I did some short term Class 2 work for Brakes on agency last year making deliveries to restaurants such as ‘Frankie & Bennys’ and to pubs, on delivery the pallets had to be stripped down, the goods loaded onto a sack truck then placed where the customer desired, this meant a lot of wheeling in and out with the sack truck and the tail lift was up and down like a yo-yo and on the first drops if the customer had frozen goods behind the bulk head the chilled pallets had to be moved out of the way in order to get to them and then put back again once the order had been delivered so all in all it was quite labour intensive but I was left to work at my own pace and whilst I wouldn’t describe wheeling stuff around on a sack truck as hard work per se the handball involved did have a gradual wearing effect. The goods delivered were frozen chips, meat, ice cream, fresh fruit, milk, pop etc all the stuff you would expect a typical restaurant to need really.
They were quite ‘hot’ on H&S and there seemed to be a form to sign and a policy for everything, (although personally I don’t view a firm wanting to take care of my well being as a bad thing), so lots of paperwork.
Shift lengths and driving distances varied depending on the allocated run, I would say that the average shift length would be around 9 hours and driving distance around 150 miles, although these are really broad figures as stating them accurately is difficult due to the varied nature of the work, I found the routes to be very well planned with sensible times allocated to each drop and they were very understanding if you were running late due to being unfamiliar with the route or if you had encountered other delays.
In my experience they really looked after their drivers and genuinely seemed to want to run a happy ship, allowing drivers a choice over which routes they wanted (within reason) double manning the newbies and new routes involving restricted access, regular training sessions, good facilities at the depot, bonus payments, discounted hotels, gym membership etc.
I know that some comments regarding Brakes have been less than positive on the forum but in my experience I found them to be a well run and very organised company - who like you say do pay very well!
I only ever worked out of the Grantham depot so my opinion is based solely on my experience at that one location.
I would give it a go and judge it for yourself, if you don’t want to commit to a full time position, try it out via agency first.
