A Day In A Life Of...
A lorry driver!
A few weeks ago, an email was dropped into my inbox; Customer week was the subject and, we were invited to volenteer and spend the day with one of our drivers, meet our customers, face to face by trying to be the drivers buddy! That last bit ive just added, it didnt have much details. But I thought, wow what a fantastic idea! and before I could stop myself, a message was sent to my manager.
I am so glad Ive sent it.
Meet Jon everyone:
Jon has been driving for "Brakes" for the last ten years. He is from Tamworth and he is also our regular "Staff Sales" driver.
As you can see, it was still night time according to my biological clock, but I didnt dare to complain, as Jon starts his day at 4:00 (yes! 4:00) am, every day.
I got to work at 6:00 and nearly missed the turn into work because I never drove there in the dark (not really but I though it was funny ).
We headed off to our first stop which was Brook weston school, where we tried to get there, before the dry goods and the bread lorries, as its a very narrow space to squeeze through. We didnt. I think it was because we started at 6..maybe we should aim for an earlier start next time? Erm. No. I had to take a nap when I got home 😳
Just to be clear, I dont wear jeans, or hoodies for work. Not even on dress down days.
Now that we made that clear, I need to reveal that a day before, i slightly panicked, just by the though of leaving my boots at home. So, I dusted my jeans off and put my hoodie on. As for the boots...well...I wore my comfy boots and then, thinking, I cant be any more ready then this; Jon asked me if I have any gloves. I didnt. So out came this:
I didn't really know what to expect from the day and Jon said that I could obserb or help, its up to me. So I choose to help of course!
After waiting for the bread lorry to leave we parked and went into the back of the lorry. Well...my coleagues would be able to confirm, that I dont do cold. And that was just the chilled section! Once the freezer door was open, I stepped inside but stepped ouside while i was still inhaling. -20° isnt my ideal temperture. I am in owe to all our delivery drivers who are induring these temperturs all year round, no matter what the weather is outside. The most shocking detail was that Jon was in his work shorts!
Working in the contact center, taking orders, we moan a little when we take huge orders and the customer doesnt have any of the codes. Yes. I will NEVER moan again. Did you know that after the order of the frozen and chilled goods being picked at the depo, its put on the lorry in no particlar order, which means, our drivers have to pick the order again for each customer, using the invoices? -20° Summer, Autumn, winter snd spring. Which means that, if the pickers picked the wrong item for the customer, it will take longer to pick the whole order. Its our driver that needs to face the customer with the bad news about a missing product.
Jon did say that our coventry depo does the picking in cages for the dry goods per customer, which probebly makes it better for both the driver and the customer.
So the next time you get an ETA call about a late delivery or a missing item, have their backs, they are working very hard to get the orders there on time, but it takes a while, we are not been made aware about the logistics. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and be patient.
So, yes I couldnt stay in the freezer so I stayed in the chilled bit and Jon passed me the boxes so that I can pot them by the entry before he will wheel them in.
First delivery, first coffee ☕ one of the better perks, I had lots!
And the chilled:
I think our next stop was the shell garage, and then we went to my daughters old school, Beanfield, where Mr Smith, the head, was surprised to see me, but he did say it was a pleasent surprise.
After beanfield we went to deliver to "Mccolls", which I had no Idea was our customer.
All deliveries are made for the back of the shop, and once Jon opened the door for us, we saw this:
So we had to squeeze through the gap, holding the boxes on top. Did I mention how stressful, this job can be?
Next stop was "Maplefied" School, where we had to be in before the kids got there to stop the lorry from being attacked (Its an SE school).
The entry to the school was just about the same width of the lorry, where Jon very skillfully had squeezed us through.
From there we moved on to "Busy Bees" nurssery, where Jon disvovered that the potato wedges were missing from the order. Later on he found out that it was a picking error as there were two perentless bags of mashed potstoes left on the almost empty shelf as our delivery journey carried on.
When jon advised the customer that they were missing, she explained that they were needed for todays lunch. I felt helpless and it was really auckward, as we couldnt resolve the issue on the spot. But this is what our driveres are coping with all the time. They are the face of our company, as they are the ones that meet our customers on daily bases, and just so youd know, the rappor Jon has with all the once I met that day was brilliant.
A few days before my day out, we recieved the communication regarding, leaving items out of stock on the order, so that when it comes out to the customer, the driver would be able to explain better why a certain product wasnt included or charged.
That communication was not comumicated outside the contact centers before it got actioned, which was a bit confusing.
