Hey all, new to the agency game and am going to speak to someone tomorrow from alliance personnel regarding driving positions. Just wondered if anyone had an info on them? What they’re like etc? Ta!
I would decide were you would like to work
and register with the agency that does them.
go with 2 agencies.
if you haven’t got a job for day
ring them to say your available
when you get a job text the other
lot of your unavailability
because its polite
Tell them you’d like “block booked” work or you’d like to do “leave cover”.
If you express no preference - you’ll ONLY get the last-minute call-outs all the time.
In the old days, such call-outs came with a premium hourly rate. That no longer applies though, so make sure you’re never ‘on call’ for flat money.
Zero Hours Contracts don’t pay you for sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring half an hour before you’re wanted 20 miles away… 
Winseer:
If you express no preference - you’ll ONLY get the last-minute call-outs all the time.
■■■■■■■■.
In the old days, such call-outs came with a premium hourly rate.
When was this? Its certainly not any time in the almost quarter of a century I’ve worked for agencies.
Zero Hours Contracts
Its not a zero hours contract. It is a short term temporary contract which lasts the duration of the booking. Is there actually anything about agencies you know which is factually correct?
just from my own experience, yes going in last second is annoying but I have to admit I have also had a few longer term jobs which initially started as a last second thing.
lets be honest at the very worst if you are good the company will ask for you back thus increasing how much work you will get. a lot of the good agency lads get booked out weeks in advance as they are known by companies who will ask for certain drivers.
100% agree with registering with 2 or 3 as it also increases the chances of being kept busy.
war1974:
just from my own experience, yes going in last second is annoying but I have to admit I have also had a few longer term jobs which initially started as a last second thing.lets be honest at the very worst if you are good the company will ask for you back thus increasing how much work you will get. a lot of the good agency lads get booked out weeks in advance as they are known by companies who will ask for certain drivers.
100% agree with registering with 2 or 3 as it also increases the chances of being kept busy.
Ok great, thanks all for the input! Being new to the agency game…do any of you know the names of any reputable firms in the shropshire / north Wales area? I’ve also heard about umbrella or PAYE? I’m not sure I fully understand what this is either. Do agencies pay you directly each week or is it a case of chasing things up? (sorry for the newbiness)
for me I would stick to the bigger suppliers as they will have more national work (Pertemps, adr, h&g, Manpower etc.) unless you know of a local agency that supplies into a firm you want to work at.
paye is probably best bet if you don’t understand umbrella, or if you really want the extra cash go ltd company in your own right. both have pros and cons but you will need to look into it and decide which is best for your own circumstances.
war1974:
for me I would stick to the bigger suppliers as they will have more national work (Pertemps, adr, h&g, Manpower etc.) unless you know of a local agency that supplies into a firm you want to work at.paye is probably best bet if you don’t understand umbrella, or if you really want the extra cash go ltd company in your own right. both have pros and cons but you will need to look into it and decide which is best for your own circumstances.
Right ok, I’ll have a gander! Thanks bud 
PAYE wk1 or BR code
and wait for the tax rebate in following
May / June
also get up to speed with claiming the meal
allowance via HMRC website
Conor:
Winseer:
If you express no preference - you’ll ONLY get the last-minute call-outs all the time.■■■■■■■■.
In the old days, such call-outs came with a premium hourly rate.
When was this? Its certainly not any time in the almost quarter of a century I’ve worked for agencies.
Zero Hours Contracts
Its not a zero hours contract. It is a short term temporary contract which lasts the duration of the booking. Is there actually anything about agencies you know which is factually correct?
I’ve only been on agencies for 5 years by the end of this one. You’ve said you’ve been on for much longer.
How many times have we heard on this forum that “rates have fallen since the golden age of agencies in the early 1990’s”?
I’m employed on a zero hours contract, and I’m with an agency. Are you telling me that this is all my imagination?
Premium rates from agencies then and now are for getting drivers into the places where they’d otherwise not bother with for “normal” rates.
This tends to be the last-minute block-booked places like Supermarkets over Christmas for example. Are you telling me there’s no such thing as premium rates for being called in “on the day” rather than being given a whole week’s worth at a time a week ahead? If there wasn’t such a differential - then we’d all be avoiding the low pay and flocking to the higher pay wherever that was… This isn’t the case though, since imbedded agency workers tend to avoid anything involving multidrop delivery on agencies - right?
We often read on here that “all agencies are crap” when in fact there are a few good ones, those being the ones people like you and I might work for.
All the crap ones I worked for either offered no work at all, or offered too little for too far away.
I did make the effort to commute miles for the better-paid work though - but still it was always given me on the same day as the job - no leave cover, just sick cover essentially. I only went in because of the premium rates such work attracted, eg. £13.50ph working down at Langdons Dover in 2011. Nowdays I do local work for less rate, but less money spent on commuting which leaves me better off over all. I got the local work once I expressed a preference for it, trumping my previous chasing of the higher rates.
If you want to argue the toss with me about anything I say - put up some things that YOU’VE experienced, rather than the things you have not, and therefore ‘don’t belive I have’ - I’d take it less of a personal attack that way you see… 
Winseer:
I’m employed on a zero hours contract, and I’m with an agency. Are you telling me that this is all my imagination?
Have you actually read all your contract word for word? The majority I’ve seen and signed state I was employed only for the duration of the booking. Its why you can’t get SSP, its why you can sign on the dole between jobs.
Winseer:
Premium rates from agencies then and now are for getting drivers into the places where they’d otherwise not bother with for “normal” rates.
This tends to be the last-minute block-booked places like Supermarkets over Christmas for example. Are you telling me there’s no such thing as premium rates for being called in “on the day” rather than being given a whole week’s worth at a time a week ahead?
Correct. Premium rates are paid when its somewhere they can’t get drivers to go to because its crap like Stobarts at Tesco, Goole or they’re short of drivers for a job, good or bad. The majority of my work has been on a day by day basis with mostly summer being where it tends to be more weekly bookings. With the agencies I’ve been with over the last 22 years - Stafforce, Manpower, Prestige Recruitment, Jark, Driver Hire and the one I’m currently with, not one of them has paid a premium because its been a day by day booking or even if I’ve been called up early hours and asked to do a last minute booking. I have however been offered enhanced rates to go to places they can’t get drivers to go to or if I’m on a day off and they’re struggling to get drivers. I got offered enhanced rates to do my normal agency job this week because I was having an extra day off and they were screaming out for drivers.
I went heart-on-sleeve to Driver Hire in Autumn 2011, telling them about how often I like to do weekends, nights, & BH work - only to be told by them that my “minimium pitch of £10ph is too high for you to get any work regular with us”… WTF?
At least they let me know in advance, rather than at the end of a day-long sign-up procedure.
the trouble is in the 1990’s companies were far less aware of how agencies run and worked. hence you could get away with charging more which in turn gives more leeway.
nowadays most larger companies have a dedicated HR who will work out ni to the penny etc, more and more little micky mouse agencies have sprung up and normally the only way they can get the work is by undercutting. all of this reduces the total down, which in turn lowers what can be paid/offered as an incentive.
if its alliance in birmingham youd be better off going to see alex at peoples line