Pat Hasler:
Get a lawyer.
In future … DON’T WORK FOR RIP OFF AGENCIES.
All agencies are cheating lying thieving organisations.
I think if you have a proper contract with that companies there is less chance of cheating.Because you can’t easily get rid from the legal things.And you can easily recover all things by hiring a lawyer and filing for that.
I’d have turned the truck round and taken it back to the yard as soon as they were short with me on the phone. No one has ever paid me enough to take ■■■■ from office monkeys.
It’s easy, however, to forget that the OP is new to the job. I don’t think I’d have had the same kind of confidence as I have now when I first started driving fifteen years ago. Mind you, one of my first jobs was with MKG delivering frozen foods to Somerfield or Kwik Save stores, and I was sent out to do fifteen drops a day with no more address information than “Doncaster Rossington” or “Sheffield Central”. I found most of them ok …
Blimey this still running on.
Someone who is going to drive lorries for a living needs common sense, its not an ideal world, you will get addresses like Acme Storage Pontefract, and the drop is indeed 15 miles away at their spare facility, if there happen to be 2 Pontefracts in the map find out which one before you leave.
Bullies and half wits (not all some are very very good) are sometimes behind counters in RDCs masquerading as despatch clerks, in many cases they are as ill suited to the job as far too many lorry licence holders…when incompetent desk clerk meets equally incompetent HGV licence holder then expect the worse.
Lorries are working vehicles and get knocked about so expect things like aux power not to work, most sat navs have some sort of back up battery so make sure you go to a job with the thing charged, use it just to confirm the destination and switch it off again.
No one with an ounce of sense would drive a lorry without a real printed road atlas in their bag, incl one that has bridge heights, this isn’t horse and cart ex drivers teaching the youngters how to do the job its common bloody sense in the real world.
You’re on your own out there so learn some self reliance.
At one time you could get around by asking directions, those days are over cos the place is stuffed to the gills with immigrants who can barely speak a word of English but know the benefits system down to the most minute detail, and you can’t stop in many places without incurring the parasite surveillance states wrath with an instant computerised fine, so you have to make sure you can cope with any and every eventuality.
For Petes sake stop relying on electronic toys, the sat nav is not a route planner, it is a pocket sized street map of the country and bloody good it is too at that job, it excels at informing you which side of strange town to head for, invaluable at guiding you the last couple of miles to the destination, and good at spotting unmarked/unnamed turnings/streets if you let it run whilst you follow the route YOU planned on your map.
The bloke who lets the sat nav plan his route and follows it blindly is heading for disaster.
just pass the grievance over to your union. They’ll sort it out.
MikeCunn:
barebones:
I’ve recently been been taking on Class 1 work for an agency. I passed my test some years ago, but since then I had only driven rigids for an entertainment company, so I am effectively a newbie to artics, but wanted to get some proper experience having done a full 2 day refresher course as a precaution.A 15 hour day, 11 hours of which was driving, so exceeding my limit by an hour, I was really hacked off.
Wait a minute, this has turned into a thread about the pro’s and con’s of sat navs and Google Maps. An experienced HGV Driver went over his 10 hour drive time by an hour because he had a lousy day and was lost a few times. We’re not talking a few minutes over, it’s a whole hour with no excuse.
I once drove just shy of 12 hours due to a major incident on the M6 near Preston and there was literally nowhere I could stop between there and Wigan. The OP has no excuse for going an hour over 10, sat nav, bad day or not.
Hang just have a read of what you have just posted, see if you can spot the obvious contradiction.
maybe just me but, if I had left the yard to attempt the delivery at all.
Travelling North on the way to any of the ‘Staveleys’ , the first one I would come to is the Chesterfield one.
Why would I ignore and drive past that one and head for Kendal or Harrogate without checking the nearest one first?
Dafman:
MikeCunn:
barebones:
I’ve recently been been taking on Class 1 work for an agency. I passed my test some years ago, but since then I had only driven rigids for an entertainment company, so I am effectively a newbie to artics, but wanted to get some proper experience having done a full 2 day refresher course as a precaution.A 15 hour day, 11 hours of which was driving, so exceeding my limit by an hour, I was really hacked off.
Wait a minute, this has turned into a thread about the pro’s and con’s of sat navs and Google Maps. An experienced HGV Driver went over his 10 hour drive time by an hour because he had a lousy day and was lost a few times. We’re not talking a few minutes over, it’s a whole hour with no excuse.
I once drove just shy of 12 hours due to a major incident on the M6 near Preston and there was literally nowhere I could stop between there and Wigan. The OP has no excuse for going an hour over 10, sat nav, bad day or not.
