Applied for job at Bibby’s new depot in Corby. Trouble is you have to do 12 weeks temp to perm with an agency, Direct Workforce and they are already messing me about.Come for an assessment next Wednesday - so I booked a day off. Now they want me to go on Monday to register, then have to be assessed at a later date, meaning another day off. Anybody know anything about either organization? Should add I’m in a full time, reasonably secure job,but am tempted by the prospect of easy work and better wages. Ta in advance.
Can you get a written temp to perm guarantee?
do’nt trust agency’s as far as you can throw em,if you are working for an agency and go to work for their client in a proper job the firm has to pay the agency for you,if they do’nt want to part with the brass where does that leave you 
Twice today I was on the verge of ringing to cancel the registration ceremony. Good job I didn’t - got back to our yard this afternoon to find the administrators there, complete with security guard and two (very aggressive) dogs. So from wondering whether to go to the interview or not I’m now depending on it…hoping to do a bit for a bloke I know in the meantime. Have to say I’ve never experienced anything like this before and it ain’t pleasant. Worst of it is we haven’t been paid today for last week and obviously won’t be paid next week for this week, if you follow - although the administrators give you a form to fill out and some sort of government redundancy scheme pays you what you’re owed, but the process can take three to six weeks. With fiendish timing my mortgage payment goes out tomorrow.
Having said that, a young lad at our place (young to me that is, he’s mid-twenties) was on maternity leave this week and just popped in this aft to pick up his wage slip. Just what he didn’t want to hear, with two kids under three.
I worked for Bill Chippington Haulage out of the Corby depot. So I guess it’s Goodbye Mr Chips…
Forgot to say, so much for a reasonably secure job…
vinegar joe:
Twice today I was on the verge of ringing to cancel the registration ceremony. Good job I didn’t - got back to our yard this afternoon to find the administrators there, complete with security guard and two (very aggressive) dogs. So from wondering whether to go to the interview or not I’m now depending on it…hoping to do a bit for a bloke I know in the meantime. Have to say I’ve never experienced anything like this before and it ain’t pleasant. Worst of it is we haven’t been paid today for last week and obviously won’t be paid next week for this week, if you follow - although the administrators give you a form to fill out and some sort of government redundancy scheme pays you what you’re owed, but the process can take three to six weeks. With fiendish timing my mortgage payment goes out tomorrow.Having said that, a young lad at our place (young to me that is, he’s mid-twenties) was on maternity leave this week and just popped in this aft to pick up his wage slip. Just what he didn’t want to hear, with two kids under three.
I worked for Bill Chippington Haulage out of the Corby depot. So I guess it’s Goodbye Mr Chips…
Thats a [zb] , i had that happen in the eighties to me, lucky i went home first to drop off some stuff…had been out for 3weeks in Spain, Subbing but with their truck and trailer.
Missus told me it happened two days before , ( no mobiles then) I hid the trailer and went back with the unit , to be told “tough” no money for me. They had no idea about the trailer for weeks ! I kept that trailer for eleven weeks and spent two nights with the boys in Blue , finally I did a deal with the Heavies they sent around to harass me and got paid in cash…RESULT…returned the trailer with a mates unit.
Couple of days later it was nicked by someone !!!, Hahaha. Perhaps another driver wanted it in lieu of wages.
I imagine now it would be off to jail for doing that…Ooh the good old days
Chase any work you can find, its always easier to leave a job for another than from the dole queue ! Hope all goes well .
vinegar joe:
Twice today I was on the verge of ringing to cancel the registration ceremony. Good job I didn’t - got back to our yard this afternoon to find the administrators there, complete with security guard and two (very aggressive) dogs. So from wondering whether to go to the interview or not I’m now depending on it…hoping to do a bit for a bloke I know in the meantime. Have to say I’ve never experienced anything like this before and it ain’t pleasant. Worst of it is we haven’t been paid today for last week and obviously won’t be paid next week for this week, if you follow - although the administrators give you a form to fill out and some sort of government redundancy scheme pays you what you’re owed, but the process can take three to six weeks. With fiendish timing my mortgage payment goes out tomorrow.Having said that, a young lad at our place (young to me that is, he’s mid-twenties) was on maternity leave this week and just popped in this aft to pick up his wage slip. Just what he didn’t want to hear, with two kids under three.
