I haven’t had the pleasure to visit RDC’s, but if something like what you descriped happens when you’re loading or offloading yourself, who is responsible then? As I remember it, if a load is delivered or collected under CMR conditions, the driver doesn’t have to load or unload?
Bit of a “grey” area, as I’ve had this discussion before regarding plant machinery, it is looked upon as a service from my employer, and although I can operate all sorts of machinery, I was never officially trained for it.
I date back to the days when a certificate was not required for everything
and common sense ruled, rather than the often misinterpreted H&S guidelines and rules.
I never asked, but you would hope that the likes of Lidl, Aldi and Netto were insured against accidents at their sites, so I never really gave it much thought.
At all the wholesale markets that we visited, there was always a forklift driver who could be trusted to take the pallets to the correct stands (in return for a financial consideration, of course) and when we were carrying other customer’s pallets, there were always instructions about the traders who could not be trusted.
Basically, if they weren’t there and/or they would not give a clear signature, the pallets went back on the trailer. That would leave them with nothing to sell, so it was a very rare occurrence.
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It always has…in a Darwinian sort of fashion! 
I learnt forklift driving, Hiab crane, on the hoof too. I never killed anyone, but I don`t actually think it was always a good way to go.
Unless there is some sort of cert how do we know whether the guy saying “Yeah, sure I can do that” is safe or is a chancer?
Sometimes it seems like overkill, but when you look at the possible outcomes of too little regulation? I can see why we have the regs now.
From my time on a desk, I know that some retailers specify to their suppliers that drivers must assist in off loading. Whether those instructions are passed onto the hauliers, the sub-contractors, the drivers themselves isn’t always clear, but I’ll bet all the big ones have watertight deals on it.
Even big suppliers (household names) are reliant on supermarkets etc. The goods want floor space/online presence to sell.
I agree that a certificate has value, I was just saying that I date back to when there weren’t so many.
I am happily in agreement
Having said that, a certificate does not guarantee that the operator is any good, so there is still an element of trust, which is how we used to operate, I think.
The bottom line is that in the days of uncertificated common sense, when something went wrong, it was usually accepted that if everyone had done their best, it was a sh-it happens moment.
The reaction these days is more often looking around for someone else to blame and the certificate allows the employer to say that they have done their best, so it cannot be their fault.
Yes, I too date from those far off halcyon(?) days. I remember a forkie trying to lift something very heavy off my wagon somewhere, but he wasn’t really lifting it, he was half dragging it and when it came clear of the bed it went directly south, to the ground.
The forklift was jerked up in the air shooting the bloke out of the seat but he was arrested by the mesh cage above him. The forks then slipped out crashing it back to the ground, adding severe jarring to the poor bloke’s spine to go with the neat criss cross pattern on his bald head.
Of course the emergency services, me and another bloke, took charge and helped him to a cup of tea in the site hut. 
Harking back to Lidls, a CMR wouldn’t have been involved @pv83 I reckon, it not being an international movement, but even then, and it was only 24 years ago, I remember being very surprised that a German company treated H&S so flippently. It was only because I was friendly with the supervisor in the office that I got my signed note copied and stamped.
Before that, when I was new to the firm, one of my first loads was to a warehouse in Villeneuve sur Lot. The only man there simply handed me the keys to a pallet truck. I didn’t have to act dumb when I said I haven’t the faintest clue how to drive one of those things. It was pretty obvious, even in French that I was telling the truth, so he did it himself.
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I have delivered into Aldi UK on a CMR.
Yep, in the back with an electric pallet truck.
As I understood it *CMR rules does not give automatic insurance to the driver away from the truck, but if your employer instructs you to tip the load, then you are going to be covered by his company insurance. I
also “got in the back” on many occasions all over Europe. Sometimes at large RDCs and very often at smaller companies. Maybe an electric pallet truck off a quay, or maybe a hand truck with a ricketty old truck dropping the pallets on the back.
On a couple of occasions putting an empty pallet on the bed and handballing the goods onto it. Only a plt or two at a time of course. I viewed it as a free gym session. And often (always) there was a nice little bonus!
Hhmmm…start of a new thread there? The little samples that once were commonplace? Not the ones that some drivers picked for themselves, but the ones that were given us.
*very possibly wrongly, open to correction!
Was there any mention of coning the bays off either side, chalking the wheels, and getting the feds in if there was any noise?
Only the UK piffle story then.
Sorry, didn’t understand a word of that, apart from ‘the other bays’, because they didn’t exist. Not sure I went to a Lidl store with more than one.
No such shenanigins at the RDC either.
I will guess that the reference is to the old chestnut where the driver would not move the lorry off the RDC bay and the rest of it is too fanciful to relate.
It’s a bit like the “if it wasn’t for the (fill in the reason here) delay, I would have been on the Herald of Free Enterprise” or “when I was in the SAS”.
Time to stop listening and walk away. 
Has anyone tipped in Lidl or Aldi in Germany. It’s the same as UK. You want unloading, you do it yourself, you can refuse and they will do it, then they raise an invoice and demand full payment. It will probably be the first and last load your company does into that site. 
In France too Mal, with both. And, certainly in the case of Lidl, with loading too.
I’ve tipped Aldi UK, self tip with electric pallet truck.
Supplier loaded or self load depending on which company it was supplying the goods. Their warehouse their rules.
Tipped in a few different brands of French supermarket RDCs.
One was back on bay, keys in office and sit in cab.
Another was on bay and assist/supervise the off-load on the bay.
Most were self tip with electric plt truck.