''A Co-op spokesman said: “We have always maintained our commitment to retaining our in-house operations, and are glad that colleagues have recognised this.” presumably an ex Tony Blair spokesman, still exercising a certain amount of poetic licence.
Or is Stobart part of the Coop group now?, when did that go through. 
Juddian:
''A Co-op spokesman said: “We have always maintained our commitment to retaining our in-house operations, and are glad that colleagues have recognised this.”is Stobart part of the Coop group now?, when did that go through.
Yeah right, maintain in house operations… thats why 44 drivers from Castlewood Primary have gone and Buffaload now doing it. Cheers
Wincanton are already in there now BigJohn.
wheelnutt:
war1974:
the great green undercutting machine has been at work like this for years, I think its time people did stand up to them.Stand up to them? Why don’t you go into your local co-op and see if their customers are willing to pay more so they can keep a few unionised driver jobs going. .
Good luck with that.
You want to stand up to Aldi/Lidl too as they come into this country offering more efficient discount stores that are undermining the monopoly created by the big 4 overpriced British ones?
All these supermarket jobs are going, companies like Stobart/DHL/Wincanton/Linde can do it so more efficiently.
Shape up or ship out.
Tory ■■■■
eagerbeaver:
Wincanton are already in there now BigJohn.
Strange how it hasn’t been filtered down, I work for Wincanton but they have mentioned anything
I take it everyone that has gone on about undercutting has never used a comparison site to find an undercutter? Can’t have it both ways people
stevieboy308:
I take it everyone that has gone on about undercutting has never used a comparison site to find an undercutter? Can’t have it both ways people
Or shopped in a supermarket
eagerbeaver:
Wincanton are already in there now BigJohn.
Are they losing Skem? That’s a regular haunt for us.
the guys who took there severance pay will be moaning in a short while about how low paid hgv work is once there pay out runs out. the thing is stobarts are so successful because they manage to find morons to drive for them at crap wages. i honestly can not believe how many morons drive for stobarts, the company even trys to boast in adverts that a new recruit could soon be wearing the famous green shirt ■■? i guess that must be why people drive for them as they want the shirt ? to think guys pay out thousands, get a cpc card etc for the same money many can earn in a factory ? drivers themselves are to blame and not stobarts as the drivers are the chums
desypete:
to think guys pay out thousands, get a cpc card etc for the same money many can earn in a factory ? drivers themselves are to blame and not stobarts as the drivers are the chums
Trust me it takes a special mindset to work 40 let alone 50 hours per week in a factory which is worth more than driving a truck.While the issue of the race to the bottom wage regime is something else and applies across every sector of the economy. 
desypete:
the guys who took there severance pay will be moaning in a short while about how low paid hgv work is once there pay out runs out. the thing is stobarts are so successful because they manage to find morons to drive for them at crap wages. i honestly can not believe how many morons drive for stobarts, the company even trys to boast in adverts that a new recruit could soon be wearing the famous green shirt ■■? i guess that must be why people drive for them as they want the shirt ? to think guys pay out thousands, get a cpc card etc for the same money many can earn in a factory ? drivers themselves are to blame and not stobarts as the drivers are the chums
I’m a “moron who drives for Stobart” , why? No, it’s not because of the green shirt (although they do provide all of it including ppe, boots, bag, clipboard, hard hat etc which means I don’t ruin my own kit) I drive for them because they bought out James Irlam where I was originally,they came to me not the other way around,the work is a doddle, the kit is decent and the money for what I do is fine for me.
Yes I could earn a little more on agency maybe but in my experience that’s not often the reality…
I’ve been with them 8 years, never been asked to break the law (nor would I) and in that time I’ve had a lot of time off sick during which they’ve paid me and when things were looking bleak they paid me off completely.
Once my health improved, I’ve gone back as a casual, why this moronic move you may ask?
Well, as I say, they’ve looked after me, the work is easy & clean the kit is decent and the important bit, they are 10minutes from my house and one of the bigger operators in my area.
It’s a bloody driving job at the end of the day,same crap different name on the trailer, it suits me and its local, in reality little different from most other driving jobs (I’ve done a few),put it this way, I’ve driven far worse for less in the past.
To my mind, the real morons are those that assume you must be a moron to drive for ESL or whoever without having first asked them self why.
