Matthew Clark?

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Got an assessment/induction on Monday for these guys. Ongoing through agency at £12.50p/h.

I’ve heard it’s hard work but wondering exactly how hard it’s likely to be?

I’m not one of those guys who refuses to do any manual work and I enjoyed the few shifts I did for Yearsley. I’ve found I’d rather do eight drops with some handball (none of it was very heavy) as opposed to 15 pallet drops where I’ve got to find the place and maybe wait in a queue - most of food drops were schools etc and didn’t seem to be much waiting on arrival.

Still being a relatively new driver I’m finding that the bits between the drops are where I lose the most time, driving around looking for places and losing ten mins each lap of the block due to city traffic, but when I get there I can be pretty swift.

Main concern is that the location/access is likely to be harder than industrial estates as likely to be pubs etc. However, I’ll have a driver’s mate so looking forward to some company and having somebody to spot me on tight manoeuvres/back me out etc.

2

Worked for DB Schenker yesterday and turned into a 13 hour day with four pallets brought back. 18 drops/collections on sheet and took me over an hour to get loaded and lots of wrong company names (e.g. name of account rather than company I’m delivering to) and even had couple of pallets which had wrong label on and weren’t even for that customer which wasted lots of time.

3

Worse job will be full returns, but you get a drink in every pub. You normally see the same person and place stock where they want it.

4

I imagine the drivers mate will know all the drops

5

Sounds good mate. That’s my main issue being a new driver and only having lived here close to two years (not explored the city that much).

6

Main worry is the difficult access compared to industrial estates. Presuming lots will be in town centre.

Hated driving a 26t around tight city streets with cars parked on every corner!

7

Tailschwing:
Main worry is the difficult access compared to industrial estates. Presuming lots will be in town centre.

Hated driving a 26t around tight city streets with cars parked on every corner!

Makes you a better driver & who doesn’t like a challenge!?

8

One of my agencies called me today, offered me an unpaid 4 hour induction with M Clarke next monday…mon-fri, heavy handball, no drivers mate, 8-10 drops/shift, 11 p.h. no mention for overtime. Class 2. Told them to find someone else :slight_smile: I think there might be money collection involved as well so nooooooooooooo way.

RE: DB Schenker I’ve done twice, regretted both times, 2nd time called agency mid-shift to tell them I won’t be coming back tomorrow. Had an hour+ delay because my load was a mess, 1 palet was broken stacked overlapping on top of another, 1 had the load sticking out to the front abt. 25cm and a bit to the side, 1 pallet was missing so had to go find FLT boss to go look for it, found it but it had been forked through which I suppose is why they didn’t load it in the first place (although loading manifest stated the pallet had been loaded), oh the pallet was broken as well…while he was re-shuffling my load we had to stop so I could move my truck because an artic was waiting to tip on my bay, ended up blocking another driver who wanted to go, had to move again, FLT driver ditched me to go unload the artic so I had to go find another FLT fellow, after everything was done I was in Birmingham 9 a.m., with 12 drops/collections on the list, managed to do 10 (well, 9 really)

The 5 or 6 chicks sitting around in the office love to call you every 60 mins to ask “How far are you?”, “Did you do X?” “How long before you do X”? “What time did you do X at?” “Have you done X already? Ok, when are you going to do it? 30 minutes? So can I call you back in 40 mins then? -Yeah” 40 mins later “Hi did you do X? -Yeah -When? -10 mins ago -OK ty. What about Y?”

I was collecting a pallet, all done, phone rings “Hi this is clueless person #1 from the office, how far are you?”, “I just did a collection from X”…went into the warehouse to do the paperwork, 1 min later I’m entering my truck phone already ringing again “Hi, this is clueless person #2 from the office, how far are you now?”, I said “I’m sorry, someone else from the office called me literally a minute ago” -Oh, ok. Wasn’t me. Anyway, how far are you with your list at the moment?" :imp: :imp: :imp:

16:15, had to take a 30 min soon, called office to ask them to check on my last 2 drops, if they are still open past 17:00-17:30. Ok, 2 mins. 10 mins later, started my break. Break nearly finished, still no call back from helpful office staff so I call again 16:50ish asking the same question “one place is closing 16:30 the other one 17:00. Just head back to the yard” :cry:

This company is a joke.

9

Sounds about right!

I had one delivery where the address on manifest was wrong site. The guy in office was like “well, the one on paperwork was right!” :confused: How am I supposed to know when I’m working from the manifest as they told me to…

10

Tailschwing:
Sounds about right!