Next we had the CTC acadamy where I had another coffee and got to see some squirls ramaging for food on the ground by the trees.
Then cost cutter at the corby village, Rockingham school, then the Best western hotel, which I was rather pleased to know about because we will be hiring their services next year, and we all know that "Brakes" have the best quality food!.
The icing on the cake for me (even though the cake was far from being finished), was delivering to my daughters school, "Lodge Park" acadamy. Where we had to sign in and get our budges and photo I.D, I saved mine and got Jons right after he was about to through it away 🙈
Not because my daughter goes to school there (yes it is) but because, a couple of weeks ago, Lindsey, the schools dinner lady, couldnt place her order online and she came through to me (what are the odds?), and we had a nice and funny chat, about the amount of sweet wafles they are ordering as unfortunetlly, it is one of my daughters favorites. So I got to meet the fabulous Lindsey, and we had another lovelly chat, so I just had to take a selfie:
Next we headed to the CBA acadamy where I got to see my running buddies, Leanne and Natalie, so I managed to grab Nat for a selfie as Leanne had escaped:
Almost forgot, we have also been to the Corby hospital where at that point, after being in and out of the frozen/chilled sections, my nose was desparate for a tissue so, got one, and also took some pics after, when our custmer was checking the invoice vs the goods:
We carried on and delivered to the "Escape Room"/"Adrenaline alley" then to my favourite, soon to be RIP racing track, "Rockingham Speedway", where we delivered to a lovely chocolate cookies smelling Dinner where Jon and the cheff showed eachother, the latest catch from their fishing trip (huge fish BTW)
Our last stop was back at "Brakes" at Corby, delivering our "staff Sales" order, where I sadley had to say goodbye to jon, who had some more deliveries to do on his way back to Tamworth.
It has been a masive learning curve, about a side of the business which we were aware of but really didnt know much about the logistics or, how does it realy works.
Its a very demanding and stressful job, and you really have to care about "Brakes" and our customers, in order to bring them the best service we possibly can.
I will recomend that everyone should be out spending a day with one of our drivers, its been an amazing experience, and meeting the faces behind the phones was brilliant.
Things to think about next time:
Work gloves
Work shoes
Food and hygiene course for everyone.
By the way, I got to keep the gloves.
A few weeks ago, an email was dropped into my inbox; Customer week was the subject and, we were invited to volenteer and spend the day with one of our drivers, meet our customers, face to face by trying to be the drivers buddy! That last bit ive just added, it didnt have much details. But I thought, wow what a fantastic idea! and before I could stop myself, a message was sent to my manager.
I am so glad Ive sent it.
Meet Jon everyone:
As you can see, it was still night time according to my biological clock, but I didnt dare to complain, as Jon starts his day at 4:00 (yes! 4:00) am, every day.
I got to work at 6:00 and nearly missed the turn into work because I never drove there in the dark (not really but I though it was funny ).
We headed off to our first stop which was Brook weston school, where we tried to get there, before the dry goods and the bread lorries, as its a very narrow space to squeeze through. We didnt. I think it was because we started at 6..maybe we should aim for an earlier start next time? Erm. No. I had to take a nap when I got home 😳
Just to be clear, I dont wear jeans, or hoodies for work. Not even on dress down days.
Now that we made that clear, I need to reveal that a day before, i slightly panicked, just by the though of leaving my boots at home. So, I dusted my jeans off and put my hoodie on. As for the boots...well...I wore my comfy boots and then, thinking, I cant be any more ready then this; Jon asked me if I have any gloves. I didnt. So out came this:
I didn't really know what to expect from the day and Jon said that I could obserb or help, its up to me. So I choose to help of course!
After waiting for the bread lorry to leave we parked and went into the back of the lorry. Well...my coleagues would be able to confirm, that I dont do cold. And that was just the chilled section! Once the freezer door was open, I stepped inside but stepped ouside while i was still inhaling. -20° isnt my ideal temperture. I am in owe to all our delivery drivers who are induring these temperturs all year round, no matter what the weather is outside. The most shocking detail was that Jon was in his work shorts!
Working in the contact center, taking orders, we moan a little when we take huge orders and the customer doesnt have any of the codes. Yes. I will NEVER moan again. Did you know that after the order of the frozen and chilled goods being picked at the depo, its put on the lorry in no particlar order, which means, our drivers have to pick the order again for each customer, using the invoices? -20° Summer, Autumn, winter snd spring. Which means that, if the pickers picked the wrong item for the customer, it will take longer to pick the whole order. Its our driver that needs to face the customer with the bad news about a missing product.
