Each time I post, I vow to make it a more regular thing - I fail!
Anyway, things have been quiet on the trucking front this year due to a need to get some jobs done at home. However, now I'm back so on to the latest entry:
Its about the perennial moan of all truckers - waiting to have a load tipped.
I am not given to moaning by nature - I just tend to sit and wait for the world to catch up - but it does concern me how much of people's time, effort, and therefore money, are wasted. This can only result in increased costs on products for the consumer.
So, last week, two contrasting experiences of working alongside Great Bear Distribution. I have worked many times for this company, either directly or as a sub-contractor (actually, being an agency driver, that perhaps ought to have read 'a sub-contractor or a sub-sub-contractor' - but I digress). Generally, as moderate sized companies go, they are quite a good company with little wastage of time or effort. I have however found one exception - Northampton. The five hours I spent there last week enabled me to catch up with my reading and so was moderately enjoyable. Other drivers with similar waits throughout the day were far less happy - either because it was their last drop (and one driver had to leave because of running out of time) or their schedules had been messed up for the remainder.
On a previous occasion I had a load refused because I was 3 hours later than had been expected (not my fault, I had done my drops in the requested order and at the requested times and didn't even know GB expected me 3 hours earlier. My employers on the day were none the wiser either!). I overheard a conversation that was to the effect that 'even though they were desperate for <the product> they were refusing it because a) they were too busy to take it, and b) they weren't going to let <my employers> get away with it'. Now that sort of bl**dy mindedness is fairly typical of some sectors of the transport industry. It is also a crucial flaw in wastefulness, bad environmental practice, 'just in time' deliveries, congestion and, of course, cost.
Maybe if GB at Northampton can't handle the pressure of unloading one truck every hour or so it should be shut down - or better management drafted in?
