing reasonable?
Dont get me wrong i wasnt running around the yard with an axe in my hand shouting let me out ya retards.. i just thought that after that length of time i should have been gone No problem to me i work for the green death paid by the hour. Id sooner have been down the road after a few hours tipping though. Old habits die hard i guess.
Used to be 1 of my favourite deliveries, my mate was on Chep out of Ponty at the time, so I used to drop my box in TK Maxx, then whizz up to whitwood for dinner with my buddy, then back to tk just in time for afternoon snacks 
JB:
Fair enough mike its not the gatemans fault.
And yes its nice to be able to sit in the truck watching films or reading a book. But is 5 1/2 hours to unload 33 pallets of clothing reasonable?
Dont get me wrong i wasnt running around the yard with an axe in my hand shouting let me out ya retards.. i just thought that after that length of time i should have been gone No problem to me i work for the green death paid by the hour. Id sooner have been down the road after a few hours tipping though. Old habits die hard i guess.
I now always try and see things from the other side of the coin.( i never used to!). The gatemen often work for a seperate company and what we/you are upto has no bearing on them. They will and do get bollocked for letting people in to early etc… The people you really need to speak to are often behind a screen, and then again they are often only a go between between you and the actual intake staff. You end up just a cog in the wheel. When i’ve had enough i usually just go with no warning or aggro!!!
First time I went there it turned out there was a mix up with the booking, I was a day late but I had only taken the trailer over in Hatfield and I was there at the time we had been told. They couldn’t have been more helpful. The gate man just let me stay parked on the entrance beside his gatehouse, other arrivals could use the lane next to me and a woman from the office came out to see me and said she would do her best to get me in but it would probably mean a bit of a wait.
I waited nearly 5 hours before they had a space for me, then they tipped me in a couple of hours Twice during that time the same woman from the office came out to keep me informed and to apologise it was taking so long. She also asked each time if I needed anything and to make sure I knew I had access to the toilets and the canteen if I needed them.
Just recently I was in the canteen while getting tipped there and she came in and recognised me and came over for a chat and joked about hoping I wouldn’t be there as long this time. Apart from the fact it is always at least 4 hours in there, which really doesn’t bother me, I cannot fault the place or the people who work there that I have encountered. To be fair it is the same at Walsall and Stoke, with one woman from the Walsall depot who I first met at one of their places in Germany always stopping for a chat if she sees me, or waving if I walk past her office window. The gate men, and one gate woman, at both Walsall and Stoke are all good as well.
Coffeeholic:
I tip in there quite often, never been out in less than 4 hours but as you say drop the trailer and the times your own so happy days. Both the gatemen I have met there good lads and you can use the canteen.
Yep, but unfortunately you’ll always get people like JB trying to cut the job up.
@ Jon.
half the trouble is not having the right information
33 / 26 pallets should not take too long to tip
its the checking that can be a bind
we dont know what arrangement their is between
supplier and customer
and delivery notes / cmr
never has expect a long wait box to tick
TK maxx is one I try to aviod with containers you can be there six hours or more. I,ve got to agree the staff are fairly good, only had one incident with a gate man.
Early one evening I was getting close to fourteen hours so I asked how much longer it might be. The gateman checked and told me it would be two to three hours, phoned office and asked if some one could pick up the trailer if I left it, No problem it would be picked up between two and three am. Back to the gate house and the man said no problem but I would have to take an empty trailer with me. I said I can’t we haven’t got any trailers here, you have he said look theres loads of them doesn’t matter if they aren’t from your depot you can take any. I looked around and realised he thought i worked for DHL I explained i didn’t ,but he insisted I took a DHL trailer, I pionted out that would be theft got in my unit and drove to the gate wondering if he would let me out, he did. I think he just didn’t want to admit he had made a mistake
i remember the bloke who i had my interview with for corby,he said youll ■■■■ the job but its whether you can stand the waiting around,i rember 50 drivers jacking in 2 months,it was a killer when you were on a salary,waiting 3/4/5 hrs for a truck,5/6/7 hrs for a reload,alot just couldnt take the 15 hrs for 11 hrs pay,i must admit it used to do my head in,but now im hourly paid i say BRING IT ON,the longer the better,knock me up when your done zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
One day last week I pull up at the exit gate at 1355. I have two deliveries on board,Castlepoint and Bournemouth. One of our finest security bods takes my paperwork, checks it, gives it back to me and says,
" I can’t let you out " I reply " why not? " he says," The fire alarms gone off, I’m not allowed to let anyone in or out." I can’t type here what I said to him. Half an hour later the barrier went up and I could proceed on my journey. What a complete waste of time.
DieselDemon:
One day last week I pull up at the exit gate at 1355. I have two deliveries on board,Castlepoint and Bournemouth. One of our finest security bods takes my paperwork, checks it, gives it back to me and says,
" I can’t let you out " I reply " why not? " he says," The fire alarms gone off, I’m not allowed to let anyone in or out." I can’t type here what I said to him. Half an hour later the barrier went up and I could proceed on my journey. What a complete waste of time.
So it would be fine for a fireman to go into a burning building risking his life to look for someone that has been let go 
If I was the security bod I woulda kept you there for a while after the all clear had been given, 
Darb:
DieselDemon:
One day last week I pull up at the exit gate at 1355. I have two deliveries on board,Castlepoint and Bournemouth. One of our finest security bods takes my paperwork, checks it, gives it back to me and says,
" I can’t let you out " I reply " why not? " he says," The fire alarms gone off, I’m not allowed to let anyone in or out." I can’t type here what I said to him. Half an hour later the barrier went up and I could proceed on my journey. What a complete waste of time.So it would be fine for a fireman to go into a burning building risking his life to look for someone that has been let go
If I was the security bod I woulda kept you there for a while after the all clear had been given,
Why would a fireman be looking for someone who isn’t even on the premises? I had already been booked out when the gatehouse got the alarm call.