Hi all
hows this for shoddy
got a call from agency this morning to be at Wincanton for 13.00
told to wait in canteen for a bit till they were ready
kept me waiting until 16.15
constantly told from then on be ready for you in 30 min
in the mean time a driver from another agency turned up (17.00) and left on his job (same class vehicle as I was waiting for)
18.00 rang agency and told them I’m going home
wincanton wanted me to do a full run when they could finally get me loaded
surely thats too long a day
did I wait too long before bailing or should I have stayed and done the run ?
now been told I might not get paid but I’ve got a signed timesheet to prove I was there so surely thats wrong ?
by the way I’m a new driver so not quite sure yet
Depending on what your hours are for that week you might have been able to get a 15hr day ££££ 
If it were me & the day were to to over 15hrs then i probably would have called agancy & explained the situation, providing your with a good agency they probably would have said go home & let us deal with it & then billed the company for your time.
jc69817:
got a call from agency this morning to be at Wincanton for 13.00…
…18.00 rang agency and told them I’m going home
wincanton wanted me to do a full run when they could finally get me loaded
surely thats too long a day
You’ve already been there 5 hours and they haven’t loaded the vehicle yet.
Whatever Wincanton meant by “a full run” you can still only do another 10 hours.
Stan
Used to work for a supermarket and this was often the scenario. 
‘Take a seat’ they used to say and I’d be hiding in the canteen for the next four or five hours!!
In canteen+loads of coffee+good book = result!! Best part of £10 an hour to sit and do nothing. Even better if you have a unit to have a snooze in. 
As said previously - if you’re on hours does it really matter?
If you’ve got to be finished because you have something planned - take the day off.
I can perhaps understand it if you are expected to mooch about outside the office window with no seats or refreshments, but otherwise I just chill out and relax.
Not saying you are ‘wrong’ as such - we all look at things differently - this is just how I used to handle occasions like this.
As the others say, you still had 10 hours to go.Whats the problem?
I once arrived at a NDC at ,1400 loaded at 2000,was told I HAD to deliver at 0600 the next morning.Told them they could send their own driver with my trailer & they’d get the bill.
My boss at ND told me to go,so Iparked at 2100 left at 0600 & arrived at 1200.They told me I should have been there at 0600 so I asked “Why?What happened?” Was told they would tip me the next morning at 0600,so I asked where the swimmingpool was,as I got paid driving or not.They sh#t themselves & tipped me.
My bad attitude once resulted in being stuck at Alicante customs for 9 days. Bliss.
I wasn’t on trip money.
jc69817:
Hi all
hows this for shoddy
got a call from agency this morning to be at Wincanton for 13.00
told to wait in canteen for a bit till they were ready
kept me waiting until 16.15
constantly told from then on be ready for you in 30 min
in the mean time a driver from another agency turned up (17.00) and left on his job (same class vehicle as I was waiting for)
18.00 rang agency and told them I’m going home
wincanton wanted me to do a full run when they could finally get me loaded
surely thats too long a day
did I wait too long before bailing or should I have stayed and done the run ?
now been told I might not get paid but I’ve got a signed timesheet to prove I was there so surely thats wrong ?
by the way I’m a new driver so not quite sure yet
Thats par for the course for Wincanton. I’ve worked for lots of them. I won’t go into a Wincanton depot again. A few years ago if you had been there four hours they sent you home and paid you for the day, then it got to six hours. And now, even if you do a run and there is no more work for you and you have done for example 7 hours, they make you sit and wait until you have been there eight and three quarter hours. Leave them to it is my advice. I’m sure if you are an employed driver with them you have more respect and certain rights but they treat agency drivers like ■■■■.
DaveL:
As the others say, you still had 10 hours to go.Whats the problem?
Are you for real? He’s sat idle for five hours and you happily think for him to work another ten hours making a total shift time of fifteen hours is no problem?
What if he had no reduced rest options available to him for this week? He wouldn’t have ten hours available then? Your assumption that a 15hour day is no problem is probably based on your own ideals that a trucker does not have a life apart from work, or maybe should not have a life apart from work? I could be wrong? And before you say(or anyone else says )many are happy to do 15 hour days, i somehow don’t think the guy would of made this post if he was happy about it.
Mike-C.
This driver was told to be there at 1300.As he COULD be expected to do a 15 hour shift,he could have refused the job explaining he had a home life.
If you dont like the heat,keep out of the kitchen,is a proverb that comes to mind.If you want 9-5,get an office job.
Some Companies also hire “spare” drivers just in case somebody does not turn in for work.
Perhaps the OP was one of these “spare” drivers?
If not, it all comes down to how the Company booked the driver with the agency. Did they ask for somebody that was prepared to work a long day and the agency, with their greed, failed to inform the driver? Has happened on a number of occasions with drivers that were not good to me reporting to the window thinking of doing an 8 hr day whilst a driver was booked with the agency expecting to work at least 12 hrs that day.
As for drivers sitting in the rest room all day or night without a job - this has happend to me as one of the office gang on a number of occasions. Totally forgotten about the poor driver. Not paying him is not an alternative.
What is the point for a driver to sit around for an hour after he has done seven hours work so he can make up his 8 hrs just for the sake of it. All you do is pee him off. Might as well send him home - same difference whether he is sitting in the rest room doing sod all or at home.
Mark
Been here many times and strategies I have used in the past is the sit and read a book and just keep reminding them politely.
