General Chat

A delivery driver came into my work place today and proceeded to tell us all that we couldn’t lift the boxes he’d brought as we were women and they were heavy before dumping two pallets of boxes on the road and leaving. It really annoys me when men assume that because we’re women we can’t lift. I work in a shop so what do they think we do when deliveries come in at least twice a week. My own limit is 25kg or around 4 stone. The shop I work in is on a one way street as it’s narrow so two pallets on the road really helped the flow of traffic too. There was somewhere safer he could have left them but he couldn’t as he really had to go. :-| :-| :-|

What a moron. I used to lift all sizes, shapes and weights of parcels when I had an 18 month spell of working for the Red Star parcels office at our local Railway station. The men working there had been there for years and weren't that impressed having a female parcels clerk so didn't offer any assistance, and I was darned if I would ask lol

I hope you reported that idiot to his company,, Tawny

Lizxx

When I was an agricultural worker, I was lifting half hundredweight bags of potatoes!

....and I weighed less than 7 stone :-S

We’ve had one driver pick up from us who was surprised at the weight of the boxes we were sending out as we sometimes to send out packages as heavy as the ones we get in. This is the first time we’ve ever had anyone doubt our ability to lift though.

Although there is no law about specific weight lifting limits it is the general advice that the weight limit for women should be 16kg and for men 25kg.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/indg143.pdf

There’s nothing wrong with a good rant :-D

He really was so in the wrong here....
- obstructing the highway with the pallet when there was a better alternative. He was putting you in danger from passing traffic.
- not helping to shift the boxes if he thought you weren’t capable.

Can the employer provide you with a sack-barrow? It’ll lessen the impact on your back even though you’re currently capable of moving the weight. Other colleagues might not be so strong.

Waite a minute!

The delivery driver was just being mindful of potential back injury.

Yes Dermot. But he didn’t offer to help!

A fit person in good shape should be able to bench press their own body weight. Few can.

Men who cannot easily heft 25kg have problems. Women who can do so are stars. Back in the day coal was delivered in 1 cwt (50kg) sacks which the coalman used to heft from the lorry to a basement coal hole without much difficulty but a lot of dust and noise.

Then of course there are soldiers...
https://bootcampmilitaryfitnessinstitute.com/exercises/the-loaded-march-preparation-training-guide/

As a teenager, OH used to heave around sacks of 1/2 cwt of potatoes in his parents shop. He's rather disgusted that he can't do it now. Age & wasting muscles comes to us all.

I think it was an excuse to dump them quickly any way how does he expect you to move them if he really thought you couldn't carry them? He was very likely behind his schedule so made up time by dumping them.

It's just like the guy who was supposed to deliver a parcel to me, kept turning up and just slipping card in to say he'd missed me - I was in everytime - no knock of door or ring of bell.

Daughter and I took it in turns to sit where we could see him come down the drive - boy did I let him have it - he answered - usually there's no one in around here, my retort - how would you know when you never knock.

If he's a regular delivery driver I'd warn him if he does it again you'll report him, my delivery driver behaved himself after his telling off. :-D

I spent far too long as a van driver but would not want to do it now. companies want their pound of flesh.

It is not a job you aspire to so it does attract no-hopers with no qualifications, why else would I have done it?

Son in law and grandson are both lorry drivers

They can offload but aren't allowed to assist in carrying anything once it's off the lorry

Grandson made a mistake once in assisting because the company said they were short on manpower and he needed to get the drop done and move on to his next job

It was steel sheeting and one of the guys did something that caused the sheeting to slip and grandson lost two knuckles down of his right hand middle finger

He was in hospital up north for three weeks having to have plastic surgery

He did eventually receive workmens compensation but lost percentage of it as he wasn't supposed to have been assisting the offload