In full blown FURB style, (remember that gem of music???) I’m responding to the very resurrected post from 2012 complaining about agency drivers and their cleanliness standards.
I did 4 days tramping for a Rotherham operator in the run up to Christmas, as an agency driver. You will be glad to know the truck was returned in a much cleaner state than it was found in. The mud in the footwell I can forgive, 1) the yard is like shrek’s swamp, 2) the driver I took it over from wasn’t wearing a company uniform so was probably an agency guy too.
My problem is with the full timer. My issues are thus:
When was the last time you cleaned the inside of the windscreen you scrote??? You’ve got more cleaning products than Halfords stashed away in that cab, how about you actually use some?
You are away for a week or more, lucky you. Get your crap out of the cab to make space for the driver that’s going to work the wagon for the time you are off. The only empty storage space in the entire truck was the fridge. I had to shift stuff out of one locker to have somewhere to dump his bedding so I could put mine on the bunk. I lived out of two hold-alls and a really useful box for the four days because there was nowhere for me to put my stuff.
Those, and this is the only way I can describe them, red velvet titty-tassels around the windscreen. Distracting, disgustingly dirty, ill fitted and completely obscured the front mirror. They should be illegal. They serve no purpose except to make you look stupid.
Air fresheners: 1 reed diffuser, 4 Yankee candle air vent jobbies, 4 magic tree ones. If needed 9 air fresheners to sort out the smell, perhaps you should make more use of that mountain of cleaning products you have. Masking the smell doesn’t fix the problem.
How’s about doing your part for the planet? I was 5l/100km more fuel efficient than you and I wasn’t even trying! Thats over 2000km so a reasonable indicator. I’m not a tree hugging ecomentalist by any stretch, but I dont think it’s too hard to do a little bit to help.
Despite only once being an agency driver (did one day with a firm I used to work for and they ‘bought’ me back from the agency ) I do know what you mean. Very frustrating.
Maybe the guy didnt know and/or wasn’t told ‘his’ truck would be working over his hols.
I do.a 4 day week, on my run back on a Saturday I ask if truck is going out.
Tbf they don’t send it out on ‘night out runs’, but if it is being used on days I leave it spotless for the driver with a note worded in no uncertsin terms to have the good manners to leave it for me in same condition…
I understand truck has to work, but I still have the owner driver mentality after all these years.
I don’t mind a driver moving my stuff if he NEEDS to, as long as it is put back.
That truck is his home, not everyone has the same tastes, so if you don’t like his decorations (and I get it) poor taste or otherwise, so what?
As for your no5, maybe he is treated like a schoolkid, with the usual comoany pi55 takes, so basically does not gaf about saving his firm a few quid…who knows?..reap and sow.
At least the truck was basically clean and tidy would you have took it out if it was a mobile sh hole?
I personally would not…especially for tramping, and have refused so in the past if ‘my’ motor was off the road…I’ve actually went home unpaid instead on at least 2 occasions…
On the titty tassels I don’t see it as a taste thing. It’s a safety thing. They are a distraction in my eyeline and they obscure one of the legally required mirrors.
I gave it a fair go, 4 days, to try and get used to them and it didn’t happen. Next time I see them they are coming out and being carefully folded and stored for the driver to replace when they return.
I wasn’t an agency driver but for three years I worked Fri, Sat and Sun delivering merchandise to the stores when most drivers were off. I used whatever truck was available and company policy was that drivers take their stuff out when they go home. Most took their bedding home, some rolled it up out of the way which was fine but a few left it on the mattress. I would just roll it up and put mine down but would leave a note saying ’ Thanks for leaving your bedding for me to sleep on. I sleep naked but my rash wasn’t too bad last night’.
id have taken the tassels down.Few years ago i had a near miss when a young woman stepped off the kerb and i did not see her.Was crawling along 5mph touch and she assumed id SEE and brake a bit to let her cross -.At the time i had a few stickers on the screen edges ,iv kept the screen clear ever since that day.
