Gavin O'Brien

One year experience at traffic control but over 20 years working in and around traffic control on major road works, estate development, and road repairs and maintenance.

Setting out signs for job site, and controlling traffic flow for edge grading on major roads, and pothole repairs on roads in Melton shire.

Observing safety issues on job sites and implementing solutions.

Keeping workers in workzone safe by implementing a professional approach to my traffic controlling.

Able to think on the fly by constantly observing for problems before they become problems.

Left Aldi dew to a health scare and separation I've endured a rocky road in the past 3 or 4 years. With nearly all of my past employment being long term, I have changed jobs in the last few years due to a few reasons including,

Lack of professional work place environment,

Low pay rate for my experience and knowledge in my profession.

Working under managers and leaders that had virtually no people skills at all, even though I was willing to work with them in a professional manner.

Continually starting early and finishing late without being correctly payed.

In a 10 hour work day only receiving 30 break.

These unfortunate work place conditions are the reason I've continued to search for an Employer to Acknowledge my work ethics.

I'm presently employed as a traffic controller and team leaders I have worked with over the past year have told me that I'm competent enough to be a team leader. As it is my problem along with other traffic controllers and team leaders within the company we work for they have employed an abundance of casual employees with not enough work to go around. This reason alone is the motivation I'm seeking employment elsewhere.

Hope you appreciate my upfront honesty.

Aldi was an opportunity for me to advance in life with not only better money but a good work life balance and to increase my work experiences.

My shift at Aldi was classed as afternoon shift from 4pm to 3:30am.

It was important to keep your job requirements to a very tightly managed routine as your nights work would involve 2 or 3 runs in the shift period, with each run having at least 2 store locations on the 1 van.. Being a refrigerated van, the freight I was loading comprised of freezer, chiller and ambient freight and specials for 2 separate stores. Loading from a manifest, the freight was in different sections of the DC determined by temperature of the freight. With a 2 store run the last store on manifest was loaded first and first store loaded last and when unloading you had to be very aware the correct freight was delivered to the correct store.

Prestart and safety check was done first and then truck and semi trailer parked on an allocated dock.

Toolbox meeting with at least 10 other drivers was done every shift.

Load your freight into the van and setting the refrigerator to the correct temperature.

Collect store keys.

Fill out work diary (log book).

I always used my GPS navigation even if i knew the store location, as it helped with time arrival at the 2 store location, warned me of any hold ups on route, informed me of speed limits and was detrimental in planning my rest breaks within the work diary requirements.

In most cases 2nd store delivered, the store personnel had gone for the night so I had to unlock and with the set store code turn off the alarm.

Unloaded and loaded on the empty pallets to be returned to DC.

At end of shift wash and clean vehicle ready for the next shift.

The culture at Aldi transport was professional and friendly with an expectation of an effort of 100%.

Aldi transport had extensive programs for us to keep improving on our day to day tasks.

Driver training for both safety and awareness.

Fuel consumption.

Fatigue management.

Working together within large group of employees.

With all of the training undergone and my high work ethic I was rated within the top 5 out of 30 driver operators working the afternoon shift I became one of the main driver trainers for new employees set to work at the newly constructed Dandenong DC.

This training assignment was dew to my high standard I implemented to my work including punctuality, fuel economy, efficiency, being keen to teach all aspects of the job, willing to work with and in the Aldi culture.

The both employers subcontracted to Boral Quarries.

My role in operating the truck and trailer.

Keeping the unit clean and maintaining the vehicle.

Delivering material to private customers, new development estates, major road upgrades, new roads being constructed, concrete plants and delivering asphalt to the companies laying the new surface.

Communicating with loader operators, site foreman's, grader operators, asphalt crews and all the other truck and trailer operators to send and receive instructions on travel routs and entry points and contacts for the jobsite.

Moved away from the Managers role at Pedders suspension to move into an industry that gave me the opportunity to earn better money through longer hours so I could start a new family. Central Bobcat hire was a company that had a large percentage of the work in road maintenance, repairs and construction of new roads in estates and major road redevelopment. The bobcat was assigned to work with the road profiling machine to clean the cut that the profiler had just made in order for the computer levels or side board to run flat and unobstructed on the next cut.

Other tasks in and around the job.

Loading the suction sweepers loads into one of many trucks that had been hired to cart the material the profiler had just cut from the road to the dump site.

Reading the next move of the large profiler machine, as there was 2 profiler operators, one was up top operating the machine the other was in charge of the computer levels.

The operator on the ground was also a spotter for the operator driving the large profiler being his eyes and ears.

A role I took on was to communicate with the returning trucks, suction sweeper and traffic control as to let then know the next move of the profiler as to keep the job flowing smoothly and safely.

I also worked with the asphalt crews that were laying the new asphalt into the cuts the profiler had just made by cleaning up the excess asphalt at the end of the pavers run.

Another branch of Centrals work was site cleans, new driveway excavations and larger excavations in harder to reach places that the bobcat could get into then loading into the truck and trailer I was also operating.

Started as a delivery driver and through a steady progression worked my way to Manager. These steps involved becoming one of three suspension mechanics and doing deliveries to then becoming full time mechanic, as my roll as mechanic became more involved to the point I was sent on several course in to improve my knowledge on everything in and around vehicle suspension, including advanced wheel alignment technician. As I was keen and had very good communications with the customers, the productivity of the Broadmeadows store was on the incline. Pedders Broadmeadows was a company store, with about 70% being franchise store, Russel Matherson was the company store manager who bought the franchise to this store and quickly promoted me to manager.

Started as a casual loading small freight for interstate deliveries and quickly moved on to forklift operator loading general freight for interstate deliveries. As I was unloading the pick up trucks and loading that freight onto the trucks interstate bound, I was covering the entire warehouse and had a great overall view of the progress at any one time. Knowing the interstate drivers had a long haul in front of them, I was keen to load their freight on and get them on their way. The general freight was of all shapes, sizes and weight, so it was an art to load it in a way it all fitted nicely together with the weight distributed legally and safe for the long trip ahead. The Main owner of Right way express had seen me operate and give instructions to the casual workers to help keep the nightly process to be efficient and safe and promoted me to supervisor.