simcor:
F-reds:
If its not coming off mechanically, it’s not coming off!
Well it might be, but I’m not doing it… 
Lazy sod 
I know that was posted in jest but there are a lot who think that unless you hand ball or struggle with a pumptruck, you’re a lazy git. I used to work with one who’d happily take stuff up or down stairs even if you could get away with not doing it. We used to BS our way of going down some stairs, citing health and safety. That is until jobsworth driver turns up and tells customer we’re lying to him to avoid carrying stuff. 
I don’t know if they are still involved with Bidvest, but if there is an inkling that an outfit called Contract Vehicles Ltd may have an influence/input or whatever else, then get back in your car and leave as quickly as you can.
So by now you will have been out doubled up and getting an idea of the job itself, probably with a guy on a not too bad run and on cages I presume?
(Just guessing cause my cousin started this week after ignoring my advice also and they’ve put him on a run where he’s doing 12/14 drops per day)
You gonna stick with it and go back next week or you gonna ring all the agencies?
graemem106:
Anyone know what Bidvest are like to work for, just got offered a job with them seems good money £30000 pa basic plus over time they have said it’s hard work so I’m not expecting to have a nice easy day but would like to know how they are to work for long term
Thanks
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Worked for the company for 9.5 years. You wont have any working time left to do overtime unless you are one of their lapdogs that break/bend the law. The job is total crap, 25+ drops, taking cash, crap routing, not enough pallet trucks for all drivers, having to spend a fair bit of time loading your vehicle (sub supply - pain in the hoop) in the morning before departure, to list but a few. I’ve still got recordings of a transport manager (still there, but not in that position afaik) asking me to break the law.
Worked for the company for 9.5 years. You wont have any working time left to do overtime unless you are one of their lapdogs that break/bend the law. The job is total crap, 25+ drops, taking cash, crap routing, not enough pallet trucks for all drivers, having to spend a fair bit of time loading your vehicle (sub supply - pain in the hoop) in the morning before departure, to list but a few. I’ve still got recordings of a transport manager (still there, but not in that position afaik) asking me to break the law.
Glad you mentioned the pallet trucks and the sub supply, I always started about 4/4:30 so managed to get one before they ran out but it’s a joke. Apparently the new fleet has sensors on the back doors that show up on a tracker so they’ll know if you are tipping on break? Watch how many drivers start getting finished an hour later than normal
Always the same old bollox comes up on here as soon as Bidvest (other Food service companies are available) gets mentioned…this is ■■■■, that’s ■■■■, managers are ■■■■, routing is ■■■■, drops are ■■■■ and anything else that goes with bloody hard work these days. He’ll soon find out if the jobs for him or not but its not learnt in a couple of days…there’s lots to learn…routes, products and paperwork. Get a regular route, change the drop order until it suits you (unless it’s all KFC etc timed deliveries), paperwork will soon become second nature and you’ll get to know the products easy enough and then you’ll know what box is what before you’ve even looked at the writing on it! Don’t be defeated as soon as you open the back door…see it as a challenge. If you feel you’re not ready to go it alone, tell 'em…you might get the old hand for a bit longer! As if said here before…if you can do this sort of work, you can do any type of driving job and from what’s on here sometimes, some can’t even do trunking without ■■■■■■■■ about summat. You’ve got nothing to lose and loads to gain…multidrop experience being one and a good wage to boot…and maybe 33 days holiday/year if you don’t fancy earning gd money for a BH, paid sick, company pension and the possibility of a new Merc! After many years, you might get a trunk run like mine…30hrs/week, 1 hit and for more than you’re being offered…am I happy? Bet your arse I am!
