In Nottingham anyone know what they are like to work for?.
I’ve not worked for them but have experience as a customer. I imagine half of their deliveries are failed deliveries due to the fact they deliver to homes and if no-one’s in they take it back to the yard and try again another day. Suprise suprise there still isn’t anybody in, 'cos the occupants work for a living and as Home Delivery refused to give out delivery times or driver contact numbers, the customer has no way of knowing when, where, or if.
After a week of waiting past the promised delivery date for my BT broadband stuff, I contacted BT to cancel my order and contract only for Home Delivery to turn up while I was literally on the phone. That was their fifth attempt to make the delivery and I got my stuff by pure coincidence.
This was two years ago and things may have changed but as far as I’m concerned any company that uses Home Delivery isn’t going to win me over as a customer.
home delivery co as in hdnl?
if so i worked for them as a driver, and basically you hardly had failed deliveries, mayby 2 or 3 out of 180 drops lol. the drivers get one route, regular drops usually so even if they aint in you will prob get told where you can leave it by the house occupant or you use your head and find somewhere to leaveit, i found myself leaping folks fences just to leave a parcel etc
gogzy:
home delivery co as in hdnl?if so i worked for them as a driver, and basically you hardly had failed deliveries, mayby 2 or 3 out of 180 drops lol. the drivers get one route, regular drops usually so even if they aint in you will prob get told where you can leave it by the house occupant or you use your head and find somewhere to leaveit, i found myself leaping folks fences just to leave a parcel etc
Sounds good. If anything gets delivered here I haven’t signed for, I didn’t get it. I would be straight on the phone demanding to know where my stuff was and if they claimed it’s been delivered, they would have to prove it. If they refused to send me more I would have a lawyer on the case and they would have to pay for that too. I’m buggered if I would allow any company dumping my stuff in the street or at my door and thinking that was exceptable. I would punish them, time and time again until they got it right. Unless the company has it in writing from the customer that it’s OK to leave things lying around for anyone to pick up, they don’t stand a chance.
berewic:
gogzy:
home delivery co as in hdnl?if so i worked for them as a driver, and basically you hardly had failed deliveries, mayby 2 or 3 out of 180 drops lol. the drivers get one route, regular drops usually so even if they aint in you will prob get told where you can leave it by the house occupant or you use your head and find somewhere to leaveit, i found myself leaping folks fences just to leave a parcel etc
Sounds good. If anything gets delivered here I haven’t signed for, I didn’t get it. I would be straight on the phone demanding to know where my stuff was and if they claimed it’s been delivered, they would have to prove it. If they refused to send me more I would have a lawyer on the case and they would have to pay for that too. I’m buggered if I would allow any company dumping my stuff in the street or at my door and thinking that was exceptable. I would punish them, time and time again until they got it right. Unless the company has it in writing from the customer that it’s OK to leave things lying around for anyone to pick up, they don’t stand a chance.
stuff wasnt dumped at peoples doors or where joe public could see it, it would be in sheds or kids wendy houses, most of the time id speak to the owner of the house and they would tell me where to leave it if they wernt in, or there would be a note on the door. sheds wendy houses and greenhouse are acceptable places to leave a parcel aslong as it will fit, i had items i could post which i did every time.
of the 5 months i did that job i never had one parcel go missing, never had one person phone up to complain or put a claim in for a lost package, you obviously dont know the parcel business or you would know what the score is with them. some companies want you to note the colour of the front door or take a picture if you leave it. ive only worked for one parcel company who never let you leave it with a neighbour or anything and i asked about bringing parcels back and just told to leave a card and not to worry.
guess youve never done a 180 drop run in 4 hours then? plus when you do the same route over and over again you get to know who will take parcels for who and who wont, and also whos in and whos not in, if your at a door regularly and they aint in but the neighbour is and are happy to take it, you take a quick glance in the house your meant to go to see nobody then straight to the neighbour. i did 85 drops in one hour for this company because its job and finish and you get a set wage everyday + bonuses for more parcels so everybody wanted home quick. we had a guy who would do a 200+ drop run, leave by 8.45 and be back int he depot by half 12 with near enough every parcel delivered and all the collections done. this is because he has done this same route for the past 6 years and knows it inside out, who takes for who etc etc.
home delivery dont give out the drivers numbers because we dont get given a phone for the van so it would be our private numbers and the amount of times weve delivered on behalf of argos and then the customer moaned about how they were meant to get it before ten or something then have to explain near enough everything thats not bulky and under 25kg and we dont run to delivery times as we have too much to do.
so from what your saying about if you didnt sign for it you didnt get it, so even if the parcel was say in your shed or greenhouse and you got it but never signed for it you would still put in a complaint and make a fraudulent claim as you never recieved your parcel and then get the driver in {zb} for it. yea fair enough if you didnt get the parcel but not if you got it just because YOU didnt sign for it,
my biggest pet peve is if you know your going to be working when you order something GET IT SENT SOMEWHERE THAT IT CAN BE SIGNED FOR LIKE YOUR WORK OR ANOTHER ADDRESS AND STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT NOT GETTING YOUR PARCEL
gogzy:
my biggest pet peve is if you know your going to be working when you order something GET IT SENT SOMEWHERE THAT IT CAN BE SIGNED FOR LIKE YOUR WORK OR ANOTHER ADDRESS AND STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT NOT GETTING YOUR PARCEL
As a former parcels driver, I second what Gogzy says here. It’s because dishonest people make fraudulent claims for stuff that we have the rigmarole of “sign, print, date, time” and other associated crap.
