Desperate for work yesterday i went into Stobarts Appleton. Got given a 40 mins speech and 9 sheets of paper how to pick/drop a trailer. Got told if any blue pallets went missing they would take it out of my wages!
My first job was to show a lady with 2 small kiddies my wagon i pointed at it and said there it is. She then said the kiddies (3+5) wanted to go around the yard getting the reg numbers. She should of just said she was mentally disturbed and not blamed the kids.
Anyhow i asked where to check oil etc as been driving volvos for 8 years. Was told its a brand new wagon it wont need oil (it was an 07 
).
Told to report to Tesco Middlewich for Leeds Bond St in the city centre which was a nightmare to find. Was supposed to do 2 runs but they were on the batphone to me all the time saying i had to do an extra one. I was delayed on the first one so was late for the second whch had gone and i never mentioned the third ones So Leeds and back and that was it . NEVER AGAIN.
I wont work for them either, went to tesco depot at Goole never again.
i pulled a stobbies trailer with a tesco unit a while back. I found myself embarrased by it for some reason. If its true that they are taking over all tesco deliveries i wont go back. I wont work for stobbies!
I posted threads on here before and obviously people don’t read them 
they’re a complete nightmare of a firm, not to mention totally bloody incompetent 
if this is the future of the logistics industry then there should be public announcements on tv and radio warning of such. 
i had to collect a unit from crick…i went to the unit-locked up.i went to an office that looked like a traffic office(downstairs)they ignored me for ten minutes then sent me upstairs(they might as well have said’you ■■■■■ at the end of the sentence.).
up the stairs to mission control houston.tv screens everywhere,people everywhere.have they got any keys for so and so? no (they may as well have added ‘you grubby looking man’).
i went downstairs again…but got no where…so went back upstairs and was not having a good time of it till i mentioned that i didn’t mind as i was charging by the hour…oh we don’t have to pay for collection etc…no you don’t but the guy who owns the unit does…
oddly keys arrived after 5 minutes from under the desk i had been standing at for 40 minutes.
how they make any money i’ll never know.the yard is always full of units…always…day or night there must be at least 20 units.sometimes double that.
went out today , started 5.00 a.m and finished 16.00 , 11 hrs and got one phone call saying pick up delmonte ,york.
left to get on with it , as it should be , maybe it depends what depot you run out of
I dont think i would of minded backhauls or RDC work but i dont want to do shop work for another company. Been doing it for Somerfields for 8 years and its nice to finally know where to go for paperwork etc.
I do a lot of yard shunting for them now and one thing i always do is look after new drivers and show the where to go etc. Shunters used to scare the ■■■■ out of me years ago when i first started 
I believthere is something going on with Stobarts, and it’s not quite kosha.
They are heading for a big crash unless they have government backing.
The margins in haulage aren’t that great so how can they keep up with the rising costs and still be able to buy out all these transport firms such has Irlams.
It doesn’t matter how desperate for cash I was i would never lower myself to work for Stobarts, they alone are responsible for the downfall of the tansport industry in this country.
There used to be joke going about that the scouts have stopped doing bob a job week as Eddie undercut them.
These days it’s not funny, it’s true.
I dunno Okey,
They might have strange work policies mainly involving lots of paperworks and over the shoulder watching BUT it is obviously working damned well for them!
I for one am glad to see a British company doing so well in the modern climate. Sure a lot of drivers might not agree with how things go but to be honest who cares.
If doing what they do is what you need to do to survive then either all the other companies are going to follow suit, or they are going to go down the pan.
At the moment it looks like the latter, and Stobarts are picking up whats left.
I’ve never worked for them and if I did then I probably wouldn’t like it, as a driver, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect them as a successful British company.
Alex
Dont get me wrong the truck was spot on clean and tidy. Was told i was never to run bent etc but the ■■■■■■ who done the induction just talked down to me. Especially when he told me i would be billed £260 for pallets if i mistakenly left the somewhere. I was sorely tempted to tell him to stick it then. But i pride myself on being an expert when it comes to working with numpties 
Especially when he told me i would be billed £260 for pallets if i mistakenly left the somewhere.
How would they enforce that, issue you with a on the spot fine. christ if you could’nt count you could owe stobarts a few hundred quid after a weeks work. 
codge123:
Especially when he told me i would be billed £260 for pallets if i mistakenly left the somewhere.How would they enforce that, issue you with a on the spot fine. christ if you could’nt count you could owe stobarts a few hundred quid after a weeks work.
strange as all our pallets are all one way 
I was told you had every chance of bringing pallets back and they could not be left on trailer you had to see forkie guy in the yard.
The more i think of it the more i see the guy as a big fat fish in a very small pond.
Could of give the truck a better name than ‘EDENA’ tho. My girlfriend rang me to ask the name she got told to ■■■■ off
Lash, I think you were a bit unlucky mate, I have worked many times at Appleton, and never had a bad day with them.
Like at any transport place theres prob good and bad. Like shunters some are ■■■■■ and me i will go the extra mile for a new driver on the site.
okie-didley-dokey,thats a big statement to make"they alone are responsible for the downfall of the british transport industry".
Please back this up with some facts as being a driver with them i can’t wait to hear them.
LASHHGV:
Tesco Middlewich for Leeds Bond St in the city centre which was a nightmare to find. .
Is that the old safeway at the side of the multistorey?? Blind side reverse with people trying to get into the carpark and people coming round behind etc etc . If so i know it very well! 
jase:
okie-didley-dokey,thats a big statement to make"they alone are responsible for the downfall of the british transport industry".
Please back this up with some facts as being a driver with them i can’t wait to hear them.
read the papers, read the trade mags, they undercut any contract they want.
they run some contracts at a loss, they treat their staff as comodities not as people. This thread shows what one driver thinks about them, and I know of other drivers that have left because of their attitude.
Because of their abillity to raise money to take over contracts at the expense of other smaller hauliers competition is nearly non existent, therefore ratyes are crap, wages are crap, more and more unworkable legislation all based on the Stobarts business model.
As I said they are single handedly responsible for the downfall of the brittish haulage industry, so take your green tinted specs off and look at what your company are doing.
codge123:
Especially when he told me i would be billed £260 for pallets if i mistakenly left the somewhere.How would they enforce that, issue you with a on the spot fine. christ if you could’nt count you could owe stobarts a few hundred quid after a weeks work.
so what happens if you bring extra’s back? do you get a wedge of money in your hnd■■? idont think so so bow locks to that idea!
I would second that. I went to deliver some stuff in Crick many years ago and was treated as crap and I didn’t work for them. They spied on me when reversing between their shiny trucks, and accused a fellow trucker of smashing into their trailer. I witnessed the so called crash. The geezer( Italian) didn’t touch the Stobart trailer, the damage must have been done before. I spoke up for our Italian friend and an enquiry began. We got chucked off Stobarts truck park and made to park some distance away. Anyway after some 5 hours we got tipped and were sent on our way. Never heard anything since.
I would say Stobart has had a catastrophic impact on british truck companies, but he has been pretty much left to his own devices without much protest.