So … … … if a firm pays (off the top of my head) say £18 an hour to an agency, and the driver gets say £10 an hour of that, are there any obvious pitfalls (that I can’t see) for a driver to contact a few local firms and ‘rent’ himself out as a self employed driver for say £12 an hour and cut out the middle man?
Only a couple.
- you’d be self employed, so responsible for your own tax etc.
- A LOT of firms won’t deal with you, if they’re phoning an agency, it’s because they want someone, you are only 1 person, so can’t be in more than 1 place at once.
- Some firms have the agency provide extra insurance
There’s probably more, but I’m just a driver.
BUT, enough drivers do it and are successfull at it.
I am an agency driver but do work for 2 other company’s. They ring me to see my availability. If they ring first then they get me, simple !!! I charge them by the hour, a couple of quid more than I get from the agency but cheaper for them than they would pay the agency ! They know who they are getting too, and I hope I do a decent job for them and would like to think that that is one of the reasons I get asked back, as well as for the business sense of the money side of things.
I just invoice them as I do the agency (self employed)
Our place uses agency drivers almost every day. If they do the job ok and are liked by the TM he usually asks them if he can ring them direct. I think they go onto our normal rates of pay, that’s a little higher than the agency will try to stiff you for so most of them agree. Its the reverse of what you asked but it proves it can happen. The problem I find is that now he has a pool of drivers available he is unwilling to take on anyone full time.
I work for ME. If I don’t feel like agency work, I’ll do my other thing. You can sign for who you like.
waynedl:
Only a couple.
- you’d be self employed, so responsible for your own tax etc.
- A LOT of firms won’t deal with you, if they’re phoning an agency, it’s because they want someone, you are only 1 person, so can’t be in more than 1 place at once.
- Some firms have the agency provide extra insurance
There’s probably more, but I’m just a driver.
BUT, enough drivers do it and are successfull at it.
That pretty much sums it up. There’s a bit more to it than that, but most is to do with insurance; if you go down that route you need to at least have your own public liability cover and look very carefully at the small print.
Also bear in mind that you will not necessarily be paid as quickly as you would working for an agency. You’d be looking at getting your money at least a month after you do the job.
One other thing is that you need to do the maths on your charge rate. It’s no use going in too cheap, at just a couple of quid above what an agency driver is paid, because you’ve got all your taxes and expenses to come out of that money, plus you should make allowance for some sort of fund for your holiday.
I’d recommend that you contact your local Chamber of Commerce to get advice on this.
you could always factor your income and put the little bit extra onto the rates you charge it would still be cheaper than the agency and you would get money every week with no hounding of clients 
last time i worked in recruitment it worked something like…pay rate of £10 per hour +12.8%n.i + 9.95% holiday pay (holiday pay for some reason was only charged on normal rates plus £2-£3 per hour agency charge total £13.75ish. the overtime etc was time and a half so most agencys score if its long hours 
i also forgot to add most agencys wont pay holidays unless you ask for them and you would be surprised at the number who dont ask or get told 10 days say when they have 12 etc etc
war1974:
you could always factor your income and put the little bit extra onto the rates you charge it would still be cheaper than the agency and you would get money every week with no hounding of clientslast time i worked in recruitment it worked something like…pay rate of £10 per hour +12.8%n.i + 9.95% holiday pay (holiday pay for some reason was only charged on normal rates plus £2-£3 per hour agency charge total £13.75ish. the overtime etc was time and a half so most agencys score if its long hours
Did you come out of recruitment due to your maths skill?
haha i said ish 10 + 1.28 + 0.995 + 2-3 = 14.275 
its late been a heavy weekend with the masters etc but my point is still vaild if somewhat tarnished
and we had a computer that done the maths for you all we did was put in the hourly rate
war1974:
haha i said ish 10 + 1.28 + 0.995 + 2-3 = 14.275
and we had a computer that done the maths for you all we did was put in the hourly rate