Hang just have a read of what you have just posted, see if you can spot the obvious contradiction.
Nope, can’t see it.
Dafman:
MikeCunn:
barebones:
I’ve recently been been taking on Class 1 work for an agency. I passed my test some years ago, but since then I had only driven rigids for an entertainment company, so I am effectively a newbie to artics, but wanted to get some proper experience having done a full 2 day refresher course as a precaution.A 15 hour day, 11 hours of which was driving, so exceeding my limit by an hour, I was really hacked off.
Wait a minute, this has turned into a thread about the pro’s and con’s of sat navs and Google Maps. An experienced HGV Driver went over his 10 hour drive time by an hour because he had a lousy day and was lost a few times. We’re not talking a few minutes over, it’s a whole hour with no excuse.
I once drove just shy of 12 hours due to a major incident on the M6 near Preston and there was literally nowhere I could stop between there and Wigan. The OP has no excuse for going an hour over 10, sat nav, bad day or not.
Hang just have a read of what you have just posted, see if you can spot the obvious contradiction.
Getting lost is a bit different to a major accident though…
Juddian:
Blimey this still running on.Someone who is going to drive lorries for a living needs common sense, its not an ideal world, you will get addresses like Acme Storage Pontefract, and the drop is indeed 15 miles away at their spare facility, if there happen to be 2 Pontefracts in the map find out which one before you leave.
Bullies and half wits (not all some are very very good) are sometimes behind counters in RDCs masquerading as despatch clerks, in many cases they are as ill suited to the job as far too many lorry licence holders…when incompetent desk clerk meets equally incompetent HGV licence holder then expect the worse.
Lorries are working vehicles and get knocked about so expect things like aux power not to work, most sat navs have some sort of back up battery so make sure you go to a job with the thing charged, use it just to confirm the destination and switch it off again.
No one with an ounce of sense would drive a lorry without a real printed road atlas in their bag, incl one that has bridge heights, this isn’t horse and cart ex drivers teaching the youngters how to do the job its common bloody sense in the real world.
You’re on your own out there so learn some self reliance.At one time you could get around by asking directions, those days are over cos the place is stuffed to the gills with immigrants who can barely speak a word of English but know the benefits system down to the most minute detail, and you can’t stop in many places without incurring the parasite surveillance states wrath with an instant computerised fine, so you have to make sure you can cope with any and every eventuality.
For Petes sake stop relying on electronic toys, the sat nav is not a route planner, it is a pocket sized street map of the country and bloody good it is too at that job, it excels at informing you which side of strange town to head for, invaluable at guiding you the last couple of miles to the destination, and good at spotting unmarked/unnamed turnings/streets if you let it run whilst you follow the route YOU planned on your map.
The bloke who lets the sat nav plan his route and follows it blindly is heading for disaster.
Well said, Juddian, a bit “tough love” but absolutely right. 
Euro:
just pass the grievance over to your union. They’ll sort it out.
Thats some funny zb right there, Union…
Btdt. I think most drivers have. One of the reasons my phone has mapping, internet and separate charge pack.
Before satnavs I bought county msps. A bit of prep beforehand with the correct address then a stop en route at a garage or motorway service area. But as one of the previous posters said, not only could the haulage company have helped some more; even the agency can’t withold your pay. I think its in your terms and conditions
Ramon123:
What a rip off !Name and shame - agency and company.
Oddly enough sounds like of the low wage national starter agencies that are out there…
apologies if it’s already been said, but only, recently anyway! read the last page.
anyone doing agency or just anyone cab hopping, it would make sense to carry some fuses and have a lead rigged up with crocodile clips at one end and at least one female cig light socket at the other. it’s made my life easier on more than one occasion. even if you haven’t made one and get caught out with a truck, stop at a B&Q type spot and make one!!
if you put a multi plug that has a built in LED on the end, the D part is a one way valve, so if it’s lit up it’s wire the right way round
I can hardly believe what I am reading in this thread. One guy won’t take a truck out without power for his sat-nav and another couldn’t handle an office wallah being short with him on the phone and so would turn the truck round and take it back, load and all… and that’s just on this page!!
And yet in various other threads we hear arguments that HGV driving is a highly professional occupation deserving of a wage well over the £10ph mark. Clearly it ain’t in many cases. You need only drive a few miles on a motorway of your choice to see that.
No doubt sat-navs have their uses but how on earth any lorry driver could consider themselves such without being able to use an atlas properly I have no idea.
Olog Hai:
I can hardly believe what I am reading in this thread. One guy won’t take a truck out without power for his sat-nav and another couldn’t handle an office wallah being short with him on the phone and so would turn the truck round and take it back, load and all… and that’s just on this page!!
