Thread: My thought for the day!!!!!

Also, our delivery network has to have the capability and infrastructure to send stuff a bloody long way, but we don't have the population and, thus, demand to make it financially viable for transport companies unless they charge a lot

...and all because the rail network is screwed. Here in Japan, I can order stuff afternoon/evening across country and have it delivered next day, if the shop is on it, which mostly, they are. To send stuff, any convenience store accepts parcels, and it rarely involves the use of paper money. At this end, the "driver" doesn't actually have a truck, an electric assist pushbike with a trailer.

Still, I like the way AusPost tried to tackle their problem of falling revenues. Reduce service and jack up the price. A winning strategy if ever I saw it

Originally Posted by Opelblues2

Do you ever wonder why goods cost so much. well here is my thoughts from the delivery driver point a view.
# Trucks loaded between Midnight - 5.00am, who is stupid enough to be up at that time for $23.00 and hour
... # On the road by 5.10am have to deal with morning commuters "Stupid Drivers Behind Steering Wheels"


# arrive at loading docks, ring bell stand around between 5min to 25min for the store person to open dock, some places are on the ball but most are very slack.


# now late, have to deal with the next lot of "SDBSW"
so this happens from 10 to 35 times a day


# at the same time you have to deal with the uptight, grumpy, rude store persons or owners of shops "because you are late getting there, well here is the phone numbers for the last 20 drops, and explain to them how important you are?"


O buy the way most delivery drivers are on a hourly rate, so the longer you stuff them around, the more it cost the delivery company, so that cost gets put on to the cost of delivery, which goes on to the cost of the consumers.

Well, as one of the "uptight, grumpy, rude store owners" that used to have to wait for you to deliver my goods, just remember mate, it works both ways.

Originally Posted by q9

...and all because the rail network is screwed.

or more accurately never existed in the first place.

In large part Sydney's rail network was constructed before 1890 -- Main North (1886), Main South (Liverpool 1856, Campbelltown 1858), Main West (Penrith 1863), Richmond Line (1864), North Shore Line (1889), Illawarra Line (Sutherland 1884) -- at a time when the "metropolis" didn't extend much beyond Redfern, and most of today's stations were country towns or sidings.

Originally Posted by q9

Here in Japan, I can order stuff afternoon/evening across country and have it delivered next day, if the shop is on it, which mostly, they are. To send stuff, any convenience store accepts parcels, and it rarely involves the use of paper money. At this end, the "driver" doesn't actually have a truck, an electric assist pushbike with a trailer.

yes, the Takuhaibin is a great service

It's worse than that though...as I learnt in primary school, the different states were under the rule of different governors who ordered and built rail systems independently, and using different gauges with nary a thought of connecting them. Visionaries they were

Originally Posted by q9

It's worse than that though...as I learnt in primary school, the different states were under the rule of different governors who ordered and built rail systems independently, and using different gauges with nary a thought of connecting them. Visionaries they were

Visionaries they truly were. What crueled them, as Geoffrey Blainey terms it, was the Tyranny of Distance.

The Colony Governors were not empowered to make the rail gauge decision, so by the time each Governor (NSW and Vic) had communicated with "head office" in London about a proposed change to the agreed "Australian Standard" rail gauge, Vic and NSW each had approval to build to a different standard. Around 1850 there was agreement between Vic and NSW to build rail to the same gauge, I don't recall who got out of step, but one Colony constructed its first line to the initial standard, the other to the revised standard. the rest is history.

I paid transit postage from major courier on a very large & heavy item - 70x50x35cmx47kgs - on the 27th April from Goulburn to Sydney.Still waiting for delivery - 195Km/2 3/4 hours.

It may coming on it's own B-double

Originally Posted by OldGrain

I paid transit postage from major courier on a very large & heavy item - 70x50x35cmx47kgs - on the 27th April from Goulburn to Sydney.Still waiting for delivery - 195Km/2 3/4 hours.

Well i can happily say that my item finally arrived at 5PM tonight.The item in question is a brand new & original sealed 1944 US Army Chrysler Airtemp issue 'Cooking Small Detachment' TM 10-400 stove & assigned to the Australian Army in 1968. The unit comes totally kitted out & ready to use. Happy little camper now.

Opel' As a delivery driver you are the meat in the sandwich between the dispatcher and the receiver. I had 26 years of it where the dispatchers would often make unrealistic promises to the recipient who would be angry when I arrived minutes, sometimes hours late. The deliverer then gets the full force of the receivers unhappiness with the p..s poor service. If you can't learn to accept that as an occupational hazard then you need to look for a different job. Whatever you do, don't ring the dispatcher on your mobile and hand the phone to the furious customer saying "here speak to the boss" as one of my workmates did. He had to walk across the yard to retrieve the pieces of his phone. Though thinking back that did cheer the customer up and gave the rest of us a good laugh.

Thanks Boringgeoff, happy with the driver jobs been doing it for years, the funniest time was when I got to a septic pump out job a hour later than the office said I would be their. the person yelled at me for being late, so I hoped back in the truck and started to back out of the yard, when he asked where I was going. I told him I was going to try again 9am tomorrow. his mood changed and I informed him about the fatal crash back down the road. after that I was all good.

The thought for the day was from my point, it mite be not be right with most but that's the human nature.

Delivery drivers. This reminds me of an incident back in my building days. Concrete truck arriving to pour a slab. Truck drives past the site, so I go out the front and give him a whistle. He backs the truck back and informs me," he is not a dog and doesnt respond to whistles."
I happily told him I agreed, as most dogs are quite intelligent.

A couple of years ago a mate of mine took a job in the dispatch office of a concrete outfit. He told me what he disliked about the job was having to lie to the customers. They'd ring "where's my concrete that should have been here half an hour ago?" He was told to say 'It shouldn't be far away" knowing full well that the truck hadn't left the depot or wasn't even loaded yet. I told him, unfortunately, that was standard procedure.
Rusty, I used to approach the site with my eyes and ears wide open and would welcome someone whistling out to get my attention.
I did a lot of work on solo and mobile operations on mine sites and road projects and then you didn't need to bulls..t because in a lot of cases you only had one customer and being on your own only had yourself to blame if something went awry.
We had a job at Rous Creek 300 km from Karratha where the client was repairing the bridge abutments. The call was for five 5m3 loads 20 minutes apart. Our management team were pulling their hair out over the logistics of the job so we agi drivers took over. Each bloke knew how long it would take him to get there so the slowest truck left first to arrive at their allocated time with the first arriving at about 5.30 am. As each truck passed certain landmarks the driver would call through on his radio and each driver would relay the message on, so we all new how we were going. It worked like clockwork and everyone was a happy camper that day, especially the client. Not all our jobs went so well.