In the world where H&S rules as common sense gone out of the window ? , On Friday I was delivering to a very well known retailer of workwear at their NDC in Hull. I had 8 cartons on an artic. I reported to the gatehouse and was instructed by the security guard to park in the waiting area and not to leave my vehicle for H&S reasons, I was given a laminated sheet with site rules on . After 35 minutes Id had enough so I went to see one of the supervisors who told me he wasnt aware I was waiting even though I was parked virtually in front of him , he said I wouldnt be much longer as they were waiting for the cartons . He took my paperwork into the office and returned 10 minutes later and said even though they were waiting for the cartons he couldnt accept them because they were a day late . He said get your company to rebook them in next week because it was against company policy to accept goods if they were late . I t seems the bigger the company the worse they are … a day earlier at Nissan Sunderland was a similar story but they eventually accepted 3 pallets after a 2 hour delay .
So really to comply with ALL the company’s policies they expected you to sit waiting in your cab until next week.
Byeee. Come and get it.
Definitely “ramone” ! I’m glad I was only involved a little bit at the time HSE and BS 2000 or whatever was getting a hold, mainly to do with Drivers/Shunters climbing on top of loads to sheet and rope. A couple of episodes come to mind the first being at East Lancs Mill at Radcliffe when they were visited by an HSE Zealot who said NOoooooo! our Shunters had to be equipped with safety harnesses to spread the sheets out on the loads of liner board ! So I gets a call from the Mill asking if I would meet this ■■■■ to discuss what could be done ! So I fixed a meet and pointed out that there wouldn’t be enough height to use these harnesses as , bearing in mind, these loading bays had been built in the 1800’s for horse and carts ! OK he says they will have to pull out and use one of these gantry’s that had come on the market ! What ? So I asked him who was going be held responsible for moving a load of very heavy large reels, with minimal securing ? Then if it was raining who was going to stand the cost of wet damage before the sheets were on ? The geezer was ■■■■■■ !!! All he said was, well just be careful then !!! We never had a Driver or Shunter fall off a load of reels at East Lancs Mill in my time, and the Mill Directors thanked me for ensuring that Common Sense had prevailed. We had a similar instance at the Bibby Mill at Oakenholt only this time the ■■■■■■■ HSE ■■■■ was fresh from the new “state of the art” Shotton Mill and he wasn’t as easy to placate but I explained to him along the same lines as at East Lancs. Low height in the bay and furthermore the Driver would hit the deck before the static line kicked in ! He could see the problem but was ■■■■■■ if he could come up with the answer ! Finally I said could I ask his advice about another sheeting and roping matter ? So he says certainly ! So I tell him that we had a regular collection of baled waste paper from a yard in B/ham and when the trailer was loaded our Driver had to pull out onto the back street to sheet and rope ! So how did HSE work then ? Do you know what this ■■■■ said, " Sorry Mr. Smith but that is not my area so I have no interest" ! I kid you not so I says it’s OK then for our Driver to fall off his load in Birmingham you couldn’t care less but it’s not OK in N. Wales ? End of conversation and we never heard anymore from either of these two " Hand Gallopers" 
Cheers Bewick.
Just found this on Facebook it’s from the late William Hunters collection
Quite a bit before my time but I thought it was worth posting
Cheers Gary
When I worked for Imperial Tobacco has a Shunter most days I’d probably load 50 trailers and 3 rigid lorries ( these rigids belonged to a large company whose colours were yellow with red stripes they were the main transport contractor)
Unfortunately there was a nasty accident which sadly ended with a driver being crushed to death
After all the investigations into this sad accident
A procedure was put into place where every trailer or lorry that was left parked up or left unattended was to have their wheels chocked as a further precaution
So when I went under a trailer which had just been loaded ( the loading bays had a combi lock system which was operated from inside the warehouse)I’d do the usual tug put on the susies climb down chock the units wheels release the trailer parking brake
Bend down remove the chocks pull forward about 10 feet apply the park brake
Climb down chock the unit
Close the trailer doors padlock and seal it
Then go and park it the trailer park
Locate a slot and park then again apply the park brake
Remove the susies climb down chock the unit
Go and apply the trailer park brake and then chock the trailer wheels
The trailer park brake wasn’t always in the same location on every trailer
In the trailer park there was some parts where sleeping policemen had been placed
So all I had to do was reverse over the first hump and let the axles sit in between the humps we still applied the trailer park brake
But alas this less time consuming and just as safe procedure wasn’t used in the entire trailer park
Even after myself and the night Shunter had complained about back ache problems after virtually constant bending up and down to the powers that be
We used to say it makes common sense to have the sleeping policemen as there was no need to keep bending up and down
gazsa401:
Just found this on Facebook it’s from the late William Hunters collection
Quite a bit before my time but I thought it was worth posting
Cheers Gary
They’re going to really struggle to get all those boxes on top of that trailer. 