Point out that the reality is that if they want me to set off after a four hour sit and wait session then the ten hours plus that they have given me may take me to my maximum and as long as they are happy to recover me and pay me for my trouble then no probs.
Very few will be going for the recovery option as they are planning to fail.
One one occassion for UPS did they send me and yes when time was time I parked it up and they had to get me back.
general rule of thumb is I will look at what time and options I have available within that working week , otherwise its hourly pay and the more the merrier
As an agency driver, I’m paid a minimum 8 hours. So, if I’m put on hold in a canteen then so be it. Not until the 8 hours are up do I feel justified in calling it a day. My timesheet starts the on my booking time, so that’s when I calculate my finish time. If a run can’t be done within legal hours, I tell them and go home. If they want to sit me in a canteen for 4 hours and then give me 8 hours work, so the canteen time becomes effectively overtime, it’s a result!
With Wincanton, it depends very much on the depot. I worked for some cracking Wincanton depots but also some real crap ones.
By far the best money in the job these days is POA in the canteen.
interlog:
What is the point for a driver to sit around for an hour after he has done seven hours work so he can make up his 8 hrs just for the sake of it. All you do is pee him off. Might as well send him home - same difference whether he is sitting in the rest room doing sod all or at home.
Speaking from my own experience in the traffic office - I’d argue it’s far better to send him home after the seven hours. It makes the driver happy. You’ve got to pay him eight hours either way, but by sending him home you are saving an hour of WTD time to use on another day. Everyone’s a winner.
I can assure you that if someone made me sit for an hour just to make my hours up to eight there would be no way I’d call it POA either - it’ go down as other work!!
Pop Larkin:
By far the best money in the job these days is POA in the canteen.
100% agree. So long as it’s before the job!!
I agree it’s annoying having to sit your time out after a short shift. But, at the end of the day, if the company is paying for 8 hours of my time and I’m getting paid 8 hours as well, then it’s entirely up to the company what they do with my time provided it is legal.
Some companies operate a job and run policy, others don’t. You win some you lose some. Such is life, but I’d still rather do 6 hours and 2 hours canteen to end the shift than the 15 hours some folk think are normal.
hi all i was actually told it would just be a short day as i was booked in somewhere at 05.00 next day. so in effect i lost out on the next days job because there was no sign of me finishing in time to start at 5.
point taken about sit and wait as im paid anyway but i am a worker and find it brain numbing to just sit and wait.
by the way i wasnt alone there were 3 drivers all from the same agency and we all walked at the same time
at least they only made me wait 2 hours today before sending me on a 3hour round trip and job and knock
interlog:
As for drivers sitting in the rest room all day or night without a job - this has happend to me as one of the office gang on a number of occasions. Totally forgotten about the poor driver. Not paying him is not an alternative.
What is the point for a driver to sit around for an hour after he has done seven hours work so he can make up his 8 hrs just for the sake of it. All you do is pee him off. Might as well send him home - same difference whether he is sitting in the rest room doing sod all or at home.
Mark
are you sure you work in the office? you seem to have some sense AND decency. thats a first for me
who dreamed up 15 hours why not 18 or say 20 to round it up come to think of it why go home after 15 seems a wast of time to me
DaveL:
Mike-C.
This driver was told to be there at 1300.As he COULD be expected to do a 15 hour shift,he could have refused the job explaining he had a home life.
Hey Dave, you’re right. This is completley different to being kept waiting for a job for five hours though. We all know due to the nature of our job as drivers we can be expected to do a few 15 hour days, only a fool would think otherwise. But when a driver is given a 13.00 hr start time and he is not going out until 5 hours later then that is not normal transport practice or something to shrug off like you suggest. Its madness and laziness on the part of the transport office at best and sheer incompitence at worst. If YOU where in buisness would you pay someone to sit around for 5 hours for nothing and doing nothing? NO? Neither would i. Neither is it normal in the transport game as you suggest. True, some companies will have you wait for a vehicleto come back in etc… but not five hours. In my experience Wincanton is the only company to have drivers hanging on so long and so disorganised. In my experience i have never met a driver who has been happy to wait for even three hours before going out on a run, hey they don’t even want to wait an hour at a drop off point !! I have also seen first hand many drivers pack in such jobs waiting at Wincanton and travell hundreds of miles back home with no job to return to rather than be subjected to that sort of treatment. But maybe i havn’t been around enough to see it all, just where is it you see this as normal and where are the drivers who will happlily sit there for five hours before going on a run? And i don’t mean interbnet drivers like in this thread i mean real ones?
DaveL:
If you dont like the heat,keep out of the kitchen,is a proverb that comes to mind.
Not sure what you mean here Dave. Do you me me, the original poster or just anone who might not want to do a 15 hour shift on a certain day after waiting for five hours? I am sure about this though, if i lost six days productivity through my own bad attitude i would be out the proverbial kitchen like a shot. I know when to quit i don’t need telling twice.
DaveL:
If you want 9-5,get an office job.
Couldn’t agree more Dave. The clue that this is not what we are talking about here though is in the original posters comments… a 13.00 hours start time. Thats just what i picked up on, probably you didn’t notice it?
Mike-C.
You dont do a 15hr shift after a 5hr wait,you COULD have 10hrs left.Let them pay overtime at x1.5.
Yes I noticed the 1300 start but leaving after 5hrs? Stick in there & get the full 8hrs.
He also mentioned he had a 0500 start the next day.Why take the 1st job then?
what depot / contract was it JC?
