warehouse worker

truck driver

driver

order picker

forklift operator

Culina-Group

The company requires employees to work 12 hours a day, pushing them beyond human limits. The pick rate is continuously raised, while the business keeps declining. As a result, it becomes extremely difficult for employees to meet the company’s high-performance standards. The management is completely inhumane. Even experienced employees struggle due to the chaotic order flow, outdated order management systems, and poorly structured managerial practices, which make work stressful and challenging.

The so-called “bonus system” designed by the company is essentially hollow, as only a small number of employees can achieve it. While it may appear lucrative on the surface, meeting the standards is incredibly difficult. Many employees refrain from even going to the restroom in their efforts to meet the company’s demands—success still depends heavily on luck. If you fail to meet the standards, team leaders will interrogate you one by one, creating immense pressure.

Most team leaders spend their time wandering around the warehouse chatting with others. They are unfriendly to employees and behave rudely. When you need their help, they are often nowhere to be found. The company frequently changes its work requirements, sometimes weekly or even daily, adding unreasonable rules for employees to follow. There are far too many strange rules to list here. For example, after picking items, employees must print a QR code, and the company demands that the sticker be perfectly aligned on the item.

Additionally, employees are often required to stack heavy goods very high. Shorter colleagues sometimes cannot reach the stacks, but the company does not allow others to assist them, completely disregarding employee safety and well-being. Due to the high-efficiency demands, everyone is constantly rushing, making the warehouse a hazardous place without any team spirit. The work environment fosters selfishness among employees. It is common to see pickers racing each other to finish their tasks quickly, creating further chaos.

This is the worst warehouse I have ever worked in. Working here does not bring any sense of fulfillment or happiness. Instead, it feels like living as a slave in a hopeless environment. Despite being a positive person, the experience heavily demoralized me, leading to my decision to resign and seek a better job. Now that I have switched to a new job, I feel much happier. Looking back, I realize how mentally and physically exhausting it was to work for that company.

The biggest issue is that the management does not empathize with, respect, or value employees. They also fail to provide any meaningful assistance or guidance for employees to improve, which makes the working environment unbearable.

The outdated order system requires you to manually calculate and input the remaining total into the handheld scanner after every pick. If you make a mistake, you’ll have to find a team leader for help, but they are often nowhere to be found. This process has to be repeated every time you pick an item—it’s truly absurd!

The company doesn’t provide enough PPTs (Powered Pallet Trucks) and handheld scanners for employees. As soon as workers arrive, they have to rush to grab the tools they need to start their work. Even employee benefits, like desserts, need to be fought over, while the management gets to take them freely and early. This system is extremely unfair.

In this company, from the very first second you start work until the very last second you finish, you’re constantly competing for something. It creates a deeply unsettling and unbalanced work environment.

Picking/packing is as you'd expect and operating the MHEs/forklifts is pretty interesting and exciting to start with. Can be very long shifts, especially if you aren't used to it and can also be physically demanding at times (I usually pass out immediately on getting home, but maybe that's just me), but it's overall it's pretty stress-free and easy to keep busy, however at times there is literally nothing to do, which is really boring, but you're still expected to find something to do (e.g. sweep a  floor that's already been swept ten times in a row). Some managers are literally always looking for you to make a mistake/constantly watching you like a hawk for no reason instead of chipping in and supporting, and other managers think it's a free for all and lean against pallets for hours talking with their buddies while the drivers whiz around like headless chickens, occasionally jumping on broken pallets to 'fix' them instead of taking the time to use a new one - literally one extreme to the other, depending who you get. Financially speaking, it's not that great, even though the hourly rate sounds amazing, it's terrible for affording rent/bills because of the weekly pay (which also takes a lot of getting used to if you've never had it before) and despite it supposed to be consistent and the same/average amount every week, it's never been the same and often has much less than you expect (but they always find a legal loophole to find a way around it, so no point even trying to report it). You end up having to work 2-3 days overtime each week on top of the normal 4 days, just to keep up with the bills, but half the time they don't even have overtime because they always give it to the same people, so you still can't win. Never allowed to go home early either, unless you're dying or it's a literal emergency, even if there's no work all day. No uniform provided, you have to buy high viz, boots, thermals and everything yourself and then eventually you can 'apply' for uniform/lockers, if you're lucky. Best thing is some of the colleagues there, even if most of them (including Team Leaders/Managers) have their own 'cliques', but there's a few regular staff who are good 'uns and make it worthwhile. 

