"Girl Power"

[orys]

I had a cages deliveries today. Cages were bloody heavy and tail lift had a quite big bump you had to go through between tailift sufrace and ramp, some stupid invention I never seen before. I and two shop guys had really big trouble to move cages over that (especially, that there were no front or back wall in these cages, so everything wanted to tip off).

The shop manager (a young scottish lass (is that good word? )) came and started to ■■■■ us off with a smart advices like “push here” “pull there”, but mostly “what the ■■■■ you are doing” “you are doing it all wrong” etc.

The shop guys asked her to help us with one particularly heavy cage and she and some other she-shop worker managed to move it out of the tail lift. They told her “see, it’s not so easy as you think, so maybe instead of moaning you will help us”. She turned up her management skills and told “but it’s not your job, it’s up to driver to drop cages off the lorry”. Off course, if there is something hard to do, blame the driver and ask him to do all job.

I told her “I am only an agency driver, but in transport office is a poster, that if cage is too heavy for one man to move, it’s too heavy and should be splitted in two. So OK, if you want me to do my job properly, I’ll take the rest of heavy cages back to depot and I ask them to split them in two, so you can be sure that driver, who’ll came here in Monday will have no problems with unloading your staff”.

Oh, how ■■■■■■ off she was Suddenly the two guys recieved a sharp reprimend for their behavior and they helped me with a rest of their cages.

Some time after that I recieved phone call from agency “You delivered wrong stuff, stop and wait for phone call from the transport office”. I had to call them to call me back and then they told me “No, you didn’t did nothing wrong, it’s just a shop manager messed arround”.

I wonder if she tried to report me for wrong delivery, or she was just a stupid cow?

[allikat]

She was getting upset. These managers always know their deliveries are against their own rules, but it’d bring the system grinding to a halt if they followed them. She doesn’t follow them, so how dare you as a mere driver ask to be allowed to follow the company rules!!!
The exact same notices are up in most supermarket depots, but no-one in charge of the warehouses and pickers has yet learned enough of the Eastern European languages to be able to tell the imported agency pickers these rules. Besides, even if they were told, these cages are dead easy to move… on a flat concrete WH floor… It’s the same in all the companies I’ve worked for that use cages.
“cages must not be filled above this line”
“What line? Oh, there it is, hidden behind the second layer of gearboxes…”

And they wonder why it all goes wrong so often…

[nick2008]

allikat:
these cages are dead easy to move… on a flat concrete WH floor…

I have yet to see one being moved on a flat w/house floor…
Most are picked up 2 or 3 at a time and moved round on a ride on pallet truck up and down the w/house and put down in a loading area then loaded by palet truck so the first time anyone touches them is the driver
Oh and just because it has WARNING DO NOT USE tape on it makes sod all difference

[swraith]

reminds me of the time I did deliveries for a well known non musical pub chain.

I ended up going back with atleast two pubs deliveries on the back as I couldn’t move the blasted things no matter how hard I tried or how many of us tried (myself, 2x barman and the manager.) For one beer cage, cages arent really designed to take above 500kg anyhow, they was loaded to the top. Must’ve been atleast 15+ crates (15 bottles per crate,) when they were told they weren’t allowed to fill them up that far and it should’ve only gone to half way.

I never worked for them again… funny that.

[ragnarok]

I do quite a bit of work for a company that supply radiators and boilers to plumbing stores, and some of those radiators are seriously heavy. I always ask for help to unload them (if a handball is needed) as my health is more important than trying to act like ‘Billy Big Balls’.

Most are more than happy to help, those who don’t want to help get a choice, either muck in or the load goes back. I have not taken an order back yet

To their credit, the company backs the drivers in this respect which is a good idea on their part, as a claim-up for personal injuries via a ‘no win no fee’ lawyer is expensive for them.

[starfighter]

I’m on the full time there, they’ve had a load of new cages in and they are already getting knackered. The drop points at the pubs don’t help matters either. The money and hours suit though and I figure if you’re involved with cages you’ll get hassle no matter where you go.

[peirre]

My favourite used to be the fact that while doing Wilkos, the shop managers used to park their own cars in the delivery bays, which is something they shouldn`t do. This sometimes made the delivery more difficult. so I had no problem when it came to damaging the cars if they refused to move em, especially when blindsiding the trailers in at some stores.
Though the day I dropped a heavy cage that rolled away onto the bonnet of the managers car caused me some grief

[chiz]

I had a manageresses car parked in a loading bay the other night. The shop was shut, it turned out she was up the road on the lash and was gonna leave her car there overnight.

