As some may know, I am a novice British CE driver living and working in Holland. I hope one day to get the time to put up a diary to give an idea of what it’s like driving in the Netherlands.
My shifts involve driving between various distribution centres in Holland and Belgium, and so far I haven’t come across any of the stuff that’s been talked about on here regarding officious security, grumpy goods in staff, keys taken away, unable to access the cab or the manky drivers rooms or cages to wait in.
Over here it all seems very laid back and relaxed. Maybe I’m just lucky.
However, there is one distribution centre which is a cut above all the rest and is how I envisage a distribution centre should be in an ideal world. It’s run by a online company called Coolblue which is the Dutch equivalent of Currys/PC World. It deals mainly with electrical items but also all the household stuff you’d find in a Currys store. The dc I go to is massive, and business must be good as they are currently building another one next door, equally as big.
The first thing you notice when you get there is it seems to be staffed solely by kids. I’ve never seen anyone aged more than about 25 amongst the supervisors or floor staff. They all wear smart uniforms, are pleasant and polite when you need to ask them something, and they all speak excellent English, though sometimes with a sort of American accent gained from watching too many US programmes on Dutch tv. Apparently, most of them are students and work there to earn money while they study at college or uni. The dc itself is light and clean and a nice place to work. If I had to work in a warehouse, that’s where I’d want to go.
The second thing are the facilities. There’s non of this grubby drivers room or taking your keys away from you. You can sit in your cab or wait in the drivers room as you please. You normally don’t have to wait long anyway as it’s mostly trailer changes, swapping empty trailers for full. If you have to wait in the drivers room, there is a vending machine dispensing ‘free’ coffee or hot chocolate or hot water to use for tea, plus a range of different flavoured tea bags for your cuppa, and it’s all decent tasting coffee and rich hot chocolate.
The toilet for the drivers is posher than my one at home. In the drivers room, you have big screens where you can apparently plug in your devices to play games. I have never seen these used though as most drivers only pass through or wait no more than half an hour for their paperwork. The only thing are the seats which are a bit industrial and basic, but again you’re never there long enough to get that uncomfortable. You don’t get to interact with your load but there is a large plate glass window into the warehouse where you can watch the loading of your truck.
I had a peek once into the main staff rest rooms, and they’re kitted out like you’re at the beach, with large communal tables for groups to eat together, palm trees and wall coverings of beach scenes and sunshine. Plus a subsidised food counter with various dishes plus free hot drinks of course.
Now, the most interesting thing I found out about the staff is that they are trained to carry out different jobs to keep it from becoming boring. So to give you an example: -
There is a blonde girl of about 19 who works there. She truly is beautiful in a natural sort of way and it’s really hard to take your eyes off her sometimes. Yet she is very down to earth in the typical Dutch way and not full of herself in any way. I would’ve killed to have a girlfriend like her when I was 20. Anyway, I first encountered her working at the security gate where they check in the trucks, check your licence, and allocate you a bay. She was very happy to chat through the sliding window, interested in what a British driver was doing driving a Dutch truck, and told me about herself. She was studying law during the day and working at the dc a few evenings a week.
The second week I saw her, she was working on the main floor of the dc, expertly driving one of those high lift fork lifts that lifts a fridge freezer from a shelf three stories high.
The third week that I saw her, she was driving the yard shunter. She was driving the Terberg like a pro as she moved various trailers between bays, and reversed a full lenth trailer into a bay and was off again, quicker than it took me to climb out of the cab and walk to the back of my truck to open the rear doors and walk back to my cab again. If only I had her reversing skills.
So, at the age of 19, a student in law has been trained by the company to man the security gate, has her fork lift licence, and can drive a Terberg moving trailers around the complex. And will leave with those skills should she ever need them again. And quite a few of them have been trained like that. Apparently, it’s a two day course with the Terberg and they don’t need a licence as they don’t venture onto a public road.
The final story about this dc. One time they kept me waiting an hour beyond my scheduled departure due to some errors in the loading of the truck. Normally it wouldn’t bother me as I am paid overtime for any hours over my contract. However, on this night, I was due to be flying back to London on an early flight in the morning. I let them know about this but I didn’t get angry or make a fuss about it. The next week when I went back, they had a package waiting for me. Inside was a gift card for a meal for two for me and my wife, at any restaurant that participated in the scheme, plus a selection of toys and games for my three kids, and a note of apology for keeping me waiting the previous week.
So, back to the thread title and for anyone who remembers the tv adverts. If Carlsberg did distribution centres, it would be like this one.
Here are a few photos.