johnny:
i often offered to help out but was always told by the customer that i’m not allowed in the back.
That’s where they’ve been told that by various subbies in the past - it isn’t actually true. Probably best not to disabuse them of the notion, mind… 
month ago:
i pull to loadingbay at Air France
Forklift brings Pallets to Trailer i move with Pumptruck forward and load Cartons loose
I loaded from right 5 Carton to left with leaving 1 Meter to left side free,as i can count better,and load 7 Carton high.
Once comes the Forklift with a Pallet which has two timbers in middn,i couldn’t take with Pumptruck,and we let it in Warehouse behind a Pillar.
We i was finish were 8 Carton missing we couldn’t find.
as i didn’t disgn got the Warehousemanager called.
He told me friendly “sign or unload!”
Answer:“I am not here to unload,and i sign if the right number is on the Paper!”
Now he ordered his Staff to unload.
when they were finish did i know where are the 8 missing Cartons.
Behind the Pillar with Forklift in front of it,so we couldn’t see it anymore.
As we had now the right number of Carton and the Queue of Lorries long enough could i load with Pallets.
At last asked me the Warehousemanager why i didn’t sign earlierer.“Just for Training”:I replied.
I couldn’t tell him the trhoug,and actually was it the Manager who said at begining to load it loose as it is a good Training
hammer:
weewulliewinkie:
get a job as a tipper driver (not my cup of tea) and the load wil come of itself at
the flick of a leverWhoa! Hold on there weewulliewinkie! There is FAR more to it than ‘just flicking a lever’…
You have to get out and open the tailboard first…well, assuming the banksman doesn’t do it for you!
Unless you get one like I had last Friday, that was very hard work.
I had 3 levers to “flick”
1 electric sheet/unsheet
2 air operated tailboard
3 TIP
Semtex:
Unless you get one like I had last Friday, that was very hard work.I had 3 levers to “flick”
1 electric sheet/unsheet
2 air operated tailboard
3 TIP
talking to a tipper operator last week, air operated tailboards are going to be compulsory for tipping into tarmac paving machines soon - Elf & safety apparently
Denis F:
Semtex:
Unless you get one like I had last Friday, that was very hard work.I had 3 levers to “flick”
1 electric sheet/unsheet
2 air operated tailboard
3 TIP
talking to a tipper operator last week, air operated tailboards are going to be compulsory for tipping into tarmac paving machines soon - Elf & safety apparently
Don’t shout too loud about it Denis - I’ll have to get one otherwise! 
smoker:
I can’t believe you had the nuts to ask the question really.
I mean, come on. It’s not down to the customer to unload the lorry is it ?
A flat bed maybe, with forks, but would you moan about having to take the sheet/net off ?
The old rule is that when delivering, you deliver the load to the customers premises, or as close to them as is possible. Leaving the pallets in the truck isn’t very close to the premises is it.
I worked a fridge which most nights had 26 pallets about 6 foot high, and I had to take them to the back with a set of trucks - took about 20 minutes, allowing for the slow forkies.
Maybe you could try signing up for the post office, and get people to come over to your van and pick their own ■■■■ mail up.
Where do you draw your line smoker? Right in keeping with another conversation what if they want them 26 pallets sorting out so they can scan them, that will be 26 pallets delivered and then broke down into about 75 pallets. Still think its your job? My take on it is i take them and they lift them off, if i have to pump truck them then thats fine too. But like the Postman you mention, i don’t open the mail and sort it nor do i put it away. The old rule you use is also defunct now as most of us are part of a supply chain so being willing and able to unload your goods has no bearing on how quickly the job is done, even allowing for slow forkies. Just follow the new rule, ‘you’re a driver, you’ll do what you’re told’. It’s alot easier.
As a part time fork lift driver (former trucker) at a large RDC, I wouldn,t want a driver tipping himself. That would be doing me out of work wouldn’t it?? One man-one job I say.
