About to do some agency class 2 work for Matthew Clark in Glasgow and was wondering if anyone here works/has worked for Matthew Clark before and if you have had any good/bad experiences while working for them? Cheers
I worked for Matthew Clarks’ Runcorn depot 13 years ago, basically you’re an unglorified drayman. You’re delivering beers wines & spirits to retraunts, bingo halls, pubs & the like. That was 13 years ago but can’t say that its changed, good luck.
kennyv1986:
About to do some agency class 2 work for Matthew Clark in Glasgow and was wondering if anyone here works/has worked for Matthew Clark before and if you have had any good/bad experiences while working for them? Cheers
Really crap lorries, lot’s of heavy lifting and handballing. Be prepared to recieve a safety induction on how to lift safely and so on. The people are OK and, on the good side, every time I worked there, I had two mates with me. Heavy work, crap money (if the same agency I was with) but nothing really bad can be said about them.
orys:
kennyv1986:
About to do some agency class 2 work for Matthew Clark in Glasgow and was wondering if anyone here works/has worked for Matthew Clark before and if you have had any good/bad experiences while working for them? CheersReally crap lorries, lot’s of heavy lifting and handballing. Be prepared to recieve a safety induction on how to lift safely and so on. The people are OK and, on the good side, every time I worked there, I had two mates with me. Heavy work, crap money (if the same agency I was with) but nothing really bad can be said about them.
Im with Driver Hire Glasgow. I’ve already been told I’ll have some sort of induction in the morning and I’ll have a drivers mate with me. Was hoping for a less strenuous shift (have had shifts at Hebrides and Highland Haulage over the past couple of weeks) but it’s better than sitting about the house I suppose.
O, Say hello to Murdo from me, if you will ever come back there 
orys:
O, Say hello to Murdo from me, if you will ever come back there
I will do mate! Think I did a decent job so hopefully he’ll ask me back again 
kennyv1986:
orys:
O, Say hello to Murdo from me, if you will ever come back thereI will do mate! Think I did a decent job so hopefully he’ll ask me back again
If he’ll offer you to go to the Islands - GO FOR IT!
Sad think: obviously I did not did decent job for him, as I told him that I am available over holidays for casual work and he preferes to take on some agency drivers… 
orys:
kennyv1986:
orys:
O, Say hello to Murdo from me, if you will ever come back thereI will do mate! Think I did a decent job so hopefully he’ll ask me back again
If he’ll offer you to go to the Islands - GO FOR IT!
Sad think: obviously I did not did decent job for him, as I told him that I am available over holidays for casual work and he preferes to take on some agency drivers…
Sorry to hear that mate! I only did a days work for him but really enjoyed it - would certainly consider the island work if the opportunity arose. Told me to stay in touch with him so fingers crossed
kennyv1986:
orys:
kennyv1986:
orys:
O, Say hello to Murdo from me, if you will ever come back thereI will do mate! Think I did a decent job so hopefully he’ll ask me back again
If he’ll offer you to go to the Islands - GO FOR IT!
Sad think: obviously I did not did decent job for him, as I told him that I am available over holidays for casual work and he preferes to take on some agency drivers…
Sorry to hear that mate! I only did a days work for him but really enjoyed it - would certainly consider the island work if the opportunity arose. Told me to stay in touch with him so fingers crossed
Yeah, I came to him throught Driver Hire as well…
It’s small money (or it was few years ago) for hard work, but this is really decent place to work for, folks are all right, places to go are beatuifull and driving to Highlands and Islands is really good thing for a young driver to learn the things (I guess the 1986 is your birth year?). I learned a lot there!
But let’s go back to talking about Matthew Clark before pejcam23 will come here and blame me for pushing the thread out of topic again
orys:
kennyv1986:
orys:
kennyv1986:
orys:
O, Say hello to Murdo from me, if you will ever come back thereI will do mate! Think I did a decent job so hopefully he’ll ask me back again
If he’ll offer you to go to the Islands - GO FOR IT!
