I did 10 years with them at Ossett, and it was a good place to be at the time. We had a warehouse chargehand that thought he was God, but you tended to ignore him. As far as I am aware, there is only one of the old guys still there, and he must be close to retirement by now.
Our old depot manager was a proper old school Yorkshireman with a pipe, aka Freddie Trueman, and was a great bloke. We used to call him Jed, but I never knew why!!! Our supervisor was a Brummie, and ex speedway rider, and I only had cross words with him once.
Old man Clarke was a sound guy, knew everyone by name, which got my respect, and I am guessing he is no longer with us as his sons now run it. One was ok, the other was a tool.
At the time, the equipment was questionable, but as they have grown, I am sure that everything is leased, although the artics go night and day, so if you are on class 1, you may not get the same truck. We did at the time.
A lot of adr is moved, and I am guessing they have to be in the top 5 companies for moving such stuff which is all under packages. At the time they did a lot for ■■■■■■■■ and I used to go into the plant at Darlington 5 days a week, and loved it.
Saturday morning was optional. You were guaranteed 4 hours, and it was only to load what nights had left, but if they got their finger out, you could be left with nothing to do other than park the trucks up in order of leaving on Monday. If there was anything, then we all got stuck in. You might have been the unlucky one with a run to Darlington, but it was usually only a trailer change.
Christmas was the usual turkey and beer freebie, but nobody could go until the last man was back.
Don’t know what the money is like now, but since I left in 2000, I haven’t been anywhere near them as I know it won’t be the same.