It's worth it as something to pass the time and get paid, but not something to be considered in the long term as it's freezing cold most of the time and pay is so erratic. So, great if you're a teenager, just want a bit of extra cash or you don't have to worry about bills too much, basically.

Very rude people works here in Transport department.  Very stressed Class 1 ( C+E) driving hours.  They don't like talking to their drivers on the phone.  They look down at their drivers who are doing a very highly skilled job compared to them in the office.  Expect to work 15 hours days/night work, 5 days a week.  They pretend to follow the Tachograph/working times rules but don't.  They don't appear to maintain their HGV's or trailer very well as they have high turnover of drivers that appears to damage them on the regular basis.  They employ a lot of Agency drivers but they don't follow the rules of tachograph so they gets a lot of infringements that could cause a lot of problems with VOSA DVSA if stopped by them.

Warehouse loading the lorry/trailers with chilled food were regularly loading them with broken pallets/goods to German supermarket Distribution Centres that Drivers were expected to replace the goods onto new pallets everyday.  

Everyday you had to go in a different lorry Scania, Mercedes, Volvo.  Too long with the debriefing twice everyday where the office staff makes you feel bad every day with the waiting and derogating have we done this or not!  Recently they had a lot of drivers and workforce with Flu illness, but they didn't allow the workforce to have time off to recover properly.  In fact they sack them as they did with me.  A lot of emails or mobile ringing is needed every day?  

Collecting food from the suppliers was a slow job as they weren't always aware we were coming for the collection as the office haven't told them so had quite a few cancelled collections from the suppliers.

Money/Salary would have very good if I hadn't  been made redundant/ sacked had I had enough time to stay there.  Life was hard here but with money coming in, I just put up with the pressure/demand hoping life will get better.  Transport/driving in UK is a tough career with DVSA, Police breathing down your neck with fines/penalty everyday of your working life.
CML does regular drink/drug tests, even in the Interview before offered the job.

Now I have decided to hand in my Class C + E HGV licence as it a tough career to be these days.  Thanks CML for ending my life/career today.  Good luck to successful driver working for them.  Won't be long before it ends!

I work nights and nights start between 12 noon and 11pm days start 11pm to 11am .on nights you finish your shift and must ring in later to get your start time and run for your next shift , its a pain to be honest as you sometimes ring in and find your starting in 1hr .There is no give in the management its the culina way or the highway. Culina make VOSA look soft there so fastidious about the rules your in and out the office for every little thing i/e one minute over the 6hr rule ,time sheet not matching tacho, over revs , harsh braking ,idling time,fuel figures , your always told if you do wrong but never told thanks for doing well. Dont try to park up at 13hrs if you have a 15 left or your in the office. parking fees take a month or more to get back and even asked to put fuel in unit when ran short on my credit card and had to wait month to get it back. Change your run at the drop of a hat making it a night out . Dont ever let them know your not happy with your run as there just waiting to get you in that office again . Miss a mark or scratch on your unit or trailer check sheet even if it has been recorded 1000 times and your in the office.Salary paid monthly but dont forget its the same money no matter how many hours you work. Hardest part of the job is Culina and its rules.Best part of the job ? sat thinking for 20 mins and dont know what to say . Great place to work if you like going in the office for a kicking.

Agency been here 3weeks (ish) and my god i cant wait to be put elsewhere. Lets start from the beginning.
Trucks share the carpark so trucks are hard to get out and park up.
The interview was simple, fill a few pages in, then a 4 page questionare while they copy your licences. They take you to a room for drug and alcohol testing. Pass that then you go out with the inteeviewer for a shifr.ge then assess your driving then start next day.
Evry day you have to hand over all 3 licences to bevscanned with dvla licence check codea and repeat this every shift.
Working houra can ne 8 hours, 15 or night out but dont tel you.
The teucks range from 17 to 69 pla
Tes, but you cant just get in and go, you have to be assessed on each truck, so 1 for merca, 1 for mann, 1 for daf etc. You then have 1 defect sheet to do your truck to show damage (which is alot of) then ypure expected to pull 4 different trailors in a shift but only 1 diagram to highlight damage.
Trailors are battered, covered in gouges and sxrapes.
The runs are simple BUT youre either waiting about for hours to be loaded or tipped or sent on runs that push you to uour time linits. I regularly do 11 to 15 hour shifts.
The people can be nice, but really dont care about uou. They moan when you have time off. I really cant qait to leave.

