AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID - Early Morning Newspaper Delivery NewsTeam Group Employee Review

There is no benefits to trying to work with these people, they lie, ignore you and withhold payments

They don’t pay you what is agreed and in my case they don’t pay you at all. There is no management structure and you are passed from one person to the other. They expect you to work 7 days a week 365 days a year and if you can’t you must get someone to cover your round or be charged upwards of 2 days of work. So for example you worked 6 days and couldn’t do the 7th your take home pay for the week is 4 days worth of pay. They expect you to also go source (while most places are closed) items for delivery that have been missed out of your collection for the morning and this is at your cost with a complicated reclaim process and a cut off period of the same day to submit the reclaim. There is no single point of contact for you that can actually deal with any of these issues that I have raised. Very very poor company to try and work with and not in a million years will you ever achieve anywhere above minimum wage, not even close.

I can’t think of any

You’re told to meet at 3.25 (I set my alarm for 3am as I’m 5 minutes from the meeting place). Arrival times varied from 3am to 4.10 and you don’t know this until you wake up. No support from so-called supervisors. Calls and messages are ignored. I spent £12 to replace papers that were not included in the bundle. I completed the reimbursement form as detailed, but my request was rejected. No proper reason was given, and when I email to ask why it was rejected, I was ignored. You are told a standard delivery round would take 2 - 2.5 hours, and as a trainee, your round would build slowly. On day 14, my round took close to 5 hours. If you’re unlucky enough to have small villages and country houses on your round, the distance and location of some properties (often un-numbered and/or SatNav takes you off route) adds significant time. Yiu are not told that your route will increase to 122 drops until AFTER you start. For the rate of pay, you’re looking at 5-7 hours for £50 - well below the minimal pay scale. The lure of earning £100 p.w is a scam, as they look for any excuse to penalise you. Even as a trainee, your first mistake (missed drop) counts against you.