I hope someone can give me some info on this.
I used to visit Fowler Welch in Spalding fairly regularly. Well pre lockdown anyway. But I see they’ve been bought out by Culina.
Can anyone give me recent info about what Culina - formerly Fowler Welch are like to work for? I know they used to have quite a lot of EE drivers, what’s it like now? Pay rates? Equipment? Management? The usual background kind of stuff?
Thanks in advance. EAT
I guess you’ve seen the advert for 1,000 pw .
dozy:
I guess you’ve seen the advert for 1,000 pw .
I hadn’t actually. But have you any information or experience with Culina in Spalding?
Pay rates are advertised on their website.
jobs.smartrecruiters.com/Culina … 09241c6e78
£750-£900p/w depending on shift pattern. Assuming 60hrs Mon-Fri it’s £12.50/hr straight through. I expect you’ll be doing more than that and worryingly in the advert there’s no mention of night out money so they may be “doing a Stobarts” (who are also now owned by Culina) and including the night out money in that pay.
They still have mostly EE drivers and office staff. Organisation is still a ■■■■■■■■ but then all similar companies seem to work like that giving out a job on a basis of who is available next when a driver rings in rather than a fixed plan. Fleet looks decent enough though and I can’t recall ever picking up any random trailer out of the trailer park and having any defects to report on it.
Conor:
Pay rates are advertised on their website.jobs.smartrecruiters.com/Culina … 09241c6e78
£750-£900p/w depending on shift pattern. Assuming 60hrs Mon-Fri it’s £12.50/hr straight through. I expect you’ll be doing more than that and worryingly in the advert there’s no mention of night out money so they may be “doing a Stobarts” (who are also now owned by Culina) and including the night out money in that pay.
They still have mostly EE drivers and office staff. Organisation is still a [zb] but then all similar companies seem to work like that giving out a job on a basis of who is available next when a driver rings in rather than a fixed plan. Fleet looks decent enough though and I can’t recall ever picking up any random trailer out of the trailer park and having any defects to report on it.
Thanks Conor. £12.50ph isn’t a great deal is it? Not in today’s climate… And was that basically every trailer has defects? Or no trailer has defects? I hate it when every trailer has a problem and they expect you to fix it…
Conor:
Pay rates are advertised on their website.jobs.smartrecruiters.com/Culina … 09241c6e78
£750-£900p/w depending on shift pattern. Assuming 60hrs Mon-Fri it’s £12.50/hr straight through. I expect you’ll be doing more than that and worryingly in the advert there’s no mention of night out money so they may be “doing a Stobarts” (who are also now owned by Culina) and including the night out money in that pay.
They still have mostly EE drivers and office staff. Organisation is still a [zb] but then all similar companies seem to work like that giving out a job on a basis of who is available next when a driver rings in rather than a fixed plan. Fleet looks decent enough though and I can’t recall ever picking up any random trailer out of the trailer park and having any defects to report on it.
New advert I saw last week on grantham hgv jobs said £1,000 , can’t remember if indeed or Total or what
EastAnglianTrucker:
dozy:
I guess you’ve seen the advert for 1,000 pw .I hadn’t actually. But have you any information or experience with Culina in Spalding?
No I’m afraid , but the job adverts come up on grantham jobs as Spalding not far away , job caught my eye last week as now saying 1,000 pw , no idea what it was ( tramping I assume ) as too far for me so never looked at it
I just checked on hgv jobs Grantham , indeed & it says 1,000 , advert say chance to earn 1,000 plus
EastAnglianTrucker:
Conor:
Pay rates are advertised on their website.jobs.smartrecruiters.com/Culina … 09241c6e78
£750-£900p/w depending on shift pattern. Assuming 60hrs Mon-Fri it’s £12.50/hr straight through. I expect you’ll be doing more than that and worryingly in the advert there’s no mention of night out money so they may be “doing a Stobarts” (who are also now owned by Culina) and including the night out money in that pay.
They still have mostly EE drivers and office staff. Organisation is still a [zb] but then all similar companies seem to work like that giving out a job on a basis of who is available next when a driver rings in rather than a fixed plan. Fleet looks decent enough though and I can’t recall ever picking up any random trailer out of the trailer park and having any defects to report on it.
Thanks Conor. £12.50ph isn’t a great deal is it? Not in today’s climate… And was that basically every trailer has defects? Or no trailer has defects? I hate it when every trailer has a problem and they expect you to fix it…
I’d of thought &12.50 for Spalding was good to be honest , It was known as a low paid area , but that doesn’t look particularly low to me .