Back in my driving days (85-94 about) I often used to help tip - in fact in wouldn’t have occured to me not to, and I’d have felt a “right ****” just sitting watching others work
Once while on for an agency I had to tip (handball ) an entire 40’ shipping container of peat and other similar stuff at a garden centre. I arrived and there was only one old lady there on the till; I can’t remember what the reason was that there was no-one else there that day . Anyway it didn’t seem like I had any choice. I phoned the depot to explain why I was going to be…er… delayed and just got on with it. IIRC it took all day
The only times when I wouldn’t help are when I am sick or am utterly exhausted from a marathon drive to get there. The only time I can think where I haven’t been prepared to self tip was when they put the daylight ban on the winter roads so I had to run all night to get there and had been working all the previous day. Then I stayed in the truck and caught a couple of hours kip.
I have always considered the unloading as part and parcel. I imagine it’s the way I was taught, and that people are taught differently now. There are a good many people on here who view the job in the same way I do, but there seem to be more who want risk assessments done before they turn the key.
What next? Will a multi drop firm get sued by a driver for getting RSI through having to turn the key 75 times in a day? You are drivers. You deliver goods to consumers who pay your wages. It’s part of the job, which is why the job should still be considered a way of life.
Mike-C:
Where do you draw your line smoker? Right in keeping with another conversation what if they want them 26 pallets sorting out so they can scan them, that will be 26 pallets delivered and then broke down into about 75 pallets. Still think its your job? My take on it is i take them and they lift them off, if i have to pump truck them then thats fine too. But like the Postman you mention, i don’t open the mail and sort it nor do i put it away. The old rule you use is also defunct now as most of us are part of a supply chain so being willing and able to unload your goods has no bearing on how quickly the job is done, even allowing for slow forkies. Just follow the new rule, ‘you’re a driver, you’ll do what you’re told’. It’s alot easier.
I don’t know whether I’m understanding your point correctly, but here goes anyway.
If they want the pallets broken down, they do that when they are off the truck. I would have assisted to get the originals off, but then it’s their problem. So that’s my line - at the end/sides of the wagon. Unless, as I used to do, I’m driving a Moffet and then I would put them somewhere the customer wanted (within reason).
I’ve had jobs where I’ve turned up knowing that my HIABs not working, and the office knows but assures me that the site has a forklift. So I get there only to find that they don’t have a forklift ! So I ended up handballing about 12 tonnes of roof tiles off the side while they chained them onto a lift and up on to the roof.
My first instinct was to say ■■■■ off, but it was my last drop on a friday, and I wanted to get home as quick as possible. And seeing as how I’m in charge of the load until it leaves the truck, and I’m experienced in handballing roof tiles, I was the best person on the spot to get the load off as quick as possible.
If they had wanted me to carry the tiles up a ladder they would have got the 1 fingered salute, but they didn’t so I got on with it (it took about an hour and a half).
BTW, I NEVER do what I’m told unless I agree with it, and I’m a stubborn ■■■■■■■ too 
The original post was “a receiving customer instructing a driver to get in the back of the trailer and tip the load using a pallet truck which is then lifted off the trailer with a fork lift truck?” so my previous points are quite clear really. Once it reaches the back of the wagon it’s their problem. Creating situations where the pallets have to be split first is missing the point. To consider refusing to even pull the pallets back with trucks is pretty ■■■■ lazy in my book, and to ask whether the law is on their side says a lot about the man.
BUT, if the load was loose, and the customer expected you to stack it on pallets THEN pull them to the back of the truck, I would probably have refused to do it on my own. If they supplied a couple of blokes to load the pallets, then I would have run the trucks, or helped load while one of them ran the trucks.
At the end of the day, what-ever it takes to get the load off, sometimes you have to do it, unless they’re taking the ■■■■.
I forgot to say, the job entails delivering goods - they aren’t “delivered” until they are off the wagon, so that sums it right up, and tells you what’s necessary.
