Hi all,
Has anyone worked at either of the above companies?
Would you mind sharing what you thought of them, what are they like to work for, what the work is like, how much waiting around etc.
Apparently Saints have accommodation at Heathrow for their drivers between shifts, is this normal with airfreight companies?
This is for Class 1
Thanks
Dont know much about them, except their xmas decorations are a sight to see…as for the accommodation for drivers between shifts, it could be for 2 reasons, 1. EE drivers need somewhere to stay, as their truck is being used by someone else. 2. In case of drivers having to travel far to work, and this is to help them with recruiting far and wide, and for the same reason as no 1. good luck.
Hyh:
Hi all,
Has anyone worked at either of the above companies?Would you mind sharing what you thought of them, what are they like to work for, what the work is like, how much waiting around etc.
Apparently Saints have accommodation at Heathrow for their drivers between shifts, is this normal with airfreight companies?
This is for Class 1
Thanks
It’s definitely not ‘normal’; I presume some companies have them and others don’t and some companies care for their staff and some don’t. Goldstar look fairly modern from the outside (all nice new trucks certainly) but I’ve not seen inside the building much. I was working for a company in that area which does some airfreight in October and they have no accommodation for their drivers whatsoever; they’re just expected to sit in the cab and there’s one toilet for all the men on site. (There’s a meeting room and kitchen upstairs but we’re not allowed to use them.) I turned up at 6am for a job at WFS (Scylla Road) last week; needed the loo and all their toilets were either broken, filthy or both (one had the seat and lid lying down by the side of the pan; inside the warehouse they clearly had no loo roll and were using paper towels instead, and one of them had already been blocked with paper and crap and the other was going to be the same if I used it) so I left.
Hyh:
Would you mind sharing what you thought of them, what are they like to work for?
Gold Star teamed up with Select Transport, AKA “Select Euro” up in Manchester, the biggest none airline group now in MAN. I’ve worked for Select before the merge, decent kit decent office staff.
Saints, from what I’ve heard from their drivers, they run max hours every week.
Hyh:
Apparently Saints have accommodation at Heathrow for their drivers between shifts, is this normal with airfreight companies?
Nope, you will find MAN is the middle ground, all the major companies will run their over night trunkers from here, Swissport, Dnata, UCH. Where as WFS run trampers, when they well tramp. Saints massive company up north, and Circle massive in LHR. Both Sottish firms. Been awhile since I’ve been down to the horse shoe.
Altho say they have more work for drivers up in Man then LHR and more drivers in LHR, they have all been known to bring them up and provide accommodation for them, whilst they are working at that said place.
Hyh:
what the work is like, how much waiting around etc.
There is 2 parts of Airfright, Nights and Days like the rest of the industry. As someone that has done both, I’ll break it down for you
Days
You get your run sheet, delivelies of imports, and some collections, thought out the day you will get extra work in the form of collections.
Nights,
This is split into 2.
You have your trunkers that run from airport to airport, normally MAN - LHR, Then there is the bonds, delivering frieght into the airlines and pulling for the day lads.
All of it has a lot of waiting around. as the Agents pull the strings over the transport companies.
If i was to sum it up in 5 words or less,
IT’S ■■■■! DONT
I did a month for Saints in 1997, I did not like the job.
From what i remember as an agency driver there the accomodation is for drivers who take their daily rest,like the scottish drivers when they come down to heathrow,they did have a really nice gym for drivers,don’t know if they still have it,motors are decent and apparently the wages are good,the bad points are,martin carrol the bossman is a prick,from what i heard from other drivers he’s been beaten up by a couple of drivers over the years,his son piers is a ■■■■,the only decent people there are the office staff,most treat you with respect,car parking was/is a problem,works mainly aircraft pallets with rollerbed trailers,dont know about goldstar,but hope the saints info helps,but tommymanc said it all in those 5 words
Not a huge amount of choice if you’re in west London; airfreight pays the best for class 1 but there’s a lot of hanging around which can mean very long hours which change with zero notice.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I went for a job interview with Saints near Glasgow airport In the late 90’s
i was told at the interview that i wasn’t actually working in Glasgow, i was to be flown down to Heathrow and work in that area all week then be flown back up on the Friday… 
i politely refused the job 
Thanks for all the feedback. I was hoping it might have been a little more positive…
I’m a new pass Class 1 and so I’m finding it tricky finding anyone that will take me on outside of agencies…Even most of those are saying come back when I have a years experience.
I’m just south of Gatwick, so it will be a bit of a commute to Heathrow.
If anyone happens to know of any companies taking on new class 1 passes, ideally trunking, or at least not physically demanding multi drop - I would love to hear
I had an interview with Saints on Friday and was a little surprised by the money on offer considering I’m a new pass. It was knocking on the door of £37K for Monday-Friday on nights. I got the impression there might be the odd night/day out involved but isn’t tramping. I’m not sure if that figure includes money for any days out. 28 days holiday a year. They stick new drivers with an experienced driver to make sure you’re confident before sending you out solo - which is a plus for a new pass instead of being thrown keys and wished luck.
