Does anyone on here have any good insider info about the Sainsbury’s RDC at Dartford?
Info such as conditions, wages and any other useful info about the job would be great? Good points, bad points?
Decent shifts/runs or ALL London, Which driver agency do they use? Who’s running it? Wincanton or some other?
I’ve done all the others in the past; Waitrose, Tesco, Safeways, etc
I’ve been off HGV’s a couple of years now (Driving a van) but haulage is still in my blood and I really do fancy
keeping my hand in doing odd weekends on the agency, because I’ll probably go back to HGV’s full-time eventually,
and don’t want to be to rusty when I do.
Just curious to see how or what has changed at Sainsburys now, as I used to do it regular out of their Hackbridge
depot years ago (Who could forget reversing down the slope onto those bloody tight loading bays?) and I loved the
job back then. Has it got better (Or worse!!) 
Thanks
If you like 6am starts monday-friday, and having to do 40 hours before you get offered anything in double digits per hour, then it’s ok I guess.
Oh, It’ll be umbrella as well.
I wasted a day there thinking I was signing up for weekends and nights only to be told “you only get that when you’ve put in your 40 hours on earlies weekday & on umbrella first” FFS it’s like trying to buy a washing machine at Comets, and all the bod wants to tell you is “about this 5 year warrantry”… Blah blah!
They could have saved my wasted time for me by just telling me “Sorry, we can’t help you.” at the outset. Some foreign bird with a name like a famous female whodunnit author seems to be running the show there. She expects you to work the first day or two for the firm for free as well as an “unpaid assessment” which won’t take longer than 8 hours a day apparently. Whooppee! I only have to donate 16 hours wages on the off-chance I might get a shift or two after it…
I’d already “passed” their 85% pass mark disk-based test beforehand, so this isn’t sour grapes or anything.
Some other agencies inside the M25 are offering £9.00 per hour, but that’s still not worth commuting for. From agencies inside the M25, I’m looking for assignments inside the M25 with the rates that go with it. 
We sub contract to them through trg using our own unit.
I only do a few nights here and there.
The works good i useally do more kent, surrey, essex more than inner london.
First day bit of a pig ie goning through the paperwork, they want everything written down ie time depart trailer no time arrived location break times.
But the jobs a doddle.
But still prefer tesco anyday no paperwork.
Ahh yes. TRG - the umbrella central that offer new sign-ups a kickback if they’ll recruit other drivers onto their books…
Sounds like multi-level marketing doesn’t it?
I thought that was illegal, but those in suits decide what’s legal and what’s not, and the likes of me don’t matter a ■■■■ to them.
All I can do is “avoid” firms like this.
It doesn’t matter how much of a doddle a job is to do if the payrate is low, and admin responsibilities are high - especilly on the “paying a commission for each block of work” front. £27 for a single 8 hour shift loses the most, whereas £27 for a full week’s work might seem " a price worth paying" to some.
Meanwhile, someone collects these £27 payments and shuffles a few bits of paper around, and gets to live in a nice house and drive a flash car while the slaves go about the daily business.
Serfdom = Umbrella working.
What happens when you have an accident at work, or take time off sick, or get a bill from HMRC, or chased for “compliance” rules… or pay twice over for your holiday pot (deducted from your pay, kept by the firm, then your own pay is given back to you as holiday pot… ) You didn’t get a lot for your £27 did you? 
You need £18ph to make it pay. I foolishly turned up because I was told such rates “are available on a regular basis”. Total lie of course. THESE are the people that “lie every time their lips move” - a tarring that seems to have befallen all other agencies alongside them, even the honest-joe PAYE ones. 
Winseer:
Ahh yes. TRG - the umbrella central that offer new sign-ups a kickback if they’ll recruit other drivers onto their books…
So is going through this TRG - Umbrella thingy the only route into Sainsburys on agency work? Or do they use other agencies like ‘Best Connection’ etc?
I can remember doing supermarket agency work over 10yrs ago and getting £16-18ph for working Weekends, and now it seems you’re lucky to get a tenner an hour in some of them. How times change eh? 
I think trg have it pretty much sorted with sainsburys and tesco.
What are you looking for odd days or perm, nights or days ?
Do you mind going through the pipe to thurrock doing tesco ?
It is not a site operated by Sainsbury. It is run by DHL.
Lennoxtown:
Winseer:
Ahh yes. TRG - the umbrella central that offer new sign-ups a kickback if they’ll recruit other drivers onto their books…
So is going through this TRG - Umbrella thingy the only route into Sainsburys on agency work? Or do they use other agencies like ‘Best Connection’ etc?
I can remember doing supermarket agency work over 10yrs ago and getting £16-18ph for working Weekends, and now it seems you’re lucky to get a tenner an hour in some of them. How times change eh?
I think driverhire put bods in there as well. TRG are not the only agencies used at supermarkets, although ADR seem to have morrisons, Nisa, and Iceland pretty wrapped up. More umbrella…
They seem really keen to get you on the early starts, as the availability seems to be the cannon fodder of duties there. Great if you like earlies, and prefer hours to decent hourly rates, but no good if you want to pick and choose the more plummy shifts like me. You have to “earn the right” to pick up a plum weekend/night shift at the higher advertised rates of 13-14ph Essentially, do 40 hours of monday-friday first. As overtime, them rates don’t look so good as they did as straight-out-the-gate shifts do they?
karl67:
I think trg have it pretty much sorted with sainsburys and tesco.
What are you looking for odd days or perm, nights or days ?
Do you mind going through the pipe to thurrock doing tesco ?
Well I fancied a change and I’ve been doing a van driving job for a couple of years (Cushy little job, lol) so
just want a couple of odd days every month to keep my hand in. So the money is not really main priority!
Aye, I would go through the pipe to Thurrock. How I wish one of these supermarkets would open an RDC
in West Sussex though, I’d do it full-time… Supermarket work is a dawdle and easy money!!