rob22888:
Call me crazy, maybe because I started my driving days on Class 2 multidrop retail work, but I have always seen our role as drivers as delivering goods to customers. Sometimes that may involve taking the gear off the back of the truck for them. Afterall, the job isn’t done & the goods aren’t the property of the recipient until it’s off the truck and signed for.
It’s great & a perk of the job that in most cases (certainly as a Class 1 driver) you get to sit there whilst somebody else does it, but why should lorry drivers have a divine right to hours sat around being paid to do nothing? You don’t see supermarket drivers complaining about pulling cages off the trailer, brewery drivers moaning about lifting kegs off the trailer, tanker drivers complaining about connecting all the pipes up and taking charge, or parcel firm drivers whinging about having to tail lift pallets onto the wagon at collections etc. etc. They are all employed as ‘drivers’ just like the rest of us. The fuss about self tipping at Aldi is nothing more than spoilt drivers upset that they can’t get their usual paid 2 hour kip on the bunk in.
Mate, you and many others miss the point completely here.
The way I see it, it aint about complaining or moaning about Aldi/Lidl self tips, it’s a principle situation.
I’ll just get it out of the way first that in real terms I don’t mind too much, as it’s good excercise and a little bit of mild graft that won’t kill you…end of.
However, given a choice, if I have hauled a load of whatever, from either abroad or this country to a multi million pound supermarket network, I would EXPECT for them to provide labour to take it off.
In time I reckon this will set a precedent for the likes of Tesco/Asda to do the same to save money.
The usual comeback argument of ‘That is why Aldi is cheaper’ I reckon is ■■■■■■■■, a price of a tin of beans has nothing to do with whether you, me, or a guy in a warehouse took it off with a pallet truck, the cost saved on labour goes to management bonus dividends after increased profits with these fat cat businesses. I have no love for these multi million pound organisations.
Just look how we are treated whilst visiting their premises, sat in a pen with our keys taken off us like kids, when yeh…I aint embarrased or ashamed to say I would much prefer a lie down on my bunk.
So why should the driver have to accept that to make up for being sat in these crapholes so long, that the alternative should not only be self tip, but also getting lumbered with the p.o.a. fiasco/■■■■■■■■ (another argument for another day) instead of these co.s getting themselves and their useless slow and incompetent staff to get their act together to get us a reaonably quick turnaround. 
So drivers doing it willinglly with enthusiasm, and actually not only arguing for it, but lambasting other drivers for complaining about it 
, is only furthering their agenda, (but we all know what some drivers are like for just taking any ■■■■ without any real thought or resistance)
As I said …a matter of principle.
On the other hand I regularly help, and sometimes fully self tip, every week on my own job delivering to farms and one man or small firms without any problem or grievance, a different situation altogether.
Do you get my point here or not ■■
