📦 How we make driver experience a priority at Packfleet

We've all heard the horror stories about the delivery industry - how drivers are allocated unrealistic and short timings for delivery drops and even how drivers are not allowed a toilet break while on the road!

When we started Packfleet, we were sure about one thing - we wanted to make our driver’s experience as good as it possibly can be. Our drivers are what make Packfleet, Packfleet. Without them we wouldn’t have a product. So why would we treat our driving and warehouse teams any different from our developers or designers?

Here’s how we make sure that working at Packfleet is a great experience for all of our drivers.

We’re a Real Living Wage certified business💰

We pay all of our drivers and people who work in the warehouse above the Real Living Wage. Paying a wage that can support our drivers in their everyday lives seems the bare minimum, but sadly so many businesses in the gig economy are still not doing this.

For us, this is a no-brainer. We can’t expect our team to embody our mission and values and enjoy their work if they’re worried about their pay.

Minimum hours only AKA no zero hours contracts 📝

We prefer minimum hours over zero hours contracts. Of course, if our drivers want to, they can work more than their minimum, but having no zero hours contracts means our team can relax knowing their income is stable.

Realistic drop times 📦

We give our drivers realistic drop times. Delivering in London can be tough. Finding a place to park, getting hold of recipients and making sure you get proof of delivery. Often this won't happen in the space of a minute.

Giving the team enough time to do their job well is key to a stress-free delivery experience for our drivers - and a great customer experience too! Thanks to the tech we’ve built, we can track how long drops take across the city and customise it by area.

Free lunch and snacks (move over Tesco Meal Deals!) 🍫

Everyday our drivers and warehouse teams get a free lunch and a choice of snacks. Our sandwiches are supplied from our local bakery in Bermondsey, we have a wide variety of drinks and a fully stocked snack spread that includes crisps, fresh fruit, chocolate and breakfast bars.

It’s hungry work out on the road and so we always try to make sure our team is well fed. And an extra plus is that we support local businesses in the process.

An action shot of one of our drivers in our depot 💚

We listen to our drivers’ feedback 📣

We have a team with a wide range of driving experience - some are driving veterans with 20 years or more on the road and others are just starting out in their driving career. We have a lot to learn from how they’ve seen things done before and how we can change their experience to make it better. We send out surveys on driver experience and satisfaction to identify the areas we can improve in. We always encourage our drivers to share their ideas and feedback.

We’ve got an ‘ideas’ Slack channel that our drivers regularly contribute to and we hold meetings with our drivers to really dig deep into how the team are feeling. Then, we act on this. We make those changes and trial improvements that come directly from this feedback.

A screenshot from 'Ideas' Slack channel

Drivers get to use Packfleet too 💚

Our whole team gets a monthly budget to spend on our merchants and to experience what it’s like getting something delivered by Packfleet. We have merchants across a lot of different industries - so our team can order anything from beer to clothes to cheese to meal kits.

We’re one team - not an office and a depot 🤗

When we celebrate, we celebrate together. And when we socialise, we socialise together. Our drivers and warehouse teams are invited to all of our our team socials, whether that’s playing 5-a-side football, going out for a lovely meal or hanging out at the pub after work. We’re all in this together!

Our 5-a-side football social

We all deserve to have access to quick and efficient healthcare 🩺

We offer health insurance for everyone. And by everyone, we mean everyone including our drivers. It’s been a tough few years with health anxiety and we want to give our whole team peace of mind knowing that health issues can be dealt with quickly and efficiently through our health insurance.

But we're not just stopping there. This is just the beginning 🚀

We’re constantly looking at how we can improve our driver experience, so over the next few months we’ll be looking into:

  • Giving drivers options in our EMI Scheme - they’re helping build Packfleet too
  • Introducing Life Insurance
  • Exploring how we can enhance our support with the current Cost of Living crisis
  • And more. So stay tuned!

Being ‘better’ for the planet, the community and our people is something that’s close to all of our hearts at Packfleet.

Our journey has just begun and we’re looking for people to join us in our mission to redefine delivery. You can find our careers page here.