warehouse associate

traffic coordinator

operations supervisor

billing coordinator

operations manager

DB Schenker

You get what you should expect with a large unionized environment. Complete distrust between the collective bargaining unit and the rest of the company where red tape is king and people become numbers.

The organization is siloed between its shifts with no sincere interest from the senior leadership team in dealing with it. Finger pointing and the blame game are the go-to management styles. There are key figures that have been influencing the work culture since the building first opened its doors. I suspect this won't change for some time.

The teams squabble over 'good numbers' rather than work collaboratively to manage the FIFO flow.

This attitude is reinforced by the communication from management when OPH ( a metric for measuring productivity)  is low. Root-cause is not looked into and conclusions are jumped to far too quickly before any thorough analysis is done. Upcoming employees promoted internally seem to believe that spiking their OPH by cherry picking easy orders over old dates or stealing product from other departments are good ways to prove their prowess as a manager or supervisor.

Overall my experience with this company was very disheartening. I learned quite a lot in dealing with a unionized environment, but I'm glad I moved on. Perhaps this culture might change under the new leadership and restructuring recently underway.

The lay-off process was deplorable. Mid-level managers and supervisors were kept in the dark until the last minute with almost no time to make preparations. The worst part was the recall back. Temporary workers were informed by their agencies and knew the return to work date long before actual Schenker Employees including mid-level managers were informed. The lack of communication and distrust shown was enough to make me start looking for another job.

On a positive note, the team of supervisors and flow managers were really great to work with and will be the only thing I miss about this place. That and the staff iniated dinners/lunches which  are probably not a thing anymore, thanks COVID!

Since the recruitment it was confusing, but I believed it was because of COVID. Zero onboarding, with no HR guidance or training instructions. Payroll is confusing and often forgets to add new employees on their first cheque run.

Team initially was welcomed, but within 4 days, team member refused to provide any training, claiming they do not have time to teach. Some team members are extremely difficult to work with, not welcome to changes or improvements - stuck on methodology "if it is working for years, don't touch it". Any change proposed comes with lots of headaches, meetings, back-and-forwards emails and no resolution.

No SOPs or written instructions of any process - you must be able to learn things by yourself, or get ready to lots of extra hours and pressure for deadline. Everybody seems stressed and not happy, and historically people has quitting due bureaucracy and negativity. Management changed constantly, and elderly team members run the place, even without authority.

In the good side, company pays well and you can find some good people on there if you look closer. Other departments are up to her if you have the right attitude. Very flexible in terms of remote work, hybrid model. Appreciation gifts are provided frequently and the annual bonus is attractive. 

DB Schenker Delta facility is a nightmare facility. Poorly managed with the poorest work culture that I ever experienced in my career. Production numbers are more important than safety and the top brass ignore important safety concerns. Upper management spend very little time walking the floor and listening to the front line walkers and only become concerned what the customer come to visit. 
Health concerns are also ignored. One washroom is a trailer on the warehouse floor that has to be pumped out daily but is not properly ventilated, meaning septic gases and leaked into the warehouse. Vermin are also a problem as upper management decided it was a good idea to introduce cafeteria style food items on the warehouse floor. 
Security is another issue. Gang fights in the parking lot late at night, ex employees accessing the warehouse right under the noses of security guards who spend their time with their heads down in the phone or sleeping. I never felt safe and these issues, when brought to management are addressed with a shake of the head and nothing else. 
Overall there is not much good found at this facility. Bad union environment, bad work culture, bad management and a very demanding customer. Not worth to long commute and the terrible stress anyone will encounter. 

The Management team is so disconnected from what actually happens on the floor.

An Operations Supervisor and his Team Lead had all associates in their area petition for them to be fired 3x and not only did nothing happen, one is now promoted to a Flow manager position on afternoons and his team lead got promoted to an Operations Supervisor on top of the fact that they sleep together! Unreal.

No sense of pride working for such a dead end place. They move Supervisors on a whim, they verbally abuse their associates and most of the supervisors have no clue what to do as there is no real training offered. On top of the fact that its the worst warehouse in DB Schenker in Canada for MHE accidents, again, no training.

They have lost so many good people here due to their poor attitudes and the total disconnect to the reality of the building.