Actrosman:
Always the same old bollox comes up on here as soon as Bidvest (other Food service companies are available) gets mentioned…this is [zb], that’s [zb], managers are [zb], routing is [zb], drops are [zb] and anything else that goes with bloody hard work these days. He’ll soon find out if the jobs for him or not but its not learnt in a couple of days…there’s lots to learn…routes, products and paperwork. Get a regular route, change the drop order until it suits you (unless it’s all KFC etc timed deliveries), paperwork will soon become second nature and you’ll get to know the products easy enough and then you’ll know what box is what before you’ve even looked at the writing on it! Don’t be defeated as soon as you open the back door…see it as a challenge. If you feel you’re not ready to go it alone, tell 'em…you might get the old hand for a bit longer! As if said here before…if you can do this sort of work, you can do any type of driving job and from what’s on here sometimes, some can’t even do trunking without ■■■■■■■■ about summat. You’ve got nothing to lose and loads to gain…multidrop experience being one and a good wage to boot…and maybe 33 days holiday/year if you don’t fancy earning gd money for a BH, paid sick, company pension and the possibility of a new Merc! After many years, you might get a trunk run like mine…30hrs/week, 1 hit and for more than you’re being offered…am I happy? Bet your arse I am!
He’s asking about Bidvest Foodservice in Edinburgh. I worked there for many years and you clearly haven’t. You’re entitled to your opinion, but if it was me, I’d listen to someone who actually worked there.
Malky80:
Actrosman:
Always the same old bollox comes up on here as soon as Bidvest (other Food service companies are available) gets mentioned…this is [zb], that’s [zb], managers are [zb], routing is [zb], drops are [zb] and anything else that goes with bloody hard work these days. He’ll soon find out if the jobs for him or not but its not learnt in a couple of days…there’s lots to learn…routes, products and paperwork. Get a regular route, change the drop order until it suits you (unless it’s all KFC etc timed deliveries), paperwork will soon become second nature and you’ll get to know the products easy enough and then you’ll know what box is what before you’ve even looked at the writing on it! Don’t be defeated as soon as you open the back door…see it as a challenge. If you feel you’re not ready to go it alone, tell 'em…you might get the old hand for a bit longer! As if said here before…if you can do this sort of work, you can do any type of driving job and from what’s on here sometimes, some can’t even do trunking without ■■■■■■■■ about summat. You’ve got nothing to lose and loads to gain…multidrop experience being one and a good wage to boot…and maybe 33 days holiday/year if you don’t fancy earning gd money for a BH, paid sick, company pension and the possibility of a new Merc! After many years, you might get a trunk run like mine…30hrs/week, 1 hit and for more than you’re being offered…am I happy? Bet your arse I am!
He’s asking about Bidvest Foodservice in Edinburgh. I worked there for many years and you clearly haven’t. You’re entitled to your opinion, but if it was me, I’d listen to someone who actually worked there.
And how will Edinburgh differ from Bicester/Chepstow/Battersea/Notts/Cannock/Paddock Wood/Salisbury/Manchester or any of the other multi temp sites? After 33 years, 24 on multi temp, I’ve got a rough idea of how it works
Edinburgh couldn’t manage drivers hours properly. They couldn’t cope with the reference period. I heard it’s little better these days. The Union suggested working to rule, to try and get them to manage it better, the other depots said it wouldn’t have any effect on them. So it’s a local issue.
I lasted 18 months doing food service. Constantly tipping on break and maxing hours. Would never work for one again. The only people that stay are the ones who can’t get another job.
I may be wrong but isn’t drivers hours the responsibility of the drivers, as with any company? You only have to read some posts on here by one of the Seven Dwarves (name 'em and you’ll get it) about going over his 15hrs etc and what he could expect in way of punishment …who’s fault is that? Oh yeah, Dozy ■■■■■■ (no pun intended !) Failing that, next in line would be the TM to keep track of who’s doing what and maybe (as they did with us) put us on one of the ‘cream’ runs for a week or 2 that teachers pet always got!
As a driver you don’t decide how many drops are on a run and where they are in the country. Its day work, you can’t park up for the night and resume the next day, that lorry needs to return to load for the next day. If you bring a drop back you get it added to the next days work.
The final straw for me was pulling the card to get home as they wouldn’t send anyone out where I worked.
