Does anyone work for or have a partner/family member who works for DPD?

[dews9]

As I need to just ask a quick question.

My ex (dcs dad) works for them. He has them every other weekend Friday night - Sunday.

Every Friday is becoming a problem of collecting the kids due to his work. He lives 3 hours away and we meet half way at a service station.

Tonight he is supposed to collect them but has informed me this morning that he won't be able to meet until 8pm. That means the dcs won't actually get to bed until at least 10pm by the time they are in and sorted. They are young and it's unfair.

On a good day, we will meet at 5.30ish and dcs will be back at his for 7/7.30ish.

Ex says that's his job. He never knows what he's working until the actual day when he sees what route he has - I understand that part.

He says there's nothing he can do. He can't ask if he can have a shorter route every other Friday - it doesn't work like that.

Can anyone confirm this?

I am only asking as he is the type that would happily not see his kids unfortunately and use working late as an excuse - he has done it a lot in the past with his previous job.

I do believe he is working late. However I don't think he ever tries to sort something out so he can finish at an earlier time every other Friday.

Can anyone be clarify what it's like working for them?

I can't answer specifically I'm afraid but my friend's husband works for them and normally works six 10-12 hour days; I get the feeling they're an awful company to work for.

If he has deliveries to make he can't just sack them off.

One delivery company (DPD?) made a driver miss his diabetes appointment as he would have to have paid for a driver to cover him, and he passed away. They are shite.

My FIL works for them, but they honored his existing contract from when they took over the business - so for him his hours have remained the same (and pretty normal) But as i understand it, the newer contracts don't have as much regularity in the working hours and are quite demanding.

Not many people can alter their hours of work to suit their personal life.

I work for another courier company and how he describes it is pretty much how it is. DPD has a terrible reputation with my colleagues who have previously worked for them.

Yes he is correct.

My DH has worked for DPD for 4 years. He basically has his own route & deliveries & finishes when the last parcel is delivered & back to the depot (which hos route is 20 miles from) to drop collections/undelivered parcels back.

An example of his week this week was Monday 105 deliveries finished at 18.00, today he has 75 & is finishing at 15.00.

They don't know what they're going to get from one day to the next & deok my experience DPD will not budge for time off/special circumstances.

I think he's probably doing the best he can tbh.