I would normally make a note of the vehicle then continue with the delivery as best I could, but at this shop I need to bring the tailift down on top of the dock so it sits level with the steps at the back door of the shop.

So I jumped out and took a few photos, just to cover myself, then jumped back in and reversed back onto the dock. ‘Luckily’ for her there was just enough room to get the wagon in after I’d knocked her wing mirror off with the tail lift!! I jumped out and took a few more photos, dropped the gear off and on the way out I flattened her wing mirror, which had ended up under the wagon!! Oh dear!!

Sure enough I got a call the next day, the manageress had turned up at the traffic office kicking off saying I should be sacked (I’m agency anyway), and saying that her car wasn’t parked there. Her little plan didn’t work when I turned up with the photos. When the TM and me went to shop so I could explain what happened, we even found the glass from her bust mirror on the ground in the loading bay.

I don’t know what’s happening about her going on like she did (not a lot probably) but I’m off that route now!!

[gogzy]

folk in shops your delivering cages too are a pain in the backside most of the time.

i had a delivery for a well known hotel in edinburgh when i was at 3663 now 2 guys are standing there waiting for this cage and watching me struggle to get it off the tail lift. i asked for some help and got some strange looks while they had a smoke

i struggled some more, jumped back into the motor and pushed it back inside, clsoed up and went away all the while getting what the hell are you doing, we need this stuff

yea and i need my back so im not gonna {zb} it up any more than it is

an hour later got a call from the tm asking me to take it back, i did but only if i get help getting it off

got back there same 2 guys were waiting for it, as soon as the tail lift was down it was off the motor. signed for and i was away. though 3663 do pack the cages bloody heavy, i used to be knackered by the end of the day

also done it with P&H bit easier with some cages being light and others heavy, good thing is though i was always double manned when i did work there. once had a bottle of some cheap crappy cider burst all over me, which wasnt a good thing as i was just about to drive the motor home

how do you explain that one to the police if you get stopped,

yes officer it just burst all over me honest, Heres the bottle

[simon]

allikat:
The exact same notices are up in most supermarket depots, but no-one in charge of the warehouses and pickers has yet learned enough of the Eastern European languages to be able to tell the imported agency pickers these rules…

The fact that the pickers these days are generally Eastern European has got nothing to do with it. Even when the pickers were British so, in theory, could read and understand English, the cages where overloaded. They wouldn’t roll straight even on a smooth concrete w/h floor, let alone a badly laid tarmac yard.
Nope, these cages are overloaded because that’s the way you get a full load onto a trailer.

[orys]

Simon:
The fact that the pickers these days are generally Eastern European has got nothing to do with it. Even when the pickers were British so, in theory, could read and understand English, the cages where overloaded. They wouldn’t roll straight even on a smooth concrete w/h floor, let alone a badly laid tarmac yard.
Nope, these cages are overloaded because that’s the way you get a full load onto a trailer.

Yep. In my yesterday’s job there were only british workers in warehouse (i checked the time cards).

[suedehead]

Deliveries to these kind of places should be done in a tipper imo

[shuttlespanker]

quite a few years ago,m i was doing agency work for a laundry, delivering and collecting linen for hospitals.

well, i had 3 deliveries, the 3 collections, in the order of deliver to 1,2,3, the collect from 3 (as was already there), then 2 then back to 1.

the linen was in these manky roll cages , as already stated, they never go where you want them to go.

well, one particular evening, there was a car parked over the end of the loading bay at drop 3 and seeing as this was a regular occurance, i was getting a little peeved of this, anyway, i started to reverse down towards the bay, in full view of about 5 of the hospital porters, then, BANG, ooops, sorry car

wing mirror, door, wing, bonnet, bumper

as i got out of the cab, one of hte porters said to me “you aimed that well, didn’t ya!”

well, it turned out that this car was one of the nurses who worked on ward 2 at that hospital, she saw the mess the following morning, went to the porters office and went ballistic sying that her car had been vandalised

well, the porter on duty at the time said it wsan’t, it was hit by a truck and as her car should have been parked in the staff car park, not on the yellow box section where the loading bay is, the transport company (the one i worked for) would not admit liability and it would be best to leave it

my cunning plan worked a treat, nobody ever parked their car there again