A driver can take pride in his job but that dosn’t mean he has to clean his truck how many staff in the transport office clean up before they go home
Try leaving dirty tools and equipment in a real engineering shop and ones arse would get kicked sharpish.
Taking care of the tool that earns your bread is the most basic part of a lorry drivers job, no lorry driver worth the name will go anywhere with filthy windows mirrors and lights, by the time you’ve done those you might as well blow the vehicle over with the power wash and run the duster over the dash too.
Been all sorts regular and irregular using some of ours just recently, i got into one CF last week and immediately i turned the ignition on low oil came up, way below min on the game boy screen (what idiot decided lorries don’t need a real under the bonnet dipstick) ended up putting 8 litres in it to bring it up…useless sods, they’ll never be drivers as long as they have a hole in their arse.
Yes clean lights and mirrors that’s safety and can be done with a rag but an agency driver who just turns up for the day will not no where the washer is same with oil.If he turns up at say 4am should he just sit there untill maybe 8 when someone comes to the office to show him.
mac12:
Yes clean lights and mirrors that’s safety and can be done with a rag but an agency driver who just turns up for the day will not no where the washer is same with oil.If he turns up at say 4am should he just sit there untill maybe 8 when someone comes to the office to show him.
all you have to do is ask, theres always someone around and someone will help you
Juddian:
especially galling if the gaffers are ignorant too.
COME TO STOBARTS PAL! Mobile skips, NOT agency drivers either!!! MANAGERS DON’T/ WON’T DO ANYTHING
ive been told that stobarts lorries are well looked after in and out. and that if its a tip you can actually refuse to drive it and they will give you another unit
When I’m doing agency work that doesn’t involve supermarkets, I find myself in a cab always used by the same FT driver, who’s obviously on leave for me to be covering them in any particular week.
I make a point of getting to know the driver I’m covering at the earliest opportunity (covering another side duty at the same firm), and they are put at ease by my professional attitude towards the cover of their regular job in their regular cab. All I’ve gotta do is what it says on the tin “Keep cab tidy, do all checks, fill out all paperwork etc etc.” It ain’t that hard, so it amazes me that there are any drivers at all who don’t think of doing a professional’s job - just because they’re on agency!
I’ve heard a lot of tales of SE “subbie” drivers bringing their dogs with them into work though, because the regular agency had no one else available!
The last one went by the nickname of “Catweazel” so you get the picture!
I have worked agency & have gone into some right tips of cabs but alway cleaned them a bit as carry wipes with me
Just doing some holiday cover atm & got into cab which was a right state it took 2 days & 2 carrier bags full of rubbish out that the regular driver had left in when he left wont even go into what I found but no wonder there was a strange smell even the windows were dirty as well as everything else in the cab & they pay by the hr I have washed several times so now starting to look a bit better still not to my standard & this is a fridge unit yep carries food products
So please dont tarnish all agency driver the same although a lot are like that there are some who are not & like a clean cab but that is the same for full time drivers
mac12:
Yes clean lights and mirrors that’s safety and can be done with a rag but an agency driver who just turns up for the day will not no where the washer is same with oil.If he turns up at say 4am should he just sit there untill maybe 8 when someone comes to the office to show him.
all you have to do is ask, theres always someone around and someone will help you
Not always you can be told by the agency where the keys and paperwork is and that’s all you get.
I get into a cab, and the REGULAR full timer is the Catweazel. Cab is covered in dog hairs, like the bunk has been used as a dog basket. The cubby holes contain the remains of food & packets like they’ve been recovred from Tutankhamun’s tomb… There’s a packet of babywipes in there (with about 3 withered sheets in the dried-out pack left open at the top!) but it’s hard to get all the grime off with them.
Then you might “miss the smeg” on the underside of the steering wheel, having cleaned up everything else.
I missed it, because I didn’t factor “Clean up the regular driver’s crank-out” into the equation!
Either it was that, or someone smeared a Brie and Almond sandwich (the odor!) all along the underside of the steering wheel. Tell you what, let’s not go there!
One bad apple spoils the barrel, the reason why lots of drivers are on the agency is because of their unfortunate attitude, cab cleaning would not even occur to them, we have a great many agency at my place most of whom are good blokes then we have ones whom I wouldn’t pay with old shirt buttons you can smell them from 15 paces, and have never cleaned a cab.
We also have a good number of employed drivers who have done the job all their lives and who are so inept it beggars belief and who also never clean the cabs and like to dodge soap and water.
