Has anyone been an Ocado driver?

[Pantalone]

Does anybody have experience of working for Ocado or a similar supermarket delivery company as a driver? DS is considering applying for a job doing this as part of his gap year. I wondered if people could comment on what the experience is like, how stressful it is, how the customers behave, and so on. Any thoughts gratefully received. Thank you.

I used to manage a delivery warehouse for a competitor.

Essentially he’ll find it as easy or hard as he wants it to be. I had plenty of drivers who wanted to moan constantly - workload too high/customers awful etc. There were also plenty of drivers who found it easy, were cheerful to customers and got cheerful attitudes back, finished their runs early every day, and were never stressed! To be fair, it was normally younger men (and the occasional woman) on gap years/in their 20s who did find it easier.

I could tell you horror stories, but realistically it’s the same people who seem to attract issues - I had plenty of drivers who never had a customer kick off/van breakdown/injury across periods of YEARS. As long as he has a bit of common sense he should be fine, and even enjoy it!

** Will also add, in our area at least, Ocado was ‘gold standard’ because their picking/loading system is different to the ones most main supermarkets use, which make it a lot efficient as a driver.

Not been a driver but used Ocado regularly and never had anyone who was not friendly. I think if you are pleasant then u usually get the same back.

Will he have held his license for 12 months by then? Some centres will take you after 6 months but most prefer 12. I never drove but did the picking, and it was always a great atmosphere in the back between centre staff and drivers. We were manly 18-30 so it was fun!

I’ve always had lovely Ocado delivery drivers, I assume that’s because their working conditions are good. If he’s a people person he might enjoy it.