I worked for Bill Chippington Haulage out of the Corby depot. So I guess it’s Goodbye Mr Chips…
sorry mate, hope it all works out for you, and the young lad.
Hi mate,
Was it Bill Chippies that the administrators were in at? Did some casual work for em a few years ago when Mick was there. I know they’ve been selling some trucks recently, but they must have seriously hit the skids if admins are in. If you want some decent clean work pm me and i will give you the number of the bloke i work for. I was trying to get in at Bibbys, but their website says no vacancies
Thanks all. Got interview Monday, chill (roughly translated as gardening and housework) Tuesday, and I’ve got casual work Weds Thurs Fri. Life goes on. Indeed it must - got to put food on the table, as they say.
I’ll post this on the Bill Chippington thread but I promise you Chippie won’t be the last reasonably-sized family firm to fold. I was only talking to a driver from one such the other day at Baldock - neither of us could see how ANY company ANYWHERE could make a profit. Everyone’s chasing the same work, cheapest rate wins. Price of diesel, parts, tyres, a constant drain on resources. Empty mileage on the increase. Rates cut to the bone. The lad I was talking to said his firm had run him empty from Dundee to Northampton twice in two weeks.
vinegar joe:
Applied for job at Bibby’s new depot in Corby. Trouble is you have to do 12 weeks temp to perm with an agency, Direct Workforce and they are already messing me about.Come for an assessment next Wednesday - so I booked a day off. Now they want me to go on Monday to register, then have to be assessed at a later date, meaning another day off. Anybody know anything about either organization? Should add I’m in a full time, reasonably secure job,but am tempted by the prospect of easy work and better wages. Ta in advance.
I can’t confirm, but according to various sources Direct Workforce is owned by Bibby’s, FYI.
Ta for the info. Bibby’s are a major concern - I’m sure I read recently that they had bought out Hallett Silberman, and I know they own Taylor’s of Martley.
Me again, fresh from my interview at Bibby’s. If all goes well with the driving assessment tomorrow, I might be in the happy position of having to choose between being a number for a large national concern or a name at a smaller local - but well-established - outfit. In the current climate it’s perhaps no bad thing to be the former, but I worked at Wincanton for Argos at Corby and that closed down…I prefer working for smaller family concerns so buggered if I know what to do.
On a different tack, I called at the local Jobcentre today to register as unemployed. Although I have work for Wed/Thur/Fri this week, I’m still technically unemployed today and tomorrow. A non-starter, I’m afraid. Apparently you don’t qualify for benefit for the first three days of unemployment. But why not? And why three days? I’m unemployed for those two days, no money coming in, I’ve paid NI since 1977. Maybe if I’d said I was a gay Moslem with eight kids I’d have qualified for a few bob…anyway rant over, if that’s what it was. Back to my boozing - that’s what you do when you’re out of work ain’t it?
It can be pretty brutal when a firm closes. The administrator’s job is to protect the assets and to stop people from stealing and vandalising.
I remember when a Thorn EMI factory got closed down - the workforce went home on Friday, came back Monday, to find the gates chained, security with dogs, the full bit. They were escorted in two by two to collect their personal kit, and that was that. A year or two earlier they had closed a factory in London. They called the workers together on Friday lunchtime, told them sorry and all that and handed out the wages and redundancy cheques. Then the workers just wrecked the place. What they couldn’t carry off, they smashed. Once bitten twice shy.
Yeah, my first thought on Friday when I found out we hadn’t been paid was that I’d at least have a full tank of diesel for my car. Manoeuvred on to diesel pump (out of sight I thought) with fuel card in hand, but yer man was there in a flash. Asked what I was doing, I told him, he smiled and pointed to the gate. I glanced at the dog’s teeth and drove off.