Waiting game at Tesco?
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• An owner-driver has hit back at Tesco's planned crackdown on late deliveries (CM 24-30 Oct), accusing the supermarket giant of keeping hauliers waiting for hours on end.
The operator, who does not wish to be named, delivers to all of Tesco's eight composite depots which receive frozen and chilled food. "We go to Tesco a hell of a lot and never get tipped on time," he says, claiming that he regularly waits up to four hours to be unloaded.
He delivers to Tesco depots from Hinkley to Doncaster and says: "Without exception, they are all pathetic." Some depots book in several vehicles at 06:00hrs but do not begin unloading until 06:30hrs, says the driver. But he stresses that other supermarkets are just as bad: "You can count the number of good foodstores on one hand," he says.
Another complaint is that drivers using Tesco depots are no longer allowed to use staff canteens.
Jim Spittle, Tesco's divisional director, denies that hauliers have to wait up to four hours to be unloaded, and blames hauliers arriving late for the delays that do occur: "Unfortunately, it is sometimes the innocent haulier who gets held up," he says.
Spittle refutes that Tesco is too big to care about ownerdrivers: "If they have a genuine complaint we will follow it through," he says. He agrees that some depots bar drivers from their canteens: "We have an obligation to feed our own employees," he says, "but coffee and tea is always available in the drivers' restrooms."
As well as cracking down on late deliveries from this month Tesco is also refusing to accept broken or wrong size pallets and is temperature testing all frozen loads.