Sheeter:
Looking at the stacks in the background, I think the appropriate word is…
TIMBER!!!
In answer to the OP, I would consider getting the pallets/cages to the back of the truck to be part of the job. Or when there’s no fork-lift, getting them down to the ground and off the tail-lift. Or when using a dock leveller/scissor lift, getting them to the lift/ramp. Once they’re off the end of the truck, it’s not my problem. If they want to unload it themselves, they’re welcome to do so, but I don’t mind helping on that bit.
Unfortunately I occasionally get catering delivery work, where they expect you to deliver it to their freezer; I’m trying to avoid accepting that sort of work, as it’s [zb]ing hard.
smoker:
The original post was “a receiving customer instructing a driver to get in the back of the trailer and tip the load using a pallet truck which is then lifted off the trailer with a fork lift truck?” so my previous points are quite clear really. Once it reaches the back of the wagon it’s their problem.
Yep, you’re spot on it was just the postman analogy i didn’t get. If its gotta come off then its gotta come off as you say, you can either make it easy on yourself or hard. As long as its not unreasonable i’m willing to do it.
I always used to find that a slipped pallet over the edge of the trailer assured that i would either not get asked to unload again…or better still get banned from that particular premises…
But the firm i work for now…its all part of the job…and with the blessing of air suspension in the right position…the pallets practically roll on themselves…and most of the places now have a ramp and do the work for us…
Sorry to drag this thread up again, but after a week delivering to Lidl and Aldi RDCs, it seemed apt.
If you don’t tip yourself, you don’t get tipped !
Nuff said.
smoker:
Sorry to drag this thread up again, but after a week delivering to Lidl and Aldi RDCs, it seemed apt.
If you don’t tip yourself, you don’t get tipped !
Nuff said.
not entirely true,
if you tell them you won’t/can’t do it, they will do it themselves or turn you away.
I think my score is 5 or 6 tipped and about the same turned away.
i’ve been backed up by one employer and sacked by two.
I go in the back of my trailer regularly, and pull the goods to the back doors, always have done, always will.
what I won’t do is go to a place that won’t employ people to do the job because he uses other people’s employees to maximize his profits.
you carry on tipping at these places, not having the bottle to say no, and when you’re tipped you can drive out of there smug in the knowledge that you’re keeping a local out of a job.
before anyone says its not about bottle, we have to pay mortgages, have to feed the kids etc, etc, I had all these problems and more both times I was sacked
I won’t move a thing , if the forklift driver won’t move it then neither will I , we are told not get on the back and move kegs around .If a pallet can’t be put on because some kegs have been dumped on the back end then the pallet doesn’t get put on .The forkie tells me to move kegs , I tell him to move them .He won’t move them and neither will I
They sometimes complain but so what I’m not covered to be in the back rolling kegs around .
smoker:
Sorry to drag this thread up again, but after a week delivering to Lidl and Aldi RDCs, it seemed apt.
If you don’t tip yourself, you don’t get tipped !
Nuff said.
Its not always as straightforward as tipping yourself, sometimes they want you to put it away in different aisles for them? Gotta draw the line there sureley?
I see it from both points of view…
If when the order was placed it was agreed that the company will unload not the driver then your 100% correct to not get in the back as it is there load.
Under the HSE. whilst on there premises you are covered under the company insurance Public liability?
to make your life easier it seems the best thing to do is hop in the back and drop it the doors and say there you go your worry now mate!
Lucy:
johnny:
i often offered to help out but was always told by the customer that i’m not allowed in the back.That’s where they’ve been told that by various subbies in the past - it isn’t actually true. Probably best not to disabuse them of the notion, mind…
It may be policy for your company to operate where drivers get in back of containers… the company i worked for when i passed out Roadways.
told me under no circumstance would i get in the back and it also stated it on the paper work i handed to the punter. i think all companies operate differently.
Patches:
One man-one job I say.
Right on Brother Patches !!!
Brother Karl
