Possible DPD Strike Looming Due To Wage Cuts?

[Nelly]

A huge Christmas parcel delivery crisis looms - after DPD cuts wages for 10,000 drivers weeks before December 25. DPD announced it would be cutting the rate for smaller parcels by 65p and has axed a £500 Christmas bonus.

One driver told The Sun newpspaer that the changes would cut their yearly earnings by £6,000, reducing their £40,000 income after tax and expenses by 15%.

They said: "It's a disgrace. To wake up at 6am to find out your income is being slashed that same day shows a complete and utter contempt for the people who actually deliver their parcels."

Further reading here: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/news...cel-deliveries-ahead-of-christmas/ar-AA1NNFTy

DPD drivers are staging what appears to be the first mass walkout in the company’s history, with couriers across the UK downing tools between October 7-9th in protest over devastating pay cuts that could leave some drivers up to £80 per day worse off.

The unprecedented industrial action comes after DPD informed drivers that parcel rates would be slashed by as much as 65p per parcel – a move that sounds eerily familiar to anyone who remembers how Evri gutted their couriers’ earnings earlier this year while announcing robot delivery dogs as a convenient distraction.

Further reading here: https://courierchecker.com/dpd-drivers-to-stage-walkout/

 

[tamzzy]

Holy! They get paid £40k after tax and expenses!?
Blimey sign me up!

 

[Gray2233]

So in a period of massive cost of living spikes, they thought it'd be a good idea to dock tons of drivers?

DPD has a bad, bad track record during Christmas periods to begin with and I'd not trust them after having to deal with how they function as a business in the past. We're talking a good 5-6 years ago now, but they outsource a ton of their customer support around the Christmas periods to extremely questionable call centres such as Echo-U (There's both a Newcastle office and a couple more). The training is shockingly limited at 4 days without proper system access to the point of being useless to onboarded staff who get pushed out the door a few weeks later, they're pretty much told to fob people off as best they can as there's literally no way for the staff hired for that period to function in a productive manner. They do similar with drivers too, hire them on short term with little to no concerns for competence then boom out of the door after the period. Busy periods make sense but DPD take the absolute wee.

I'm not speculating here either, I didn't work directly for them but I have had to deal with them from an intermediate standpoint.

I stopped using DPD many years ago due to them pooping the bed on an order I made from OCUK when I was much younger funnily enough, but my experience in the actual working world soured me to them further.

That said, the source is apparently also "The Sun" so outside of my teenage need to see boobs in the pre-internet age I might take this with a pinch of salt.

 

[BUDFORCE]

That's terrible for the drivers they should strike.

They work bloody hard, ****** stressful job.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Holy! They get paid £40k after tax and expenses!?
Blimey sign me up!

I thought they get around 27k a year before tax. Never knew the wage was so high.

 

[Rroff]

I thought they get around 27k a year before tax. Never knew the wage was so high.

The comment is probably a driver who is picking up a lot of extra work.

Maybe my regular DPD driver will change their mind about hating me for all the 30kg batteries and complete sets of vehicle wheels I have delivered hah.

 

[Rai200]

Holy! They get paid £40k after tax and expenses!?
Blimey sign me up!

Owner/operators earn about £50-60k pre tax but have the cost/upkeep of the vehicle and obviously lose out if it's not working. I imagine many of those costs can offset their tax burden, hence the £40k take home.