Thanks again guys 
Hyh:
Thanks for all the feedback. I was hoping it might have been a little more positive…I’m a new pass Class 1 and so I’m finding it tricky finding anyone that will take me on outside of agencies…Even most of those are saying come back when I have a years experience.
I’m just south of Gatwick, so it will be a bit of a commute to Heathrow.
If anyone happens to know of any companies taking on new class 1 passes, ideally trunking, or at least not physically demanding multi drop - I would love to hear
I had an interview with Saints on Friday and was a little surprised by the money on offer considering I’m a new pass. It was knocking on the door of £37K for Monday-Friday on nights. I got the impression there might be the odd night/day out involved but isn’t tramping. I’m not sure if that figure includes money for any days out. 28 days holiday a year. They stick new drivers with an experienced driver to make sure you’re confident before sending you out solo - which is a plus for a new pass instead of being thrown keys and wished luck.
Thanks again guys
If you’ve just passed, Goldstar won’t take you. They require 2 yrs entitlement. Also, you’ll need to provide 5yrs work history as air freight requires it.
tommymanc:
Hyh:
Apparently Saints have accommodation at Heathrow for their drivers between shifts, is this normal with airfreight companies?Nope, you will find MAN is the middle ground, all the major companies will run their over night trunkers from here, Swissport, Dnata, UCH. Where as WFS run trampers, when they well tramp. Saints massive company up north, and Circle massive in LHR. Both Sottish firms. Been awhile since I’ve been down to the horse shoe.
Altho say they have more work for drivers up in Man then LHR and more drivers in LHR, they have all been known to bring them up and provide accommodation for them, whilst they are working at that said place.
I did a day with Saints yesterday. Got there at 7am, got kept sitting around in the waiting room until 9am when they sent me in a van to replace another driver at Gatwick who’d run out of hours.
Truck was rotten. An MAN of uncertain reg as it had a personalised number plate. I’m guessing Euro 5 as it was 440bhp and auto. But really, what do their drivers do with these things?
The hand rail for getting in and out was loose. Several of the components had the finish rubbed off (e.g. the arrows and OK button on the tacho, the gear selector). There were buttons missing, including the driver’s window control. The headlight switch came right out when you pulled it out to test the fog lamps.
The dash display had a warning “Check fuel supply” (the gauge said it was just over half full and I was only going back to Heathrow) but also there was a red triangle warning flashing. It also said there was an indicator faulty on the trailer (there wasn’t). It said something about “engine control malfunction”.
Do they do any maintenance on these things?
(In the event I tipped the load the other driver was meant to have tipped before he ran out of hours; they then kept me sitting outside DNATA until 6:30pm and then pulled me out because they hadn’t managed to get any load ready for me.)
i worked for Saints for over ten years as both a driver and manager, The accomodation is for any body to use as many drivers travel from all over the place to do a 4 or 5 day shift, they also have drivers based in Glasgow and Manchester. a lot of the trucks run 24 hours a day and are rarely allocated to one driver these days. They have a variety of work from airport contracts where your spend the day delivering cargo at Heathrow to all kinds of ad hoc work. They are the main transport suppliers for BA world cargo so run trucks to most major UK airports and BA engineering where it can be anything from a screw to an engine that needs moving any where in Europe. Their other main contract is for DHL at Hayes. Saints do have one truck based at Gatwick so you could ask them about that.
I am an agency driver and work on many Goldstar contracts currently at DHL Langley and Expeditors. They are much the same as Saints apart from the BA tie up. I have known them for over ten years.
Both companies are ok on the whole and I would think pay rates are similar, the kit will range from brand new to old and worn, they both offer all kinds of different shift patterns, days and nights with different start times so you should find a shift to suit you.
I know both companies very well and would not discourage anybody from working at either one.
Goldstar and Saints will take new passes but may put you on a reduced rate at the start.
Saints is not a Scottish firm but is owned by two families,mainly the Carrolls along with the Beeches. Martin Carroll is the main shareholder and boss but is trying to hand over to his son Piers who is some one I never got along with.
malcob:
Goldstar and Saints will take new passes but may put you on a reduced rate at the start.
I passed my test (class 1) in 2014 and called Goldstar (in 2015 or 2016, I can’t remember exactly when) to ask if they were taking on class 1 drivers and they specifically said on the phone that you needed two years’ entitlement, for the usual insurance reasons.
did they not have a shipping container with bunks slung inside for drivers to kip in before trunking back up the road? if they dont still have them,then im sure that was the accommodation they previously had.
IndigoJo:
tommymanc:
Hyh:
The hand rail for getting in and out was loose. Several of the components had the finish rubbed off (e.g. the arrows and OK button on the tacho, the gear selector). There were buttons missing, including the driver’s window control. The headlight switch came right out when you pulled it out to test the fog lamps.
