I have to take a ■■■■ test if involved in an accident that causes damage over a certain amount, it’s the law in North America. However it has to be done at an approved drug and alcohol testing facility. I also have to do one as part of pre employment screening, again it’s the law, but only if I go into the USA, I would have to take random tests too.
I don’t go to the US anymore, so I don’t have to do them, unless I have a crash, so I’m pretty much in the same boat as you guys.
I’m with robroy 100%, there would definitely be a huge ■■■ storm if some jumped up security guard tried to get me to ■■■■ in a cup, I would definitely leave site with my dignity intact and a full bladder.
On the subject of vehicle searches I’ve only once had a cab search and that was by a guy with a gun at BNFL Sellafield, and I totally understood the reasons for that prior to me entering site.
The ones that both amuse and bemuse me are mainly Asda RDC’s where they want to look in my trailer as I leave. Sometimes I’m empty and sometimes I have further deliveries on and have many times asked “what exactly is it you’re looking for?” Only to be met with the standard “not a clue mate, but this is what the suits insist we do”.
The check to see if the trailer is empty thing really gets on my ■■■■, the law if the land presumes innocence until proven guilty, opening trailer doors to prove you’re not guilty is an infringement of civil liberty.
However it’s in the site rules and by entering the site you do agree to it. I presume the same applies to drug and alcohol testing, if it’s company policy and you enter their premises, then you accept all the T&Cs.
It’s ridiculous that things are that way, all you’re trying to do is your job and you end up entering a contract if sorts every time you enter a company’s premises, but it is what it is, personally I would be as obstructive as possible, without being belligerent about it, but at the end of the day, we’ve all got bills to pay, principles are great, but they won’t pay the mortgage or feed the kids.
I used to get the full search treatment at Southampton Docks when I used to take pallets of paint or engine oil etc to the cruise ships - body frisk and then cab search - just accepted it, they weren’t going to find Taylor Swift on the bunk or a Baretta in me armpit
Funny thing is - they never looked in the back of the truck ever!!
newmercman:
The check to see if the trailer is empty thing really gets on my ■■■■, the law if the land presumes innocence until proven guilty, opening trailer doors to prove you’re not guilty is an infringement of civil liberty.
However it’s in the site rules and by entering the site you do agree to it. I presume the same applies to drug and alcohol testing, if it’s company policy and you enter their premises, then you accept all the T&Cs.
It’s ridiculous that things are that way, all you’re trying to do is your job and you end up entering a contract if sorts every time you enter a company’s premises, but it is what it is, personally I would be as obstructive as possible, without being belligerent about it, but at the end of the day, we’ve all got bills to pay, principles are great, but they won’t pay the mortgage or feed the kids.
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The checking of the trailer might be because they’ve had warehouse staff load a pallet or two on the sly, maybe even without the driver knowing. The truck and trailer get noted and then followed to wherever then robbed. Might sound far fetched but you know what boardrooms are like. The places that seem to do stuff like that are the ones that deal with high value, easy to get rid of items like booze and electronics.
truckman020:
ovlov jay says the friend is a grass,i agree,don’t see any point in grassing fellow workers to the employers,had a similar thing happen to me,i made the cardinal sin of sleeping in between jobs,each job is between 30 to 1 hour for re loading,nothing else I can do in between those times so I do what every driver does,put my head back,another driver had a bee in his bonnet about something I am supposed to do but is nothing to do with me and told management that I was asleep in the cab,i was going to let it go and forget it,a few days later I got the third degree about helping him and questioned about the times I get back,the only way management would know about me sleeping is if he grassed me up as I start at the depot but go to another not far away and work out of there all day,as a result I don’t talk to this driver anymore and I don’t say anything in front of him in case he does the same again
In some jobs, you have to grass workers, ie prisons, you have no choice when staff take drugs and phones into the nick. They need to be grassed up as they can cause staff to be injured etc.
It’s a few years since I last drove for a living, but I’ll say in all honesty that there’s no way I’d be doing any tests except for the police. I don’t mind being pulled for a breath test on the road, but that’s it. I’m with robroy on this. With him and me on the same firm, they wouldn’t know what hit 'em when it came to the crunch.
newmercman:
The check to see if the trailer is empty thing really gets on my ■■■■, the law if the land presumes innocence until proven guilty, opening trailer doors to prove you’re not guilty is an infringement of civil liberty.
However it’s in the site rules and by entering the site you do agree to it. I presume the same applies to drug and alcohol testing, if it’s company policy and you enter their premises, then you accept all the T&Cs.
It’s ridiculous that things are that way, all you’re trying to do is your job and you end up entering a contract if sorts every time you enter a company’s premises, but it is what it is, personally I would be as obstructive as possible, without being belligerent about it, but at the end of the day, we’ve all got bills to pay, principles are great, but they won’t pay the mortgage or feed the kids.
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The checking of the trailer might be because they’ve had warehouse staff load a pallet or two on the sly, maybe even without the driver knowing. The truck and trailer get noted and then followed to wherever then robbed. Might sound far fetched but you know what boardrooms are like. The places that seem to do stuff like that are the ones that deal with high value, easy to get rid of items like booze and electronics.
Without the driver knowing would be a bit difficult considering you’ll shut your doors coming off a bay before you go the gatehouse and I don’t see how anyone could sneak a pallet on through a curtain tip.
It’s a totally pointless exercise designed so that ‘security’ have to do more than crayon over some paperwork and press the wrong barrier buttons.