I live on a large council estate, I wouldn’t trust my parcels being left anywhere. If it don’t fit in the letter box, take it back. Knowing the colour of my front door proves nothing other than the driver turned up. It doesn’t prove it was delivered or received. I’m as honest as the day is long 99.999% of the time but I’m damned if I will except a delivery that has been dumped at the door or left outside were anyone could take it.
My argument is that companies that allow this practice should be held to account, losing contracts if necessary. If they can’t be bothered to communicate with recipients; ie pass on driver contact numbers allowing a more personal arrangement such as, “Hello, I’m Bob from Home Delivery and I expect to be at your gaff between 14.00hrs and 14.50hrs”, they deserve everything they get.
The Royal Mail is trustworthy in my opinion and I am happy with their service. At least they leave a card informing me the item is at my local sorting office, available for me to collect at my convenience. I made this argument when cancelling my BT broadband and the lady at the other end was tapping in my point of view as I spoke. Whether that made any odds I will never know but at least it was logged. The lady at the end of the phone at Home Delivery couldn’t give a toss.
Gogzy, your comments have been noted and respected. However I would not buy from a company that I knew didn’t use Royal Mail or a company that refused to make arrangements other than expecting me to take the day off work. I’ve been in this game 37yrs and have done nearly all the types of job transport has to offer. I don’t envy you or the 180+ drops a day you are expected to do one little bit but between the three of us we have given jammy an idea of what is expected.
berewic:
I live on a large council estate, I wouldn’t trust my parcels being left anywhere. If it don’t fit in the letter box, take it back. Knowing the colour of my front door proves nothing other than the driver turned up. It doesn’t prove it was delivered or received. I’m as honest as the day is long 99.999% of the time but I’m damned if I will except a delivery that has been dumped at the door or left outside were anyone could take it.
My argument is that companies that allow this practice should be held to account, losing contracts if necessary. If they can’t be bothered to communicate with recipients; ie pass on driver contact numbers allowing a more personal arrangement such as, “Hello, I’m Bob from Home Delivery and I expect to be at your gaff between 14.00hrs and 14.50hrs”, they deserve everything they get.
The Royal Mail is trustworthy in my opinion and I am happy with their service. At least they leave a card informing me the item is at my local sorting office, available for me to collect at my convenience. I made this argument when cancelling my BT broadband and the lady at the other end was tapping in my point of view as I spoke. Whether that made any odds I will never know but at least it was logged. The lady at the end of the phone at Home Delivery couldn’t give a toss.Gogzy, your comments have been noted and respected. However I would not buy from a company that I knew didn’t use Royal Mail or a company that refused to make arrangements other than expecting me to take the day off work. I’ve been in this game 37yrs and have done nearly all the types of job transport has to offer. I don’t envy you or the 180+ drops a day you are expected to do one little bit but between the three of us we have given jammy an idea of what is expected.
yea when you get to know an area you know if it is safe to leave parcels (i did nice areas and i knew alot of people from school so it was always a quick call etc) if it was rough areas then obviously i wouldnt dare leave a parcel.
see HDNL cant give you a number for the driver as they would be giving out that drivers personal phone number which is against some law or something like that which you can understand why though wont give them out? you wouldnt like a company giving out your private number to some random?, ive only gave out my personal number once and it was on xmas eve and i had a shed load of parcels for once person (eg even if i delievred every single other parcel i would get sent back out with this lot as i had too many to go back with)
the thing with bt broadband products is when they are delivered it does say that no signiture is required and to be left in a safe place and then we have to take a note of the serial number. i understand where your coming from some companies do have some messed up rules and i never really liked leaving parcels but luckily everyone got their parcels because some people would leave garage doors unlocked or sheds unlocked for me if they knew they would be getting something.
as for cards every company who i have been out with delivering parcels for, dhl,amtrak,hdnl,apc,parcelforce have all got cards to put through the door explaining where the parcel is or if it has been returned.
parcelforce are one of the better companies to work for because you can leave parcels at the local post office to where you are delivering then put a card through their letterbox explaining what post office their package is at, i was their for 3 n a half weeks before xmas, never went back with 2 drops a day out of 90+ (size meant i couldnt leave them at the post office or with a neighbour.
as for the 180+ drops a day i couldnt keep up with it, i was knackered everyday when i got home and would usually just go to bed, my social life took a dive, i did a 218 drop one day and litterally passed out when i got home, because i hadnt taken one break all day and hadnt even stopped to go for a pee. its one of those jobs that if you dont run to every drop you wont get it done.
forgot to say that HDNL is pretty much owned by littlewoods so they aint exactly gonna lose contracts as they have all the main catalouge work and alot of argos work.