Actrosman:
I may be wrong but isn’t drivers hours the responsibility of the drivers, as with any company? You only have to read some posts on here by one of the Seven Dwarves (name 'em and you’ll get it) about going over his 15hrs etc and what he could expect in way of punishment …who’s fault is that? Oh yeah, Dozy [zb] (no pun intended !) Failing that, next in line would be the TM to keep track of who’s doing what and maybe (as they did with us) put us on one of the ‘cream’ runs for a week or 2 that teachers pet always got!
From Road Transport Regulations, “The employer is responsible for keeping working time records, making the records available for inspection and informing workers of their responsibilities.”
So if you’re way over the 48 hour average, it’s upto the company to inform the driver and address the problem. I’ve seen me having to have more than 2 weeks off just to get my average back down to 48 hours. I refused to leave for less money or an insecure job, but eventually I got the job I was after.
I refused to tip on break, but with it being job and finish, far too many other drivers did so. You don’t get paid for your break, why work during it and risk your job/license in the process?
Whenever I see or pass a food service driver I always take notice of him, generally he looks as fit as a butchers dog and he has my up most respect for the work he does, as it’s not my cup of tea. At the same time though, when you hear it’s so bad, I wonder why they do it long term. The only thing I can come up with is the money…
A close friend of mine works for Next doing home delivery and can’t wait to get off it, and the only thing that’s kept him there this long is knowing he will have a pay cut when he leaves! 
As a company, they’ve always paid good money as they know it’s hard graft and working ya ■■■■ of for say 22-25k/pa, drivers won’t hang around for long… I managed to ‘escape’ the MD because I’d heard from another trunker that a new position was imminent…and it’s closer to home instead of the 80 odd mile round trip i was doing daily!
Who remembers the original 3663 depot in newbridge before the new one was built? Offfft what a ■■■■■■■ shambles it really was. Delivering there you could kiss a whole morning goodbye.
Just sort yourself a bike lock and padlock your pallet truck and barrow
All the old sites were mares tbf… Edenbridge being another…different areas depending on what you were delivering ie frozen/ambient.
It’s definitely a love it or loathe it job. Not just the physical hard work but dealing with customers too. In most cases you are dealing with the person who has ordered and needs the goods, as opposed to a store person, and in many cases the business owner, so you at times have to listen to their list of complaints of every issue they have had with the company, even though most of these are not transport issues.
You do have to go into customers with the right attitude to get the right attitude back from them. I hear plenty of my colleagues complaining about certain customers being grumpy or picky over where/when they want their delivery, but then I deliver to them and have no issues and hear comments like “you don’t seem as stressed out as that other guy”.
The bit the takes the most getting used to is picking the products for the orders. Once you can recognise the products from the invoice it becomes easier and a lot quicker.
The paperwork is fairly straightforward, even though there can be quite a bit if you have to do credits or collect cash.
As for your hours, you will be salaried for 48 hours per week, which is averaged over the 26 week reference period for the working time regs. If you do weeks with high hours you will get shorter days or days off at a later date to get your average down. They go by the hours on the tachograph analysis, so it’s in your interest to record your hours properly and take your breaks.
I get the impression that they may have been lax with this in the past, but are certainly on top of it now to comply with the working time regs.
Actrosman:
If it takes 14 hours to do 15 drops, it’s not for you…we knocked out 25/30 a day at my old depot in 8-10hrs…but maybe us Southerners are workers and not shirkers!
I depends how far you have to travel to do those 30 drops.
I had 30 in Caithness yesterday, stopped for the night after 14:30 hours, then had 1:30 back to the depot this morning. On Monday I’ll probably have about 35+, which’ll take most of Tuesday to finish, but that’ll be a 300+ mile round trip (a lot of which is on single track roads). 
merc0447:
Who remembers the original 3663 depot in newbridge before the new one was built? Offfft what a [zb] shambles it really was. Delivering there you could kiss a whole morning goodbye.
Just sort yourself a bike lock and padlock your pallet truck and barrow
Used to do that and the warehousemen would cut them with a massive set of bolt cutters to get at the pallet truck.