In short, it's the standard situation: cost-cutting at Lidl puts pressure on the driver (and their firm), whose own cost-cutting has led them to have extremely tight schedules and procedures with very little leeway. This leads to delays and inefficiencies. These inefficiencies lead the businesses to conclude that they will need to embark on a fresh round of cost-cutting in order to maintain the desired level of profitability, further squeezing workers on both sides of the equation, who will then be blamed for not being productive enough.
Cost cutting and the dependency on using paper was an issue for me, at Lidl.
The driver is constantly having to wait, whilst firstly his delivery information is input into the Lidl checking system (there really should be a system where the supplier sends this info electronically and it is then entered into the checking system with a press of a button not the need for a Goods In clerk to enter it manually.)
When the driver arrives, there could be a dozen or more drivers already waiting for their information to be entered.
After off loading the driver must wait for the delivery to be checked, so he can then be given more paperwork confirming the details of what was received.
This wait can be any length of time, depending on how many loads arrived before him, which are checked first, and also on how many people are available to check the deliveries - usually 2, but lunch breaks will reduce that to one, as will absenteeism.
Drivers who arrive later than their pre-booked time slot, because of traffic issues, are basically ****ed as they are now at the back of the queue.
The mixed pallets are the cause of unnecessary delays, because if they aren’t separated correctly, it leads to the counted figures not tallying with the expected figures, which means time is wasted hunting for the missing cases of stock, which often means the driver having to return to the loading bay to look for them, as the checkers will often say “it’s not my job to split pallets down, it’s the driver’s job” and refuse to do it.
If errors cannot be found, by the checkers, they sometimes have to call a manager to come and check their count, which adds another layer of delay to the driver’s day.
I lost count of the number of drivers who said that they hated delivering to Lidl.
Edit. If the checkers did their jobs correctly, in the chilled and fruit and veg unloading bays, as in doing ALL the routine checks demanded by company procedures, the checking would take as much as 50% longer.
Chilled and frozen products are not routinely temperature checked, on arrival, despite the checking system asking for the temperature of each pallet checked. The checkers routinely make these figures up, including management when they help out, so it is extremely possible that goods are often received outside their temperature range, without the RCD knowing, which could lead to issues with the quality of the goods.
One checker, once noted rodent damage caused to beef steaks, on one delivery. We were all of the opinion that the delivery should be rejected, as we didn’t know if the other meat on the delivery was affected, plus the cause of the damage might still be hidden in the cases, and could then relocate to our depot.
The manager overruled our concerns and accepted the delivery, because of the pressures everyone is under to maintain “stock on the shelves” in the stores.