I think you have to be careful getting sucked into this agency are getting this, that & every thing else , I heard that for years when I was employed , we were all mugs as agency were earning loads more £££ , then when that agency Swedish thing came in the same drivers were creaming there pants because they were now entitled to the same pay rate the company drivers got ( the same rate we were all mugs for working for )
I’ve tried agency & I can’t see it , to me your no better off finically wise , just you can have your hols when and as many as you want
As I say I don’t think 1,000 plus ( as advert states ) is bad for Spalding, nor is £800 pw , £900 pw ,
I was put upto £15 ph on agency ( but the txt did say temporary to see how it goes ) , they could easily take the £2 ph off that rate ( didn’t work ) & suddenly your on £13 ph with none of the benefits the £12.50 f/w / Culina driver gets
I don’t work at moment but when & if I go back it will be employed that’s for sure
Jack Richards Peterborough , advertising 48,000- 57,000, not far from Spalding
dozy:
Jack Richards Peterborough , advertising 48,000- 57,000, not far from Spalding
LOL.
I have noticed that a lot more job adverts gives a yearly figure rather than an hourly. So in JR case to earn 57000 you will be tramping on nights for max hours, working weekends and bank holidays and that also includes all your night out money.
Only a fool would look at £57k and believe they could earn that.
msgyorkie:
I have noticed that a lot more job adverts gives a yearly figure rather than an hourly. So in JR case to earn 57000 you will be tramping on nights for max hours, working weekends and bank holidays and that also includes all your night out money.
Only a fool would look at £57k and believe they could earn that.
Yep. I made this point a few weeks back. Trying to lull you in with an attractive headline figure but oddly very vague in the ad body when it comes to how many hours will be expected of you and which days of the week. The smelly trampers will love it though - Thursday to Tuesday every week for 78 hours sleeping in their tin boxes and bragging in every RDC up and down the country that they’re on £57k.
msgyorkie:
I have noticed that a lot more job adverts gives a yearly figure rather than an hourly. So in JR case to earn 57000 you will be tramping on nights for max hours, working weekends and bank holidays and that also includes all your night out money.
Only a fool would look at £57k and believe they could earn that.
It’s earnable , would I want to do it , no , but there’s plenty on here ( even unionised companiy drivers who say there well paid ) who work 6 days a week , b/ h etc etc etc , I can understand the young kid , mortgage , kids , but the 50 yr old , no , there’s only one reason they’d do it , there sad , no life
DCPCFML:
msgyorkie:
I have noticed that a lot more job adverts gives a yearly figure rather than an hourly. So in JR case to earn 57000 you will be tramping on nights for max hours, working weekends and bank holidays and that also includes all your night out money.
Only a fool would look at £57k and believe they could earn that.Yep. I made this point a few weeks back. Trying to lull you in with an attractive headline figure but oddly very vague in the ad body when it comes to how many hours will be expected of you and which days of the week. The smelly trampers will love it though - Thursday to Tuesday every week for 78 hours sleeping in their tin boxes and bragging in every RDC up and down the country that they’re on £57k.
I’m not convinced at 57k , but I know someone who jacked xpo Easton & has gone to work out of p/bro for £100 pw more than he got at Easton , according to him , same hours , days etc ,
So I’d guess jr would have to put there wages upto get drivers in that area , same as Bimson, 52k , f/w 1,000 pw , different area to p/bro but there wages are rising on a regular basis to compete locally
I got rang about a job I used to do , first time they rang 40k , a month later 45’k , I said ring me back when you get to 75 k ( joking )
Is it true that Culina have also bought out Stobarts very quietly?
I know about Great Bear…
The worrying thing is here, that if a monopoly ends up being the case, the standard pay for drivers everywhere in this country - will end up being around £12.50 “right through” rates, with all allowances gone… Stobarts drivers - won’t notice much downsides to their pay, as £12.50ph replacing their current allowances - will leave them ever-so-slightly better off…
Everyone else though?
SWEDISH BLUE:
https://www.lloydsloadinglist.com/freight-directory/news/Culina-buys-Eddie-Stobart-owner-GreenWhiteStar/79432.htm#.YPmPQ-hKhPY
That’s quite shocking really - that so few as 22,000 people work for a company group worth 2,200,000,000 - a value placed on each member of staff of £100,000 per head…
That means if their average pay is £25,000 per head - They are making a profit of what? - 400% value to the firm from their over-houred and under-paid labours? 
Will they change the pay rates winseer , as I said before , when wincanton took on that aig work they wanted the stobart drivers to stay on there t&c ,s & not go on wincantons which must of been higher
Culina could easily do the same , do f/w , robsons etc who they took over get Culina t&c,s , I’ve no idea , it depends how integrated stobarts will become since Culina took them over
All a bit strange really as stobarts not long ago brought the branding for 10 million , if Culina change it , what a waste of money
Most of the big logistic companies have different pay rates at every site, even different contracts on the same site may have different t’s & c’s.
At one DHL site I visited on regular basis in Scotland, drivers had three different contracts(t’s & c’s) depending on who was running the contract when they started on that contract, All doing exactly the same job.