I work for Staffline, but there’s plenty of work about, and I would imagine they are making decent margins on it.
Perhaps there are regions about the UK where agencies are doing particularily badly THIS year?
…Just not the southeast at least.
Maybe London is feeling the pinch though - that “compliance” with the ULEZ thing - must by now have driven a lot of former hauliers into London “out of town” - because they don’t happen to have enough cash to scrap all their fleet “older than a 15 plate”…
The graph of Staffline’s share price over the past year doesn’t look good.
carlston49:
The graph of Staffline’s share price over the past year doesn’t look good.
Staffline decided a couple of years ago they wanted to topple ADR Network as the biggest agency. They did this by undercutting them and others at any contract they could. They had quite a lot of success and regularly boast of their billion pound turnover (that’s all their business not just driving). But all that undercutting for market share meant they forgot to make a profit along the way. That coupled with some Sports Direct type scandal where they were paying people less than minimum wage has royally shafted the share price and confidence in the city is low.
carlston49:
The graph of Staffline’s share price over the past year doesn’t look good.
They look like they are struggling in a big way
ATJT:
They look like they are struggling in a big way
Wouldn’t it be…
Great if the agency business model was finally shown to employers as the total rip off it is?
Employers could save themselves a massive percentage by using drivers directly on an ad-hoc basis. I have worked for one company that hired me that way with full PAYE conditions and P45 paperwork etc.
a man can dream cant he?
yourhavingalarf:
ATJT:
They look like they are struggling in a big wayWouldn’t it be…
Great if the agency business model was finally shown to employers as the total rip off it is?
Employers could save themselves a massive percentage by using drivers directly on an ad-hoc basis. I have worked for one company that hired me that way with full PAYE conditions and P45 paperwork etc.
a man can dream cant he?
But this only works if demand is fairly stable. Let’s say you are Tesco and the numbers start coming in late afternoon and you need 20 drivers more than you originally forecasted for their Wave 1, start times usually from midnight to 0400. You currently bark down the phone at your agency they need to get you 20 more and make it snappy. With your scenario they are ringing 20+ drivers (as most won’t be just sitting by the phone waiting) begging them to work in just a few hours time. They will repeatedly be told “no thanks, I’ve got work elsewhere or similar”
That’s why companies use agencies in the way they do, the agency somehow finds them these 20 drivers and it’s taken one phone call.
I wouldn’t be seen dead working 00:00-04:00 start times, as it is paid at “day rate”, and yet is still a full night shift as far as I’m concerned…
“Wave One” - sounds like it is aimed at those people who cannot envisiage anything other than working “Days”… 
I’d rather do the “crumbs from under the table” in a week that end up netting a monkey for three shifts, as touched upon in thingy’s post above… 
Winseer:
I wouldn’t be seen dead working 00:00-04:00 start times, as it is paid at “day rate”, and yet is still a full night shift as far as I’m concerned…“Wave One” - sounds like it is aimed at those people who cannot envisiage anything other than working “Days”…
I’d rather do the “crumbs from under the table” in a week that end up netting a monkey for three shifts, as touched upon in thingy’s post above…
You’re missing the point. A mate works for Morrison’s transport and I’ve seen it with my own eyes, he’ll book 25 extra drivers for the day shift then cancel 30 the following night. And it’s not his fault, it’s what he’s told to do according by the planning teams. And his agency just has to deal with it, I’m sure they hate it but that’s how it works.
How with those conditions do you not use agency?
A long time ago I used to work with agencies but back then it was more a case of getting someone in to cover holidays, it’s a whole different game now because we all want goods available 24/7.
ATJT:
Winseer:
I wouldn’t be seen dead working 00:00-04:00 start times, as it is paid at “day rate”, and yet is still a full night shift as far as I’m concerned…“Wave One” - sounds like it is aimed at those people who cannot envisiage anything other than working “Days”…
I’d rather do the “crumbs from under the table” in a week that end up netting a monkey for three shifts, as touched upon in thingy’s post above…
You’re missing the point. A mate works for Morrison’s transport and I’ve seen it with my own eyes, he’ll book 25 extra drivers for the day shift then cancel 30 the following night. And it’s not his fault, it’s what he’s told to do according by the planning teams. And his agency just has to deal with it, I’m sure they hate it but that’s how it works.
How with those conditions do you not use agency?
A long time ago I used to work with agencies but back then it was more a case of getting someone in to cover holidays, it’s a whole different game now because we all want goods available 24/7.
