Pros
- The job in itself is actually quite fun. Driving around, meeting different people and seeing parts of London/South East I'd never both going to - Its an easy job, and Ocado have set up their systems to make it as painless as possible. All you need to be aware of is terrible drivers on the road! - A few of the people at the Merton depot are alright. - Benefits are pretty good (offset by terrible pay) - discounted Ocado with free delivery, discounted goods from affiliates etc.
Cons
Where to begin?! - First off, the worst, and I mean absolute worst onboarding I've ever experienced. I can appreciate there being teething problems with IT systems when you implement a new one, however Ocado as a business was implementing a new system without testing it, causing issues between the old software (that worked fine). This led to missing emails, a buggy user interface, people having to use multiple systems with different logins. A complete mess. - The management team at Merton are some of the least empathetic and understanding people I've ever met. I was affected by a kidney infection and kidney stone early in 2025 which put me out of work for a couple of days (and caused me to leave the role) - I was gaslit into making it feel like it was my fault I couldn't do my shifts, told that if I had another absence I'd be fired etc. Treat your staff better, life has a habit of getting in the way and you need to understand that. - Following on from the above - my van was hit by a speeding driver whilst it was legally parked, taking the wing mirror off the van. I was instructed to complete my delivery route despite my concerns that the van was unroadworthy - I had to force the broken mirror back onto the van so I could see behind me. When explaining what happened back at the depot I was told to "be more careful next time, we can't have damage happening to the vans, they're brand new." More gaslighting to make me feel like it was my fault - even though the van was stationary and the guy who hit it was doing 40mph in a 20mph zone.. - Very cliquey environment. Management all bunch together and joke around and anyone at a lower level is looked at like they are pond life. - Pay is terrible. A little over minimum wage. You get a couple of extra £ for antisocial hours in the evening and weekends but that is it. - When I joined I was told I'd be doing a variety of shifts. This is false - over 70% of my shifts were during the evenings or at weekends. There needs to be better balance.