.i…
Tossitoff:
desypete:
the guys who took there severance pay will be moaning in a short while about how low paid hgv work is once there pay out runs out. the thing is stobarts are so successful because they manage to find morons to drive for them at crap wages. i honestly can not believe how many morons drive for stobarts, the company even trys to boast in adverts that a new recruit could soon be wearing the famous green shirt ■■? i guess that must be why people drive for them as they want the shirt ? to think guys pay out thousands, get a cpc card etc for the same money many can earn in a factory ? drivers themselves are to blame and not stobarts as the drivers are the chumsI’m a “moron who drives for Stobart” , why? No, it’s not because of the green shirt (although they do provide all of it including ppe, boots, bag, clipboard, hard hat etc which means I don’t ruin my own kit) I drive for them because they bought out James Irlam where I was originally,they came to me not the other way around,the work is a doddle, the kit is decent and the money for what I do is fine for me.
Yes I could earn a little more on agency maybe but in my experience that’s not often the reality…I’ve been with them 8 years, never been asked to break the law (nor would I) and in that time I’ve had a lot of time off sick during which they’ve paid me and when things were looking bleak they paid me off completely.
Once my health improved, I’ve gone back as a casual, why this moronic move you may ask?
Well, as I say, they’ve looked after me, the work is easy & clean the kit is decent and the important bit, they are 10minutes from my house and one of the bigger operators in my area.It’s a bloody driving job at the end of the day,same crap different name on the trailer, it suits me and its local, in reality little different from most other driving jobs (I’ve done a few),put it this way, I’ve driven far worse for less in the past.
To my mind, the real morons are those that assume you must be a moron to drive for ESL or whoever without having first asked them self why.
.i…
i didn’t know stobarts still had any English lads driving for them ?
i was talking to a guy out of cannock the other week and the place is full of polish drivers and new guys who have just passed there tests they tell me stobarts now pay an experienced driver to go out on the road with new guys to baby sit them for a few weeks, which doesn’t make any sense to me at all, that’s 2 drivers wages for 1 load each time ? but that’s because any real driver of experience wouldn’t ever work for stobarts only the moron type of driver would be working for that outfit, its no wonder they can provide nice trucks as there paid for by the low wages they pay the morons who drive them.
A lot has been said about cost cutting by out sourcing what was “in house” work with lucrative pay and agreements
These so called lucrative agreements do not just occur by magic they are put in place by having been negotiated with the very Companies that now want to out source to cut costs.
If they are unaffordable why agree to implement in the first place.
lolipop:
A lot has been said about cost cutting by out sourcing what was “in house” work with lucrative pay and agreements
These so called lucrative agreements do not just occur by magic they are put in place by having been negotiated with the very Companies that now want to out source to cut costs.
If they are unaffordable why agree to implement in the first place.
Perhaps because their competitors have outsourced, so their haulage costs are now higher than the market norm?
That’s the problem with lucrative contracts at single firms, in the competitive market, that firm will eventually just fold and the operation (and its profits) will transfer through the market mechanism to the firms with the poorest pay and conditions.
That’s why secondary picketing and sympathy strikes were so important in maintaining pay and conditions in the past, because if good pay and conditions are to be supported, they have to be supported across the whole market at all firms who do the same activity, and firms that try and undercut by paying lower wages have to be harassed and their operations disrupted in order to remove the competitive advantage they have on price.
desypete:
Tossitoff:
desypete:
the guys who took there severance pay will be moaning in a short while about how low paid hgv work is once there pay out runs out. the thing is stobarts are so successful because they manage to find morons to drive for them at crap wages. i honestly can not believe how many morons drive for stobarts, the company even trys to boast in adverts that a new recruit could soon be wearing the famous green shirt ■■? i guess that must be why people drive for them as they want the shirt ? to think guys pay out thousands, get a cpc card etc for the same money many can earn in a factory ? drivers themselves are to blame and not stobarts as the drivers are the chumsI’m a “moron who drives for Stobart” , why? No, it’s not because of the green shirt (although they do provide all of it including ppe, boots, bag, clipboard, hard hat etc which means I don’t ruin my own kit) I drive for them because they bought out James Irlam where I was originally,they came to me not the other way around,the work is a doddle, the kit is decent and the money for what I do is fine for me.
Yes I could earn a little more on agency maybe but in my experience that’s not often the reality…I’ve been with them 8 years, never been asked to break the law (nor would I) and in that time I’ve had a lot of time off sick during which they’ve paid me and when things were looking bleak they paid me off completely.
