City Link in administration.

jellyroll

25 Dec is a rent quarter day (ie the day the rent needs to be paid - probably on their warehouses/depots) so quite common for companies to have to pull the plug on this day.

RaymondLin

jellyroll said:

25 Dec is a rent quarter day (ie the day the rent needs to be paid - probably on their warehouses/depots) so quite common for companies to have to pull the plug on this day.

And to break the news while all employees are at home, no need to send anyone home since they are already all at home.

I feel bad about people losing their jobs this way, but they are not good couriers !

If someone could buy them and turn them around it would be good. 

holnrew

It's an extended Christmas holiday for them really.

not_the_dj

Nasty. I got made redundant once, announced on the 20th December. Not a happy christmas at all that year.

jonnyburgo

Oddly enough I was made redundant mid December years ago and a mate who was a driver for shittylink sorted me out with a job in the warehouse on nights, I took it as I needed the cash and don't like sitting on my arse doing nowt.

I saw boxes getting booted around by some 18 year old fuckwit shouting "I fuckin love breaking stuff me", this was in view of everybody on the floor, night supervisor included.

I lasted 2 nights, just too depressing. It was like working with a bunch of monkeys.

The upside of it was they fucked up and paid me £600, they still havent asked for it back

>:D<

randomhandclaps

jonnyburgo said:

The upside of it was they fucked up and paid me £600, they still havent asked for it back

>:D<

I reckon you're home free now.

mart

randomhandclaps said:

jonnyburgo said:

The upside of it was they fucked up and paid me £600, they still havent asked for it back

>:D<

I reckon you're home free now.

Until the administrators hear this story.

Like everyone else, I feel really sorry for the staff, and although there's never a good time to be made redundant, this might be the worse. But I think the RMT are making too much fuss about the shock of the announcement. It's in the nature of these things that it is kept secret until the very last moment, because if a company were to say it's doing badly and thinks it might have to go into administration, then that would kill the business instantly, ending all chance of salvaging things.

Danny1969

I think Better Capital brought Citylink from Rentokill for a pound and have since lost about 30m trying to turn it around. Christmas is the only time a year they could wind things up as that's the only down time the company has. Gotta feel sorry for all the sub'es with wrapped vans, good job they were wrapped rather than sprayed though, at least you can peel it off

xHymnal

Haven't found a good courier yet. Shitty link are't great but UPS haven't been good for me either. I live in a small village (hardly inaccessible) and FOUR times i've had drives update the tracking saying I wasn't in for collection or delivery when really it was just them being lazy and failing to find the house, despite having my mobile number etc and the house being very clearly marked and hard to miss. UPS are slightly better though as I have the local depot managers number now and a lot of the time he will send the driver back which usually results in one very pissed off driver but even less sympathy from me. I get its a tough job but really there is no excuse for laziness/ no effort especially given that it's usually the best part of £35 to use their services. I can't remember who Peach guitars use but the service they use text the customers delivery options AND a LIVE delivery tracker which is very very handy if you need to pop out, but that is a rare perk which really ought to be standard for this industry.

I'd love to say good riddance to city link but in all honesty they will just be replaced by another ineffective delivery service. 

Sambostar

mudslide73 said:

This is bad news. I feel sorry for anyone who loses their job - especially at Christmas time. The only positives will be felt in the used van market.

That was the first thing I thought when I heard....I wonder if they have any Transit Tippers...

ICBM

Sambostar said:

mudslide73 said:

This is bad news. I feel sorry for anyone who loses their job - especially at Christmas time. The only positives will be felt in the used van market.

That was the first thing I thought when I heard....I wonder if they have any Transit Tippers…

Judging by the condition of some of the packages that arrive, I would say that's what they normally use.

Alnico

jonnyburgo said:

with shittylink you couldnt actually talk to anybody who knew what was happening, just some centralised bullshit. With UPS I can talk to people at the actual depot who can talk to the actual driver and get back to you with an actual answer, how fucking hard can that be?

It's not hard at all. 

I'm a driver and although i carry a full trailer load in an HGV, i am always being rung up and asked where i am, how far my round i am etc. Most times, the client is on the other phone and whatever i tell my controller, he tells them - it's deadly easy.

Whenever this doesn't happen it's a simple case of people not being arsed to do it.

As the driver, i refuse to go past a delivery without finding it - some are difficult but none are impossible. I have even pulled my Artic up outside a post office and even once a pub, to go in and ask "Excuse me, does anyone know where 'X' is?"

Most of my jobs now come with a phone number and because i'm 60ft long and can't turn around easily, i always use my mobile to call ahead and ask for landmarks and directions, also giving them a rough ETA.

I have done parcel delivery in past years in a van and i also had the same work ethic then. Even with 60 drops a day + Collections, there is no excuse for shoddy work. If it's too much effort for the driver, the driver needs to go find a new job. End of.

I do feel very sorry for people losing their jobs but if they worked for a bad company and knew it, they might have had some clue that it wouldn't last forever, which most workforces do know how good or bad they are doing collectively.

I hope they all find better employment in the New Year.

Emp_Fab

+1 to that.  It's a shame for the good employees who have been screwed by a bunch of lazy halfwits.  Given that they had all the infrastructure in place, the only thing left stopping them from being at least equal to other national carriers was the workforce (incl, obviously, management).  If you allow goons to run your company and employ staff that can't be arsed, the writing is on the wall.

We have a handful of useless lazy fuckers in my company, but the management are just as lazy / incompetent at dealing with them - if they are even aware.  It really boils my piss when I end up having to drive three hours to fix a problem the local engineer should have fixed but couldn't be arsed because it was getting close to lunchtime on a Friday and he felt that being back home by 2pm on a Friday was his entitlement.  The site complains, rightly so, and to 'manage' the problem, head office will send one of the good guys in on Monday to kiss ass and sort it out but nothing will be done about Mr 'Friday Afternoon' guy.

chillidoggy

"Sambostar's Tip and Run Delivery Service".

musicegbdf

It is simple, consumers do not want to pay and the complete supply chain is at a point of collapse. I heard 40,000 Hgv drivers gave up the job last year due to increased EU regs and low wages.
I know we are having trouble getting HGV drivers for trucks.

We are all to blame really
I was made redundant after 26 years in Dec 2003 , with new mortgage and three young kids. It is really crap., but there is no easy way to do it.
If they went bust two weeks before Christmas ,there would have been an outcry about the poor consumer mot getting stuff delivered.

Sambostar

HGV II Drivers on £8 an hour?  Worst wages the industry has ever seen. 

Year's home shopping delivery for £50?

20kg Parcels for a fiver?

Agree completely unsustainable system.  Consumers don't seem to realise.

Oh I need the truck so that I can follow the delivery driver and pick up all the 'Signed for' parcels and put them on ebay.  I'II attract too much attention in my current Transit, or it might snap in half halfway through the rounds.

musicegbdf

And have to pay £3k a year for CPC(
Work crappy long hours and treated badly at warehouses that keep them waiting and refuse to pay waiting time, refuse delivery if ten mins late so driver does not get paid if stuck in traffic.... I could go on.

Home deliveries done by housewives in their own transport for 0.45p a delivery...

ICBM

And to cap it all, the cheap delivery culture makes it all but impossible for proper bricks-and-mortar shops to compete.

So who wins, really?

musicegbdf

The large (tax avoiding) corporations that are so powerful no political party dare take them on.

Evilmags

Consumer gets cheaper products and has more leftover cash. If people really liked brick and mortar they'd use it more. The Internet has changed shopping massively and people elect to use it for many purchases because it is cheap and convenient.