Yes, I would. No one pays me enough to take ■■■■ from office monkeys, as I said above. I’m the first to hold my hand up when I’ve done somethng wrong and am quite happy to get a bollocking for it, but I won’t put up with unecessary rudeness and shouldn’t be expected to. As for sat navs, I’ve never used one. 
Sure some of us remember the old days when it was just maps and, nipping into the nearest services to memorise the A-z then if all else fails get close enough to the location and use that hole under our noses to ask.
But I do find the sat nav useful for giving a fairly good arrival time, lets me plan my ■■■ stops on the way- but then I do suffer from the affliction of an ‘un-cooperative bowel’ whereby it will deceide it needs to open when no where near a loo.
Also the sat nav can be perfect for the last few miles drive in but do like to cross reference the delivery address on google in case i’ve been given the wrong postcode but correct street name.
Take the sat nav and tinternet off me and I reckon I would still find any destination in the UK although it would take a fraction longer.
0a.:
Redrorry:
Remember it’s 1943 the ■■■■ are in charge and if your hinge count is out even if it’s their fault. “BANG”. At least that’s what I’ve mostly experienced, don’t question just do or the doors over there.On a personal note no sat nav power no go, no matter how much the old school bang on about maps. Phone the agency tell them you have sat nav only and no power, if the postcode is correct then a sat nav even with it’s faults is 9/10th there. If the postcode/address is wrong then that’s their fault.
Remember agency work is getting treated like something they stood in, more so if your “professional”, they (clients and agency) only respect shug the thug and keep stum because they might get a smack in the mouth.
i thought you were being sarcastic when i first read it but i think youre actually serious!
can i ask you how you manage to find your arse hole to wipe after a taking a [zb]? do you need a satnav for that as well? this is the problem with modern day drivers they simply cant do the job unless someone holds their hand.
why nearly every post on this thread is sympathy with the driver i just dont get it ■■?
“Staveley.”
= there are 3 places by this name on googlemaps. one is on the top of a mountain in the lake district so clearly its not that one
,another one is a hamlet in middle of nowhere north of knaresborough so not that one either
“The postcode was now useless and I had no directions for the town.”
so you had a postcode
“unbelievably didn’t have a contact phone number for the destination, so I couldn’t even phone them”
its unbelievable that the uk doesnt have companies that specialise in collecting telephone numbers and addresses for other companies
“That little mistake delayed me by about 2 hours after doubling back”
“there were no service stations on that stretch of motorway”
have tibshelf,woodall and wooley edge been demolished then? they were there when i last went along that stretch of the m1.
“the haulage company had refused to pay me more than 10 hours.”
“Is this justified…!!!”no it most certainly is not
your job as a driver is not just to drive from a to b but also to find the locations and make the deliveries and collections. if you receive directions from the office for where they are then that should be considered to be a bonus rather than the norm. my question to you and all the other clueless “satnav” drivers: what would you do if the satellite comms got turned off for a prolonged period? reading the replies in this thread it looks like most of the uk would grind to a halt
.
ha ha ■■■■ right!!! while they’res muppets like this, i’ll always be busy!!!
Suedehead:
Martin:
Suedehead:
Makes me wonder how we ever managed before sat navs.streetmap.co.uk and enter the postcode! Don’t even need a mapbook…
Makes me wonder how we ever managed before the interweb.
We got home from work and moaned at anyone who would listen, now we can moan in silence on the puter
puntabrava:
Suedehead:
Martin:
Suedehead:
Makes me wonder how we ever managed before sat navs.streetmap.co.uk and enter the postcode! Don’t even need a mapbook…
Makes me wonder how we ever managed before the interweb.
We got home from work and moaned at anyone who would listen, now we can moan in silence on the puter
I don’t very often comment on this the “Professional Drivers forum”. But thank jigijig I’m now retired!!! Use the brain you were gifted with and think about your route and look at a map. I must say it’s no wonder drivers are on crap money, cos as one fella pointed out some of you couldn’t find your own arse without a pratnav. Getting back to the orginal poster, if you worked for me I would charge you for the fuel you wasted also. If your lost ASK!!! its not a crime to be in an area you don’t know. After 45 years in transport I still had to ask if I wasn’t sure when going to a new delivery. Kevmac47.
I remember when I first started my job I said to my boss I was getting a pratnav “not in one off my trucks you won’t”, he bought me some a-z’s and an atlas and told me to take them home and read them I see why now 
.
If your ever unsure ask it costs nothing to pull over and stick your head out the window.
