A little over a month in to being a customer delivery driver and I am already leaving.
I want to make clear that the issue with Asda home delivery isn't the driving itself, that was the part I actually enjoyed. The frustration comes from everything around the driving: unrealistic timings, poor equipment, operational issues and systems that make the job harder than it needs to be. I’m not new to vans, supermarket deliveries or multi-drop work, and this has been the most frustrating delivery operation I’ve worked in.
Departure times are extremely tight. At my store, there isn't much time between starting your shift and being expected to leave the yard. That might be manageable if everything ran smoothly, but it doesn't.
The loading equipment is worn out, with dollies and rollers that don't track properly, making it harder to move stacked totes safely..On top of that, vans often aren't ready when drivers arrive, so even turning up early doesn't necessarily help because you're waiting for vehicles to have a PDC done. Don’t get me started on the big brains that stack the orders from back totes on the bottom and front on the top, more time you have to spend fucking about to sort that out instead of being able to just load the van easily.
The Microlise/Palm navigation system has been the biggest frustration.
I've had it tell me I've arrived when I'm nowhere near the address, struggle badly on new-build estates, and on one occasion it routed me several miles up the motorway only to bring me back to the same roundabout I could have reached directly. The customer call function has also been unreliable at times.
I ended up using my own phone with Waze alongside it because I found it more dependable. Often the ones in my store do not have working sim cards either. I refuse to use my own phone to ring customers which cause more grief from them when I arrive late.
When loading delays and navigation issues combine, you're often trying to recover lost time that wasn't your fault.
As you all know, drivers aren't supposed to deliver more than 15 minutes before the start of a customer's slot, so if you do manage to get ahead, there's limited opportunity to build a buffer for later in the route. I have heard there are ways to put this through on the microlise early and it not flag up, but nobody has shown me how to do that.
It is shocking that drivers are on the exact same basic hourly rate as in-store colleagues (minimum wage), despite the additional responsibilities of driving, vehicle checks, road safety and manual handling as well as being trusted to enter customers' homes, many of which are vulnerable.
This is only my experience at one store, so I can't say every Asda operates this way. Perhaps I am just unluckily and got a bad store/catchment area. I've decided to move on after about a month to a much more organized company. Still grocery home delivery but better systems, vans loaded for you and better pay including paid breaks and still paid to the end of the shift when you are done. I have a lot of respect for the drivers who stay because, at least in my experience, they put up with a lot of unnecessary operational frustration.
Given the issues I experienced, it’s no surprise that Asda appears to struggle with driver retention. The actual role is not the problem. The driving and customer interaction can be enjoyable but the way the operation is set up creates avoidable pressure.