I’ve been offered a job on containers for Newel & Wrights in Rotherham. Any tips on containers or pitfalls I should be aware of. Don’t know too much about it yet apparently working out of their yard delivering, Pity fancied a trip or two to the Docks.
I know Newell and Wright use shunters to bring most of their freight up from Felixstowe, so as to avoid tying other motors up on the docks…if you want dock work, I’d be angling after one of those runs.
When I was working out of Hull we used to do jobs with/for them, as well as popping into their yard from time to time to get (for example) 20fts swapped around when we brought them up from Southampton loaded, 2 at a time. We’d tip out one, then whip into N&W to get them switched before tipping the other - this was back before the days of splitting skellies, when normal practice was to stick two boxes on back to back. Some customers would refuse to tip over the front end, you see…but I’m waffling… 
…They always seemed a friendly enough bunch when we went in there.
To get back to the point, they seem to do all Deep Sea work, which is the sort where you don’t ever touch the freight and what most people think of when you say “containers”. The motors are a bit ratty to look at but you don’t see them broken down much so I’d take that to mean the maintenance is ok. Small cab DAFs rings a bell for some reason, but that may not mean much…
We see them on Teesport (CT2) a fair bit too, I think they’ve gotten involved with the ASDA job, but whether they’re bringing them straight up from Felixstowe or via their own place I couldn’t tell you. We don’t “do” queueing in the usual “5-hours-at-a-time” manner up at Tees, so could feasibly be either.
Pull mostly Maersk if I remember correctly (hence the connection in Hull and their presence on Teesport - Maersk/ASDA are running a feeder boat in there). Long hours but plenty of kip. 
I doubt very much of the above is any use to you at all, but that’s all I know about them. So there you go. I’ll shut up now and leave it to someone with something constructive to say… 
Ps. Will also see if I can collar one of their drivers on the dock this week for the inside view, if you like.
knew lucy would be along soon
knight:
I’ve been offered a job on containers for Newel & Wrights in Rotherham.
me too, seems they`re after recruiting a lot of drivers, either that or the revolving door is in overdrive
Box work is finally picking up again too, so to be fair, they may just be snowed under with freight…A lot of box drivers got laid off or gave up and went elsewhere early this year when it was deader than we’ve known for years and showed no sign of the usual pre-easter rush. I work directly for a shipping line and even we were struggling at one point, so the hauliers who did our work on spot hire or contract obviously didn’t get much of a look in.
I may be completely wrong, of course, and it may be a case of revolving door as Pierre said…but worth bearing in mind before dismissing the idea completely. The other side of the coin, of course, is that security may not be great if they are the sort of firm that lays off rather than dropping onto “fallback work”, which is what many do…Hence you’ll see Hanburys/Debens etc. pulling traction for De Rijke et al when the box work is quiet - whereas Carters, for example, have a reputation for cutting staff and parking up trucks. Allegedly.
Alll things to bear in mind/ investigate further. 
Thanks for the replies. The advert said it was for a new contract but I seem to remember thats what thier advert always says, as they advertise from time to time. So as Peirre says it may be the revoling door. The rates not great but not bad either and I need more work than I’m getting on the agency. There’s no nights out and it seems fairly local if you can call Newcastle local or maybe Teeside. Went past the yard on sat morning and it was all newish Volvo’s at the front but there seemed to be somne older models further back. Anyway we shall see what’s what.