What can I say? This is probably one of the worst warehouses I've ever worked at first. You seem to think that this place is going to be a fantastic place to work in. You are shown 3 days or free nights of pick training and PPT training. Then you're given 3 months to hit a Target or 300 cases per hour which sounds simple. But that's 12 hours. 4 days or four nights. 48 hours in 4 days or nights. There is no room for error. Team leaders will start to bully you to hit the targets when you need to find team leaders for stock checks. 90% of the time they'll be outside smoking cigarettes management from upstairs pushes management downstairs to push staff even harder and harder. There is no sick pay. If you do have time off through injury or sickness through working in a chill store, you're then disciplined when you come back. There is no place to move forward in the company. Favoritism The attitude there is do as I say not as I do. I don't lead my example. They just threaten and moan. I can only say move on look elsewhere. Shame on you culina for the way you treat your staff maybe if any CEO or management read this review actually ask your staff one to one about their opinion of the company

so take to say the main issue here is the target's , not put the target for every day after volume of work and  not interest about volume of work when say is imposibile to do your target with this volume of work yes if the management work more close with employee and check why is not your target so high like some people wich like magic have all good orders on his scanner . is not sooo gooood work place the volume of work is not same with target and not investigate further why is low your target exemple is , have 100 locations from this 100 location you must pick at least 1000 items bot reality is you have just 2 maximum 8 items per location usualy , manager take you to office and not see you have bad picks and heavy items just check the numbers and start to explain to you you must have this number if not have this number you are FIRED in one WEEK wich is not right . for a great work place try to be more apropiate to your employee than just number and again numbers
And lower the targets or at least put on category , heavy a number of items per hour  , lightly a number of items per hour  and light  NOT LIKE NOW ALL ITEMS HEAVY AND LIGHT SAME PICK RATE

If you want to wait 2-3 hours for a vehicle or trailer that is roadworthy, do 15-hour days, and have poor standards, then you will fit in perfectly. If you do your job correctly and report all defects to protect your license, you will become subject to a clandestine witch hunt. That's what happened to me, and they fired me a day before I was due to hand in my notice (it was common knowledge that I wasn't happy with the total lack of standards) I could have appealed, but I received the written notice of my dismissal 4 weeks after the hearing, and therefore I had missed my opportunity to appeal because Culina have an appeal time scale of just 5 days from the date of the official written notice...and that had long since lapsed, as the notice was dated from the date of my hearing. In short, do not trust them. They will draw you in with tales of how fantastic they are, but you will soon see their true colors. They could offer me 3 times my salary to go back there, and I would not hesitate...I would turn them down in a heartbeat. I have standards, and they are way above Culina.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There are some really good people in the company. They offer some smoking benefits.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
You constantly feel like you are failing a test you didn't know you were sitting. Anyone new to the companies Transport department is not given the training they need to fulfill the role they have been employed for. If your face doesn't fit, you will struggle. I don't want to comevacross as a disgruntled ex employee. This us just my experience.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It is very busy and stressful working environment however once everything is done you genuinely have a good feeling of a job well done. However it can also be a very toxic with the goal posts constantly moving.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It would depend who was on shift. If you had the right team on it was a great place to work. I really liked Culinas business model. How the bring companies into the fold but let them keep their identity.

With a 7am start its quite easy to arrive for work on time all of the time. Days of work are carried out in chilled conditions although warm clothing is provided. They consist of order picking with battery operated pump trucks. ther are also varied types of MHE carrying out daily operations like replenishment putaway and loading.
Direct management are generaly helpful and focused on achievment of KPi's. Senior management tend not to be seen within the warehouse and mainly communicate by telephone or email.
The general workforce is multi-cultural but also helpful and friendly.
The hardest part of the day is the long shift. Twelve hours working in the cold does take some getting used to. The most enjoyable part of the job is the shift pattern, its a continental 4 on 4 off shift and is great for spending time with family and for being able to get things done like shopping, banking and appointments.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Warehouse worker 16 salaries reported	£33,315 per year
Truck driver 16 salaries reported	£38,216 per year
Driver 1 salary reported	£41,460 per year
Order picker 5 salaries reported	£12.70 per hour
Forklift operator 2 salaries reported	£40,687 per year

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