I’m so glad I drive fleet a couple of wet wipes and a wipe of the glass of off we go, it must be very annoying to come back from your hols and your motor has been trashed.
Juddian:
especially galling if the gaffers are ignorant too.
COME TO STOBARTS PAL! Mobile skips, NOT agency drivers either!!! MANAGERS DON’T/ WON’T DO ANYTHING
ive been told that stobarts lorries are well looked after in and out. and that if its a tip you can actually refuse to drive it and they will give you another unit
I think a lot depends on the depot, where I work they are generally cleaner than anywhere else I have worked that has a large fleet.
It depends on the job you do. No excuse if on food etc but tipper/ skips etc it’s pointless. What do you at a delivery, refuse to get out in the mud because you like clean pedals?
Time is another thing. Washing and polishing unpaid and on weekends off is plain sad. No different saying to the TM "I’ll do 2 hours tomorrow for free. If work was quiet I’d use washing and cab cleaning as a time wasting exercise. If busy and the lorry was a state at 5pm very sorry, tough ■■■■■■■.
Juddian:
especially galling if the gaffers are ignorant too.
COME TO STOBARTS PAL! Mobile skips, NOT agency drivers either!!! MANAGERS DON’T/ WON’T DO ANYTHING
ive been told that stobarts lorries are well looked after in and out. and that if its a tip you can actually refuse to drive it and they will give you another unit
I think a lot depends on the depot, where I work they are generally cleaner than anywhere else I have worked that has a large fleet.
Juddian:
especially galling if the gaffers are ignorant too.
COME TO STOBARTS PAL! Mobile skips, NOT agency drivers either!!! MANAGERS DON’T/ WON’T DO ANYTHING
ive been told that stobarts lorries are well looked after in and out. and that if its a tip you can actually refuse to drive it and they will give you another unit
I think a lot depends on the depot, where I work they are generally cleaner than anywhere else I have worked that has a large fleet.
Which depot is that?
Trafford Park, Appleton, they even decom at widnes with skivvies to valet them!
As an agency driver by choice (suits me sir) it ■■■■■■ me off that we are all seen as trash. I have worked for many companies including Stobarts and have to say that a fair percentage of the motors are a disgrace inside. The exception being Culina, every one I have driven has been spotless. Stobarts, on the other hand, vary from excellent, to something that you would not let your dog sleep in. Examples being - mouldy pies left in storage, filthy bunks, steering wheels that stick to your hands, stinking cabs, etc etc.
I will always leave a unit as clean, or cleaner than I picked it up.
Yes, some agency drivers don’t give a toss, but that said, some full timers are just as bad (if not worse).
Just getting my coat ready for the replies…
igot into truck one night and there was the remains off full chicken bones down by break pedal the dash was all snots rubbed onto it, passinger floor was full off plastic bottles cups nearly up to window. i refused to drive it
Trucker8oy:
Hello all I just got back from a 4 week holiday and decided to pop in to the depo to have a look what has changed. to get the story straight all the drivers in our depo have their own units, which sometimes are being used by agency drivers at night or to cover other drivers rota whilst they’re on holiday. i always keep my unit nice and clean and before i left on a friday i cleaned it and everything because i thought it would be nice to find a nice clean unit when i get back, but how wrong was i… when i opened the door i thought that i have steped into a farm… spilt coffee everywhere, on the seats, dashboard and all over the cab, cab phone has been ripped off, windows wouldnt go down i just could go on and on.
how could you not get mad at agency drivers please do tell, cuz i’m just lost for words. it took me 2h to clean all the ■■■ off. and tomorrow i will have some words with the maneger because its just not normal to leave it like that, i bet he would even care.
your thoughts and experiences please
sorry for the long story
Are you far enough up your own arse when you are looking down at us measly agency drivers.
Dean,
Well said mate, When I used to be on the agency back home in the UK, I alway had my baby wipes to clean down dashboard and tissue to clean mirror with window cleaner etc … working out of Hatfield TK MAXX, alot of the driver who were full time were pigs smoking in cab ash everywhere etc.
I refused to take a truck out with Cig ash and stench of smoke in it as I am a non smoker. I take pride in my appearence and the truck is also my image when driving.
but this guy needs to grow a pair and get a grip the holy one … you cleaned your truck and will get the phone fixed big deal, I could say persons who spend there own money getting stuff to clean the trucks apart from steering wheel mirrors windscreen etc stupid as it is only a truck.
I hate ignorant [zb] that think that agency drivers are scum of the earth.