Hi anybody know if there’s agencies taking on self employed drivers midlands area
cheers fodean 
You’ll probably need to be a LTD company for them to set you on.
I’m self employed, but go through agencies on PAYE at basic rate, then add it to my self assesment and sort the dfference in tax out that way. Thay generally only pay £1/hrs more for self employed, so imo not worth it
Most agency’s prefer you to be self employed as you then pay all your Tax & NI but be warned the Tax man does not like a self employed person invoicing just one company so it is best to join 2 agency’s and do a bit of work for both.
fodean:
Hi anybody know if there’s agencies taking on self employed drivers midlands areacheers fodean
Your self employed. What the hell are you going via agencies for? Go direct and get a bigger piece of the pie instead of getting an amount over PAYE that doesn’t even cover statutory holiday entitlement you’ve lost out on. As Steve has said, just go PAYE on agency cos you’re worse off S/E even if they’re paying £1/hr more.
Conor:
fodean:
Hi anybody know if there’s agencies taking on self employed drivers midlands areacheers fodean
Your self employed. What the hell are you going via agencies for? Go direct and get a bigger piece of the pie instead of getting an amount over PAYE that doesn’t even cover statutory holiday entitlement you’ve lost out on. As Steve has said, just go PAYE on agency cos you’re worse off S/E even if they’re paying £1/hr more.
Unfortunately most companies wont touch you, they would rather deal with an agency where one phone call they can get as many drivers as they need, and the agency’s also cover insurance excess. I tried this many times a few years ago and got nowhere and were told go via an agency. HMRC don’t like companies using self employed drivers as they view this as trying to avoid paying TAX & NI contributions.
BigE:
Unfortunately most companies wont touch you, they would rather deal with an agency where one phone call they can get as many drivers as they need, and the agency’s also cover insurance excess. I tried this many times a few years ago and got nowhere and were told go via an agency. HMRC don’t like companies using self employed drivers as they view this as trying to avoid paying TAX & NI contributions.
Rubbish. If you’re a good driver, you can find work. I only had to try it once. I had done a fair bit of agency work in the area beforehand and traded on the reputation I’d built up. Maybe thats the problem, you’re a typical agency grade driver and merely able to drive the thing from A to B? The clue to the answer is in whether you’re working flat out from January to March or not or whether they phone you to go into new clients or go to find out what the problem is with a job. As an agency driver, I had companies asking for me, some actually ringing me direct in order to secure me for the following week - much to the annoyance of the woman at the agency - and quite a few offering me jobs and when I left one agency to go to another the company I was driving at (TNT) went with my new agency rather than lose me.
Does this sound like your experience of being an agency driver? If not then maybe thats why you found it hard to set up as a truly self employed driver instead of an agency driver signing away all employment rights for a quid an hour in some moronic belief that somehow you’re saving a few quid on income tax.
And HMRC don’t give a rats arse about companies using truly self employed drivers - i.e drivers who don’t solely work for one firm and are liable for any costs.
As a S/E driver I did work for several companies - one was Arla which is hardly a small company and makes use of a lot of agency drivers. Pain in the backside being on 60 day terms but at nearly double the hourly rate I would get on agency I wasn’t complaining. Self employed for a quid or two an hour over PAYE? They’re having you for a mug.
Conor:
BigE:
Unfortunately most companies wont touch you, they would rather deal with an agency where one phone call they can get as many drivers as they need, and the agency’s also cover insurance excess. I tried this many times a few years ago and got nowhere and were told go via an agency. HMRC don’t like companies using self employed drivers as they view this as trying to avoid paying TAX & NI contributions.Rubbish. If you’re a good driver, you can find work. I only had to try it once. I had done a fair bit of agency work in the area beforehand and traded on the reputation I’d built up. Maybe thats the problem, you’re a typical agency grade driver and merely able to drive the thing from A to B? The clue to the answer is in whether you’re working flat out from January to March or not or whether they phone you to go into new clients or go to find out what the problem is with a job. As an agency driver, I had companies asking for me, some actually ringing me direct in order to secure me for the following week - much to the annoyance of the woman at the agency - and quite a few offering me jobs and when I left one agency to go to another the company I was driving at (TNT) went with my new agency rather than lose me.
