Hi chaps and chapesses,
I’ve been in contact with yet another agency and have been told that they’ve ‘won a new main contract’ with Keystone Distribution. Now to be honest I don’t believe they hold the main contract, but just in case it does materialise, does anyone on here have experience with Keystone Distribution?…if so what were the good and bad points?
Cheers,
Adam.
McDs
a free big large fries and a shake to go at every delivery. 
lol ■■■■ that for some tight deliveries
Probably the hardest work you will ever do with the tightest scheduling i have ever come across. I defy anyone to do it 100% legally, you will always end up working through your breaks to make up time. Try doing 2 drops in croydon in an hour and five minutes !. Thats’s with 2 bulkheads and a mix of counting out the types of buns opening and closing 2 bulkheads with a mix of dry, frozen and chilled and loading and stowing the empties. If you are more than half an hour behind the mad schedule when you get back you will get the third degree and they will try to find a reason not to pay you the extra time if you are an agency driver. They fire there own drivers at the drop of a hat and treat agency drivers like dog doo. They have to keep finding new agencies and going further afield as no one around basingstoke will work for them.
well adam what do think now. 
When i worked at Mcdonalds a few years ago i helped out the drivers who were delivering in to the store. They did have to move a load of stuff around to get at the correct cages and open and close the different doors to get at the chilled/frozen stuff. This did take a while and some of those cages were bloody heavy, not good to be off loading them on a sloped car park! I bet some of the inner city stores are a right pig to get into, the one i worked at had a sizeable car park but people would always park in the way or block the driver in!
Not a job for a newbie by the sounds of it lol
lol well…sounds, erm, fun? Of course I knew they did Macdonalds, and seeing as all three of Basingstoke’s Macdonalds are as tight as ■■■■■■■■■, I kind know what I’m in for. But my plan is to hopefully only stay with them for a short time and then go next door to Sainsbury’s…for some reason the agency guy also wants me to get into sainsbury’s as soon as. But aside from Class 1 multi drop with a parcel company, I think this experience will benfit me second to none.
Anything else?
Adam_Mc:
lol well…sounds, erm, fun? Of course I knew they did Macdonalds, and seeing as all three of Basingstoke’s Macdonalds are as tight as ■■■■■■■■■
That always makes me wonder why we have 2 drive throughs within a mile of each other… 
KFCs far better though…
Yeah it is a bit stupid. The car park at the leisure centre is of a decent size…its just tight to get into and all the cars park right at the front where the lorry wants to be 
but as I said, the experience it will give me should be great, even if it does nearly kill me from self inflicted acts such as suicide
i worked for an agency called “WFS” doing the mcd’s work out of basinstoke a few years back ,but i found it good fun . like many have said it is hard work most of the time and very interesting getting into some of the stores but i found most of em really helpful .
i hope you like early mornings because you could be starting from 2am on the morning shift but then was finished at 10am and paid 10hours no matter what !!!
it was never keystone though i worked there when it was goldenwest foods , they also get the agency drivers to do most trunking work to coke cola in milton keynes and a run down to chichester so you may get one of them anyway i hope this helps and just enjoy yourself
Well don’t say you weren’t warned. A word to the wise, look out for the “sensitive” (if you get my drift) security guard. He talks to you as if you are dirt but if you say one word back you are out of the door. My money is on somebody introducing him to a baseball bat one day.
The simplest thing to do is turn the job down. Why make trouble for yourself?
It sounds as if this company is bent on making trouble for their own drivers, never mind agency drivers. The more black marks this company puts on your agency books will not help when trying to get into Sainsburys or keeping you on the agencies books.
Best tell your agency you have been offered a full time job, then after the full time job falls through, sign on with an agency that doesn’t have this particular contract.
Being treated like dogs doo will do nothing for your self respect and only lead to confrontation.
This outfit sound very much like 3663, a Banbury Oxfordshire based company that uses agency drivers from as far a field as Manchester.
I’m not going to turn the job of Keystone down, that’d just be stupid…I’ve only got to stay there for a couple of months at the most. And when it comes to companies trying it on with me I’m well prepared, I almost took my old company to court about 3 years back, the only reason I didn’t was because I found another job before they sacked me…I might be young and inexperienced but I certainly know how to hold my own in the work place. Also with regards to 2am starts, pshhh…easy as pre-made cakes 
Im quite lucky to have the abilty to be able to work any hours, just so long as I plan my sleep out I’m good.
And the security gaurd…I think I know who you mean, I had a slight run in with him once. After playing the innocent type and making a bit of a joke I got a chuckle out of him. But as I said, I’ve only got to do it for a couple of months at the most really.
