Wincanton, Maritime or XPO?

Hey again everyone.

So after some soul searching, I’ve decided that I need to start my C+E career off with a larger company that offers some form of guidance to help ease me in to this as I’m a soft little fairy that needs my hand holding :blush:

I’ve applied for -
XPO - Tamworth
Maritime - Dordon / Tamworth (new driver scheme, so not really an official application but having an ongoing conversation with a fella named Gary about getting me onto it)
Wincanton - Hams Hall container work

Does anyone on here have any info on any of these companies? Pay, hours, content of work, etc. Anything would be appreciated really, as a lot of these places don’t seem to want to share any information right off the bat.

Also, if anyone has any recommendations for other places to try, all (sensible) suggestions would be welcome :slight_smile:

For all the stick they get maybe consider stobarts, ive applied for them plus a few others, i’ve only done agency work since passing and its not my cup of tea at all.

Yes they’re not the best driving jobs out there but it’s steady work (agency wont be come the start of next year from what i’ve been told)

Doesn’t matter what industry you go into, you wont get the cream of the crop straight away unless you’re very lucky/know people. Once you’ve got a bit of experience, that’s when you can pick and choose.

Also for finding out rates, got to the company page on indeed and there’s a salary tab, usually that’ll give you an idea.

MegaHips:
For all the stick they get maybe consider stobarts, ive applied for them plus a few others, i’ve only done agency work since passing and its not my cup of tea at all.

Yes they’re not the best driving jobs out there but it’s steady work (agency wont be come the start of next year from what i’ve been told)

Doesn’t matter what industry you go into, you wont get the cream of the crop straight away unless you’re very lucky/know people. Once you’ve got a bit of experience, that’s when you can pick and choose.

Also for finding out rates, got to the company page on indeed and there’s a salary tab, usually that’ll give you an idea.

I’d actually ruled Stobart out for a couple of reasons -

1)They might not be around in a few months time

  1. I’ll be making a mortgage application in a few months time, and from what I can gather, they look at your baseline earnings. IE - not at the “tax free meal allowances” or the “overtime rates” that boost your top line. £9 p/h baseline is not gonna cut it for me for that reason, unfortunately.

Decide what path you want to go down, do you want to go general transport involving nights outs, varied work or do you want a regular job where you go home at the end of your shift?

If its the latter, i’d try directly with Asda and their like, preferably supermarkets or other businesses who carry their own goods.
Pester them if needs be, on those proper jobs they have large numbers of older drivers coming up to retirement, they might have statutory 2 year experience requirements but they might not, also if you get a positive reaction but get told come back and see us when you have 2 years under your belt, answer them positively keep a note of the name and follow it up in two years time.

.
I know at Wincanton you need at least 12 months experience before they will consider you.
.

I’ve worked for XPO when I first had Class 2 and so it seems they do consider new passes or less than a years’ experience. But you may well find that each depot is different.

A good friend of mine only passed his c and ce last year, no experience whatsoever, got a job with xpo Tamworth in April this year, they have held his hand and given him loads of guidance. I don’t think it’s the best job ever, but he knows nothing ales, so it’ll do him for now

Shame you ruled out the biggest haulage company in the country.

The amount of training you get there as a newbie is absolutely insane. I would reconsider, and forget about the mirrors and smoke that you see on the news regarding Eddie.

pedrosa666:
Shame you ruled out the biggest haulage company in the country.

The amount of training you get there as a newbie is absolutely insane. I would reconsider, and forget about the mirrors and smoke that you see on the news regarding Eddie.

Both XPO and Wincanton are a lot bigger than Stobarts. There are a few others who are also bigger.

In answer to the the OP, seen as you need your hand holding …

XPO - £11.01 per hour and £16.50 after 9.5 hours. I think they deduct breaks.

Maritime - day rate £106 per day plus a £10 meal allowance. £13 or so after 11 hours. £16 or so rest day working. 4on/4off is a different rate.

Wincanton - £569.69 per week, there is a meal allowance in there. Overtime rates of £10.50 and £14 but not sure when they kick in.

Jimmy McNulty:

pedrosa666:
Shame you ruled out the biggest haulage company in the country.

The amount of training you get there as a newbie is absolutely insane. I would reconsider, and forget about the mirrors and smoke that you see on the news regarding Eddie.

Both XPO and Wincanton are a lot bigger than Stobarts. There are a few others who are also bigger.

In answer to the the OP, seen as you need your hand holding …

XPO - £11.01 per hour and £16.50 after 9.5 hours. I think they deduct breaks.

Maritime - day rate £106 per day plus a £10 meal allowance. £13 or so after 11 hours. £16 or so rest day working. 4on/4off is a different rate.

Wincanton - £569.69 per week, there is a meal allowance in there. Overtime rates of £10.50 and £14 but not sure when they kick in.

Are you telling me if i do 15 hours i still get 106.Thats 7pounds an hour.

WheelsofCardiff:

Jimmy McNulty:

pedrosa666:
Shame you ruled out the biggest haulage company in the country.

The amount of training you get there as a newbie is absolutely insane. I would reconsider, and forget about the mirrors and smoke that you see on the news regarding Eddie.

Both XPO and Wincanton are a lot bigger than Stobarts. There are a few others who are also bigger.

In answer to the the OP, seen as you need your hand holding …

XPO - £11.01 per hour and £16.50 after 9.5 hours. I think they deduct breaks.

Maritime - day rate £106 per day plus a £10 meal allowance. £13 or so after 11 hours. £16 or so rest day working. 4on/4off is a different rate.

Wincanton - £569.69 per week, there is a meal allowance in there. Overtime rates of £10.50 and £14 but not sure when they kick in.

Are you telling me if i do 15 hours i still get 106.Thats 7pounds an hour.

No as I said 106 + 10 meal allowance for 11 hours. 13 after so a 15 would be £168, still not great.

Don’t know how you feel about working nights but I applied to Euro Car Parts (Tamworth, Dordon) when I first passed my class 1, to which they said they’d take me on class 2 and get me on class 1 in 6 months…true to the word after 3 months I was starting the transition and have been doing it a couple of months now.
Class 2 £29500+£2500 bonus (easily less than a 48 hour week AVG)
Class 1 £32000+£2500 bonus (a lot closer to a 48 hour AVG)

pedrosa666:
Shame you ruled out the biggest haulage company in the country.

The amount of training you get there as a newbie is absolutely insane. I would reconsider, and forget about the mirrors and smoke that you see on the news regarding Eddie.

Stobart only ranks at 11th largest haulage company in this country, dropping from 9th in year end 2017, in any other measuremnt such as employees or profit they’re still a minow compared with the biggest companies and still behind XPO and Wincantons.

However I wouldn’t discount them, its about getting behind the wheel and getting experience, even if they were to go the contracts would be taken over by others and if you’re there doing he job you’d be likely to keep working, this happened were my brother worked, the company went under on a Friday, although the company wasn’t taken over, every driver was offered a job by another company starting Monday. My brother didn’t take up the offer as was sent a text offering him a job by a former employer as soon as they heard the company had gone under.

I started working class 1 for XPO (though not at Tamworth) in July 2018. They took me on as a newbie with no class 1 or 2 experience (just a few weeks 7.5 tonne agency work).

I’m on just over £13 per hour on night trunking. I work for one of the smaller depots - the management are friendly and helpful, a good but small team of drivers. Obviously can’t really comment on what it’s like at Tamworth…