Van Driver

The transport and distribution area of the business is a critical and important part of the supply chain. Our main base is Portbury near Bristol, but we also have staff at our out base depots in Stanmore, Gillingham, South Kirkby, St Helens and Motherwell in Scotland. As a professional driver, you are an ambassador for apetito and will be delivering our finished frozen food product to Care Homes, Local Authorities, Hospitals and our Wiltshire farm foods franchisees. In this critical role, you must be prepared to drive around different geographical locations and manage a demanding delivery schedule. Additionally, you will need to ensure that you provide fantastic customer service unloading deliveries by hand using a combination of roll‑cages, dollies and hand‑balling onto sack trucks.

Who we are: apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings. Our meals are expertly crafted by our dieticians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness. Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

Responsibilities:

• Undertake pre‑shift inspection (vehicle check) of vehicle.
• Full compliance with the drivers’ hours, and road traffic regulations.
• Driving style - damage free and economical.
• Making deliveries in a timely manner and phoning transport office with any delivery discrepancies or delays.
• Deliver goods to the customer’s “point of need”.
• Provide excellent customer service and conflict resolution where necessary.
• Be an ambassador of the company.
• Report any customer service issues to transport office or customer service department while delivering.
• Undertake minor vehicle service activity such as cleaning and refueling of both vehicle and refrigerated unit and minor repairs such as the replacement of bulbs.
• Maintenance of a clean vehicle both internally and externally.
• Delivery and collection of vehicles as required to rental suppliers including any due inspections.
• Inspection of hire vehicles pre and post rental.
• Actively participate in a daily debrief process, working with your supervisor to identify safety, service and operational improvements as and when they arise.

Qualifications/Personal Qualities:

• Actively enjoys interacting with customers and finding ways to deliver a great service.
• Able to demonstrate excellent communication skills at all levels towards both customers and colleagues.
• Able to juggle the demands of a busy schedule, traffic conditions and other road users with safety, customer service and time / efficiency targets.
• Able to demonstrate a positive, can do attitude.
• Must be calm under pressure.
• High standard of personal presentation to uphold the company brand, including uniform / vehicle cleanliness.
• Flexible and responsive to business needs e.g. if required to complete a different route/start at different time on occasions.
• Must be able to manage with the demands of delivering and unloading goods quickly and efficiently.
• Must be prepared to drive in different weather conditions.
• Must live within a reasonable travelling distance to the depot.
• The driver needs to show a great deal of flexibility within this role as the work will be varied and there will be the need to cover other drivers at any of our depots.

This role is not eligible for sponsorship under the skilled worker route as it does not meet the minimum requirements set out under the UK Immigration Rules.

Company Benefits:

• Competitive salary – accredited Living Wage employer
• 33 days holiday per year, including bank holidays (which are considered a normal working day)
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days holiday per year
• Discretionary annual bonus scheme
• Pension scheme – employer matched contributions up to 4%
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 1x annual salary
• Free snacks and beverages on site
• Free parking
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas
• Access to employee benefits including Perkbox with salary sacrifice options and retail discounts