[Grizz1963]

By way of partial apology I will post up a PM received from Rasputin on another forum.

He explained in a clear, non emotive way, what they are up against.

I was aware when the driver refused to help me get the sheets off the sidewalk that he probably had rules to follow.
BUT
His attitude was filled with anger and possibly even petulance.
HOWEVER
My day job is in part working with really awkward, some rude and difficult customers and as much as some of you can fine tune a turbo, prune a Bonzai or bake a cake, my forté is managing conflicts.


Anyway, posted purely in case any of us can learn from the info below and understand our delivery driver, team etc.


Hope you won't mind a PM Grizz; no need to reply if you wish.

I deliver pallets of goods to high street stores, often through the front door early in the mornings.

Our strict instructions are to tail-lift them out of the truck onto the ground next to the tail lift, and the store staff are to take over from there, dragging pallets across uneven pavements.

But it rarely works out like that. Some of the pallets weigh roughly a ton and need a helping shove, especially up slopes and over bumps. On the other hand, at some stores it works out best for me to stay in the truck and just lower the pallets down - the store staff are waiting to take them by the time I get that far and have an easy trundle into the store, and if I were to take them off the tail-lift the delivery would take a lot longer.

So it all depends. I try to help out where I can, but it's really a case of finding the most efficient handover in each situation. I do hear a lot of stories of drivers who have got too used to standing about on the back of the truck though!

Your driver couldn't sue you of course - you only asked him, didn't order him. He would have to sue his employer for putting him in that situation, but that might mean no more job; his employer might try suing you but if you only asked for help and the driver agreed, it wouldn't be clear-cut.

Since your roof sheets are so long, the supplier would have to send a driver's mate or a truck with a hiab crane if they offered an unloading service officially, but I bet they tell their drivers not to touch the panels at all, and let the clients arrange unloading. Cost-cutting.

If there's nothing to that effect in the small print of your order, or nothing about an optional extra fee for an unloading service, then the supplier may be just fudging it and you may have scope for redress. What if you got injured because the driver would not help if he didn't? Who would be liable? Their small print might be an interesting read.

I suspect the supplier relies on the same tactic as my employer - the stores have to take the pallets in however it can be done because they need the goods. They could refuse to accept them given good grounds, but they can't ever afford to.

I could tell you a few stories - such as a store staff member whose official role was to replenish front-of-store display shelves, who broke her leg by falling backwards whilst dragging a pallet over a pothole - but I will stop there.

In your case, you clearly want the sheets and probably (as far as the supplier knows) have a team in place waiting to install them; therefore you are very unlikely to refuse to accept them just because you have to unload them. Chances are (the supplier is gambling) that your roofers will help out.

Likewise their driver is put in the same situation - you made it clear that the sheets couldn't be unloaded without his help, so in effect you were calling his bluff and suggesting that you would refuse them. So it was in his interests to help unload, even arguably at his own risk, rather than take them back. In my case, taking stuff back would involve (and has on occasion) unpalatable hour-long argumentative phone calls to the depot and/or other senior managers, designed to get me to make the delivery no matter what, and to get the store to accept it no matter what.

The only time I did take a whole delivery back was when it was loaded on a 16ft high trailer but the shopping centre had a 14'6" height limit!


PS. I did reply to Him