Sad think: obviously I did not did decent job for him, as I told him that I am available over holidays for casual work and he preferes to take on some agency drivers…
Sorry to hear that mate! I only did a days work for him but really enjoyed it - would certainly consider the island work if the opportunity arose. Told me to stay in touch with him so fingers crossed
Yeah, I came to him throught Driver Hire as well…
It’s small money (or it was few years ago) for hard work, but this is really decent place to work for, folks are all right, places to go are beatuifull and driving to Highlands and Islands is really good thing for a young driver to learn the things (I guess the 1986 is your birth year?). I learned a lot there!
But let’s go back to talking about Matthew Clark before pejcam23 will come here and blame me for pushing the thread out of topic again
Yes, I was born in 86, only got my license in October last year. Would love to drive that area of Scotland, no place better IMO!
But getting back to the thread topic, I’ve been told if I make an impression tomorrow and Friday, it could be a regular thing (ie will be working for them Tuesday to Friday every week).
…which can be very good thing compared to what Glasgow DH has to offer: I mean Harrow Green, office removals… This job is a hell!
orys:
…which can be very good thing compared to what Glasgow DH has to offer: I mean Harrow Green, office removals… This job is a hell!
Agreed - absolute murder!
Worked there for a few months through an agency (people for work I think) about six years ago and being honest that and flat pack, removals and all the other crap convinced me to get my class one.
Some of the drops are a nightmare though sometimes I had a couple of guys I think but it could still be quite hard boring work.
The fact I turned up for 2 months though means it couldn`t have been the worst as on some jobs I would just give the guy his keys back like that Allied mob for MFI for instance or ikea.
Getting the barrow under the boxes can be tricky and if you make a baws of it you will have bottles of spirits everywhere. 
It was my last ever class 2 job there and they gave me plenty of shifts which was handy as I needed cash for my Artic training so you will get plenty of work if you do a half decent job.
Hand balling hundreds of cases of beer, wine and spirits everyday wasnt for me but if you dont mind humphing then you will be o/k as there full time drivers seemed to like it and there transport guys are sound enough.
orys:
Really crap lorries, lot’s of heavy lifting and handballing.
how are the lorrys crap exactly orys.i used to work for the company that supplied and maintained their vehicles(which was done to possibly the highest standard in the industry(i have yet to see a service schedule better),the trucks were changed at 5 years old,so i dont see how they are crap.yes basic engined/spec vehicles,but far from crap!
buck73:
orys:
Really crap lorries, lot’s of heavy lifting and handballing.how are the lorrys crap exactly orys.i used to work for the company that supplied and maintained their vehicles(which was done to possibly the highest standard in the industry(i have yet to see a service schedule better),the trucks were changed at 5 years old,so i dont see how they are crap.yes basic engined/spec vehicles,but far from crap!
Exactly speaking: they are Ivecos, some much older than 5 years. Everything is rusty and dirty, the cabs was the mess and curtains were often teared and with some straps missing. Lot of dents and scratches arround. Forget about lorry washing from outside and from inside. Plenty of rubbish in the cab. But I have to admit - everything was roatworthy, and all that rattling things are only matter of comfort.
I drove only two or three of their lorries, but they are common view on Glasgow’s road.
Btw: isn’t it Ryder who supplies the lorries to them?
orys:
buck73:
orys:
Really crap lorries, lot’s of heavy lifting and handballing.how are the lorrys crap exactly orys.i used to work for the company that supplied and maintained their vehicles(which was done to possibly the highest standard in the industry(i have yet to see a service schedule better),the trucks were changed at 5 years old,so i dont see how they are crap.yes basic engined/spec vehicles,but far from crap!
Exactly speaking: they are Ivecos, some much older than 5 years. Everything is rusty and dirty, the cabs was the mess and curtains were often teared and with some straps missing. Lot of dents and scratches arround. Forget about lorry washing from outside and from inside. Plenty of rubbish in the cab. But I have to admit - everything was roatworthy, and all that rattling things are only matter of comfort.
I drove only two or three of their lorries, but they are common view on Glasgow’s road.
