Hello and thanks for having me on your forum.
My question if you’d be kind enough to give me some advice is: as a newly qualified hgv driver would I be better working for Stobart’s or Maritime? I have interviews for each over the weekend and beginning of next week. I’m looking to gain experience but finance is a big factor too. Thanks in advance for any advice offered
You’ll find either to be a massive learning curve, so go for the money.
Good luck.
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Maritime pay more than Stobarts, a lot more.
Hi Timbo,
I don’t drive anymore, but I know quite a bit about Stobarts and Maritime in the Yorkshire area, so I thought I’d give a hand! 
I presume it’s Stobarts out of Sherburn, and if so it will be fairly clean curtainsider work, mostly out of Coca Cola in Wakefield. Stobart pay works-out as about £9 per hour Monday to Friday days, and £10 per hour evenings. That is VERY simplified. Very cushy and easy distribution centre work. The trucks are decent, trampers get new Volvos, and day men get a different truck every day, but none are older than 15-plate. I couldn’t fault the management when I was there, they left you to it and never pestered you. If you’re out of Goole, it will be Tesco store deliveries, which is a different game altogether. Lots of tight manoeuvres in ridiculous spaces. If you do this, get a good truck SatNav, otherwise you’ll do something very stupid, and get stuck down a lane in inner-city Manchester. If you start, you’ll do a 2-day induction in Warrington, and probably shadow another driver for a week or so for him to show you the ropes (on full pay).
I haven’t driven for Maritime, but I’ve done a lot of dealing with them over the past, and I know a lot of drivers. They have decent trucks, all new, and as far as I know you’ll get the same one every day. Out of Leeds it will be container work around the Yorkshire area, so expect a lot of waiting and sitting-around at rail ports waiting for your container. The pay is better than Stobarts too, that’s a fact.
Big downsides to Maritime are the crap management, who will literally squeeze every last second out of your driving time, no matter how against common-sense it could be. They also pester you by phone, asking you to meet unrealistic deadlines. They also have driver-facing cameras in their cabs, so you will be recorded all day, and pulled-apart by the management if you do anything wrong. The majority of people will tell you that there’s a big “them and us” culture with the planners at Maritime.
Overall, you’ll get paid better at Maritime, but I feel that you’ll be more miserable and stressed there. Being pestered all day by phone and having a camera pointing at me all day isn’t my cup of tea at all. The pay at Stobarts is less, but the planners never pester you, and leave you to it, so it’s probably more relaxed in that respect, but both firms will want to get as much graft out of you as they can, it is a business after all. I know a few lads who went from Stobarts to Maritime, and then came back.
Good luck anyway, I’m sure you’ll make the right choice! 