Load it yourself!

[7610 super q]

As I said, it's not something I would do myself. I can see why it happens though. Smaller farmers get jobs off farm, and ain't going to be around to load at a moments notice. Larger farms are short staffed these days, due to....well.....won't mention it, otherwise will get told to " change the record ". Expect more of it in the future.

 

[DrWazzock]

How’s it stack up financially for the haulier. Surely time spent loading is time not hauling if they are sticking to working hours limit?

 

[steveR]

More and more I hear from lorry drivers that they are asked to load their own lorries using the farmers equipment as often there is nobody around. Some are rightly not very happy about it. I wouldn’t have thought this was acceptable in terms of putting the driver’s true working hours over the limit.
We always load lorries ourselves and would consider it very bad form to ask the driver to do it.
What happens elsewhere? Are things really so tight that farms can’t find their own staff to drive loaders nowadays?

Takes some believing...

There will be a few drivers I might have trusted over the years, but not many!

First thing is have they a ticket??

 

[betweenthelines]

Hauliers usually have to prebook a delivery window at least a day in advance. Can't see why the same shouldn't apply to collections.

 

[Nearly]

Oh, and........

Manitou MLT629-120

@ACEngineering . Enquiring for my landlord . Price for an Iskra starter motor for this machine . Also a bottom door complete with hinges. PM me please

thefarmingforum.co.uk

Anything else ???

The forklift keys live in my pocket and the jump leads live in the D2.

 

[Ivorbiggun]

They wouldn’t be insured, all they are insured for is getting there and preparing the vehicle for loading/ unloading.
very few drivers around here will help sweep up anymore as their insurance company have said it’s not your job, so if they get hit by the loader or something then their screwed.

 

[steveR]

My take on this matter of dealing with Hauliers. loading or unloading, the firm is informed, repeatedly, that I am a One Man Band and if they want me to be there to operate the Loader, then the driver must be in touch beforehand, a call the night before and again, with an hours Notice of arrival

No call, No Stephen waiting...

Had one Transport manager with a thorn up his arse as I was not waiting for the wagon ... I suggested he looked at the Delivery Ticket with the requirement to be in touch, beforehand. Not a moaning whinge, as the wagon was outside the locked yard gates...

 

[Sonoftheheir]

I wouldn’t dream of telling or letting some wheat/barley collecting lorry driver load their-self!

Regular potato merchant, loading the bagged spuds with a forklift,fine!

 

[7610 super q]

How’s it stack up financially for the haulier. Surely time spent loading is time not hauling if they are sticking to working hours limit?

One thing I've noticed recently.....folks emailing invoices / quotes etc for me to print off....
Am I everyone's unpaid secretary ?

 

[Tarw Coch]

Hauliers usually have to prebook a delivery window at least a day in advance. Can't see why the same shouldn't apply to collections.

Some hauliers are excellent at organising deliveries, phone the day before to ask if ok and an appropriate delivery time ie, early, lunch time or afternoon with a call en route when they’ve got a better idea of time, others just roll up or ring when 10 minutes away.



I would be amazed if it were any different with collections

 

[Tarw Coch]

One thing I've noticed recently.....folks emailing invoices / quotes etc for me to print off....
Am I everyone's unpaid secretary ?

I won’t do it full stop.
If they want paying they can post an invoice.
Actually I haven’t had a working printer for quite a few year so couldn’t if I wanted to

 

[DrWazzock]

Well I know good experienced drivers packing up farm haulage work because of this growing trend towards the expectation they will load it themselves. There is easier haulage work out there than that which involves dubious legality risking your safety and using up your hours with some old knackered telehandler. Then we will wonder why we can’t get drivers. Hardly a surprise is it when this is how they are treated? An embarrassment for the farming industry in my view.

 

[DrWazzock]

One thing I've noticed recently.....folks emailing invoices / quotes etc for me to print off....
Am I everyone's unpaid secretary ?

And printer cartridges and paper aren’t cheap, but more and more people try to offload costs onto other people. This is partly the point of the original post really. Cost of loading pushed onto the haulier. Not right unless part of a pre agreed contract in my view.

 

[Oldmacdonald]

And printer cartridges and paper aren’t cheap, but more and more people try to offload costs onto other people. This is partly the point of the original post really. Cost of loading pushed onto the haulier. Not right unless part of a pre agreed contract in my view.

Don't need printing.

Save them onto a usb pen if your accounts package doesn't have invoice uploading functionality.

 

[DrWazzock]

Don't need printing.

Save them onto a usb pen if your accounts package doesn't have invoice uploading functionality.

The one good thing about my wodge of paper invoices stapled together is that the Mrs has never managed to “ wipe “ them whereas anything on the computer is vulnerable to such a fate. If we didn’t have paper I reckon somebody would invent it.

 

[Courier]

They wouldn’t be insured, all they are insured for is getting there and preparing the vehicle for loading/ unloading.
very few drivers around here will help sweep up anymore as their insurance company have said it’s not your job, so if they get hit by the loader or something then their screwed.

They’re not going to get hit by the loader if they are in the drivers seat.

H & S is important but some places take it beyond extreme … i. e. delivering 4 x 25 litre drums to a major soft drinks manufacturer (CC) shrink wrapped onto a EuroPallet in a Berlingo sized van needed to wait 20 minutes till the end of “break” and a Trailer Stop post on a pallet to be placed in front of the van and keys surrendered to security before unloading by forklift…..

 

[neilo]

Do folks have grain only trailers then ? I'm pretty sure folks store grain in livestock sheds too ?

I only have grain in my trailer, at the times when it's identifying itself as a grain trailer.

Of course, being non-assured for cereals, I can load a lorry with a bucket covered in shite... if I didn't have any common sense, pride, etc.

 

[Old Tup]

Hmmmm
One nameless haulier after a very late afternoon loading grumble…..said Hey no problem just leave the loader where I can get it, if it is after hours and I will load my self….
Not so long after said haulier was a guest of Her Majesty for a while….caught nicking grain by the wagon load from a certain place.
After Hours load….convenient drop off point not too far away for the extra few tons….

 

[DrWazzock]

One thing I've noticed recently.....folks emailing invoices / quotes etc for me to print off....
Am I everyone's unpaid secretary ?

I’ve also noticed we are “invited” to set up an online account so that we can “manage” our account including sending in meter readings, printing out bills etc, thereby taking on a bit more of the utility providers admin costs for a 10p reduction in the bill. The incentive to do this is that the alternative is a call centre where nobody actually picks up the phone, an approach the doctors surgery has used fairly successfully, for them anyway.

 

[Barleymow]

Some hauliers are excellent at organising deliveries, phone the day before to ask if ok and an appropriate delivery time ie, early, lunch time or afternoon with a call en route when they’ve got a better idea of time, others just roll up or ring when 10 minutes away.



I would be amazed if it were any different with collections

Had a call during the week regarding fertiliser delivery driver said will be with you in 90 minutes. No call at a earlier stage to let me know ,luckily I was about to unload him