Have been a class 1 driver for just over 2 years and have been with a hand full of agencies over this time.
I am in dispute with one on the basis that they withheld my wage which i only found out about when I checked my bank statements, the same agency also sent me somewhere where there was no induction and not being familiar with the inside layout of the frozen / refrigeration / dry goods trailer meant that I was unable to complete my deliveries in the day - this was back in July. I have recently received the pay due after countless exchanges of e mails but holiday pay is still outstanding.
The lack of induction caused unnecessary stress and inconvenience and in essence put my safety at risk, these are points I have put to the agency and they are claiming that an induction was undertaken. I was also verbally abused at the company concerned.
Is there anywhere to go to seek redress or at least flag up my experience of an agency which from my experience is operating in a cowboy manner with scant disregard for the safety and welfare of its drivers? My concern is that other drivers will similarly be put to unnecessary stress at risk to their safety, well being and also fairness of receiving pay due.
I am considering notifying the Health and Safety Executive of the lack of induction and the knock on effect this has on driver safety. Is there anyone else I could notify with a view to discouraging such practices?
I could mention the agency and company I worked with but not sure of the protocol for doing so on here.
milkmark:
the agency also sent me somewhere where there was no induction and not being familiar with the inside layout of the frozen / refrigeration / dry goods trailer.
As much as I sympathise with your plight, the old adage of asking the agency what the job is, and price, to ensure you can carry out the assignment before you accepted it is paramount.
Agencies are only interested in “bums on seats” its up to you before you go to a job if its outside your comfort zone. If youd have know this I doubt youd have accepted the job.
Also asking someone in the yard before you left how this & that works may have saved you a lot of grief.
Site inductions aren’t the norm, & its still a case of “here`s the keys & paperwork driver, see you later” in many yards, in fact on many occasions I have only received a site induction, or undergone a driving assessment several weeks after starting work on a site.
milkmark:
I am considering notifying the Health and Safety Executive of the lack of induction and the knock on effect this has on driver safety. Is there anyone else I could notify with a view to discouraging such practices?
Peeing into the wind comes to mind, and will do you no favours going down that route. However bad it may seem, most firms have their H&S covered by various methods. Its a small (agency) world, & getting yourself a bad name is easy to do, getting blacklisted isnt difficult & undoing the damage/trouble you could cause can take a long time.
Resulting in empty pockets, and lots of time sat at home waiting for the phone to ring at the most busiest time of the year.
milkmark:
Any advice or comments would be appreciated.
So long as you get the money sorted. Take it on the chin, and chalk it down to experience.
Its something that has happened to most agency drivers at some point in their career
Inductions as an agency driver? I can count the number of those I had in a 20 year career much spent on agency/self employed on the fingers of one hand.
You don’t need an induction to learn the layout of a trailer, you just need a half functioning brain. As an agency driver unless you’ve gone to a company several times before you’re not going to be given the jobs that require a rocket scientist to work out.
If in doubt collar someone before you set off and ask.
The lack of induction didn’t cause you stress, your lack of experience and willingness to THINK did. It certainly did not put your safety at risk.
The overall content of your post kind of suggests agency driving and in fact haulage maybe isn’t for you except with the local authority where they’ll do everything in a fully compliant clipboard run health and safety cotton wool wrapped all but telling you how to wipe your backside way which you seem to need to have.
Conor has hit the nail on the head here mate and you seem to be expecting far too much upon arrival at companies. Generally you will get the keys and paperwork thrown at you with a grunt and a ■■■■, it is up to you to do the rest.
Expecting inductions seems to me as though you are an ex army type who is unable to function without instructions to the letter and last detail. You really need to be a quick thinker and pretty good at sussing things out for yourself in the agency game and if not then ask. Never try to blag it because you will look a fool and most importantly of all never argue with an agency, you are wasting your time. Just visit their office and remove goods in lieu of payment.
Paid Inductions, if I understand that to mean “paid assessments” seem fairly rare.
There are some firms who’ll offer regular employment as agency IF you work one or more “unpaid shifts” as loss leader, which they’ll call “the assessment”.
Thing is, if you’ve got decades of experience, a clean licence, and a spotless accident record, then you don’t want to ■■■■ around with this ■■■■■■■■. Your driving credentials are already in place. What you need therefore is an “Induction” as part of a paid shift (rather than vice-versa!) in which the new yard teaches you their procedures that might be different from elsewhere.
Think of the fiddle that is available to firms if they employ a driver to work one or more shifts for free, and as soon as the hapless bod qualifies for “full pay” (read: Normal Pay!) then suddenly the work dries up, because of course it never existed. It’s just a ruse to get you to work for nowt.
God knows what would happen if you had an accident in their yard, because I’m pretty damned sure that firms intending to pay zero wages won’t bother with niceties like “liability insurances” etc. either.
Isn’t it about time people got sick of this "Pay Pit Owner to employ uz, and work 25 hours a day down’t pit, and get beaten to death wit’ broken bottle" every night?"
It won’t stop all the time we think of “standing up to be fiddled” is somehow more honourable than sitting out crappy shifts, signing on, or claiming some other kind of handout… Oh how they must laugh when dishing out the zero pay work, and move on to the next mug once the job is done, and pay is demanded for next time, as if some kind of God-given right…
