When you start back at agency work after being in regular driving work, you have to change your mindset and become more flexible and less fussy or you,ll end up making no money. and money is what I do this job for. That dosen’t mean you have to be a mug, just a bit more pragmatic and a little less preicious.
Must say Driver Hire Oxford seemed alright today. Rang to get me started on a dustcart job to be told the client wont do inductions/assessments this week as they’re still flat out from Xmas collections.
The were apologetic, so I should be doing it next week…
The Boggart:
When you start back at agency work after being in regular driving work, you have to change your mindset and become more flexible and less fussy or you,ll end up making no money. and money is what I do this job for. That dosen’t mean you have to be a mug, just a bit more pragmatic and a little less preicious.
I’m not that fussy, but I won’t stoop to “paying to go to work” or even working for net below minimum wage (takehome wage divided by hours spent away from home) that’s all.
Figure how you can make a living wage on a 5 hour £8ph shift when you’ve got to spend £25 in fuel getting there, then take the deductions off.
You might do it for one day a week “just to get a payslip too low to tax”, but if it’s your 4th day onwards you’re looking for, then you’ll lose enough of that shift in tax & NI that it’s not worth going is it?
My last shift was a flat 8 driving a puddle jumper, but I make it work by just doing the one shift (not that I’ve turned down anything since!) and helped by the major fact that it’s local to me, providing the shift doesn’t start in rush hour. If it takes you an hour to commute across town in rush hour, you might as well commute 50 miles down the motorway for the same amount of time wasted, even if the fuel is arguably not so bad. I have no idea what mileage my car gets “in the city”, but it ain’t anywhere near what it’ll get “on the straight”! 
It’s not what you earn, it’s what you don’t have to spend!
thanks for replies,i dont hold out much joy but we shall see,i am going to do the rounds of companies in local areas for aweek then start to sign up on agencies and be prepared for b/s,if no good im sure macdonalds will take me on, 47years old bald and tattooed it should go well with their dress code.by the way i have class 1 20 years+,i used to be on containers out of felixstowe,but i moved to tamworth and stuck on class 2 and only covered holidays on class1 in last year,was waiting for somebody to move on but they did not.