Also Berewic, with regard to 3663 in Oxfordshire, I know what you mean! I done a day there, started at 0530 and finished at 2030, the only break I had was to eat a doughnut, which was about 3 minutes at the most! Since that day I’ve refused to work for any 3663, even the one 10 minutes from me offered me a job which I turned down!
i worked there at weekends on agency about three years ago when it was golden west distribution,the main agro then was 1 getting in n out of some of the stores lost count how many times they sent me to a store i n a forty footer that had clearly marked on the delivery notes ridgid vechile only,2 the trailors inside could be a nightmare specialy the frozen side with ice on floor n wheels on cages frozen ,3like mantioned can be a lot of moving about inside trailor with having to move mt cages n ambiant prouducts to get to the chilled or frozen bullkhead,on the plus side it all depends wot run u get some times id get say 4 drive thrus in south wales in aday which wasnt to bad other days u could get 5 town centre stores in south london which can be a real nightmare, however i found u could always get maps of how to get to the stores from the blokes in the office at bassingstoke and most of the phone nos for the stores were on the paper work,ithink the easyest day i had there was 2 drops on the isle of wight,dont no wot the moneys like there nw but i was on about 13 quid an hour on a sat and about 16 on asun ,it will certainly improve your driving skills lot of blind side reversing,but if your sensible n stay calm get out n look if not sure or ask one of the blokes in the store to watch you back you should be ok,the biggest problems with the drive thrus is u mite get in but when you go to leave u find mr n mrs and there four kids have parked there passion waggon rite in the way,so wot atended to do is put the mt bun trays in some of the parking bays that i needed to be mt so no one could park in them n i could get out,wish u all the best with it.
monarch of the highway:
i worked there at weekends on agency about three years ago when it was golden west distribution,the main agro then was 1 getting in n out of some of the stores lost count how many times they sent me to a store i n a forty footer that had clearly marked on the delivery notes ridgid vechile only,2 the trailors inside could be a nightmare specialy the frozen side with ice on floor n wheels on cages frozen ,3like mantioned can be a lot of moving about inside trailor with having to move mt cages n ambiant prouducts to get to the chilled or frozen bullkhead,on the plus side it all depends wot run u get some times id get say 4 drive thrus in south wales in aday which wasnt to bad other days u could get 5 town centre stores in south london which can be a real nightmare, however i found u could always get maps of how to get to the stores from the blokes in the office at bassingstoke and most of the phone nos for the stores were on the paper work,ithink the easyest day i had there was 2 drops on the isle of wight,dont no wot the moneys like there nw but i was on about 13 quid an hour on a sat and about 16 on asun ,it will certainly improve your driving skills lot of blind side reversing,but if your sensible n stay calm get out n look if not sure or ask one of the blokes in the store to watch you back you should be ok,the biggest problems with the drive thrus is u mite get in but when you go to leave u find mr n mrs and there four kids have parked there passion waggon rite in the way,so wot atended to do is put the mt bun trays in some of the parking bays that i needed to be mt so no one could park in them n i could get out,wish u all the best with it.
Cheers for that, although I’ve heard all the horror stories I am looking forward to it if it happens. I know I’ll change my opinions though lol
It dont mater what the job get in and earn money .
Keep it legal 100% and safe.Make a note of where your delivery’s are etc and if they try to shaft you on anything ie the agency tell them what they wanted you to do ie break the law and if they dont pay up you’ll shaft them in the courts…and the company you did the work too . The agency have a duty of care too they can be done for allowing you or encouraging to break the regs
It’s about time companys were shafted and also the drivers willing to brake the rules for the sake of the job
nick2008:
It dont mater what the job get in and earn money .
Keep it legal 100% and safe.Make a note of where your delivery’s are etc and if they try to shaft you on anything ie the agency tell them what they wanted you to do ie break the law and if they dont pay up you’ll shaft them in the courts…and the company you did the work too . The agency have a duty of care too they can be done for allowing you or encouraging to break the regsIt’s about time companys were shafted and also the drivers willing to brake the rules for the sake of the job
Funny you should mention that…I’ll be calling up VOSA tomorow and asking them to send me out a copy of the new updated publication GV262, which is the book of all the regs and stuff. That way when I’m asked to do something that isn’t legal, I can show them the rule book as to why its not legal, and then if anything happens from there on I can then take action against it, such as court for constructive/unfair dismissal and a reporting to VOSA for encouragement to breach the rules I’ll do whatever it takes to pass the 5 day training, but after that I’ll make sure im 100% legal!
monarch of the highway:
i worked there at weekends on agency about three years ago when it was golden west distribution,the main agro then was 1 getting in n out of some of the stores lost count how many times they sent me to a store i n a forty footer that had clearly marked on the delivery notes ridgid vechile only,2 the trailors inside could be a nightmare specialy the frozen side with ice on floor n wheels on cages frozen ,3like mantioned can be a lot of moving about inside trailor with having to move mt cages n ambiant prouducts to get to the chilled or frozen bullkhead,on the plus side it all depends wot run u get some times id get say 4 drive thrus in south wales in aday which wasnt to bad other days u could get 5 town centre stores in south london which can be a real nightmare, however i found u could always get maps of how to get to the stores from the blokes in the office at bassingstoke and most of the phone nos for the stores were on the paper work,ithink the easyest day i had there was 2 drops on the isle of wight,dont no wot the moneys like there nw but i was on about 13 quid an hour on a sat and about 16 on asun ,it will certainly improve your driving skills lot of blind side reversing,but if your sensible n stay calm get out n look if not sure or ask one of the blokes in the store to watch you back you should be ok,the biggest problems with the drive thrus is u mite get in but when you go to leave u find mr n mrs and there four kids have parked there passion waggon rite in the way,so wot atended to do is put the mt bun trays in some of the parking bays that i needed to be mt so no one could park in them n i could get out,wish u all the best with it.
monarch did you work for work force solutions then bein about 3 years back !!!