When I started working for Tuffnells I had 0 clue what I was meant to be doing, so I just started doing what other people were doing. Nobody was there to tell me what my job actually was.
Absolutely r*tarded how much stuff comes down the conveyor. Wagons unloaded at a rate much faster than people can move stuff. This leads to tables that are teeming with packages.
Pushers are yelled at and called monkeys by the degenerate higher-ups when they have to turn off the conveyor when boxes are literally covering their line of sight. They have 0 respect for health and safety.
On one occasion a group of workers were unloading a wagon full of 2-man-lift lengths, and the driver just started pulling out while people were still in there. Someone literally could have died if they fell down there. About 10 minutes later one of the team leaders pulls everyone aside and gives a bullsh*t speech on how health and safety is their top concern, not even acknowledging what just happened. I was in awe at the amount of brain power on display by those chimpanzees.
I work 9 hour shifts and get 2 half hour breaks. Never feels like enough for what they put you through. Packages are labeled with '2 man lift' and 'team lift', but obviously those are only a suggestion.
Wagons are labeled in ways that make it almost impossible to see where you are meant to be going. Wagon labels are strategically placed in ways that make you want to reconsider this whole "living" thing. They are hidden behind
I Was a 7.5 tonne truck driver, when I started I was supposed to go out with another driver for 2 weeks for training but instead I was expected to go straight into the job on day 2 after only having 1 day learning it all. Us drivers were always late leaving depot due to warehouse not loading the trucks on time which made your whole day late. Was expected to deliver far and wide and traffic staff never took into account distances between delivery addresses so you were still expected to get it all done even though there might be 20 miles between each address. Traffic staff would speak to you with disrespect when you phoned them to tell them you're having to bring back deliveries because you have ran out of time. No in-truck mobile phone supplied so were expected to use your own mobile phone. I worked Mon-Fri and no weekends which was nice but that's it, I would be out from home at 7am and I didn't get in until 8pm most evenings so the weekends were ruined because I was too exhausted to do anything. You are expected to physically handle 75kg of weighted parcels on your own and there aren't enough sackbarrows for each driver to have one on their truck so a lot of the time you have to try and carry these items to customer's addresses. If you're not coping and you tell management, they don't care, all they say is that "it's the nature of the job". If you breakdown in the truck after 4pm then good luck, I didn't get home until 1am in the morning and nobody in the office rang me to
Prosgave me the opportunity to drive 7.5 tonne and mon-fri working
Conslong hours, rude staff, trucks falling to bits, enormous pressure to get deliveries done.
Tuffnels Coalville Leicestershire
Job started ok as delivery driving goes,
Then progressively went down hill ,
Night shift loaders haven't got a clue even though you have done them a load plan they couldn't stick to it , pallet deliverys buried under other deliverys with no pallet truck loaded, deliverys that require 2 man lift ( engines , treadmills , beds and mattresses and rolls of turf which took 3 men to load are just some of the items expected to be delivered by 1 man ! Routes are a shambles postcodes out of your area frequently added , most drivers are willing to help each other in swapping parts of areas to aid each other , but management refuse to listen to ideas put forward ( what can you exspect from a traffic manager that's never been out delivering in a van let alone a lorry )
Only paid from 0730hrs to 1730hrs. Despite if you have late collection or get back later than 1730hrs. On average I clocked up 3-4 hrs per week ,when questioned about this the manager face the universal reply. " we're looking into it "
Holiday have to have 8 weeks notice. They also refuse holidays at certain times of the year. Easter , Christmas holidays .
Training none existent ! Promised training to class 2 , nothing came of it
Be warned. Work for these so called " people who care ". At your own peril !
Be prepared to be messed about and have a stupid amount of drops ! Oh and don't fall for there BS about they don't do or do very little private adresses !! At least 30%
ProsNone
ConsIf you like working for muppets this is the job for
If incompetence is a strong word to use about a company then it shows everyone just how troubled the management are at doing there jobs because they blame others for there attitude and behavior and running the depot..