I would like to see the look on the planners face if he were to forget to cancel the 30 drivers!!! This type of nonsense gets right on my nerves. Surely if they actually had planners worth paying a salery for they’d forcast how many drivers they need deduct the number they have then ask the agency for the difference plus on or two for redundancy reasons. Seen it at Royal mail also to a lesser extent, 10 drivers sitting in a room twiddling their thumbs for a couple of hours then told to go home… later on the same day I’d get a bit of overtime as they were short…
ytrehodluap:
ATJT:
Winseer:
I wouldn’t be seen dead working 00:00-04:00 start times, as it is paid at “day rate”, and yet is still a full night shift as far as I’m concerned…“Wave One” - sounds like it is aimed at those people who cannot envisiage anything other than working “Days”…
I’d rather do the “crumbs from under the table” in a week that end up netting a monkey for three shifts, as touched upon in thingy’s post above…
You’re missing the point. A mate works for Morrison’s transport and I’ve seen it with my own eyes, he’ll book 25 extra drivers for the day shift then cancel 30 the following night. And it’s not his fault, it’s what he’s told to do according by the planning teams. And his agency just has to deal with it, I’m sure they hate it but that’s how it works.
How with those conditions do you not use agency?
A long time ago I used to work with agencies but back then it was more a case of getting someone in to cover holidays, it’s a whole different game now because we all want goods available 24/7.
I would like to see the look on the planners face if he were to forget to cancel the 30 drivers!!! This type of nonsense gets right on my nerves. Surely if they actually had planners worth paying a salery for they’d forcast how many drivers they need deduct the number they have then ask the agency for the difference plus on or two for redundancy reasons. Seen it at Royal mail also to a lesser extent, 10 drivers sitting in a room twiddling their thumbs for a couple of hours then told to go home… later on the same day I’d get a bit of overtime as they were short…
Whilst planners often are muppets they are often reacting to events outside their control. Marketing for instance, a supermarket can decide at very short notice to run a promotion. Say that promotion is beer, suddenly you are looking at a big increase in cube. Suddenly therefore you are needing a lot more trailers, to deliver those trailers you need more drivers.
I’ve been “one of those two dozen over-ordered drivers” on more than one occasion, Wincantons for the block booking, of which we “excess” all got sent home without honouring the contractual 8 hours paid if sent home having arrived in good faith for a booked shift. We got told “If you don’t let us do this - we won’t ever book you again”.
I think I made it my last time of working for wincantons at that point anyways - so who lost in the end?
Wincantons - lost the Snodland contract shortly after, 2015 I think it was…
If an agency lets their clinet “bully” them in such a manner - it is time to seek another agency - I suggest…
ATJT:
ytrehodluap:
ATJT:
Winseer:
I wouldn’t be seen dead working 00:00-04:00 start times, as it is paid at “day rate”, and yet is still a full night shift as far as I’m concerned…“Wave One” - sounds like it is aimed at those people who cannot envisiage anything other than working “Days”…
I’d rather do the “crumbs from under the table” in a week that end up netting a monkey for three shifts, as touched upon in thingy’s post above…
You’re missing the point. A mate works for Morrison’s transport and I’ve seen it with my own eyes, he’ll book 25 extra drivers for the day shift then cancel 30 the following night. And it’s not his fault, it’s what he’s told to do according by the planning teams. And his agency just has to deal with it, I’m sure they hate it but that’s how it works.
How with those conditions do you not use agency?
A long time ago I used to work with agencies but back then it was more a case of getting someone in to cover holidays, it’s a whole different game now because we all want goods available 24/7.
I would like to see the look on the planners face if he were to forget to cancel the 30 drivers!!! This type of nonsense gets right on my nerves. Surely if they actually had planners worth paying a salery for they’d forcast how many drivers they need deduct the number they have then ask the agency for the difference plus on or two for redundancy reasons. Seen it at Royal mail also to a lesser extent, 10 drivers sitting in a room twiddling their thumbs for a couple of hours then told to go home… later on the same day I’d get a bit of overtime as they were short…
Whilst planners often are muppets they are often reacting to events outside their control. Marketing for instance, a supermarket can decide at very short notice to run a promotion. Say that promotion is beer, suddenly you are looking at a big increase in cube. Suddenly therefore you are needing a lot more trailers, to deliver those trailers you need more drivers.
Surely the boffins doing these promotions would need to have the stock in store ready to be sold in a reasonable time frame? Let’s say they will put Carlsburg and Guinness on a 2 for £20 offer (except in Scotland) then they might expect to sell a lot more of the stuff, so will have to check to see if the amount of stock exists to order it in the first place then send the required amout of trailers to collect said stock sort it in a warehouse somewhere then send it out one or two days before they go on offer. Surely with the benefit of computer systems they should also be able to know how many extra store deliveries would be needed to fulfil this days in advance and booke the required number of drivers to drive the units??
Perhaps with the rise in online shopping often days in advance they could order the required amount of stock for those and not necessarily sending 20 pallets of Carlsburg (other largers are available) to Leeds for example.