I’m presuming they are going on and not vice versa.
gazsa401:
Just found this on Facebook it’s from the late William Hunters collection
Quite a bit before my time but I thought it was worth posting
Cheers Gary
The picture with the elevator brings back memories of a happier time, lots of banter, people chucking two bags on together, missing a bag and it hits the floor, tea break and running down the elevator,
As a driver for a textile company in the nineties, I had a delivery at a factory near Northampton where they made hats and slippers from the felt that we supplied. On arrival at the gate, I was told to open my doors (40’ van trailer) and back on to a particular loading bay, and someone would come for the notes. After quite some time of being overlooked, I went up the steps on to the bay. A supervisor-type told me I wasn’t allowed inside the building “for safety and insurance purposes”, so I asked him politely when I was going to be unloaded as I have more drops and a pickup to do. He tells me that his staff aren’t allowed inside vehicles belonging to other companies, so I will have to pass the goods out to them. “How can I do that if I can’t come on your dock to get into my trailer?” (I thought it was a reasonable question). Supervisor says “we seem to have a problem”, so I tell him there’s no problem, I’ll just pull forward, throw the stuff into the yard, then his lads can pick it up. It was raining, the yard was muddy - commonsense kicked in, goods tipped in a few minutes, everybody happy.
Many years ago we had a regular paper drop in Birmingham IIRC and there was always half a dozen reels that they were screaming for so been the decent Lads that we were these reels were always put on last so they could whip them off first, which they always duly did then they would just leave the motor standing for a couple of hours or more before they tipped the rest of the load ! So on the third occasion we loaded the urgent sizes at the front and they were really “■■■■■■■ when they realised what we had done ! Apparently they contemplated trying to get the urgent reels out of the front but no chance ! I instructed our Driver to tell them that we would, of course, be pleased to stick the urgent sizes on the back end in future provided the rest of the reels came off straight afterwards otherwise we would just revert to putting their urgent ones on first ! It worked perfect from there onwards Cheers Bewick.
Yes common sense goes out the window for more than just H&S. Mention of Nissan reminded me when I was told near the end of a working day to nip into Nissan, which we handled most of the transport for in the 90’s, and look for any empty trailers and bring them back to the yard, although the Gaffer thought there was maybe only one to get. Off I went, now Nissan by this time had security staff on the gate not something we had to bother about previously as we fitted out the factory in the beginning when there wasn’t even a maingate, however as time passed all the usual factory style gubbins were put in place as expected and as delivering drivers we took to the normal procedure of informing the said staff what we were coming and going for.
On this evening I did the same and drove around the factory area checking for any empties but there was none to be found, in fact I’m sure I double checked just incase. Returning to the gate solo I informed one of the rather jobsworth security guys (if you’ve been into Nissan you will know what I mean here!) that there were no trailers to be found. Well the following conversation went something like, ‘You have to go back and pick a trailer up’, ‘There are none I’ve just said’, ‘No you have to go back’, ‘Mate are you not listening there isn’t any!’, this inane conversation went on for another couple of minutes until I finally got fed up and said something like I’m sorry but my time is almost up and I’m going back to our yard I’ll get the Gaffer to ring you and explain.
I went to pull out under the open barrier and this young kid jumped up onto the cab step one hand on the mirror arm and one on the door shouting for me to stop, he still kept on despite telling him he’ll risk getting hurt, so I stopped and he went flying forward onto his belly on the road. Well all hell broke lose then, his mates charged out of their little box hurling accusations of attempted murder, I had to stem my laughter. Eventually after telling their ‘Sergeant’ in charge I would call the Police unless they let me out (the barrier had been dropped by now) I got on my way and informed the Boss back at the depot who as you would expect knew all about it. Now I had some explaining to do as the story he got was quite different and I was a bigger criminal than Ronnie Biggs. The upshot was I was banned from Nissan by their top Security k…b who had actually caused the problem in the first place by telling his minions not to let me out without a trailer! I have to say I wasn’t bothered despite being in and out of the place for years I couldn’t stand going in. Ironically I went in years later when I worked in the Fire Service Training Centre near by to collect cars we used for RTC exercises, these were mainly ex test vehicles. They must have lost my wanted poster as I was never recognised! Happy days Franky.
The H&S is needed but its got to be what its supposed to be , for the safety of the workers not just rules to justify the H&S brigades jobs . Most of it is utter nonsense with no common sense whatsoever . But something that is getting just as bad is the jobsworths that havent got a clue how to deal with something that isnt in their company rule book . Theres a hell of a lot of so called managers and supervisors who dont know how to deal with simple problems or just dont grasp the concept of running a business from their own companys point of view but just as important from the hauliers or contractors ( electricians ,builders etc ) point of view. Time is money for any business but the general feeling is you wait and when we say jump you jump.
Franky , the Nissan delivery last week consisted of 1 pallet to 1 warehouse and 2 pallets for another . I went into the first delivery point and was told to back onto a bay ,then hand the jobsworth my keys and he would take the pallet off . 20 minutes later he was still sticking stickers on some cartons which must have been more important . Then another worker arrived with 3 boxes of new Cat boots , everything stopped (not that it had got going yet) another 20 minutes and I was tipped . Round to the other side of the factor to my second deliver point and after waiting outside for 10 minutes a fork truck driver came out and said dont worry mate I will tip you straight away :open_mouth: ha ha yeah whatever , he looked at the 2 pallets and said they werent for him a hour later he eventually sorted it and sent me to another delivery point , but this lad must have been new on the job he tipped me straight away . Over 2 hours for 3 pallets ffs
gazsa401:
Just found this on Facebook it’s from the late William Hunters collection
Quite a bit before my time but I thought it was worth posting
Cheers Gary
Found this one again from the late William Hunter collection on Facebook
It looks like the same load and lorry but from another angle
Cheers Gary
