The Donkey would like to extend a cordial message of gratitude to all Agency drivers, and especially those enlightened souls who, at the first hint of rising hourly rates, gave up their full time employment and joined the bonanza of bumper pay.
What could have been a simple, momentary, misalignment of drivers and jobs, was whipped up by the media, and a monumentally stupid RHA, into a frenzy of panic. First to over react were the agencies, who used their ability to raise and lower rates at will, to raise hourly rates substantially, to attract drivers, to restock their depleted driver pools. This, predictably, let to a number of drivers leaving their full time employment, to join this cornucopia of increased wages. This in turn, caused transport firms to panic, and increase their wages, and improve t&c’s, to attempt to retain their remaining drivers, and attract new ones.
Having now restocked their pool of drivers, the agencies have, predictably, lowered their rates again, and are back to where they were before, with drivers again at the whimm of pointy shoed oiks, and the joy of rolled up Holiday, zero hour contract, umbrella charges, etc.
Employed drivers meanwhile, have pocketed 30 to 50% pay rises, improved t&c’s, and continue to enjoy full time employment.
There’s signs of EEs returning and grabbing a fistfull of the previously abundant shifts, but no sign yet that this year is going to be any different to previous years…
Quieter in November,
Premium Period keeps getting pushed deeper into December (used to be the 20th November-12th Night FFS)
Work still expected to drop dead on January 4th (not 2nd or 3rd, as they are Sunday and a Bank Holiday)
The improvements to agency I want to see become “Permanent” - are no more last minute changes to assignments. first and foremost. Hourly Rates are of secondary concern, once one is faced with the prospects of shifts being cancelled on a regular basis, because some EE working for a rival agency has got in there, and undercut the main agency supplier…
I’ve not bothered with Agency into RM this year. All the fuss and bother, having to pass yet another assessment/interview for work that is gone in january - don’t seem worth chasing any more, now that RM levels of hourly rates on agency are the new going rate in so many places now. We might be facing a Christmas of dog-eat-dog Agency Subbing with the same job being given to multiple different people on different agencies, and the moment some £12ph bod says “I’ll do it” - all the others earning upto £22ph for the same shift - will promptly get theirs cancelled all up the chain…
I dunno if we’re going to see a comeback of Umbrella and Self-Employed fiddles any more though.
“Rolled Up Holiday Pay” and “IR35” are surely now reformed so the upsides of buggering around with the book figures - doesn’t work for staff any more, let alone “employers” trying to pretend they are not so tricking the hapless agency bod into paying both ends of National Insurance Stamp…
elsa Lad:
Agency rates haven’t dropped yet in my area, possibly after Christmas…we have to wait and see
Have agency rates FOR Christmas gone UP there yet?
I await the logjams that’ll no doubt be caused by:
Agency bods get “Pencilled in” for some shifts,
Subbing Agency gets someone at their end to do the same shift for less,
First agency - gets their booked bod cancelled by client, so they can fill at now-cheaper second agency
£12ph bod - realizes they can get a better hourly rate at another agency, so applies there and “no shows” for the shift they booked, to do another better paid one instead (not likely the same shift @ same yard though)
Too many “No Shows” - and we’ll see more queues of perishable food on trucks lost - because of lack of WAREHOUSE staff to tip them, rather than truckers to bring them in…
Not seen many Driver jobs advertized of late - but every depot I see - seems to be seeking Warehouse Staff now!
the nodding donkey:
Having now restocked their pool of drivers, the agencies have, predictably, lowered their rates again, and are back to where they were before, with drivers again at the whimm of pointy shoed oiks, and the joy of rolled up Holiday, zero hour contract, umbrella charges, etc.
Where? A conversation I had on the phone last week with my agency we got around to the subject of rates as one plum had apparently phoned them demanding £24/hr in Hull and they said that now they’ve gone up they won’t be going back down again. And this is in Hull area.
Never had rolled up holiday pay, umbrella etc. Do you actually have a clue what you’re talking about?
Employed drivers meanwhile, have pocketed 30 to 50% pay rises, improved t&c’s,
In the last 6 months my agency has upped the lowest rate they pay by 60%.
30% to 50%? Even that was only because enough jumped ship and went to agency that your “Masser” you doff your cap and give a shilling to every Monday in thanks for the weeks work he offers you was forced to before he ended up with no drivers.
Your post smacks of jealousy. You upset that you’re forced to go out in all weathers whilst we can pick and choose when we want to work?
As part of a ‘RM taskforce’, we’ve been given guaranteed hours/wages till mid jan. Didn’t get a shift this week. Don’t care, still being paid for 40hrs. with some added allowances gives me over 1k + hols for nowt. I luv agency work.
Apart from the modest increases caused by pay parity Ive hardly had a substantial increase in £/hr, but I know that after Christmas theres going to be a lot of agency drivers who swopped and changed to chase the money, dropped like a stone and sat at home waiting for the phone to ring. Which is why I stayed put and played the long game, knowing that while theyll be sat at home Ill still be working. Ironically Id previously mentioned the vacancies at the site Im at, and they actually offered me a full time position which I turned down, choosing to stay with the agency.
peirre:
Apart from the modest increases caused by pay parity Ive hardly had a substantial increase in £/hr, but I know that after Christmas theres going to be a lot of agency drivers who swopped and changed to chase the money, dropped like a stone and sat at home waiting for the phone to ring. Which is why I stayed put and played the long game, knowing that while theyll be sat at home Ill still be working. Ironically Id previously mentioned the vacancies at the site Im at, and they actually offered me a full time position which I turned down, choosing to stay with the agency.
