Hey,
I passed my hgv class 2 last June and have since been working for G4S on 7.5t vans doing cash collections. I thought they would of put me on to the trucks considering they paid for my training but havnt, so I decided to start looking for HGV jobs and applied for Brake Brothers in Aylesford Kent. I had an interview and driving assessment which went really well apparantly, considering I havnt driven since my test. Anyway they offered me a job at 31k a year, but I have heard all kinds of bad things about working for them, just wondered if anyone on here as any experiance of them? Im a new driver so getting experiance is kind of important at the moment…
You will only ever hear bad things about any company, the best thing to do is go in and see for yourself.
If someone had offered me that sort of money, on a permanent contract, while I was still trying to get experience I would have bitten their hands off!
All I’ve heard is that it’s hard graft ■■■■■■■ all the deliveries into pubs, restaurants, canteens or hotels etc in fact some places like you to put it away in their store cupboards/fridges sometimes up flights of stairs and can be quite a few drops too but maybe that’s why they pay a reasonable wage, I used to work with someone who did it for a while and he lost a couple of stone in the process.
I was only dubious as it does seem good money. But they could take the mick a bit potentially as it is a salary so could be doing crazy hours. Im use to doing 50 hours a week or more so not a big deal but if you break it down hourly it can be a poor wage. But it is a decent wage for a newbie if you do the advertised 45 hours.
Im used to fairly hard work with G4S 40 jobs a day carrying coin and backwards and forwards to jobs getting in small spaces on the van with body armour etc
Cheers
Phill
I was only dubious as it does seem good money. But they could take the mick a bit potentially as it is a salary so could be doing crazy hours. Im use to doing 50 hours a week or more so not a big deal but if you break it down hourly it can be a poor wage. But it is a decent wage for a newbie if you do the advertised 45 hours.
Im used to fairly hard work with G4S 40 jobs a day carrying coin and backwards and forwards to jobs getting in small spaces on the van with body armour etc
Cheers
Phill
they can only make you work 48 hours a week (averaged over a certain number of weeks).
carryfast-yeti:
they can only make you work 48 hours a week (averaged over a certain number of weeks).
WHO IS GOING TO ENFORCE THAT
the driver will,ROG! Brakes not a cowboy outfit are they? we do plenty of long shifts at our place,and get lot’s of short shifts and/or ‘stood down’ days to compensate.
Not done Brakes but did similar a few times on agency.
Never had to put anything away as most places don’t want you messing up their store room, plus they want to check the stuff off. Plus bottom line is they don’t trust someone strange not to nick stuff.
Some stuff will be humped up stairs, but in my experience most store rooms are on ground floor - the staff don’t want to lug things up and down either. Plus there’s the risk of trips and falls so they don’t want you wandering too far.
Bottom line is they are paying you a lot more money than I get for class 1 ADR nights for a reason (even if I do plenty of overtime). It’ll be a bit of graft but there are limits to working time. Salary is good as you don’t worry about low weeks such as after Xmas.
Personally I’d go for it even if its 6 months, plus it keeps you fit.
I started out with DBC (now gone) doing similar work.
20-30 drops a day usually schools, but also servicing factory / office canteens, public buildings, prisons, some butchers & corner shops etc. Also we had the contract for Cafe Nero shops and used to run 3x 18t to central London 3 days a week each doing 20-23 shops with a cage or two for each.
I was a relief driver so got to cover whoever was off so I was always having to navigate and find my way around.
It was a hard graft job, early morning starts and physical as often you’d have to pull cages some distance from where you could park or carry stuff upstairs. Then when you got back around 3pm or later you’d have to reload for tomorrow. We were paid on 48 hr weeks so if you knew the system you could get done in about 43hrs. If you got a couple of bad ones you’d have do loads of extra work for little money. They paid an overtime rate but only after you’d been on shift for more than 50 odd hours as they’d suddenly stop the breaks, then the o/t rate was your average hourly plus about 30p. The extra hour overtime would involve a lot of extra work to get.
As a new driver it was a job I said I’d never wanted, multi drop, central London and early starts. I did it for 9 months and left for a more interesting line of work, however it was the best thing really as I was always driving something different would have to route plan and it really sharpens up your skills learning how to manoeuvre a vehicle in and out of so many different places.
Ultimately when I wanted to move on I had a lot of experience and confidence that would have taken a lot longer to acquire if I’d landed the easy first job that I thought I’d wanted to get used to it.
It’ll be hard graft and not for everyone but I’d not rule it out as a foot in the door.