I went to a place the other day security said no sunglasses to be worn anywhere on site even in the truck and told off for taking a swig of water in the truck
mdourish:
I went to a place the other day security said no sunglasses to be worn anywhere on site even in the truck and told off for taking a swig of water in the truck
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No sunglasses I think these ■■■■ s who devise all this type of crap MUST be running out of ideas now to keep on justifying their non jobs.
You should have took him on and said there were for medical reasons for a glaucoma condition.
Keep challenging these ■■■■ on all these stupid rules, don’t let them just get away with all this ■■■■ !
trunker08:
I don’t believe what has happens to this industry, iff that’s what it’s called to day?
Why be blackmailed in to this drug testing nonsense, has any HGV driver ever been proved positive?
Are bus drivers under the same rules? Crain drivers the list goes on?
Sad…very sad.just my opinion mind,guess I don’t move with the times?
Don’t worry, truck drivers aren’t singled out for extra checks. The vast majority of large companies will have a drug and alcohol policy. I know office staff who have been through random tests. A fair few coaches now come with alcolocks, driver needs a clear result or the coach won’t start so it’s safe to say us poor truckers aren’t persecuted
trunker08:
I don’t believe what has happens to this industry, iff that’s what it’s called to day?
Why be blackmailed in to this drug testing nonsense, has any HGV driver ever been proved positive?
Are bus drivers under the same rules? Crain drivers the list goes on?
Sad…very sad.just my opinion mind,guess I don’t move with the times?
Don’t worry, truck drivers aren’t singled out for extra checks. The vast majority of large companies will have a drug and alcohol policy. I know office staff who have been through random tests. A fair few coaches now come with alcolocks, driver needs a clear result or the coach won’t start so it’s safe to say us poor truckers aren’t persecuted
Can see them being fitted to trucks in the not too distant future…
mdourish:
I went to a place the other day security said no sunglasses to be worn anywhere on site even in the truck and told off for taking a swig of water in the truck
mdourish:
I went to a place the other day security said no sunglasses to be worn anywhere on site even in the truck and told off for taking a swig of water in the truck
mdourish:
I went to a place the other day security said no sunglasses to be worn anywhere on site even in the truck and told off for taking a swig of water in the truck
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Where the hell was that??
Sainsburys
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I swear some of them make it up as they go along.
Tell them to poke it if they come up with crap like that and if they aren’t happy get a manager down there to explain and put his name against this crap. Then complain and complain again.
When the HiViz became a thing I was clipping up my curtains after tipping and reloading with empties in Whitbreads at Gloucester, I wasn’t wearing my HiViz, being somewhat rebellious, I could hear someone shouting and hollering and then whistling, I carried on doing my thing, even though the shouting was clearly aimed at me.
Red faced and quite angry, the bloke appeared in my face and still shouting commented on my lack of HiViz, to which I replied “If you could see that I wasn’t wearing one from all the way over there, then I obviously don’t need one” now I thought that was quite funny, but red faced man did not and I was told that I was banned from there as a result.
As usual in that situation, I asked for that to be put in writing so that I never had to come back to the ■■■ hole ever again, told you I was a rebel. This escalated the situation to the point that red faced man was almost incoherent, he was shouting so much he couldn’t get his words out properly, I told him to calm down, which doesn’t actually work, ever! And he went off on one again, all the while this was taking place I was doing up my straps and tucking them in all nice and professionally, taking no notice of him at all.
When I phoned in later that day (no cell phones in those days) to give my empty count and find out the next day’s mission I was told I was banned from there and that was all that was said about it.
After that episode I added a new response to that kind of thing, usually due to some breach of health and safety protocol, where I remarked that the shouty man was probably bullied by his obese wife and that’s why he needed to go off alarming at work as a way of proving his masculinity, just like telling someone to calm down, this never diffused the situation, but I used to enjoy myself.
newmercman:
When the HiViz became a thing I was clipping up my curtains after tipping and reloading with empties in Whitbreads at Gloucester, I wasn’t wearing my HiViz, being somewhat rebellious, I could hear someone shouting and hollering and then whistling, I carried on doing my thing, even though the shouting was clearly aimed at me.
Red faced and quite angry, the bloke appeared in my face and still shouting commented on my lack of HiViz, to which I replied “If you could see that I wasn’t wearing one from all the way over there, then I obviously don’t need one” now I thought that was quite funny, but red faced man did not and I was told that I was banned from there as a result.
As usual in that situation, I asked for that to be put in writing so that I never had to come back to the ■■■ hole ever again, told you I was a rebel. This escalated the situation to the point that red faced man was almost incoherent, he was shouting so much he couldn’t get his words out properly, I told him to calm down, which doesn’t actually work, ever! And he went off on one again, all the while this was taking place I was doing up my straps and tucking them in all nice and professionally, taking no notice of him at all.
When I phoned in later that day (no cell phones in those days) to give my empty count and find out the next day’s mission I was told I was banned from there and that was all that was said about it.
After that episode I added a new response to that kind of thing, usually due to some breach of health and safety protocol, where I remarked that the shouty man was probably bullied by his obese wife and that’s why he needed to go off alarming at work as a way of proving his masculinity, just like telling someone to calm down, this never diffused the situation, but I used to enjoy myself.
NMM I just had a flashback after reading that last post about hi vis ,I was with another (same company).driver waiting to unload when the red faced man whistling etc my mate Alan looked under the trailer and all around and when the red faced man gets close and says “you boy” Alan says you better not be whistling at me and calling me boy I aint no kin dog ****** who the ***** you think ******* are********… red faced man about turns and walks away quickly …ohh Alan was 6.5 ex boxer bent nose cauli ears . good days.
I think these ■■■■ s who devise all this type of crap MUST be running out of ideas now to keep on justifying their non jobs.
