Well after coming off european work December just gone, i decided to get a uk tramping job and was offered a job on DHL containers. It was a hard transit to get your head around but i was beginning to manage all the waiting around and the flamin wind stoppin work from carrying on, But after only 3 months of finding my feet we were all invited to attend a drivers meeting this Saturday where we have been givin our 28 DAYS NOTICE redundancy.
The script is that one of the biggest logistic companies is struggling and there will be job cuts right across the board. Our depot with around 30 trucks will lose 10 drivers and on top 6 more trucks will be relocated to other depots. Felexstow, Tilbury and Southampton aswell as many others depots will also lose drivers and trucks.
oscarboska:
Well after coming off european work December just gone, i decided to get a uk tramping job and was offered a job on DHL containers. It was a hard transit to get your head around but i was beginning to manage all the waiting around and the flamin wind stoppin work from carrying on, But after only 3 months of finding my feet we were all invited to attend a drivers meeting this Saturday where we have been givin our 28 DAYS NOTICE redundancy.
The script is that one of the biggest logistic companies is struggling and there will be job cuts right across the board. Our depot with around 30 trucks will lose 10 drivers and on top 6 more trucks will be relocated to other depots. Felexstow, Tilbury and Southampton aswell as many others depots will also lose drivers and trucks.
I used to work for them out of Seaforth…right bunch of knob jockeys. I take it your out of Trafford Park? Gareth seemed a decent bloke, but Phil was always looking for a smack when he came to cover in Liverpool.
Good luck finding other work…i’m sure you’ll be ok.
Wobble:
I used to work for them out of Seaforth…right bunch of knob jockeys. I take it your out of Trafford Park? Gareth seemed a decent bloke, but Phil was always looking for a smack when he came to cover in Liverpool.
Good luck finding other work…i’m sure you’ll be ok.
You know it well !!! yer I was running from Trafford Park they have move the whole of the office staff over to seaforth now so it fun and games right across the board not a happy chappy in sight but least they`ve still got jobs at the moment.
DHL have wanted rid of the container side for a long time as far as im aware,as it was part of the deal when they took over Securicor.
The main DHL company is profitable,but they have to keep bailing out loans to the container side to the tune of over 30 million.
What exactly is involved when you, (as a driver) pick up a container at a port? I ask as i’ve had mates that when applying for container work are told that they ‘don’t have the experience with all the procedures’.
How can they get the experience without ever doing the work they ask
all the yards /docks work differently so to be experienced in all departments you would have to have been on containers a while and they also change the way they do things frequently so a crystal ball would be good .The only things you need are common sense and the ability to be spoken too like crap without knocking the said yardman/docker out you wont go far wrong oh and like reading!
peterq5422:
The only things you need are common sense and the ability to be spoken too like crap without knocking the said yardman/docker out you wont go far wrong!
bikemonkey:
DHL have wanted rid of the container side for a long time as far as im aware,as it was part of the deal when they took over Securicor.
The main DHL company is profitable,but they have to keep bailing out loans to the container side to the tune of over 30 million.
You’re not wrong there. I heard a rumour a few weeks ago that they were about to pull the plug. As with everything else though in DHL, until it actually happens I don’t believe it.
The rest of the company has been propping up the containers for ages now. It was only a matter of time.
bikemonkey:
DHL have wanted rid of the container side for a long time as far as im aware,as it was part of the deal when they took over Securicor.
The main DHL company is profitable,but they have to keep bailing out loans to the container side to the tune of over 30 million.
The rest of the company has been propping up the containers for ages now. It was only a matter of time.
Didn’t Securicor buy out Russell Davies the first time around and ran as Securicor Omega Logistics (SOL) for a while. I wonder if Mr Davies is going to come back for a third time or just stay on the beach and count the cash!!!
I was talking to a chap the other day, he runs out of the Birmingham depot I think he said.? He said that they were expecting redundancies at their place too. Not good times to be a DHL containers employee
steve07:
aren’t they able to offer any off you work on their other departments?
They have said they will try and fill some gaps with some of the drivers but there isn`t many about .
90 days notice is to more than 30 or maybe 40 drivers not to sure, but because its only 10 at the moment its just 28 days notice wouldn`t be suprised if that just kept going at 10 at a time over the next year or so if its struggling that bad.
Bad management if you ask me but yet again it seems like the drivers are to kop for it
This is a piece from an article I read about the Hanbury Davies/Wincanton takeover,to which I posted the full article for anyone who’s interested in that.
This piece relates to this subject however
"Industry reaction
John Williams, MD of Felixstowe-based market leader Maritime Transport, remains sanguine about the potential new competition he now faces. He warns that it is not a sector in which big corporate companies have traditionally found much success: "In terms of Wincanton, it’s curious how it described the rationale for the move that it had a gap that needed filling. “The first thing that comes to mind is that they should mind that gap. You don’t see plcs prospering in this sector because it’s very much a hands-on people business.”
