Hi all,
Further to my previous thread, I’ve decided to look for another job as current company taking the absolute ■■■■■
I’ve spoken with ADR Network about some potential DHL work and they have BP, KFC, and maybe some others. I’m not interested in KFC as I’ve already done some drops to their sites and they’re generally a pain in the arse to access and I imagine this would only be worse if I had to handball the goods rather than deliver the pallet like I do currently.
However, delivering to garages sounds better. I’d imagine they’ll generally be on main roads and I’d be familiar with most of them after a while - part of my current frustration is delivering to tight residential streets which would be better suited to a van, and then dealing with customers who weren’t advised by retailer that it’s kerbside delivery and expect me to handball it - often meaning I get refusals which then clog up the back of the wagon and make it hard to spin pallets around before pushing onto tail lift.
Anyone got any info? I’d much rather be doing trunking or just a few larger drops rather than 15 a day, but the £13 p/h sounds pretty good to me as a new driver.
Cheers.
BP is you will be delivering to the back door they don’t take pallets so you have to split it down. Can’t see it being much different to KFC just less issue compared to KFC due to HGV access being required for fuel deliveries.
Cheers for the info pal. Don’t mind a bit of handball tbh. Problem right now is that I’m handballing stuff which I probs shouldn’t be. Had a sore back since last Thursday after lugging a heavy kitchen worktop into somebody’s flat which was really a two man job - and I’m not weak, can deadlift 180kg. It’s just that some of the stuff I end up handballing now is big and bulky and not intended to be handballed (I just do it to avoid having to battle around it all day and offload pallets to reach others.
Refuse to do it. If you do it then they know they can get away with giving you crap like that.
It’s unfortunately not always that simple. The depot tell me to make my own risk assessment and that I’m in my rights to tell them it’s just kerbside delivery. But the issue is that they still expect me to deliver the rest and this becomes hard when you’ve got a few pallets clogging up the back of the wagon.
The two hour round trip to work is also becoming an issue as a 12-13 hour day can easily become a 15hr day. I wonder how many drops DHL would expect? I’m frequently doing 15 with the tail lift followed by several collections. I find around 10 to be the sweet spot as it’s hard to get 15 done if I hit even the slightest issue like getting stuck for an hour at an rdc or having to take a detour to find somebody with a forklift to drop down a few pallets.
Sounds like you’re around the Rugby/Magna Park area?
They paying you day rate or by the hour? If its the first I’d be looking for another job as well.
If they told me to take a worktop up a flight of stairs for a flat I’d bring the truck back to unload it. Might mess your day up a bit but they will soon learn not to give it to you and find another mug to do it.
I’m paid hourly but this is little consolation as I’m barely getting an hour a day to myself - just enough time to eat and shower before bed some nights. I knew it would be tough at first but thought I’d at least get an hour for the gym 3x a week, even if I went to bed straight after. Watching my waistline expand and my strength falter is frustrating as I’d been training hard for six months straight without missing a single session and was really pleased with my progress. I’m seriously considering just hitting a 24hr gym and getting 4-5 hours sleep right now if necessary which probably isn’t the safest choice given my job.
To be fair, nobody told me to handball the worktop, but the expectation is to finish my drops so I did it to avoid struggling around it all day. I’m a new driver and trying to get a few months experience so I’m trying not to rock the boat and get fired - I’m defo a bit slower than the experienced guys but I always manage over 10 drops and a few collections.
On Friday I was given a 7:45pm collection an hour’s drive from the depot having been at work since 7:30am. This meant two hours round trip back to depot and then home, not including the time at the customer’s site. I also had to take another 30 min break on the way back as I’d finished my last break at 2pm.
Worst part was literally driving past my house at 7:30pm knowing I’d left it 13 hours previously and was at least 2.5 hours away from getting back there. Manager had started his shift hours after mine and had gone home by the time I was back at the depot.
Really sounds like they are taking the ■■■■. Have you told them you don’t want to do that many hours?
Adr network? DHL bp? Sounds like magna park. IMHO give adr a miss, but it’s up to you, ymmv.
Anyway, I would forget about agencies in general. Try Armstrong logistics if you want magna area, they are desperate for drivers and the work is much more reasonable. Around 5am start finish between 2 and no later than 6. If you ring up, ask for Justin. They do Aldi drops to distributors. Great bear are taking on too. Best of luck!
Tailschwing:
Hi all,
Further to my previous thread, I’ve decided to look for another job as current company taking the absolute ■■■■.
I’ve spoken with ADR Network about some potential DHL work and they have BP, KFC, and maybe some others. I’m not interested in KFC as I’ve already done some drops to their sites and they’re generally a pain in the arse to access and I imagine this would only be worse if I had to handball the goods rather than deliver the pallet like I do currently.
However, delivering to garages sounds better. I’d imagine they’ll generally be on main roads and I’d be familiar with most of them after a while - part of my current frustration is delivering to tight residential streets which would be better suited to a van, and then dealing with customers who weren’t advised by retailer that it’s kerbside delivery and expect me to handball it - often meaning I get refusals which then clog up the back of the wagon and make it hard to spin pallets around before pushing onto tail lift.
Anyone got any info? I’d much rather be doing trunking or just a few larger drops rather than 15 a day, but the £13 p/h sounds pretty good to me as a new driver.
Cheers.
Do you have class 1 licence??If yes that why not try N.F.T from A.d.r network.Easy peasy job.Why not try Stobart at truck stop.Easy ,clean job.Don t listen ■■■■■■■■ about Stobart .All not bad there.Not all shift 15 hours.