I remember doing some work for Pawsons. The regular guy was on holiday for a few weeks and tbh the truck decor was more like a tarts boudoir, well over the top with tassels and red quilted fabric adorning the entire cab.
His mates were constantly phoning him up to tell him that a limper was driving “his” truck, and a couple of times he even phoned the cab phone to tell me not to touch anything, and a few veiled threats thrown in. But I drew a line at the huge stash of adult literature behind the seat, along with a few very large swords and a baseball bat. So I took them out of the cab and took them to the office and asked them if these were acceptable to be in the cab as I refused to drive it with that lot in the truck. I believe upon his return from holiday he found himself looking for a new job
If I take over a tramper’s truck and it’s full of crap like this, even the frilly window things, the whole lot - and I mean the whole lot - gets dumped in the office. I’ve had many a confrontation over this, some heated, but it has to be done so they understand.
Thing is as long as ‘my’ truck was kept tidy, I would see the bloke’s point if he felt anything I had in the cab contravened safety, and took it down…
(I have not btw)
But that aint the point with agency drivers is it?
So just to redress the balance therecare 2 sides to every story.
The stereotypical agency driver is one of two selections I have found…
Up his own arse with a ‘‘I’ll show him attitude’’ (the regular tramper) and take stuff down and move it about just for the hell of it…and to make a point.
Or…
Somebody who is disrespectful and ill mannered enough just to not give a single f, and leave the tidy cab he picked up, a complete sh hole, with muddy feet marks, spilled coffee etc…and the ultimate display of ignorance, smoking in a non smokers cab.
So it’s swings and roundabouts, 6 & 2x3s.
My lot dont use agency (thank Christ) but the individual day man who used ‘my’ motor the other week, felt it appropriate to rip down the (basically polite).note about keeping the cab as clean and tidy as he found it.
I was not too pleased, but the fact he actually had kept it tidy stopped me from finding out who it was to have…a word.
Have you ever heard of anybody being nicked for it?
Apart from ones who have been grassed up by a member of the public of course.
Last time it happened to me must be 2 or 3 years ago.
A timed delivery no less, I refused to take it out.
One of the compliance guys took me to Halfords, and I spent over the top including one of those ‘Bombs’ you chuck in with the air con on…tbf it Did work.
I took my bedding home for wash, and left it until after I had done another day run, and collected on way back.
The smoker got the bill for it, then a week later I had a quiet word with him as soon as I spotted him.
I’d forgotten all about it, I was long gone when it came in, but I remember telling my mates about here and they were astounded, especially as it meant a last fag in bed before sleep had to be taken outside thecab.
Only for owner-drivers, not “sole drivers who don’t own the truck”.
I used to share a truck (four on four off) with a guy who just didn’t GAF: Smoked in the cab, got grease all over the steering wheel, gear stick, and all the other controls, never cleaned windscreen or mirrors, a right F’in minger… I had to spend the first hour of my first shift just making the cab fit for human habitation.
Where I used work one fella used take his take out all week tramping.
When he was off agency’s fellas used to turn up most refused to night out in it and can’t blame them the truck stank of dog he kept it as clean as he could but had a horrible smell.
Thing is I know from experience if you refuse work when on agency your find it hard to get another days work unless there desperate.
Thing is all this stuff, smoking in non smoker’s cabs, truck cabs like sh pits, smelly unhealthy environments,etc etc , should come under 2 umbrellas…
The co’s duty of care towards their employers.
Health and safety.
The latter is used against us plenty of times,.so why not use it for us.
It aint the 70s anymore ffs where anything went.
So now there sure as hell is at least one hero on here who is just about to post something like this…
‘‘Ffs what has happened to drivers, just get on with the job regardless’’
And it’s him and guys like him who have gone a long way into making this job the way it has become today, the crew who will put up with.any god dam thing without question.
Yeah the last 3 firms I worked for I did just that.
1 was based 300 miles away in Essex, and 2 in other countries.
I used to just park up for my hols.
On the UK regd right hand drive truck I even recruited a driver (a mate) during my hols, which worked out fine, but he was not keen on taking left hookers out later on.
) I do know what you mean. Very frustrating.
