gnasty gnome:
selby newcomer:
mike68:
It will be a safe bet that the thieving rob dogs will be charging the client double.
I reckon your spot on, nothing about agencies is a surprise anymore
And I reckon he’s talking out of his backside. If an agency tries charging that kind of enhanced rate the client will just phone a cheaper one. That’s not robbery that’s simple economics and in their place you’d do the same. Unlike most of you I’ve been on the other side of the desk as a consultant and if it really was that easy to get money out of clients with that kind of mark-up I’d still be doing it!
Further to that, if the agency doesn’t make that kind of money, with the best will in the world they’re not going to pay you any more than they can get away with. For the record they’re businesses not charities. 
All you lot on here who moan about time and a half for this, double time for that; wake up and smell the coffee gentlemen, those days are long gone! Very few of us get that these days, either as drivers or in any other trade. What’s special about Bank Holidays anyway? All the bloody shops are open, so are the pubs, the only difference where I live is I’ll have to carefully plan any departures from my gaff to avoid the queues of miserable-faced car drivers coming out of Tenby and off the Irish ferries.
Agency where I work are the sole supplying agency, so that is why the rates ain’t upped for bank hols, agency screwing drivers to be the sole supplier,
selby newcomer:
Agency where I work are the sole supplying agency, so that is why the rates ain’t upped for bank hols, agency screwing drivers to be the sole supplier,
Or. if you look at it from the point of view I’ve suggested, the client won’t pay the agency an enhanced rate, so the agency is forced to offer a pay rate based on what it can get out of them.
Here’s a scenario, much simplified.
Let’s assume that the flat pay rate is £10 per hour. We will also assume that the charge rate is £15 per hour although in a setup like that it’s more likely to be about £13.
Client wants a driver in on Bank Holiday for 10 hours. The only driver available will only work for double time. The agency needs to provide the driver to keep the contract; so they pay him £20 per hour i.e. £200 and receive only £150 from the client. That’s just for one driver for one day, and that’s probably lost them the margin (difference between pay and charge) for a fair few of the drivers they employ on “normal” days.
As I said earlier, they’re businesses not charities. I know I tend to come across as defending agencies but it’s not always as clearcut as some of you think.
gnasty gnome:
selby newcomer:
Agency where I work are the sole supplying agency, so that is why the rates ain’t upped for bank hols, agency screwing drivers to be the sole supplier,
Or. if you look at it from the point of view I’ve suggested, the client won’t pay the agency an enhanced rate, so the agency is forced to offer a pay rate based on what it can get out of them.
Here’s a scenario, much simplified.
Let’s assume that the flat pay rate is £10 per hour. We will also assume that the charge rate is £15 per hour although in a setup like that it’s more likely to be about £13.
Client wants a driver in on Bank Holiday for 10 hours. The only driver available will only work for double time. The agency needs to provide the driver to keep the contract; so they pay him £20 per hour i.e. £200 and receive only £150 from the client. That’s just for one driver for one day, and that’s probably lost them the margin (difference between pay and charge) for a fair few of the drivers they employ on “normal” days.
As I said earlier, they’re businesses not charities. I know I tend to come across as defending agencies but it’s not always as clearcut as some of you think.
Totally appreciate what your saying, but the way i see it is i don’t get an o/t rate, I am flat rate no matter how many hours i do, so when a bank holiday comes I will work if the incentive is there, especially when the company I am working for is paying double time and a day off to their own drivers, but all the class 1 drivers are agency so they have spent all day phoning us to try and get us to work, 8 out of 10 said no. They have had to sub out all the work they wanted us to come in to do, why couldn’t they have paid us double time to do the work, it would have been a lot cheaper than subbing the work out.
I am getting £14p/h tomorrow for boots the normal rate is £8.50 straight through 
Been house bashing this week as I start my quest in to the world of electrics. Was also offered £16.50ph for K&N this afternoon but already took boots job on so not let them down now. As I am now earning a small wage learning a new trade I will take the enhanced rates and use them to my advantage, I have never been one for big easter weekends anyway so I will happily take the extra cash as I would of worked them anyway 
No bank holiday rates for me. All incorporated into annual leave allocation. Only getting paid flat rate money over Easter.
gnasty gnome:
selby newcomer:
Agency where I work are the sole supplying agency, so that is why the rates ain’t upped for bank hols, agency screwing drivers to be the sole supplier,
Or. if you look at it from the point of view I’ve suggested, the client won’t pay the agency an enhanced rate, so the agency is forced to offer a pay rate based on what it can get out of them.
Here’s a scenario, much simplified.
Let’s assume that the flat pay rate is £10 per hour. We will also assume that the charge rate is £15 per hour although in a setup like that it’s more likely to be about £13.
Client wants a driver in on Bank Holiday for 10 hours. The only driver available will only work for double time. The agency needs to provide the driver to keep the contract; so they pay him £20 per hour i.e. £200 and receive only £150 from the client. That’s just for one driver for one day, and that’s probably lost them the margin (difference between pay and charge) for a fair few of the drivers they employ on “normal” days.
As I said earlier, they’re businesses not charities. I know I tend to come across as defending agencies but it’s not always as clearcut as some of you think.
A friend of mine who has half a dozen or so of his own trucks uses agency. At one of our little get togethers he asked me what my cut was as an agency driver. When I told them he was a bit knocked back. The agency had been charging him £18 for a rigid and £21 for a class 1. This was about 3-4 years ago in West London. It might be different in Wales…
As with hauliers who don’t charge enough for the work if you’re not making a reasonable profit you’re wasting your time. Too many agencies saturating the market and cutting the rates as well as the other factors.
44 Tonne Ton:
A friend of mine who has half a dozen or so of his own trucks uses agency. At one of our little get togethers he asked me what my cut was as an agency driver. When I told them he was a bit knocked back. The agency had been charging him £18 for a rigid and £21 for a class 1. This was about 3-4 years ago in West London. It might be different in Wales…
As with hauliers who don’t charge enough for the work if you’re not making a reasonable profit you’re wasting your time. Too many agencies saturating the market and cutting the rates as well as the other factors.
It’s certainly different in the East Midlands which is where I was working at the time; back then (late 1990’s to early 2000’s) you were doing well to get a £2 per hour gross margin on most work. With all due respect to your friend perhaps he didn’t shop around enough; an agency, like any other business, will charge what they think they can get away with. More likely the margins tend to be greater in London to compensate for higher running costs. There’s also the factor of supply vs. demand to consider; did you find out how much his agency drivers were paid on an hourly rate?
I agree that the number of agencies does affect things; ironically they are mostly flogging the same set of drivers to the same companies. Whilst both sides continue to allow this to happen the scenario will continue, and only the drivers will lose.
How times change, it always used to be double time and a day in lieu for a bank holiday, and volunteers would queue for miles to work. Now a few years down the line your lucky to get time and a half.
Where I work the regulars get flat rate as theyre on salary anyway, plus a holiday day.
Agency staff get double time as far as i`m aware, and part timers like myself, flat rate…so to old days are long gone.
Bear in mind that the supermarkets wanted to open xmas day just gone, our company said NO…but maybe this year might be different, and maybe future years when there will be no xmas rest day, well not on supermarket work anyway, now that needs negotiating, although i wouldnt want to work over xmas anyway…but the supermarkets control so many of our lives, and they normally get what they want.