Was once doing an exibition tour around Europe for a US computer company.
All the venues were either conference centres or hotels with conference facilities.All was going well till Milan.
The local agent insisted that the hotel in the centre of Milan was inaccesible to artics and everything would have to be transfered at his depot near Linate to smaller vehicles.However when the YIC (Yank in Charge ) saw that his expensive 20’+ scenery was being loaded onto Transit pick-ups with a serious overhang he called me to a meeting…
YIC…Im aint happy with them there trucks taking my scenery!
Me…They say an artic cant get to the hotel though
YIC…Lets go see at the hotel in one of the trucks.
Me…We’ll take my tractor unit and follow the last van then I’ll get a better idea from the cab
So off we went following the last transit pickup in my FH12. Gets to the hotel and its in the middle of a piazza with 4 lanes of traffic continuously moving in every direction around the hotel. As far as I could tell the only way in was to go straight onto the main entrance car park…load up and then reverse out into 4 lanes of typical Milanese traffic.
YIC…Whaddaya think buddy?
Me…its very tight I’m not too sure
YIC…If you can get in theres $200 cash init for ya
Me…What time dya want it here !
Sure enough he wanted it at the worst time of day for traffic but true to his word $200 cash exchanged hands. And all it cost me was a 10000 lire (about a fiver at the time)bung to the local plod to stop the traffic while I backed out.
All I get nowadays is a tepid cup of tea with bits of something unknown floating in it from a farmer with more crap on his hands than on a cows arse
i would regularly get tips when doing recovery work. normally something to eat or drink when doing relay work. nothing major, can of coke, choc bar or a piece of fruit. if i was doing the final leg of a recovery job they would normally give me at least a cuppa or a sticky bun, once got given a full English breakfast. best ever tips were when doing roadside breakdown jobs. 20 quid was the most money and a nearly new tomtom from a bloke who was amazed i had managed to find him ONLY USING A MAP!
when doing coach work it was always the people who could easily afford to give a tip that would be tight-arses yet the couple who have saved up all year to go on holiday would be the most generous.
Now turn the question around; How many Drivers GIVE a tip, to somebody who helps them, serves them, or how many a bottle or some Dollar to the planner who looks after you■■?
Must say being on both sites of the fence in the past, its ■■■■ poor.
While expecting something from somebody else, it’s a one way street
caledoniandream:
Now turn the question around; How many Drivers GIVE a tip, to somebody who helps them, serves them, or how many a bottle or some Dollar to the planner who looks after you■■?
Must say being on both sites of the fence in the past, its ■■■■ poor.
While expecting something from somebody else, it’s a one way street
last year I was working for RGF in brum on the city link contract, I took a case of beer into the transport office to be shared out, two weeks later went in on the Monday as usual and they said what you doing here we don’t need you any more, no one had bothered to tell me.
caledoniandream:
Now turn the question around; How many Drivers GIVE a tip, to somebody who helps them, serves them, or how many a bottle or some Dollar to the planner who looks after you■■?
On many occasions in the past I’ve given a bottle of duty-free wine or a packet of ■■■■ to a forkie who has helped me out above and beyond the call of duty. Helped me to straighten up something for another customer which is starting to go over, that sort of thing.
I’ve been given goodies too, I used to load wine in the Moselle, seven or eight collections all from small wineries, they always used to give you a bottle or two if you just showed a bit of interest and mucked in with the loading. I did get given £500’s worth of American Express vouchers by someone I did a roadshow for once, we went to Cuba on the back of it.
Personally, even if I am offered a free cup of coffee it tends to motivate me a bit, it’s the thought that counts.
jdc:
working in removals its common place. One of my guys keeps a tally just for his own reference, In 2010 he was given £1565 over the 48 weeks he works and in 2011 he took home £1680.
I trust he declared it to the tax man
He doesn’t have to, tips from clients are tax free
caledoniandream:
Now turn the question around; How many Drivers GIVE a tip, to somebody who helps them, serves them, or how many a bottle or some Dollar to the planner who looks after you■■?
On many occasions in the past I’ve given a bottle of duty-free wine or a packet of ■■■■ to a forkie who has helped me out above and beyond the call of duty. Helped me to straighten up something for another customer which is starting to go over, that sort of thing.
I’ve been given goodies too, I used to load wine in the Moselle, seven or eight collections all from small wineries, they always used to give you a bottle or two if you just showed a bit of interest and mucked in with the loading. I did get given £500’s worth of American Express vouchers by someone I did a roadshow for once, we went to Cuba on the back of it.
Personally, even if I am offered a free cup of coffee it tends to motivate me a bit, it’s the thought that counts.
In Europe the free coffee as you fill up, made you use that place a little bit more often.
The goodies I received, I mostimes kept and used for good occasions. A bottle of booze for the planner. Some chocolate bars for the workshop and cleaning station. Some goodies or a case of beer for the boys in the docks or container terminal.
Did me a lot good, I didn’t missuse it, but in emergency or if I was running late, it gave me manytimes some leeway.
In early 80s we loaded out of Steinweg in Rotterdam loose bags of coffee in tilts, every morning was there a big que waiting to get loaded.
