I really d`ont believe it!

[saviem]

Evening Gentlemen, well, after the prelude of the Hay, the early Spuds…and the anxiety, and tension, of the inspection by the various, “youthfull”, purchasing “experts”, from the “Housewives friend” , (the Supermarket chains that hide their true , “■■■■ Turpin” identity so very well!!! (“we respect the aims of our valued producers”)…oh like hell they do…have BMW secured the right to supply 1 series to all these “know alls”)…but now were into the serious job…the Harvest…and like the Spuds to come she looks good…

So, what is wrong?

Well. As some may know I am of , (rapidly), advancing years…n`owt wrong with that…but like Mr Meldrew, my bonnet should have a “bobble”, to wave to the wind, as my head nods in a regulated ratio to the annoyance caused to my Brain…what is left of it!

But what should cause such annoyance?

Everything, and nothing…just the same as drives each and everyone of you good Gentlemen right up the wall!!!..for are we not all, “Grumpy old men”…“ROFs”, ZBs,…et al…

So perhaps there is room, (or not), for such a thread as this…and it is open to all, whatever assails you…let it out…(and there seems much of such on the AEC V8 thread at the moment…but it could be anything at all…let us all enjoy it…

And to start it off…Today a very pleasant young man in a very smart DAF came to collect Wheat from out of my store…Seeing the rear of my LB76 he had a quick look, then rummaged in his cab and gave me a leaflet for the forthcoming, Shropshire Truck Show at Oswestry, saying," you should show her, its ONLY £35 to exhibit"!!!

Ye Gods, truly “I really d`ont believe it”…to pay to show your pride and joy, and for some slick operator to charge both you…and the paying public to look at your lorry…well, I never!

No wonder the industry is constantly had for a fool…

Over to you dear friends,…for I`m away to fill the Claas with “claret” for tomorrow looks good, (and myself with a modest amount of Bollinger perchance…

Cheerio for now.

[windrush]

That’s the difference between farmer and haulier Saviem! If said driver had visited a ‘poor, on his uppers’ haulier he would probably have PAID HIM £35 to exhibit his pride and joy, however he dropped in on a ‘well to do farmer’ and obviously thought that parting with such a paltry amount of cash (possibly less than the cost of a bottle of Bollinger!) would be of very little consequence in the long term. Cannot have it both ways son!

Pete.

[retired_old_fart]

Now don’t take the Mick out of the chap just because he made one simple mistake. Maybe the rep from the supermarket chain was such a nice guy and so believable when he promised poor old Saviem that “We’re nice guys, we’ll look after you, you can trust us”.
Perhaps it was some time later, after he had signed on the dotted line, that Saviem realised that the- no doubt young & smart- chap was a graduate of the Tony Blair School of Conmanship.
In the spirit of this new thread, I’ll bore everyone (again) by relating a tale from the long-gone days when the first of these so-called Friendly Deals were being sold to the nations producers by a company called, Tesco.
One morning I was tasked to take my Bedford S-type (take a fly sheet with you in case it rains) to collect the previous day’s output of Summer cabbages from a local farmer and deliver them to the supermarket’s regional packing station which was about15 miles away. Loading went as planned with about fifty crates of wonderful-looking cabbages handballed on to the lorry. As I was leaving, the farmer gave me two instructions- Be there before 10.00 am and put your sheet on if it rains. No problem- I had plenty of time to do both.
On arrival at the packing station I was shown where to position the vehicle so that the load could be inspected. Bloke-in-white-coat-carrying-a-clipboard came along a few minutes later, looked the load over, made a couple of ticks on his sheet and directed me to move to the unloading bay.
Things started to get interesting at this point.
The flt driver dropped half a dozen pallets on the loading bay for me to stack the crates of cabbages on. I had just placed the first crate on the first pallet when BIWCCAC appeared brandishing a giant pair of calipers and a long steel ruler. He measured each of the cabbages in that first crate and said, “Sorry, driver, that crate’s rejected”. Now please note that, even at the age of 21 I had been growing vegetables for over ten years, so in this expert capacity I felt justified in asking him what was wrong with them. He told me that two of the twelve cabbages in the crate were “undersize” by a small amount and it was company policy to reject the whole crate. I could see the way things were heading so I suggested that, should he discover any more “rejects”, I could make up the numbers of “acceptable” cabbages by swapping some with those out of another crate. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he told me that under no circumstances was I allowed to touch his company’s goods.
The upshot of all this was that I had to return to the farmer with 18 of the fifty crates of cabbages which BIWC’s superior had refused to accept. All because they were about a quarter inch short of the required diameter.
No doubt Saviem will let us know if things have improved since then.
But I’m not holding my breath!

[gingerfold]

I was delivering apples that had been picked from an orchard in Suffolk that adjoined the packhouse, so they were straight off the tree and into the packhouse for washing and packing. These were loose into the trays. I arrived at the RDC, reversed onto the unloading bay, went onto the bay (it was allowed in those days) and stood at the open door awaiting the unloader. The inspector came along, white coat and clipboard, looked at the back two pallets, inspected half a dozen trays and rejected the lot. The apples weren’t shiny enough. They had only been on the tree that morning so they could not have been any fresher. I think that some rejections are made because the supermarkets have over-ordered and its just an excuse.

[jazzandy]

Guess who lost his SPS payment this year because he was stupid enough not to complete his online submission in time?

When it was a paper submission we were absolutely bombarded with mail from DEFRA. Once you go online, it seems you get nothing, no advice, no reminders, no backstop to let you know you still didn’t complete. So this year I’m going to be several thousand down. Being part of the government’s care in the community scheme is not the bed of roses it’s made out be!