strictest day we had was when the nintendo wiis came out, walked into work with 500 of them stacked up against the wall.
everybody got dragged into the canteen and told under no circumstances are they to be left with a neighbour or anywhere else. we got told to ask for the named person on the package aswell. that was a bad day though which involved me getting the police to follow me for a while (95 wiis on board need i say anymore)
i was a owner driver and when i got to the yard to load up at 6 am i was confronted with 250+ parcels in my cage waiting to be loaded up!!
i got sick of doing 6am till 10pm diverlying the parcels but i did get a pound per parcel
this was with Business Express who have changed there name to Home delivery company who also brought out reality.
gogzy:
forgot to say that HDNL is pretty much owned by littlewoods so they aint exactly gonna lose contracts as they have all the main catalouge work and alot of argos work.strictest day we had was when the nintendo wiis came out, walked into work with 500 of them stacked up against the wall.
everybody got dragged into the canteen and told under no circumstances are they to be left with a neighbour or anywhere else. we got told to ask for the named person on the package aswell. that was a bad day though which involved me getting the police to follow me for a while (95 wiis on board need i say anymore)
i bet you hate it when they bring out there catalogs that needs to be delivered to peoples house’s
mickyblue:
gogzy:
forgot to say that HDNL is pretty much owned by littlewoods so they aint exactly gonna lose contracts as they have all the main catalouge work and alot of argos work.strictest day we had was when the nintendo wiis came out, walked into work with 500 of them stacked up against the wall.
everybody got dragged into the canteen and told under no circumstances are they to be left with a neighbour or anywhere else. we got told to ask for the named person on the package aswell. that was a bad day though which involved me getting the police to follow me for a while (95 wiis on board need i say anymore)
i bet you hate it when they bring out there catalogs that needs to be delivered to peoples house’s
hell no, saturday pay which was a minimum of 92 quid even if i delivered one catalouge and went home, then we got paid per catalouge after soo many, id regularly do 4-500 catalouges and make about 300 quid just for that one day and it was a case of scan then leave at the front door if you couldnt post it and youd do about ten in one street so it was a case of ten in your hands and just run with them.
i did 650 one saturday and got one of my mates to help me. still finished by half 12 from a 7am start, gave my mate 100 quid for helping me. the plus you could set the route out the night before and have everything in order so its acase of bang bang done, van loaded the night before, come in the morning and just drive straight out. the picking of the cats was the worst bit though.
well i had a big area to cover with 3 towns and 28 villages and i was doing this in a short wheel base transit which was filled to the rim everyday
yea i had 5 areas to cover with 3 or 4 wee villages in between.
an area from dalgety bay right through to kirkcaldy in fife,
i had one of the companies maxus vans which were poor vans tbh, on catalouge days the van would be half full
on parcel days especially up to xmas i would have it stacked to the gunnels from front to back with parcels filling the passenger footwell as high as the window. its not the best job if you are scared of workin because you need to basically run everywhere.
i loved it and would do it again but not on the same round and not as an owner driver which i know they have stopped
yea i enjoyed the money cause some weeks 6-700 a week after tax for driving a van and i was only 19 at the time so you know what thats like
i enjoyed the route i got given its just when i got put on some other routes i failed miserably, st andrews was probably my biggest failure because 80% of the parcels are for the universities or the student digs, some of the halls are easy to find and would usually take parcels for some people other places didnt.
the uni buildings themselves were a frigging nightmare even when i had a map of where each building was because they made you go to the right department and not just the mailroom :@
BT Broadband products couldn’t be claimed as not delivered and you still use it.
Once it has been plugged in it will show up on the servers.
Probably why they opt to leave the equipment…
It can be traced.
I worked at Nottingham depot for 2 years as reality and hdnl. Some gaffas are sound and some are egyts. I have been left two years now but the lads on the whole very very sound and always happy to help you. I had 10 zones and hated it 
But a job is a job and I held tight till I could use my class 2 license elsewhere and as I had bills to pay I just got on with it. Not an old mans job though, some of the poor sods doing 90 parcels a day for 20 years suddenly had 160 to do with more ground to cover and it hurt them badly with nothing from management other then tough 
But if you dont mind grafting then its not a bad job. There was a lot of bulls**t but you get that in any big depot there was about 100 drivers when I was there I am happier now with small team as we all just get on and help each other to get jobs done wether I drive artic or 7.5 tonner.
You boy’s must have been well peed off when some bar-steward invented the long wheel base van. More space, more parcels, more drops, longer hours. AARRRGGGHHH.
berewic:
You boy’s must have been well peed off when some bar-steward invented the long wheel base van. More space, more parcels, more drops, longer hours. AARRRGGGHHH.
nope we had regular transit vans (old reality) ldv maxus and my most hated van ever the ldv convoy. we stacked them to the gunnels though.
i think each depot had a different pay scheme, some by the hour some are set rates plus bonus for more parcels but as said its not for old men they do make you work your backside off, though you do get rewarded at the end of the week though.
also our driving asseser was a terrible driver lol. wanting me to drive a van by feeding the wheel? wtf no thanks.