Jon did say that our coventry depo does the picking in cages for the dry goods per customer, which probebly makes it better for both the driver and the customer.
So the next time you get an ETA call about a late delivery or a missing item, have their backs, they are working very hard to get the orders there on time, but it takes a while, we are not been made aware about the logistics. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and be patient.
So, yes I couldnt stay in the freezer so I stayed in the chilled bit and Jon passed me the boxes so that I can pot them by the entry before he will wheel them in.
First delivery, first coffee ☕ one of the better perks, I had lots!
Waiting for the other deliveries to leave as there is no space for one more:
Picking the frozen products:
I think our next stop was the shell garage, and then we went to my daughters old school, Beanfield, where Mr Smith, the head, was surprised to see me, but he did say it was a pleasent surprise.
After beanfield we went to deliver to "Mccolls", which I had no Idea was our customer.
All deliveries are made for the back of the shop, and once Jon opened the door for us, we saw this:
So we had to squeeze through the gap, holding the boxes on top. Did I mention how stressful, this job can be?
Next stop was "Maplefied" School, where we had to be in before the kids got there to stop the lorry from being attacked (Its an SE school).
The entry to the school was just about the same width of the lorry, where Jon very skillfully had squeezed us through.
From there we moved on to "Busy Bees" nurssery, where Jon disvovered that the potato wedges were missing from the order. Later on he found out that it was a picking error as there were two perentless bags of mashed potstoes left on the almost empty shelf as our delivery journey carried on.
When jon advised the customer that they were missing, she explained that they were needed for todays lunch. I felt helpless and it was really auckward, as we couldnt resolve the issue on the spot. But this is what our driveres are coping with all the time. They are the face of our company, as they are the ones that meet our customers on daily bases, and just so youd know, the rappor Jon has with all the once I met that day was brilliant.
A few days before my day out, we recieved the communication regarding, leaving items out of stock on the order, so that when it comes out to the customer, the driver would be able to explain better why a certain product wasnt included or charged.
That communication was not comumicated outside the contact centers before it got actioned, which was a bit confusing.
Next we had the CTC acadamy where I had another coffee and got to see some squirls ramaging for food on the ground by the trees.
Then cost cutter at the corby village, Rockingham school, then the Best western hotel, which I was rather pleased to know about because we will be hiring their services next year, and we all know that "Brakes" have the best quality food!.
The icing on the cake for me (even though the cake was far from being finished), was delivering to my daughters school, "Lodge Park" acadamy. Where we had to sign in and get our budges and photo I.D, I saved mine and got Jons right after he was about to through it away 🙈
Not because my daughter goes to school there (yes it is) but because, a couple of weeks ago, Lindsey, the schools dinner lady, couldnt place her order online and she came through to me (what are the odds?), and we had a nice and funny chat, about the amount of sweet wafles they are ordering as unfortunetlly, it is one of my daughters favorites. So I got to meet the fabulous Lindsey, and we had another lovelly chat, so I just had to take a selfie:
Next we headed to the CBA acadamy where I got to see my running buddies, Leanne and Natalie, so I managed to grab Nat for a selfie as Leanne had escaped:
Almost forgot, we have also been to the Corby hospital where at that point, after being in and out of the frozen/chilled sections, my nose was desparate for a tissue so, got one, and also took some pics after, when our custmer was checking the invoice vs the goods:
Ok, climbing center here we come! I knew we had one, but I had no Idea where it was or whats on offer.
Ginger beers were missing from the order, but we were told that they were only ordered "just in case" so all was good.
I grubbed some leaflets to take home with me as next years 12th birthday party is upon us 🙈🙉🙊
Our last stop was back at "Brakes" at Corby, delivering our "staff Sales" order, where I sadley had to say goodbye to jon, who had some more deliveries to do on his way back to Tamworth.
It has been a masive learning curve, about a side of the business which we were aware of but really didnt know much about the logistics or, how does it realy works.
Its a very demanding and stressful job, and you really have to care about "Brakes" and our customers, in order to bring them the best service we possibly can.
I will recomend that everyone should be out spending a day with one of our drivers, its been an amazing experience, and meeting the faces behind the phones was brilliant.
Things to think about next time:
Work gloves
Work shoes
Food and hygiene course for everyone.
By the way, I got to keep the gloves.
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