I have seen very little increase in agency pay here in Scotland except for night trunk drivers. Until recently Hovis was £10.50/hr !! PAYE with one agency.
peirre:
… and they actually offered me a full time position which I turned down, choosing to stay with the agency.
That’s what a lot did at our place, but then they got promptly dumped as a small number jumped to fulltime. They looked most confused as to why the company would chose people who will work 5 days a week instead of picking and choosing. Plus being ADR, they struggled
As for those saying the agency rates won’t be dropping - goid luck with that. Since they started paying better wages and dropping agency, there’s going to be less agency work. Multiply by all similar companies and the agency rates will have to drop.
peirre:
Apart from the modest increases caused by pay parity Ive hardly had a substantial increase in £/hr, but I know that after Christmas theres going to be a lot of agency drivers who swopped and changed to chase the money, dropped like a stone and sat at home waiting for the phone to ring.
No they won’t. That’s not been the case for the last three years, it wasn’t last year, it definitely wasn’t in January 2021 and it won’t be in January 2022.
I don’t think you have any understanding of the scale of the movement to online shopping and how much that’s ramped up demand for transport. The economy is still also ramping up from coming out of the pandemic. Throw in the French throwing their toys out of their prams over the fishing and wanting to hold up trucks with the resulting increase in unaccompanied trailers and the increase in container traffic and there’ll be plenty of demand. As long as the RHA etc are still trying to get the government to open the doors to Europeans to come here there’ll be work a plenty.
trevHCS:
As for those saying the agency rates won’t be dropping - goid luck with that. Since they started paying better wages and dropping agency, there’s going to be less agency work. Multiply by all similar companies and the agency rates will have to drop.
I hear the same tired old rubbish every year and all that happens every year is demand for agency goes up and the quiet periods of the year become less and less to the point that for the last 3 years they’ve not existed and agencies are offering sign up bonuses to agency drivers who manage to get others to sign up and that’s not just been the case this year, that’s been the case for a few years now.
Lets assume they do. The worst they can drop to is the new rates the fulltimers are on which are apparently 30% to 50% more than they were last year thanks to us agency plobbers so they’re still going to be getting more than they were last year.
We’ll still not be forced to bang in 60hr weeks, week in, week out like you mugs though and there’s plenty of lorry drivers who went to agency because it wasn’t so much about earning more money as the fact that the higher hourly pay meant they no longer had to do 60hrs to earn a decent wage so it’s still a win. The hours are the reason that companies will still need agency because they’ll still have difficulty putting bums on seats as people don’t want to work 60hrs a week any more. 56,000 British lorry drivers quit in 2020 alone, adding to the 550,000 that already had over the years because they’d got time off on furlough, realised what they had been missing and decided they’d had enough of living to work so went and did something else with normal hours the rest of the country does for a living instead. They’re not going to be coming back if they have to do 60hrs a week again no matter what the money.
It’s all over in 3 months is it? Is it really? Do you think that’s how supply chains work? The bulk of UK drivers are in their 50s and will be dying/retiring shortly. The driver shortage is going to be with us for years - at least a decade. And it’s going to get a lot worse than it is now.
JeffA:
It’s all over in 3 months is it? Is it really? Do you think that’s how supply chains work? The bulk of UK drivers are in their 50s and will be dying/retiring shortly. The driver shortage is going to be with us for years - at least a decade. And it’s going to get a lot worse than it is now.
It’ll be dying (likely of some kind of NHS hospital neglect) rather than “retiring” (Government and pension industry has likely already blown everyone’s nest egg under age 60, yet to claim…)
To “Survive” then - you need to be working 'til you drop.
If you are working, you’ll miraculously find that you can reach three-score-and-ten without even giving up any vices!
Maybe part of the “You’ll own nothing - and be happy” doctrine?
JeffA:
It’s all over in 3 months is it? Is it really? Do you think that’s how supply chains work? The bulk of UK drivers are in their 50s and will be dying/retiring shortly. The driver shortage is going to be with us for years - at least a decade. And it’s going to get a lot worse than it is now.
It’ll be dying (likely of some kind of NHS hospital neglect) rather than “retiring” (Government and pension industry has likely already blown everyone’s nest egg under age 60, yet to claim…)
To “Survive” then - you need to be working 'til you drop.
If you are working, you’ll miraculously find that you can reach three-score-and-ten without even giving up any vices!
Maybe part of the “You’ll own nothing - and be happy” doctrine?
To survive Winseeerer, you need a fishing rod and a gun.
You’ll need the rod to catch fish, to eat. You need the gun, to stop other from taking your fish…
Winseer:
because some EE working for a rival agency has got in there, and undercut the main agency supplier…
Bit of a racist bigot aren’t you? You seem to always have a bit of a chip on your shoulder about Eastern Europeans.
Arent EEs all white, just like 90ish% of Brits today? This aint racism at all. At a stretch, nothing more than nationalism. But you’ve got to be the wokiest of the woke to even think like that. Winseer just stated where they are from…
95% of “drivers” looking for work ringing me are “agency bods” who fell for the “mega rates” scam, having ditched their full time jobs…and the agencies seem to have an abundance of drivers spare ATM from what I`m being offered, at rates that look like they did this time last year