Many have been warned about working for this company and all the rumors are true. This facility has such a poor reputation, most East Indians in Surrey know all about it and refuse to work there!

What is the best part of working at the company?
99.9 % of employees working here are Indian, and the primary language spoken even during announcements and meetings is an Indian language. It can be very difficult to understand what's going on if you don't speak the language, and I often have to find someone to translate for me. It would be inclusive if English was used for all official communication, especially in a diverse workplace. I often ask myself if I'm in Canada.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
communication, people's hygiene, not so peaceful environment 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
not peaceful.  There's a lot of fight between employees on their own language.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
"Confused"  because most conversations, including work instructions and meetings, are in a language I don't understand. It's challenging to stay informed and fully engaged when communication isn't in English.

The job is relatively easy, but management is terrible and preys on agency employees. It takes forever to get hired on full time, if it even happens at all. In my personal experience, it took 9 months to get hired on, but it's been a year since that happened, and no other agency employees (even the ones who have been here 9 months) have even been approached to be hired. Often times you see someone work there for a year with good production numbers while also being well liked and instead of hiring them on, they let them go. 

Some supervisors are ok, but a couple are pretty bad. Picking on new people or people they dont like. Cracking the whip and riding people until they quit. The place is a revolving door, and upper management seems to have no clue that the attitudes of certain supervisors and team leads are the reason why. 

If you need to make ok money for 6 months, it's a decent place to work. If you are looking for somewhere to work for a few years, I'd keep looking.

you start your day with a morning meeting and as soon as the day starts supervisors start abusing you verbally and if you dare stand up for yourself they make your life miserable and start watching you and playing their dirty tricks to get your fired. One of the biggest thing about this place is "favoritism" people become manager and supervisor overnight and the people that are promoted to Operation supervisor position can't even speak English which makes it really hard for employees to understand their role or duties for the day. people are often scared to ask what their supervisor is trying to say since they don't wanna embarrass the supervisor in front of the other employees. Working hard at this place never gets anyone promoted but if you know how to lick managements feet then you're on the right track to get promoted. " If you care about how you're treated at work then do yourself a favor and look for work somewhere else"

I have been working at Schenker for 19 plus years.  It was challenging at the beginning but as time went on, with more practical and learning experiences, I was able to accomplish a lot more tasks than I could imagine.  The works were repetitive but enjoyable.  There were some major systems upgrades and changes that occurred every few years.  Therefore, we always need to prepare for new changes and be adaptive to every new changes.  Management is striving for more productive and improving the company in all areas.  Our work culture is customer focus, team collaboration, positive atmosphere, and productive safe work environment.  The hardest part of the job was when working with unreliable people that said one thing and did another.  The most enjoyable part of the job was working with the great team and feel connected.

There are two shifts at DB: morning and evening.  I worked the morning shift (7 am to 3:30 pm) for two years.  The workplace culture was decent, according to my experience.  The managerial staff on the shop floor operations were frequently swapped/rotated, but nonetheless maintained a somewhat uniform workflow.  Fellow co-workers can be reasonable if you get to know them and their culture.  I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it was well worth developing social and technical skills.  One last thing I have to say about this place is its location: it's located next to Boundary Bay (and the nearby Boundary Bay Airport), which makes the commute to and from there possible the most by private automobile.  There is one bus route, but I'll leave the commuting planning up to everyone else's discretion.

Work long hours throughout the month because not enough staff. Also, too much administrative and misplaced work gets in the way of the work you signed up for.  Learned you need to work in operations if you want a true understanding of the industry.  Management needs to work on succession planning within the department and provide clear objectives for employees to work towards.  They are working on workplace culture which is a good thing.  Hardest part of the job is staying motivated within current role when unsure of next steps for job advancement if your ambition is to work your way up. If your not concerned about career advancement and just want a job this will be the company for you.  Quite stable.  Team building sessions are the most enjoyable part of the job.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Warehouse associate 1 salary reported	$19.00 per hour
Traffic coordinator 3 salaries reported	$45,000 per year
Operations supervisor 1 salary reported	$55,000 per year
Billing coordinator 4 salaries reported	$44,000 per year
Operations manager 3 salaries reported	$84,000 per year

Working at DB Schenker: company overview and reviews

DB Schenker

DB Schenker ratings

Popular jobs at DB Schenker

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected