01
What does the hand actually do for most of the shift?
If the glove mostly protects while hands drag, lift, steady and stack — rope, cable, timber, block, rough steel — that is rigger territory, and the split-leather palm is doing its job by wearing out instead of the hand. If the hand operates things — steering wheels, levers, forklift controls, taglines, small fittings — the grain leather and snug fit of a driver glove keep control without the glove coming off.
Map roles, not departments. A logistics team usually contains both answers: loaders in riggers, drivers and pickers in drivers. A glove that is wrong for the task gets removed, and a removed glove protects nothing — the commonest cause of hand injuries on mixed sites is not bad gloves but absent ones.
Put in the order: a role-by-role split of rigger and driver quantities, not one figure for the whole site.
02
What surfaces and grip conditions dominate?
Split leather bites well on dry, rough, abrasive surfaces and shrugs off splinters and burrs, but it is not a precision surface. Grain leather grips smooth, dry surfaces better and keeps its feel — though untreated grain soaks and slicks faster in oil and water.
Heat and sweat matter in Gulf conditions: the cotton back of a rigger glove breathes better than an all-leather driver glove, which counts on outdoor summer sites. If handling is wet or oily, say so — it pushes the spec toward treated grades or a different category entirely rather than a glove that fails its first week.
Put in the RFQ: dominant surface (rough or smooth), dry, wet or oily, and indoor or outdoor heat.
03
How long should a pair last — and what does failure look like today?
Rigger gloves are bought on cost per week, driver gloves on cost per month. A cheap rigger that dies in two days is dearer than a mid-grade one that lasts two weeks — the arithmetic is worth doing once per role instead of defaulting to the lowest unit price.
Describe the failure you currently see — palm wear-through, seam blowout, thumb-crotch splits, stretched wrists — and let the supplier propose against it: reinforced or double palm and heavier thread on riggers; tighter stitch density and a keystone thumb on drivers. A named failure mode gets a better quote than a generic request.
Put in the RFQ: current pair life per role, the failure mode you see, and the target life.
04
Which construction details are worth naming?
For riggers: palm leather grade and thickness, the cotton-drill back, the safety cuff, stitching thread, and whether you want a reinforced palm patch or a full double palm. For drivers: cowhide for wear or goatskin for softness and dexterity, keystone versus straight thumb, the shirred elastic back, and unlined versus lined for winter work.
Naming these turns a one-line request for 'rigger gloves' from a price race into a comparable specification. Most of the price spread between quotes for the same category hides in these details — the quote that looks cheapest is often quoting a lighter palm or a plainer thumb.
Put in the RFQ: leather type and grade, back material, cuff or wrist style, thumb construction, reinforcements, lining.
05
What size run do the crews really need?
Riggers run wide and forgiving — an L/XL run covers most crews, which is why the category is stocked that way. Driver gloves must fit: a loose driver glove gives up the dexterity that justifies its price, so the run needs a genuine M–XL mix.
Issue records beat rules of thumb. Gulf and heavy-industry crews typically skew L and XL, but pull last quarter's issue data if you have it, and state driver sizes as percentages of the total rather than 'assorted'.
Put in the order: the size run with mix percentages — L/XL only is normal for riggers; drivers need the real spread.
06
Which standard applies, and what evidence do you need behind it?
For both categories the mechanical reference in EN markets is EN 388 — abrasion, cut, tear and puncture — and North American buyers work against ANSI/ISEA 105. Naming the standard is the easy half; the half that protects you is asking what evidence exists for the specific product being quoted.
Ask every supplier — True Port Global included — for the product-specific evidence behind any claim: test report, issuing lab, date and marking. Where evidence does not exist for a product, agree before ordering whether testing is part of the deal or the requirement can be met another way. An unverifiable claim is a bigger commercial risk than an honest gap.
Put in the RFQ: the standard and levels your market requires, the documents you need with the shipment, and the destination.
07
What do site rules add — colors, coding, branding?
Rigger gloves come in color options — natural, red, green, blue, high-visibility yellow — that sites use for visibility and for coding by role, area or issue month. Driver gloves run white, yellow, brown and black. If your safety system uses color, it belongs in the specification, not in a follow-up email after the quote.
The same applies to branding: if gloves ship under your own label, say at RFQ stage that you need private-label packing and whether artwork is ready — it changes the quote and the timeline once, honestly, instead of late. At True Port Global, orders start at 100 units, and packing specs are confirmed per order.
Put in the RFQ: color plan and any coding scheme, branding needs with artwork status, and the packing spec you expect.
