Expensive rubbish

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Grandad
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Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 12:22am
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Expensive rubbish

Post by Grandad »

Talking today to someone who drives 42 ton lorries for one of the big 4 supermarkets he mentioned he had been working Boxing Day.

"Refilling the empty shops after the Christmas rush I presume?"
"No, taking an empty lorry from Kent to a store in Southend to pick up and bring back a load of waste cardboard".

He was home early and will be paid for a full shift (didn't like to ask if it was at overtime rates!) but that would be the least of the costs of this trip.

I wonder how many other lorry journeys are like this and what amount they add to the financial and ecological costs.

(Apologies to anyone who thought I was going to criticise a bike :) )
jodee1kenobi
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by jodee1kenobi »

My husband is a lorry driver and from what he says there are plenty of wasteful journeys like this happening regularly :evil: In the case of where my husband works, its a case of the transport managers not being able to manage the transport!! :roll:
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wakou222
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by wakou222 »

It happens a lot...
I once had to go empty from London to Leeds for some printed material. On the way back I was getting phone calls saying that the onward truck was waiting in Woolwich (South-East London) and to hurry. When I got to Woolwich I asked the other driver where he was taking it. "Nottingham" was his reply. This was the same load, nothing was done to it at Woolwich, just forked from one truck to the other.
downfader
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by downfader »

My work site takes about a full HGV of cardboard a week. Its an industrial catering unit and it doesnt amaze me anymore quite how much we go through. Something can come in a box, in a box, in a box, in a blister pack. You open the blister and you've got more card and bubble wrap.

What does amaze me is how cellotape is still used to seal boxes. In this day and age perhaps packing firms should be using paper tape for the majority of it, and the biodegradable for the rest. I could fill a 2m by 2.5m by 1.5m high bin with JUST cellotape.

Our card runs from our site 6 miles to a recycling centre. It costs about a tenner to run the lorry each way last time I asked. What did make me laugh was I saw the driver oneday as I rode home. I was 3 miles in the other direction, speaking to the driver the next day it turned out he'd taken a detour for a packet of fags. The most expensive packet of fags in history I reckon, given how much fuel costs for those things. :lol:
MattyDeez
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by MattyDeez »

Talk about expensive journeys for nothing, at a place i work at they decided to pick up a 1" Flange from down redcar, after only having some drops in darlington then hartlepool.

I'm sure they could of mailed the flange up. Sigh.

Alot of pointless journeys get made at work. Waste of diesel.
Grandad
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by Grandad »

Perhaps if diesel wasn't so cheap they would look more closely at how to reduce these pointless journeys. :mrgreen:

Next time there's a fuel protest by hauliers these sort of examples could be mentioned.
hexhome
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by hexhome »

Grandad wrote:Perhaps if diesel wasn't so cheap they would look more closely at how to reduce these pointless journeys. :mrgreen:

Next time there's a fuel protest by hauliers these sort of examples could be mentioned.


These sorts of haulier don't protest, you are paying for their diesel when you shop at a supermarket.
gilesjuk
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by gilesjuk »

Inflation goes up too. It really does make you wonder if some alternatives to such long trips will ever appear?

Supermarkets should let people use the boxes to take their shopping home in. People moving house could collect boxes instead of buying them.
The Mechanic
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Joined: 23 Jul 2010, 1:38pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by The Mechanic »

Grandad wrote:Perhaps if diesel wasn't so cheap they would look more closely at how to reduce these pointless journeys. :mrgreen:

Next time there's a fuel protest by hauliers these sort of examples could be mentioned.



Since when has diesel been "cheap"
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The Mechanic
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by The Mechanic »

You forget that the cost of disposal of rubbish for commercial companies is very high. Consequently, most producers of paper and cardboard waste have contracts with recyclers for which they get paid rather than having to pay for disposal. It may therefore be cost effective to gather waste at a central point for recycling. Half the trucks on the roads are empty at any one time (figure of speech, don't ask for stats). You can tell that by the rate of acceleration at road junctions. An empty truck can give a reasonably fast car a run for its money from a standing start.

Rubbish is expensive
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SilverBadge
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by SilverBadge »

Given that transport is expensive, it is reasonable to expect that any firm will put some effort into minimising those costs, though there will be inevitable inefficiencies. The more expensive transport becomes, the more important it will become to minimise the inefficiencies. Is it an urban myth that most of the UK's cauliflowers are transported to a central processing unit where they are washed and bagged and then retransported to the regions for retail sale? It seems incredible that the economies of scale can outweigh the transport costs.
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horizon
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by horizon »

SilverBadge wrote:Is it an urban myth that most of the UK's cauliflowers are transported to a central processing unit where they are washed and bagged and then retransported to the regions for retail sale?


Far from an urban myth - Cornish cheese is sent to Bristol by Asda-Tesco to be sent back to Cornwall and sold as a local product. Our cauliflowers come from a veg box. Moral of story: keep away from supermarkets.
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Mick F
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by Mick F »

The Mechanic wrote:Since when has diesel been "cheap"
It's my opinion - and have no proof (yet) that petrol and diesel are cheaper now than in the 1960s.

Average working wage in 1965?
Perhaps £20 or less?
Price of petrol back then?
Perhaps 5/6d a gallon?
Therefore you could buy 70gals of petrol with your wage?

Compare this to 2011.
Average weekly wage perhaps £450?
Petrol is 140p per litre = 0.22Ltrs to the gallon = £6.35 per gallon.
Therefore you can buy 70gals.

Difficult to prove conclusively, but you get the picture.
Mick F. Cornwall
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horizon
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by horizon »

+1 Definitely cheaper. The problem for motorists is that average MPG hasn't changed - about 40mpg. The Austin A40 has been swapped for a giant gas guzzler. And yet they still complain.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Mike Sales
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Re: Expensive rubbish

Post by Mike Sales »

Here is a link to a piece about how motoring has got cheaper.

http://rdrf.org.uk/2011/12/how-motoring ... /#more-531
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