The dash display had a warning “Check fuel supply” (the gauge said it was just over half full and I was only going back to Heathrow) but also there was a red triangle warning flashing. It also said there was an indicator faulty on the trailer (there wasn’t). It said something about “engine control malfunction”.
Do they do any maintenance on these things?
Hand rail loose, check, had to remove the footwell trim and tighten mine up several times when it was new, in the end i brought my more serious sockets from home and tightened it proper.
Switchgear worn off labels or broken or missing, check, they all do that sir.
Indicator fault warning with no problem, check.
Engine malfunction, check.
Sounds like a normal MAN to me, not really tough enough for fleet fodder, the VW input is showing lots of bling short on durable, my only surprise is that you didn’t have a brake malfunction spurious warning, the door lock didn’t fall out inside the door when you opened it and the interior door handle didn’t snap off in your hand when you closed it…i bet you never looked at the roof light switch and window switches behind the parking brake, at least one of those would have been snapped off and if the roof lights worked a minor miracle.
Juddian:
Sounds like a normal MAN to me, not really tough enough for fleet fodder, the VW input is showing lots of bling short on durable, my only surprise is that you didn’t have a brake malfunction spurious warning and the interior door handle didn’t snap of in your hand…i bet you never looked at the roof light switch and window switches behind the parking brake, at least one of those would ave been snapped off and if the roof lights worked a minor miracle.
First MAN I’ve had that’s this bad. I’ve driven old (pre-TG) MANs that have been in better shape than this one.
Saints never had a shipping container the accommodation is in the yard at one time they also had a house in Colnbrook
I have known both companies to take on new passes in the past.
The state of some of the trucks is normal for most companies round Heathrow with the possible exception of WFS who keep their fleet pretty new.
What changed at Saints was the BA world cargo contract which they got when Plane trucking went bust before that they would try and renew trucks over 2 years old and most trucks had allocated drivers back then and the only way in was to know somebody that worked there. The night shift was about 10 drivers back then.I was senior night manager there for 10 years. When I worked there they had around 100 trucks of all sizes on the road. They probably have more now.
Part of the BA engineering contract is to have drivers on standby for any AOG requests. Also we were not allowed to turn down any jobs from DHL who could book them directly on to Saints system you had 90 minutes to cover any jobs from these two customers. So you need spare drivers at Saints.
I would start work at 6 in the evening and take a handover with jobs going all over the country some to be covered immediately and drivers coming on shift and there would not be a truck in the yard that I could use.
I did a week with Saints in Glasgow up to Aberdeen apart from the wait(2 hours) at the start every day everything was great good communication, until I got back to depot then seemed like a mad rush because I was late, no problems with them
I also did a week with Circle Express basically the same contract and run nicely run, time is a maximum
Hyh:
Thanks for all the feedback. I was hoping it might have been a little more positive…I’m a new pass Class 1 and so I’m finding it tricky finding anyone that will take me on outside of agencies…Even most of those are saying come back when I have a years experience.
I’m just south of Gatwick, so it will be a bit of a commute to Heathrow.
If anyone happens to know of any companies taking on new class 1 passes, ideally trunking, or at least not physically demanding multi drop - I would love to hear
I had an interview with Saints on Friday and was a little surprised by the money on offer considering I’m a new pass. It was knocking on the door of £37K for Monday-Friday on nights. I got the impression there might be the odd night/day out involved but isn’t tramping. I’m not sure if that figure includes money for any days out. 28 days holiday a year. They stick new drivers with an experienced driver to make sure you’re confident before sending you out solo - which is a plus for a new pass instead of being thrown keys and wished luck.
Thanks again guys
If you can’t get work and they’re offering it at a decent rate and somebody to show you the ropes so to speak then I’d seriously consider it, it seems you might have to take advantage of their accommodation, and that might be the downside.
A. you won’t get home on what is a day job, which can be a problem for some.
B. depends on the standard of the accommodation, I personally wouldn’t expect a 5star hotel, but I would expect somewhere that has some privacy, that’s clean, dry and warm, where you can get clean and rest properly.
Juddian:
IndigoJo:
The hand rail for getting in and out was loose. Several of the components had the finish rubbed off (e.g. the arrows and OK button on the tacho, the gear selector). There were buttons missing, including the driver’s window control. The headlight switch came right out when you pulled it out to test the fog lamps.The dash display had a warning “Check fuel supply” (the gauge said it was just over half full and I was only going back to Heathrow) but also there was a red triangle warning flashing. It also said there was an indicator faulty on the trailer (there wasn’t). It said something about “engine control malfunction”.
Do they do any maintenance on these things?
Hand rail loose, check, had to remove the footwell trim and tighten mine up several times when it was new, in the end i brought my more serious sockets from home and tightened it proper.
Switchgear worn off labels or broken or missing, check, they all do that sir.
Indicator fault warning with no problem, check.
Engine malfunction, check.
Last time I drove an MAN it had so many warning lights on by the time I got back, I thought I was doing a remake of Apollo 13