Does this sound like your experience of being an agency driver? If not then maybe thats why you found it hard to set up as a truly self employed driver instead of an agency driver signing away all employment rights for a quid an hour in some moronic belief that somehow you’re saving a few quid on income tax.
And HMRC don’t give a rats arse about companies using truly self employed drivers - i.e drivers who don’t solely work for one firm and are liable for any costs.
As a S/E driver I did work for several companies - one was Arla which is hardly a small company and makes use of a lot of agency drivers. Pain in the backside being on 60 day terms but at nearly double the hourly rate I would get on agency I wasn’t complaining. Self employed for a quid or two an hour over PAYE? They’re having you for a mug.
Another driver who seems to know it all, God i’ve employed a few of these in my time, for your information I’m the Director of my own courier company and yes I still do the occasional bit of agency driving to keep my hand in and doing so have got a lot of courier work out of it. As for being a good driver I think am having driven Artics for over 20 years 12 of which was doing European with Tilt and Fridges. HMRC do give a rats arse as I found out myself so please do get your facts right, even better still go and speak to HMRC and if they tell you it’s still ok then get the persons name as I would love use this in any future problems I may have with them. If I ever get a truck please come and work for me, too have someone as good as you onboard I will soon make my first Million. 
Some nonsense being posted on this thread. Here is some simple truths…
If your going to be an agency driver for any period of time its better by far to be selfemployed. Its not a moronic belief about saving on tax and nic, the savings are real and large. (the more you work the better) The extra 1ph covers the holiday pay easy. Its not realistic to expect all drivers to track down there own work when the agencys do a good enough job…
I have a proper job again now (1st one in 3years) and better pay with good hrs than agency, but im well gutted giving up paying corporation tax for paye 
and losing my 16p aweek nic for £70ish nic… 
Maybe things are different region to region, but in my area the following are FACT:
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Self-employed and/or ‘umbrella scheme’ are on £2.50 p/h more than PAYE.
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All of the biggest companies I know of in this area will only use one point of contact for their temp driver supply. If that agency then goes to 2nd tier or use self-employed, so be it, but the company will only pay ONE temp driver supply invoice.
I agree if you an agency driver you would be better off being self employed or better still a Limited Company and just invoice the agency, but as I said before HMRC are really getting tough on people who are self employed with no capital outlay ie van, equipment, tools etc and invoicing just one company, the same applies even if you are a Ltd Co. To get round this you can split the work between 2 agencies.
pavaroti:
Some nonsense being posted on this thread. Here is some simple truths…If your going to be an agency driver for any period of time its better by far to be selfemployed. Its not a moronic belief about saving on tax and nic, the savings are real and large. (the more you work the better) The extra 1ph covers the holiday pay easy. Its not realistic to expect all drivers to track down there own work when the agencys do a good enough job…
ROFLMAO. How dumb are you?
What savings? Your biggest "tax deductible expense is mileage for travelling to and from home to client. Well guess what, you can claim that on PAYE too at HMRC rates via P87 - Expenses in Employment as long as you are not at the same place for more than a continuous 3 months.
Holiday pay is now in excess of 10% of gross earnings. If you’re on the hourly rate of £10/hr my last lorry driving job was then £1/hr doesn’t cover it.
If you’re self employed as a Ltd Company, your Ltd Company has to pay employers NI on the hourly rate you’re paying yourself and that’s 11% so between employers NI and holiday pay there’s over 20% on top of the hourly rate which unless you’re working for under £5/hr is going to be more than a quid an hour.
So say you’re on £2.50/hr more than PAYE and you get £10/hr. More than £1/hr is swallowed up in holiday pay so now you’re less than £1.50/hr better off. Another £1 an hour is employers NI so now you’re less than 50p/hr better off. You’ve then got whatever the umbrella company charge. If they charge £20 a week and you do 40hrs there’s another 50p/hr which finishes off the £2.50 extra. If you work 20hrs then you’re still paying the £20 but its now costing you £1/hr so you’re 50p worse off than someone on PAYE.
Agencies love lorry drivers because on the whole they’re as thick as pigshit (pavaroti and a £1/hr covering holiday pay - WHAT A DUMBASS) and ripe for fleecing.
I Just become Self employed driver for a firm but work is dry at the moment, so could I go to the likes of Manpower and say Im self employed ? They would be happy to take me on and for me to sort my own tax ? (used to work for them a while ago)