Btw: isn’t it Ryder who supplies the lorries to them?
yes it is ryder that supply their lorrys,and i know that it is company policy not to rent vehicles for longer than 5 years as they become a financial liability,.they used dafs when i worked there,so ivecos must be a matthew clarke stipulation ,as ryder does not use iveco,unless specified to do so.interior cab cleansiness is obviously down to drivers.
buck73:
yes it is ryder that supply their lorrys,and i know that it is company policy not to rent vehicles for longer than 5 years as they become a financial liability,.they used dafs when i worked there,so ivecos must be a matthew clarke stipulation ,as ryder does not use iveco,unless specified to do so.interior cab cleansiness is obviously down to drivers.
My company I working for and I used to work for for couple of years has it’s vehicles also from Ryder. And I can say that altough generally speaking they aren’t too bad, I had a few stupid situation with them, and I can say that if that’s the “highest standard of the industry” here, it can explain the Polish driver’s poor opinion on British maintetance standard… I described a few times my contacts with Ryder, use the search engine if you are interested.
But yes, it’s true, I’ve seen much worse places
Done it years ago so prob changed was just agency at the time they were desperate for drivers and was told if things went ok they would no doubt offer me a job.
I only did it for a few weeks, its not a bad number it can be heavy going but i don’t think it its as heavy going as likes of B&Q on class 2 where your lifting really heavy stuff and trying to fit stuff into flats or doing likes of John Lewis where you are lifting washing machines up flights of stairs to deliver to tennaments in glasgow.
Never had any induction or anything like that, one good thing is when you arrive they ask you if you have gloves, boots etc… leave them in the car because if you don’t have them they will give you gloves and boots, so its good for free stuff like that
I was out with two other drivers mates, they were good guys, they know all the places so don’t have to worry about finding anywhere and they also know what they are doing with paperwork and what goes where. All you really need to do is drive then help out unload, the unloading isnt that hard going its mostly one guy putting it off the truck then other two but it on barras and get it into the cellar. Even lifting the beer barrels off the truck they is a way to do it and its pretty easy.
I found it a good laugh, the other guys were cool, but then again i did it in the summer roasting hot summers day so ok standing about outside lifting stuff, some of the places you deliver to would give you a nice cool drink. With the weather we are having just know might be a right nightmare getting soaked.
Bad thing about it, i felt you were pushed on to get the job done, hassled unfairly time wise. We did Glasgow one day first two drops were in the south side, working our way east but for some reason third drop was way out the other end of Glasgow and it had to be done at 10am. So we wasted a lot of time trawling across Glasgow in heavy traffic to do this one drop then have to trawl all the way back to where we were to eventually head out east again. Which cost us a lot of time and the boss was on our backs about it. This was years ago before the 6 hour break thing, we got to midday were knackered and were delivering to a place with a chippy next door, so put it on break so we could get something to eat. The guy in charge wasnt happy sying no we can’t stop have to get moving, in the end we took the break i wasnt for movign till i was fed and watered.
Another time we did a pub in East Kilbride we werent trusted for some reason to enter the pub or the cellar, so was a case of take the stuff off the truck leave it at the back door while some guy who looked about 90 tried to humph the stuff into the pub, they had a huge delivery, after about 15mins he was knackered and had to go for a rest, so ended up taking well over an hour to do this delivery where if we had been able to go into the pub could have done it in 20mins. So again delayed so running late on the schedual again boss not happy at all, thought we were messing around.
This was years ago so maybe completly different, was not a bad number was certainly a lot better than a lot of class 2 work where you havent got a clue where your going and having to lift stuff off yourself. ONly bad thing as i said was i felt you were pushed on a bit much and geninun delay was treated as if you were skiving.
I worked at the Runcorn branch on agency about 10 years ago. Done a few months and got a warehouse job ‘shunting’ of a night. Turned out to be ‘picking’ but the money was good. The trucks were ok (DAFs) and the 2nd men knew the drops etc so it wasnt too bad. One thing thought there was a female manager, she was only skinny but she was a ■■■■■ to everyone and i would of happily dropped a pallet on her head. She sacked me cos i hurt my back and put it in the accident book cos it was there fault. One last thing when i left they paid me 3 weeks holiday pay by mistake. That paid for my class 1 