The office staff do not know what they are doing and can not give correct information to the drivers or they say is no there one else to do the collection when there are drivers in the depot if your face fits you get away with anything if not you get all the work
you spend more time searching for addresses than delivering
there is no proper training done by qualified people just a video and a room on your own
you have to use your own property for the job and load your own van in the mornings spending at least an hour waiting for your paperwork and you have to provide your own mobiles at the cost to you for there work
driver complain every day as runs are too big and have no time for breaks because all management want is the deliveries and collection doing you have between 40 to 60 drops and collections a day
overtime is paid at normal rate and you are expected to do it.
agency drivers and regular drivers come and go like the weather changing and leave because of the above and more
To sum up the company its a big joke full of people who are misfits .
i would not recommend you working here unless you are really in need of a job
the job description for the role of driver is all a load of lies management do not care about you at all and the cust
I'm an experienced depot/transport manager, I was looking to get back into it after a break. I’d spent 14yrs doing the same role I applied for.
The depot I went to was one of those that if vosa/dvla had walked into it would have been shut down based on the driving records alone. I’ve been tasked with turning depots round before which took time and was given the space to do it, one depot even got an award as most improved in the last quarter, so thought why not
boy was I in for a shock.
The task was near impossible from the get go, the drivers records were abysmal, so many tacho infringements by every driver, driving no cards, vehicle downloads missed, missing miles, filing was all over the place, vehicle servicing records and chart in complete. The drivers went out with far too much on especially for some of the routes making it impossible for them if they’d followed the WTD/RTD rules, some didn’t have a clue on what the rules were, which was a quick fix information, I wasn’t given the time required to sort the rest out as I was pulled in all directions by one particular manager and it only takes one in this type of employment. The guy who I replaced used to work with me and his actions could’ve closed or restricted the depot license, but the manager I was under was only focused on getting the delivery numbers up and returns down, by any means, but everything has a limit
Needless to say 8 weeks was enough for me, this review is 7 yrs too late
ProsNone
ConsLong hours, no time, drivers rushed
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Exeter | 12 Jul 2019
Exeter Depot - great colleagues, bad management & false hope
Having worked in customer service for a short period of time (made redundant whilst on maternity and 2 weeks after having baby!! All after being promised time and time again by the general manager that our jobs were safe as rumours were going round) - all I can really say is my colleagues were amazing and I met a few fantastic people that are now good friends.
Unfortunately the management was very poor and god forbid you fall pregnant and have a bad pregnancy, my morning sickness led me to being late and then being placed on review for a few weeks whilst on another department one colleague who was always oversleeping and most days late arrival, well they wouldn’t dare put them on review.... I did feel very singled out just because I was pregnant!! I was even told by the ‘general manager’ “not to use pregnancy as an excuse” as I was about to once again throw up!!
A new manager was bought into our department who had a history of running businesses into the ground but she was more focused on getting me in trouble with the general manager and causing minor issues rather than progressing within our team and helping with our workload. She once actually went to the toilet to look for a colleague who had terrible bladder/bowel problems and told him it was unacceptable behaviour!!!???
I would not work for these people again if I was offered triple pay!!
Didn't fit in with the managers mates, so let go of at the 11th week mark. Asked to hand in resignation letter after being sacked! presumably because the Felling depot is losing at least one member of staff EVERY week!!!! and sacking someone will bring to the attention of senior management that something is wrong. Sacked by the dayshift manager as the general manager had to take an "emergency" telephone call - I suspect the emergency was the fear of having to do his job and sack someone himself :-(
Put out on routes I hadn't been train for and had no experience of, and then whined at when I brought deliveries back.Given wrong postcodes and had my dinner 45 minutes added in to justify complaint of only doing 3 drops in 1.5hrs!
No overtime pay so some weeks earning substantially less than the legal minimum wage. Many drivers coming in ill due to fear of losing upto £160 if you take one day off (lose your attendance allowance).
Many drivers actively looking for alternative employment, with many of the new drivers having no experience of multidrop at all.