I had one delivery where the address on manifest was wrong site. The guy in office was like “well, the one on paperwork was right!” :confused: How am I supposed to know when I’m working from the manifest as they told me to…

Our place is getting like that. Only took a few times to twig that addresses need to match before I set off. If they don’t it’s a call to unplanner to decide then not my problem if anything late waiting for them to get back to me.

I want our unplanners watch as his call in 5 turns to maybe in an hour !!

Put it back in their court every time !!

( and unplanner isn’t a misspell. Everything they plan unravels so it’s a new nickname drivers have for them )

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

11

Some areas you will find people out to rob off anything they can while you are delivering. I recall Corn St Bristol being a nightmare

12

dcgpx:

Tailschwing:
Sounds about right!

I had one delivery where the address on manifest was wrong site. The guy in office was like “well, the one on paperwork was right!” :confused: How am I supposed to know when I’m working from the manifest as they told me to…

Our place is getting like that. Only took a few times to twig that addresses need to match before I set off. If they don’t it’s a call to unplanner to decide then not my problem if anything late waiting for them to get back to me.

I want our unplanners watch as his call in 5 turns to maybe in an hour !!

Put it back in their court every time !!

( and unplanner isn’t a misspell. Everything they plan unravels so it’s a new nickname drivers have for them )

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Problem was that it was a valid address, just the wrong site so had not way of knowing.

13

SouthEastCashew:

Tailschwing:
Main worry is the difficult access compared to industrial estates. Presuming lots will be in town centre.

Hated driving a 26t around tight city streets with cars parked on every corner!

Makes you a better driver & who doesn’t like a challenge!?

I agree in principle but could do without the hassle right now tbh.

Last time I drove a 26t around the city centre I ended up catching a van illegally parked on the corner of a tight turn in. It resulted in not being offered any more work by that company, who prior to that I’d worked for every single week day for over a month.

Couldn’t have come at a worse time as my new ST was then nicked two days later, costing me around £2k in excess fees and vehicle rental!

I’ve only been driving class 2 for six months and still struggle with the tailswing on the huge box rigids with removable trailers - especially around tight residential streets!

14

I don’t work for Matthew clark but we do he same work and they are using the same system as we do rely on your drivers mate to organise the drop order as if you follow paragon you won’t get home till late.
Generally it’ll be some kegs and lots of soft drinks. Trolleys to door maybe up and down some stairs so don’t overload your trolleys.
Driving in city won’t be that tight as we tend to get the drops the Matthew clark don’t want as they can’t get in there, generally parking however will always be a nightmare and might require a bit of a trek from truck to drop if you can’t get outside.
Rural drops are usually a doddle.
MIght have to collect some cash but most customers will be on account. Customers are usually pretty sound,however there opening times make the job a lot harder than it needs to be.

It’s hard work, it pays reasonably well and I’m a hell of a lot fitter than I was when I started.

15

I worked at the York depo for 5 years just left a month ago planning is shocking you go into 10.5 tonne 28 drops all by hand you don’t get enough time to have a drink let alone do the drops you can get a 3 tonne drop and get 40 mins to do it that includes opening curtains picking it delivering it and getting it all checked seriously would consider going elsewhere I still wonder why I put up with it 5 years.if you injur your hand all you get asked is was your load restraints on not that that had anything to do with it lol.it can be really stressful especially at Christmas time

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

16

Cheers for the feedback guys.

So how would you say it compares to pallet deliveries in terms of difficulty? I’ve done quite a lot of that.

I also quite enjoyed working the chillers for Yearsley as never get stuck trying to deliver ton pallets of bricks with a manual pump truck to companies who you were told have a forklift but actually don’t.

17

Tailschwing:
Cheers for the feedback guys.

So how would you say it compares to pallet deliveries in terms of difficulty? I’ve done quite a lot of that.

I also quite enjoyed working the chillers for Yearsley as never get stuck trying to deliver ton pallets of bricks with a manual pump truck to companies who you were told have a forklift but actually don’t.

Given that I used to do pet food for Vital so used to get 14 drops a day which was varied pallet, handball and forklift it’s a lot more hard work. You will feel pushed, if you can’t getake it donwas in time then put it back in the planners hands.

As jjbainbridge85 said some drops are ridiculous and that down to a computer doing the routing and it allocates time per kilo. Not real life.