Once my health improved, I’ve gone back as a casual, why this moronic move you may ask?
Well, as I say, they’ve looked after me, the work is easy & clean the kit is decent and the important bit, they are 10minutes from my house and one of the bigger operators in my area.It’s a bloody driving job at the end of the day,same crap different name on the trailer, it suits me and its local, in reality little different from most other driving jobs (I’ve done a few),put it this way, I’ve driven far worse for less in the past.
To my mind, the real morons are those that assume you must be a moron to drive for ESL or whoever without having first asked them self why.
.i…
i didn’t know stobarts still had any English lads driving for them ?
i was talking to a guy out of cannock the other week and the place is full of polish drivers and new guys who have just passed there tests they tell me stobarts now pay an experienced driver to go out on the road with new guys to baby sit them for a few weeks, which doesn’t make any sense to me at all, that’s 2 drivers wages for 1 load each time ? but that’s because any real driver of experience wouldn’t ever work for stobarts only the moron type of driver would be working for that outfit, its no wonder they can provide nice trucks as there paid for by the low wages they pay the morons who drive them.
I work for Stobarts, and at my depot that’s certainly not the case. Out of all of the Stobarts lads at the depot, there’s only one I know who is foreign. I have also seen the driver list, and foreign drivers are a very small minority, I mean one in twenty. Agency drivers are a different story, I’d say that 75% of agency drivers are foreign, but not Stobart-employed drivers, they are predominantly British.
As for the “babysitting”, everybody is shown the ropes, and the duration of which is the discretion of the driver trainer and manager. It may be a couple of days for the more experienced lot, or quite a while if they take-on a new passer, and they’re struggling with things. People moan about agency drivers being sent-out on their own, without any training, knowledge or insight, and the problems they cause are countless. It’s nothing more than being shown the ropes, the procedures, how to fill-in paperwork correctly, etc, and in my opinion, completely appropriate. Surely you’re much better doing this, than sending-out someone on their own, and them making a hash of the job?
Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with the pay either. I get paid for doing something I enjoy, and it’s down to your own opinion to judge how much you are entitled to earn. As for morons, nah! The morons are those doing more boring work, getting chased more, paid less, and in worse kit. The job’s a doddle, the kit’s good, and the money’s fine. I’m more than happy with my job, and I wouldn’t consider myself a “moron”, purely because I work for a particular company.
Which depot are you out of Rott?
lolipop:
A lot has been said about cost cutting by out sourcing what was “in house” work with lucrative pay and agreements
These so called lucrative agreements do not just occur by magic they are put in place by having been negotiated with the very Companies that now want to out source to cut costs.
If they are unaffordable why agree to implement in the first place.
They aren’t unaffordable, it’s just that times have changed. Retailers are struggling, bosses under pressure to cut costs to maintain profits so these lucrative pay deals are no longer justifiable in their eyes.
Good gigs never last, someone in the offices will always eventually question why the hell the drivers are getting paid so much, we are afterall looked down upon much more than up to.
rob22888:
lolipop:
A lot has been said about cost cutting by out sourcing what was “in house” work with lucrative pay and agreements
These so called lucrative agreements do not just occur by magic they are put in place by having been negotiated with the very Companies that now want to out source to cut costs.
If they are unaffordable why agree to implement in the first place.They aren’t unaffordable, it’s just that times have changed. Retailers are struggling, bosses under pressure to cut costs to maintain profits so these lucrative pay deals are no longer justifiable in their eyes.
Good gigs never last, someone in the offices will always eventually question why the hell the drivers are getting paid so much, we are afterall looked down upon much more than up to.
Exactly right, and one of the reasons why i’m always upsetting people here when i complain about the job being made too easy, and drivers themselves (understandably in many ways) wanting it ever more comfortable easier simpler, if any bugger can do it any bugger can replace you when the bidding starts.
Things automate eventually, i just think drivers shouldn’t have been so keen to see their jobs deskilled so any bugger could do it.
There’s good reason the more intricate specialist jobs and the hard graft (handball etc) ones are the ones still paying the money, the properly termed and agreed numbers otherwise get fewer every year.
Up to a point outsourcing can benefit long termers who’ve been on good contracts for years, the job being outsourced can mean a decent payoff which anyone getting close to retirement would be daft not to take advantage off.
But that doesn’t help the thousands of younger drivers out there with years still to go, cos once these plum jobs disappear they never come back.
Advise please wincanton Lea green coop. How would that plant be affected ?