But if you thought about the foreman and the dockers with some Marlboros before you left on the previous load, they would remember you and the que would be much shorter for you.
A small thought, a big pleasure
SmashedCrabFace:
When I was driving taxis I picked a Polish dude up one night. He was very drunk and didn’t know where he lived. I drove around the block a couple of times and dropped him off a few feet from where I picked him up.
“Eight pound mate” I said as he scrambled around in his pockets. He produced eight shiny pound coins and then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out four crisp twenty pound notes. After looking at them for a minute he passed the lot to me, muttered something in broken English and went on his way.
Thanks to his 1000% tip, I didn’t need to carry on working that night so I went home.
I used to get loadsa tips driving taxis. Some they knew about others they didn’t. Could’ve opened a shop with the amount of mobiles I used to find in the back at the end of my shift!
SmashedCrabFace:
When I was driving taxis I picked a Polish dude up one night. He was very drunk and didn’t know where he lived. I drove around the block a couple of times and dropped him off a few feet from where I picked him up.
“Eight pound mate” I said as he scrambled around in his pockets. He produced eight shiny pound coins and then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out four crisp twenty pound notes. After looking at them for a minute he passed the lot to me, muttered something in broken English and went on his way.
Thanks to his 1000% tip, I didn’t need to carry on working that night so I went home.
It would have been easier to have said “I am a thief”.
Back in the mid-80’s I drove for a small firm of general carriers in Nottingham; most of the stuff was for the rag trade, although we did a fair bit for ZF gears as well.
One regular drop in Whitechapel was to a Jewish form of clothing wholesalers; one or two very large cardboard cartons, about 40kg each, which had to be handballed up a flight of stairs. Nice old boy ran the place, too old and decrepit to be much help but he always gave you 50p for one box and a quid if you took two. Doesn’t sound much today but it got you a cuppa and a Kit-Kat back then. One particular day I went in with one box and he hadn’t got any change; despite my protestations that it didn’t matter and I’d see him again soon he insisted on going downstairs and changing a note so he could tip me.
Nice to see that not all people conform to stereotypes.
Think the best one I ever had was when I ran for Owens on HIAB work; took a load of reclaimed oak floorboards up to a remote farm in North Wales which was being renovated by some bloke with more money than sense. He met me at the gate with a face like a butcher’s apron, informing me that I couldn’t get near the house because a big beech tree had blown down overnight and blocked the access. I went up to have a look; not as bad as he made it out to be, so I got him to fetch his neighbour (complete with chainsaw) he lopped the smaller branches off, I turned round and reversed up as close as I could alongside the tree, put the slings on and shifted it out of the way, went in and tipped the load off.
Bloke was delighted, bunged me and the neighbour £20 each; conversation came round to wood-burning stoves, both me and neighbour had 'em, so he told us to take the tree if we wanted it. I got about two thirds of the trunk (full length of the bed), neighbour took the rest; kept me in firewood for a whole winter!
With the referance to tips , make sure if you work with another person or a crew make sure you can trust them to split it with you , we had a driver/porter on removals who worked with my company for 47 years , just before he retired he was caught by the younger crew members putting the cash in his pocket and then getting something smaller out of his other pocket " not wise " , any how he was sent to Coventry for six months and then just before he was going to retire he decided to hand his notice in ,I pulled him in the office and questioned him and he broke down and addimitted he was doing this to all his work force including my dad for yes 47 years , I asked him to leave on the spot . Since then our tips are up by 50 %
Sent to do a wait & load (customer fills the skip while u wait) & the chap offered me a £fiver to help him load 60x 25kg bags of clay & soil which were all lined up nicely at the side of the road.
Normally I’d want £20 for this & not consider it a £tip, but he was on his own & looked at least 75yrs old.
I picked up the first bag & in a manly way, struggled to heave it into the skip.
He picked up 2. 1 in each hand, & threw 'em in without even grunting
Half way done, I’m sweating like a pig & he’s still chucking them in like they were feather pillows.
I’ve been had, he could quite easily have done the job himself yet I reckon he made me earn that £tip?
Give the lads in the yard a couple of bottles of beer a week, its not much but they are happy to help should I need a favour.
A lovely story from when I was van driving delivering fish to restaurants and pubs etc,
Used to deliver to a pub up in t’hills once a week, cash on delivery no probs, 1 of many, week before Xmas I does the drop, gets the cheque and he turns round and says
“Get yourself a pint for Xmas” and hands me 50p, so I walked round the pub to the bar,
“pint of lager please”, got my beer served and handed back the 50p, the look on his face was a sheer delight of “You cheeky ■■■■■■■■
) saw that his expensive 20’+ scenery was being loaded onto Transit pick-ups with a serious overhang he called me to a meeting…
, any how he was sent to Coventry for six months and then just before he was going to retire he decided to hand his notice in 
,I pulled him in the office and questioned him and he broke down and addimitted he was doing this to all his work force including my dad for yes 47 years 
, I asked him to leave on the spot . Since then our tips are up by 50 % 
