If your on for stobarts ring your planner or customer services tell em your getting tight on time and can you drop the trailer there usually a yes then tell tescos your dropping it because thats what your planner said they may huff and puff but they have the option to moan at your planner, simples.
Becomes a lot more involved if your working for a 3rd party.
People may moan about stobarts on here but if you use the systems they have in place its the easiest job out there all the stress goes to the planners and customer services and the driver just drives.
thehairyarsedtrucker:
I suppose the only way around this problem is to call the police to report an offence get a crime number and ask for a traffic officer to come to your assistance. You can explain the problem get them to investigate the offence and more crucially get the officer endorse a printout to allow you to drive to a parking up place.
But as more than one scribe as said NEVER let yourself get that tight for time.
You only get a crime number for “recordable” crimes. Exceeding driving/working/duty hours isn’t one of them.
Kerbdog:
Im currently at a Tesco RDC after running out of time. I arrived at 19.25 for a 19.00 booking (on time). I was given a bay and entered into a period of availability (on bay waiting for unloading etc) at 19.54. At 21.45 I explained to the charge hand that I realised they were busy but to take note I only had an hour of time left. I reiterated the point at 22.15 and was told they were checking the load. 20 minutes to go I reminded the lady I was very short on time and she went to see what was happening. She returned to tell me they only had 4 pallets left to be checked and it would be 5 mins. 22.35 I told her I would now either have to move my truck off site or stay on site. She disappeared into the warehouse and did not reappear. 3 minutes to go before my 15 hour spread is over I asked another lady to give me my keys back to change my tacho from POA to break as I legally had to stop work. She said I cant give you the keys back as the electronic key system wont let me whilst your bay has a red light as you are being unloaded. I pointed out that 25 minutes earlier my load was being checked and that they would have to stop unloading me and give my bay a green light in order to release my keys. Turning stroppy she told a guy to go and see what was happening to which I replied no, stop whats happening if its not done and get my keys back to me. He disappears and comes back with my notes at 22.53. Im now 5 mins over my time and still have to get my keys. The girl does not like me pushing her for my key return. Thinking I am over my time anyway I pulled off the bay so as to not give them any ammunition that I was anything other than helpful and polite to them and to park in a quiet space. This practice is a joke now. I think I will ring VOSA for advice in what to do as they were in no uncertain terms aware of my predicament. Now whilst vosa would probably overlook this infringement as they can see my poa and quick movement and I also have the printed receipt from the notes stating time of signing the job off, I would like to know who can complain to these idiots and give them something to worry about as regards having consequences to their actions as through their actions and no fault of drivers they are getting us into trouble with illegal tacho cards. Not giving the keys back is probably theft, however, I wasnt going to start wasting police time over something they probably wouldnt do anything about. Ah well…bedtime
At 2253 you had your notes but NOT the keys. Assuming the keys came the following minute that is keys in hand at 2254.
1 minute to walk to unit. 2255.
2 minutes to pull off and park up. 2257.
3 minutes to type that lot that’s quoted. I can type at 50wpm and would struggle to type that lot in the 3 minutes remaining.
Where does the 3 minutes come from? It was posted at 2300
How much of the original story is actually true and how much made up?
Why did you move off the bay and not contact your employer an hr before and keep them up dates on the situation. You should not have moved off the bay untill your rest period is over
Truckbling:
It is an offence to cause a driver to break the driver hour rules so you might have had a case there because whilst still on the bay you were also still working because they would not release your keys to you. This is where you could have got them good and proper should the authorities actually get off their arses and start applying the law to help us for a change as opposed to hindering us.
While there are offences of causing a driver to exceed EU hours rules, they are committed by employers etc who direct their drivers to break the rules. They are not committed by jobsworth RDC operatives taking too long to complete the unloading etc.
peirre:
**Peirres RDC rule #1:** IF youve been sat waiting some considerable time at an RDC, within 2-3hrs of you running out of time (but no less than 2hrs), lie to them (the RDC staff) and tell then you have less than 1hr left to pull off the bay before you run out of time, leaving you a 1hr+ margin to find somewhere (legally) safe to park.
Too often Ive seen drivers at RDCs literally let themselves run out of time, using a bit of poetic licence/BS will save you heaps of trouble
^^^^^^^^this^^^^^^^^ done it meself in Magor on a Saturday morning. Told 'em that I would be dropping the trailer and pulling out 2hours 15minutes after my booking time. Worked a treat. stay polite, but keep reminding them.
The Sarge:
^^^^^^^^this^^^^^^^^ done it meself in Magor on a Saturday morning. Told 'em that I would be dropping the trailer and pulling out 2hours 15minutes after my booking time. Worked a treat. stay polite, but keep reminding them.
Obviously only any good if you have a spare set of keys or handed in the wrong ones to start with, which is what drivers should be doing in this difficult situation. If they have your only set of keys behind the desk or wherever the hell they keep them, you can tell them all you want, threaten all you want, lay down the law all you want, but short of actions that would result in a criminal record, you wont be getting them back if they say no and you’ll be sitting in your plastic chair in the waiting room like a good little driver, regardless of your tacho.
