truck driver

7.5 tonne driver

shift manager

clerk

client advisor

Tuffnells

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 pillars that you can't see without turning around, and if there isn't one their it's probably up high above the wagon itself, which poses it's own set of health concerns when you consider that you might be carrying a 'team lift' package over your head. It's only a matter of time before someone breaks their neck trying to figure out where something is going.

After midnight all of the wagon labels change and it becomes almost impossible to figure out where stuff has to go. Naturally they are labeled in numerical order... if you have numerical dyslexia. 1, 2, 3, 92, 5, 4, 23

Security is pitiful. The security guards would rather spend all their time clocking breaks than actually protecting the premises. Countless bikes have been stolen while chained up outside the warehouse. Hilariously Tuffnells offer a 'bike to work' program. I feel sorry for anyone who took up that offer. My belongings don't feel safe. Personally I haven't had anything stolen but I can recall multiple occasions where worker's bags have been rooted through and phones/wallets have gone missing.

Workers are so tense it feels like a fight is going to break out at any minute. A lot of people are chill and just want to get work done, but there are a good few outliers who seem like they are actively trying to stir stuff up. A worker was stabbed with a fork and had to have an ambulance called. Hilarious.

Some of the people who work there are alright, though it's probably a bad sign that 99% of conversations had in the breakroom are either about how dumb the team leaders are, how unsafe the workplace is or how too much stuff is coming through.

TL;DR

Unsafe workplace. Team leaders are apes with god complexes. Stupid warehouse layout.

Tips for working for Tuffnells:
- Ask for help if you don't know where something is meant to go. There's a good portion of workers who have the place memorized like the back of their hand who can tell you where a package you just spent 5 minutes moving is meant to go in an instant.
- Don't work too hard. Seriously. If you break your back clearing a table super quickly all that will happen is a team leader will come and yell at you for doing nothing once you're done.
- Don't argue with people. From my experience if you are involved in any kind of big argument or fight you're going to get sacked.
- "ajutor" means help in Romanian. "multumesc" means thank you. "scuze" means sorry.

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 check I was ok. The other delivery drivers were alright but you don't spend much time with them, it's the management and traffic staff you have to deal with all the time and they're disorganised and rude. You have to chase for overtime and when you submit a holiday request you have to badger them to get them to confirm whether or not it's authorised. There was definitely a bullying culture there and I am so relieved to have got out. Avoid at all costs! 

Having worked as an admin staff member at Tuffnells, I can unfortunately corroborate many of the issues that ultimately led to its downfall. The administrative environment was nothing short of chaotic, largely due to an overwhelming reliance on paper-based systems. Mountains of physical documents were the norm, making what should have been simple tasks incredibly time-consuming and prone to error. Locating a specific piece of information often felt like a treasure hunt, eating into valuable time that could have been spent on more productive work.

Compounding this was the incredibly outdated technology. It genuinely felt like stepping into a time warp; the systems in place seemed to have been cutting-edge in the 1980s and hadn't evolved since. This wasn't just an inconvenience; it was a significant hindrance to efficiency and accuracy. Data entry was cumbersome, communication channels were clunky, and the sheer lack of modern digital infrastructure meant that disorganization was not just tolerated, but actively perpetuated by the tools we were given.

The overall disarray within the administrative operations was a constant source of frustration. There was a palpable lack of clear processes or an overarching strategy to manage the sheer volume of work, leading to a reactive rather than proactive approach. For an admin professional, this environment was a total disaster, making it incredibly difficult to perform duties effectively and contributing to a pervasive sense of inefficiency throughout the company. It's truly disheartening, but looking back, the bankruptcy feels like an inevitable consequence of such deeply entrenched disorganization and a severe lack of investment in modern operational necessities.

I worked for Tuffnells as a regional engineer.  

There are a few immediate problems, the kit is old, it's worked hard due to the type of freight moved, there is very little training given to the operatives who use the kit but most of all you notice that the kit your looking after is for want of another word 'battered'.  In some cases the kit is way past it's best, should have been scrapped some time ago and in a few depots simply not right for the job.

You don't apply yourself as an engineer, you fire fight. you have a maintenance window of some 5 to 6 hours and the kit must be ready for the next shift.  You have a service partner to work with but they are under the same constraints as you.

I left after 10 months, not because of the depot staff, not because of the state of the kit but simply because there was no support from the national engineering manager.  Whenever there was a major issue that you needed help with, he was nowhere to be found?

Each month there was an engineers meeting and each month you came away feeling that it was an hours of your life wasted that you could have spent doing something of more value.  You knew nothing was going to change?

Sadly the engineering manager has come from a position where he knew nothing about engineering (IT Projects) and after seven years in the job still has accrued no knowledge whatsoever - strange.  Even a first year apprentice would be better.

Regarding the depot staff and management - great people let down by a function which does not support them.

If your going to work for Tuffnells engineering team be advised, it's a stepping stone.

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% of your drops will be , late collection they'll spring that on you aswell ,  don't have a day off or you'll loose your weekly bonus even for one day .
I give you fair warning !!!!  
Avoid like the plague !!

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 customer constantly complains
pay is not very good for what you do 


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 

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.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Truck driver 2 salaries reported	£27,000 per year
7.5 tonne driver 1 salary reported	£419 per week
Shift manager 2 salaries reported	£20,000 per year
Clerk 1 salary reported	£15,912 per year
Client advisor 38 salaries reported	£19,968 per year

Working at Tuffnells: company overview and reviews

Tuffnells

Tuffnells ratings

Popular jobs at Tuffnells

Salary satisfaction

Jobseeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected