Hi all
This is my first post, but then I figured it was appropriate as I’m about to start my first full time LGV driving job.
Been doing regular weekend work on agency (mostly Lenham Storage Waitrose runs with the odd couple of single drop artic runs) so not a total novice, but still probably nowhere near as experienced as most of the members here.
Despite my lack of experience I managed to pass my interview & assessment at the Co-op depot in Andover & have been offered a full time job as an LGV C+E driver on the 1pm-4pm shift.
I tried to get as much info as possible at interview, but I am aware that they sometimes don’t give the full story as by all accounts they’re kind of desperate for drivers at the moment (which could explain why they were happy to take me on considering my lack of artic driving experience) & I still have a couple of things which would be nice to have an idea about before I start:
how does the rota work? I’ve hear that you work most weekends & that really isn’t that much of a problem for me as I’ve not had many full weekends off in the past few years anyway, but how does it all run? Is it a constant pattern or is it completely random? is it 4 days on 2 days off or 3 days on, 1 day off, 2 days work etc?
how far in advance of your shift do you know where you’re going? When I do my weekend runs, I find out where I’m going the night before, scout the drops on Google maps & program the exact point & sense check the route that my Chinese sat nav gives me. However, given that this job is £100 a week more than I’m currently on I’m looking to invest in a Garmin Dezl truck sat nav for £250 which seems to get really good reviews & could hopefully keep me out of trouble if I don’t find out where I’m going until I get my keys.
how true are the stories I hear about having to wait for hours before being able to depart? Is this a side effect of another rumour that I’ve heard too - that you aren’t allowed to return to the yard until your planned return time? I would have thought that if they were constantly waiting for vehicles, that they’d be glad of a couple of early returners.
What are the average runs like? I’ve had some tell me 8-9 drops, others tell me that there aren’t that many drops, but you end up taking a 2nd run out when you return & also a few people have told me that 14-15hr days are a regular thing, but surely it’d be difficult to keep working times legal at that rate.
I’m hoping that by opting for the later start times, I’ve given myself a better shot at breaking myself in gently as there aren’t a massive amount of 24hr stores in the area & most close at 10pm, so wouldn’t have thought that the runs would be as heavy on the PMs as they are on AMs. The flip-side is that my artic reversing isn’t all that great & when the nights start getting darker the visibility won’t be great, but at least there may not be as much traffic around while I make a hash of it.
Hi waue1978,
hope I can help
i worked at andover so hope i can answer your questions
you will work weekends but it all depends on how the planners work your rota, but you can pretty much guarantee you will be working a sat or sun, i worked a 4pm to 7pm shift, and i generally had sun/mon off or sun/thurs off
2.You will not know what store you are going to until you pick up your route on shift, don’t panic, you are given fantastic risk assessment cards that show you what roads to use and what to look for when you get to store, , you don’t really need a sat nav as the pda they give you does have built in sat nav…plus a tracker
Generally you are not waiting for hours, only if you are listed as a SPARE, 99% of the time you will be out, forget about the return time, that’s for the planners, you need to cover a 9-10 hour working day, sometimes you will do that in one run, sometimes in 2
When i was on earlys (4am-6am)i was doing 15 hour days and around 12 drops on 2 runs, but the later in the day you get, then basically the less drops you get, on the 4pm-7pm run i was doing 2 drops…pewsey and westbury
don’t panic fella, its not a bad company, i left because i went back to tramping, forget about the bad news, your only picking up on it because you are nervous, enjoy and good luck…
Thanks for that Shaun. I’m happy that I made the right choice now.
Most of the bad new stories I’d heard had been from people who were there in the first couple of years & a few from people that didn’t want me to leave my current workplace.
Some of the stores can be very tight to get into.
I worked for Exel - Somerfield years ago which now belongs to the Co-op.
So just take your time and look first before you drive or reverse into anywhere.
If you get given maps etc they should point out any hazards but just use your loaf.
Steve66:
Some of the stores can be very tight to get into.
I worked for Exel - Somerfield years ago which now belongs to the Co-op.
So just take your time and look first before you drive or reverse into anywhere.
If you get given maps etc they should point out any hazards but just use your loaf.
Funnily enough, I’ve found myself checking them out as I pass them on my travels now to get a feel for where I reckon I’d park if I was delivering. Some of them do look to be a right pain, but hopefully they’d be assessed as rigid only!
commonrail:
when i worked for coop alfreton(agy)i never did any shops.all i did was collect produce from farms etc.
Considering how hard some farms can be to find & the sort of roads that they’re usually on, I’ll stick with wheeling cages into shops.
I’ve pulled loads out of Alferton( old depot ) and Cardinal ,just trunk runs to lea green ,Birtley ,port bury ,Bridgwater ( think its closed ) ,Thurrock ,easy work ,also did collections from farms ,suppliers and then took them into there dc,s ,never struggled to find any and as I wasn’t one of there drivers I didny get a map as far as I can remember