This happened in tesco Livingston when the driver refused to move off the bay plus added some ■■■ words to the language they called the police (local ones) they then called the traffic after discussion with the driver & tesco managers they called the tesco MD for Livingston he got called out traffic informed the MD that the driver was not moving & that 5 bays each side had to be closed so the driver had a decent rest. They were also informed that keeping the drivers keys could be breaking the law etc. and that if the driver was disturb they would be breaking the law. MD carpeted his shift managers delivery drivers had a good laugh driver on bay Got banned surprise surprise not happened since though. B4 anyone says a thing driver had been there for over 4 hours and I was working for tesco that night that’s how I know
waynedl you sound just like me bud, i too take no crap from them or agencies thats why my cv 5pages, ooops, iv stayed on bay at tesco in london once they got old bill he tapped on me window i explained he then said to transport to cone area off so as not to disturb my rest heee hee, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz [zb] em
Frazer smith:
This happened in tesco Livingston when the driver refused to move off the bay plus added some ■■■ words to the language they called the police (local ones) they then called the traffic after discussion with the driver & tesco managers they called the tesco MD for Livingston he got called out traffic informed the MD that the driver was not moving & that 5 bays each side had to be closed so the driver had a decent rest. They were also informed that keeping the drivers keys could be breaking the law etc. and that if the driver was disturb they would be breaking the law. MD carpeted his shift managers delivery drivers had a good laugh driver on bay Got banned surprise surprise not happened since though. B4 anyone says a thing driver had been there for over 4 hours and I was working for tesco that night that’s how I know
LOL…
You missed off the chalk bit to that story… I got the same bull ■■■■ story if you read up a few posts.
The Sarge:
If they don’t return your vehicle to you, it could be construed as theft.
No it could not - No “Intention to permanently deprive” you of your vehicle for starters, no dishonest appropriation of property either. Both are essential elements of Theft. The lesser Theft Act offence of “Taking a Conveyance” (aka Take and Drive Away or TWOC) does not apply either as the vehicle has in no sense been taken for their own or another’s use. Bit of a Waiting Room tale, that one…
Wonder do drivers really hand over the keys to their trucks…? Whenever I do RDC work and have to hand over keys, I hand over some keys, but they don’t work my truck…! haven’t got a clue what truck they work, but its not the one I’m driving.
How would the bod behind the screen in the office know the difference, they get handed some keys, they don’t check.
I always hand in the fuel tank or some random keys, can’t lock the cab or use the radio without them. Its my truck for the shift, my personal property in there, my tacho, my responsibility for it, keys stay with me at all times, #simples
Herongate:
Wonder do drivers really hand over the keys to their trucks…? Whenever I do RDC work and have to hand over keys, I hand over some keys, but they don’t work my truck…! haven’t got a clue what truck they work, but its not the one I’m driving.
How would the bod behind the screen in the office know the difference, they get handed some keys, they don’t check.
Problem solved.
I got banned from a delivery and subsequently lost a job after doing that, I said that although I did give them incorrect keys, I wasn’t going to leave without those particular keys so don’t see the problem and it was a security issue to me, ie when I went for a sandwich I didn’t want a bunch of minimum wage scum bags having the keys to the place I lived all week which included laptop, fridge, sat nav etc etc etc…
No defence, I’d apparently tried to ‘circumvent’ their safety systems and was banned from site - which after another minor issue resulted in a phone call telling me to empty my truck and my p45 will be in the post.
Roymondo:
No it could not - No “Intention to permanently deprive” you of your vehicle for starters, no dishonest appropriation of property either. Both are essential elements of Theft. The lesser Theft Act offence of “Taking a Conveyance” (aka Take and Drive Away or TWOC) does not apply either as the vehicle has in no sense been taken for their own or another’s use. Bit of a Waiting Room tale, that one…
Exactly and as such they’ll still pay no attention to a driver “telling them how it is”, they wont hand your keys over because company procedure would see them being disciplined for it while the bay was in use and the driver would still be sitting in the waiting room, tacho running out of time or not. They quite simply don’t give a flying rats ■■■■ and that’s why you have to look after yourself and to me that means leaving my tacho on rest in the first place (which is how it would always be anyway, because I’m just that sort of cowboy) and giving them a set of false keys unless I had spares.
All jobs I’ve had in the UK have been for small firms that do either European work of dock traction and as such neither my job or the companies livelihood is in any way beholdened to Tesco or any other such large RDC type company so I’d have absolutely no qualms about being difficult and staying put on a bay for my daily rest. Obviously agency drivers have to be more diplomatic and those working for large jobsworth ‘blue chip’ type firms where any kind of free thinking is banned wouldn’t get away with it, but there you go.
I think the whole practice of surrendering keys and being made to wait away from your truck is 100% wrong in the first place. Over here in North America, such a procedure is almost unheard of. Most places of that ilk just have the driver drop the trailer and bobtail off to do whatever he wants and they call you when its done, if you choose not to go back once your daily rest is up, a shunt truck just moves the trailer. Works much better all round. Right this minute I’m in a truckstop in Amarillo, TX waiting for my trailer to be loaded in a meat plant, they don’t even allow trucks to remain on site, you drop your trailer in the yard and you’re only allowed back in once its loaded. No one is being held hostage here, the trucks just bobtail 10 miles down the road to one of the many free truckstops and do as they wish. I know the UK isn’t the US but no driver should have to put up with that sort of nonsense, especially if it puts them in situations that could have legal consequences down the road if they bow to pressure from RDC staff and move the truck when they’re out of hours.
What could turn out to be interesting is if having run out of hours and left your vehicle on a bay, you then decided that the site was too noisy to sleep and ordered a taxi to take you to a B&B, digs etc. Can they prevent you from leaving the site? and what do you then do?
If you run out of hours at a Tesco RDC, all you need to do is phone VOSA. They will despatch an emergency car and draw a chalk line around your wheels. Afterwards, if anybody tries to move you then they will be arrested.
