Retail Van Driver - 22.5 hours

Location: Based at our Manchester Road shop, covering surrounding areas.

Responsible to: Shop Manager.

Benefits:

• Entry into People’s Pension
• Death in service benefit (3 × salary)
• Out‑of‑pocket expenses
• Free access to confidential and extensive wellbeing support
• Generous holiday entitlement (26 days plus bank holidays, rising to 31 days after 5 years for a full‑time employee, pro‑rata for part‑time)
• Free tea/coffee, sight tests and flu jabs
• Excellent learning and development opportunities

Overview of Role:

Forget Me Not’s collection and delivery service connects with customers, eases lives, and supplies good‑quality furniture to charity shops, raising money to support children with life‑shortening conditions and their families. Reporting to the shop at Manchester Road, you will collect and deliver good‑quality stock, including furniture, to customers or other shops using one of our vans.

Main Duties and Key Responsibilities:

• Use the van efficiently in collecting and delivering donated items; transfer stock between shops and the Hospice, planning routes and prioritising jobs.
• Maintain the van clean, presentable and professional, representing the hospice.
• Recruit, sign up and monitor Gift Aid donors.
• Ensure donated goods are collected on the specified day and in accordance with policy.
• Liaise with donors to ensure furniture meets legal requirements and is saleable, minimising wastage.
• Assist the Shop Manager with coordinating duties for volunteer support on the vans.
• Collect stock from Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice Shops and deliver to customers’ homes or another shop.
• Liaise with customers on the telephone to arrange timely and efficient collection and delivery.
• Carry out Portable Appliance Tests (PAT) on donated electrical goods.
• Attend training, meetings and reviews as requested by the Shop Manager and Area Manager.
• Communicate with the shop manager to continually evaluate and improve the van service.
• Assist the Shop Manager in merchandising furniture on the sales floor.
• Work with the Maintenance Team to keep the vehicle roadworthy, taxed, insured, annually inspected, and meeting all service requirements.
• Maintain records of transport usage in conjunction with other departments.
• Undertake other retail, transport or fundraising duties as time allows or as directed.

Person Specification:

Skills and Experience (Essential):

• Previous experience delivering a high level of customer experience.
• Understanding of health and safety at work.
• Strong communication skills.
• Good organisational skills.
• Professional and proactive.
• Support and encourage harmonious internal and external working relationships.
• Make a positive contribution to fundraising and raising the profile of the Hospice.

Desirable Skills:

• Experience of driving in a commercial setting.

Education / Qualifications:

Not applicable. As this role involves driving one of our vehicles out in the community, a full, clean driving licence is required. This role will involve weekend work, so flexibility is essential. This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975; disclosure to the Disclosure and Barring Service is required to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Equality and Diversity:

We actively encourage and support under‑represented groups to join as employees. We will interview applicants with disabilities who meet the essential requirements and provide adjustments to the recruitment process if required. We are committed to supporting part‑time and flexible working; we consider part‑time requests for all roles.