It’s an opinion supported by financial results at some of the big firms: Roadways Container Logistics - part of Maersk - lost £23.5m in its last financial year and DHL’s container division made a loss of almost £152,000 in just six months trading. This was despite owing other companies within the DHL group almost £29m in loans, and its continued ability to trade is solely down to support from the parent company.
Williams also plays down the potential benefits to Wincanton of being able to offer a dock-to-door transport service: “You can buy container transport in so competitively there’s no reason you need to own it. We are seeing quite a bit of activity at the top end of the container transport industry, there’s quite a bit of instability there.”
This was written last year when things were a bit more buoyant,at the moment IMHO things are still a it quiet out there on containers.It used to be a bit of a lull January/February after the Christmas rush and after Chinese new Year things would start to pick up from March onwards.
But evenChristmas was pretty dire this year and although the contract im on is
fairly busy,most of the others are not,so this is obviously affecting companies like DHL fairly badly.dont think the turbulance in the world markets is doing any of us any favours either.
Mikejk:
What exactly is involved when you, (as a driver) pick up a container at a port? I ask as i’ve had mates that when applying for container work are told that they ‘don’t have the experience with all the procedures’.
How can they get the experience without ever doing the work they ask
Its actually quite highly skilled to be able to pick up containers from the docks. First of all you need a complex ‘pin’ number to be able to even get the paperwork to get it out of the dock, very often this first number will be a dud, so you will have to wait an hour or two to be called back on the fone with the real number, or they will fax it through. Then you will need some foto ID, usually a foto driving licence will do. But if you’ve grown/lost hair since the foto was taken, which is highly likely by the time you have waited then there will be a stewards inquiry over your identity! Then you need to be able to master the art of the four twistlocks!!! And its not easy, just think about the movie…'Karate Kid"…lock on, lock off !! hiy yah !! Then you will have run out of time to get anywhere, so, once the container is on you will as a matter of course ring back to base and say…‘this is going to be late as i got out the dock at [insert time] and there is no way i can be in [insert name of place] at the booking time.’
You can tell the new guys on the job, they are the ones without food on board, a cooker and kettle,lots of water bottles and tea bags !!! Its certainley an experience alright !!!
howatsi:
Didn’t Securicor buy out Russell Davies the first time around and ran as Securicor Omega Logistics (SOL) for a while. I wonder if Mr Davies is going to come back for a third time or just stay on the beach and count the cash!!!
Further to Bikemonkey’s post about John Williams’ comments on the industry, it is also telling that Glyn Davies has decided to concentrate on his used truck business Hanbury Riverside, and his property development interests, and (so far) has expressed no desire to get back into container haulage.
But as I posted on another thread last week, the main players continue (at the moment) to make good money - just look at the results posted by CEL Group, Goldstar and Maritime for example. Williams says in the quote that the successful firms are focused solely on moving boxes, and have very hands on management, which seems to be one of the main requirements. The big boys seem to regard it as a distant outpost of their organisations, and the results speak for themselves.
mike-c:
You can tell the new guys on the job, they are the ones without food on board, a cooker and kettle,lots of water bottles and tea bags !!! Its certainley an experience alright !!!
Mikejk:
What exactly is involved when you, (as a driver) pick up a container at a port? I ask as i’ve had mates that when applying for container work are told that they ‘don’t have the experience with all the procedures’.
How can they get the experience without ever doing the work they ask
Its actually quite highly skilled to be able to pick up containers from the docks. First of all you need a complex ‘pin’ number to be able to even get the paperwork to get it out of the dock, very often this first number will be a dud, so you will have to wait an hour or two to be called back on the fone with the real number, or they will fax it through. Then you will need some foto ID, usually a foto driving licence will do. But if you’ve grown/lost hair since the foto was taken, which is highly likely by the time you have waited then there will be a stewards inquiry over your identity! Then you need to be able to master the art of the four twistlocks!!! And its not easy, just think about the movie…'Karate Kid"…lock on, lock off !! hiy yah !! Then you will have run out of time to get anywhere, so, once the container is on you will as a matter of course ring back to base and say…‘this is going to be late as i got out the dock at [insert time] and there is no way i can be in [insert name of place] at the booking time.’
You can tell the new guys on the job, they are the ones without food on board, a cooker and kettle,lots of water bottles and tea bags !!! Its certainley an experience alright !!!
PMSL
"its not booked on"or “its not released to you” after queueing up for half an hour is a good one too.
then they say they’ll ring you back when its done,and they dont,so you ring them,they tell you its all sorted ,then you go back in an hour later and after queueing again for half an hour,its still not booked on or released.