A number of the lorries had problems with the rear door lock, leading to spending more time trying to get the door open than the deliveries actually took! Informed traffic office of problems. Had the same lorry three weeks later, with no work having been done the lock jammed completely after two hours.
This company has no idea when it comes to deliveries. Management dont know whats going on half the time maybe more. Promised a set route - "Never happened" Promised class 2 driver pay as i was driving class 2 vehicles - "never happened". You are given a list in the morning with 50-90 drops in no apparent order in an area unknown to you and are expected to route yourself. Then you get grief when asked why you still haven't left. Management contradict themselves continually saying " leave the deliveries collections more important" one day and then opposite the next day ?? No planning, Very little if any teamwork and never given the correct tools for the Job. Vehicles are in a bad state VOSA would do back flips, and the workplace environment is a health and safety nightmare. Very low morale, with the transport planners ( i use that term very loosely) just creeping around the management looking for praise all the time. The drivers ?? Well no consideration from any one in the office at all. Just avoid Yeh pay is ok but add another £4000-£5000 for the type of job this is. Will work you into the ground dig you out and work you into the ground again if possible. Don't know how they continue to operate to be fair.
Do yourself a favour and never work here! I came for one night and thats all it needed for me to make my decision to leave! the way they treat peoples parcels is abysmal throwing them around smashing peoples parcels left right and centre and the health and safety is some of the worst ive ever seen! from throwing car tyres around skimming everyones head which by the way 1 actually hit me but luckily it was a smaller 1 so no damage done. There is also way to many workers working in there for the size of the warehouse constantly having to carry heavy boxes , poles etc through confined crowds of people, They also do not follow covid regulations at all every single rule in the book gets broken in that warehouse. On top of all of this be prepared to get no training or help at all aswell as to be be spoke to like absolute sh**t I asked a foreign bloke where a certain parcel went and he told started swearing at me in his language and also expect to be shouted at every time you get something wrong although its your first day. Worst place ive ever worked rather earn no money then work for sh**t money and put myself at risk working somewhere unsafe and where your treated like complete sh**t
Worked through agency, had work all the time - no issues here. However the company is the Most disorganized company I've ever worked for! If you hope or expect for a career/promotion - you have more chances to win the lottery without buying a ticket. They would rather hire someone external in a leading role from food industry with no relevant experience, than give a promotion to someone who worked here and sacrificed everything for this company, someone that understands the way it works. People working 4 and 7 years were disregarded, unappreciated and eventualy pushed to the point of leaving. Job itself, if with the right management and organisation is not hard. Company does not care about you as an employee. You are just a number. Traffic clerks working for 4 months training managers and ops managers, I think this is saying it all.
From my own experience: decided to leave (working through the agency) Gave more than a weeks notice! And in return got sacked 3 days later just after Easter with no reason or explanation given! This is how company appreciates employees. Thank you for giving us more time to fu*k you over.
Prosnone
Questions and answers about Tuffnells
How are the working hours at Tuffnells?
Asked 30 Mar 2017
Great working hours.
Answered 29 Mar 2019
16 hours and wouldn't give anymore. FAVOURITISM going on
Answered 17 Oct 2018
Does Tuffnells require pre-employment background checks? What kind of background check does Tuffnells do and how long does it take to complete?
Asked 30 Mar 2017
None whatsoever!
No driving assessment or drugs test / A free for all .
Wait to you meet your colleagues!
Answered 23 Feb 2019
Criminal background record. Pre employment checks required, previous job experiences, questions arose in interview. I knew management from my employment at City Link Norwich.
Answered 8 Aug 2018
How often do pay and performance reviews occur at Tuffnells?
Asked 4 Jan 2019
It took them over 8 weeks to pay the bonus
Answered 28 Apr 2022
Ones a week
Answered 29 Jul 2019
How does someone get hired at TUFFNELLS? What are the steps along the way?
Asked 27 Jun 2018
You just ring up and as long as your 16 they'll take you on
Answered 30 Oct 2021
Just turn up.
Answered 19 May 2020
How did you get your first interview at Tuffnells?
