I ended up getting made redundant in May so had to sign on, I didn’t really want to but I had little choice. Whilst on the dole I did my class one and started ringing round for jobs. Unfortunately I had very little luck in finding anything so I registered with two agencies.
Both agencies were basically begging me to sign up when I contacted them both promised more hours than I could do, excellent wages for good local companies.
4 weeks in I’ve had 12 days work for some of the worst places I have ever worked and then the agency paid me £7.50 an hour instead of the £9.00 I was told I would get. When questioned about work and wages she told me “we have so many drivers we can’t give everyone work and we are only gonna give you £7.50 at least your getting experience”!
Sorry to rant on but it just annoys me when they promise the earth and then give you nothing, I explained to them I would have to sign off to work for them so could only do it if the work was there. As much as I’d like to sit around and wait for them to call I have 3 kids and a house to pay for and now no money coming in!
Do I try others or are they all the same?
It seems like full time work it too much to ask for round here (Teesside)
Sounds like you need a better agency if the agency said £9 hour and you accepted the job on that basis then thats a verbal contract, hard to prove I know but vote with your feet till you find one that sticks to its word, but as a passing shot say you are seeking legal advice.
Also record any agency conversations on your phone.
dpt2011:
As much as I’d like to sit around and wait for them to call I have 3 kids and a house to pay for and now no money coming in!
It doesnt seem that with your commitments, that the erratic work patterns that agencies provide is not for you, however this IS the time of year that its possible to max your income stream if you stick it out. Have you considered casting your net further afield? Maybe consider working in another area during the week (even if its for an agency) & staying in digs to save a daily commute, I figure you wouldnt have to look further than say 50-60 miles from home, York, Harrogate, Leeds, or even north to Newcastle
Dipper_Dave:
Sounds like you need a better agency if the agency said £9 hour and you accepted the job on that basis then thats a verbal contract, hard to prove I know but vote with your feet till you find one that sticks to its word, but as a passing shot say you are seeking legal advice.
Also record any agency conversations on your phone.
play.google.com/store/apps/deta … o&hl=en_GB
A good app I use because I’m completely incapable of remembering numbers and addresses I’m given over the phone. It’s one of the few that records it in the call and not on the loud speaker.
Dipper_Dave:
Sounds like you need a better agency if the agency said £9 hour and you accepted the job on that basis then thats a verbal contract, hard to prove I know but vote with your feet till you find one that sticks to its word, but as a passing shot say you are seeking legal advice.
Also record any agency conversations on your phone.
play.google.com/store/apps/deta … o&hl=en_GB
A good app I use because I’m completely incapable of remembering numbers and addresses I’m given over the phone. It’s one of the few that records it in the call and not on the loud speaker.
trubster:
Best off out of that agency, find another.
Name and shame?
I’m not sure if the rules on here permit me to do it in open forum, the other agency hasn’t rang me at all and when I do contact them they keep saying they’ll ring on Friday to be honest asking around I’ve not heard anything good about the other agencies in the area.
Chas:
I could handle the lack of work & I could handle being given the crappy jobs, but being paid £7.50 ph after being told £9ph ?
If you let them get away with it then you make it harder for the rest of us.
I’m still chasing them for the extra money they owe me I just don’t hold out much hope of getting it. I’m not one to be walked all over so I won’t let it lie
When on the first new client with an agency, I will get an email stating the pay & conditions of working with that particular client.
No email - no go.
Simples.
I’d go as far to say that of those many agencies I signed up with that, in the end, never actually gave me any work - I suspect most of them were because I asked for “email confirmation of hourly rate”. The remainder? - My refusal to sign up to the umbrella scheme, which of course is where they make £27 quid a week out of you for only supplying you with a single 8 hour day rate shift.
Obviously not going to be robbed, so I’m just ignored instead. Trouble is, that doesn’t land them in court. The bent agency will just move onto the next mug that comes along.
An email confirm also gets around the old “I said 9PM start - not 9am. You don’t get paid. Moan any more, and you can just leave.”
or “I said Bloggs & Sons Ashford Middlesex NOT Ashford Kent. You don’t get paid. Moan any more, and you can just leave”.
Those firms that insist I am ltd or umbrella (ie self-employed) I’ll just retort with a minimum callout rate which will swiftly be declined of course. “The rates are the rates” I’ll be told. “Funny” I’ll respond - “If I’m self employed, I’ll be setting MY rates - In fact, what exactly are you going to do to earn any commission out of me hmm?”
I had an invitation to join the so-called “company pension” in the post this week too… How the hell am I going to make regular and large enough payments not to have it all swallowed up in financial fees? Perhaps if I were grossing a grand a week… “Come back and see me then” I think!
dpt2011:
I’m still chasing them for the extra money they owe me I just don’t hold out much hope of getting it. I’m not one to be walked all over so I won’t let it lie
Every experience is a learning experience. There’s folk on this forum who’d have you believe that agencies were sent from Heaven to benefit LGV drivers.
My own experience & the same for just about every driver I’ve ever spoken with in the flesh, is somewhat different.
You can be immensely ‘streetwise’ yet you can also be totally unprepared for the sneaky, cheating, lying ways of the average agency. It’s a different way to steal money off the backs of a hard worker & unless you’re as sneaky as they are they’ll get you one way or another.
Learn from every time they try to cheat you, they’re just like bullies, they can only feed off of the weak & feable. If you stand up to them & can show them that you know their ways & can’t be fooled, you might find you get on better with them.
Dipper_Dave:
Sounds like you need a better agency if the agency said £9 hour and you accepted the job on that basis then thats a verbal contract, hard to prove I know but vote with your feet till you find one that sticks to its word, but as a passing shot say you are seeking legal advice.
Also record any agency conversations on your phone.
play.google.com/store/apps/deta … o&hl=en_GB
A good app I use because I’m completely incapable of remembering numbers and addresses I’m given over the phone. It’s one of the few that records it in the call and not on the loud speaker.
Do you need any disclaimers when recording phone conversations ?
Dipper_Dave:
Sounds like you need a better agency if the agency said £9 hour and you accepted the job on that basis then thats a verbal contract, hard to prove I know but vote with your feet till you find one that sticks to its word, but as a passing shot say you are seeking legal advice.
Also record any agency conversations on your phone.
play.google.com/store/apps/deta … o&hl=en_GB
A good app I use because I’m completely incapable of remembering numbers and addresses I’m given over the phone. It’s one of the few that records it in the call and not on the loud speaker.
Do you need any disclaimers when recording phone conversations ?
I believe you do, however the agency is going to be worried that a good solicitor could push for the recording to be admissible, whether that happens or not is down to the judge but theres enough worry to get the agency thinking and for the sake of 20-40 quid cough up. However a judge can base his judgement on the fact a conversation has been recorded without the respondents knowledge and reduce the payout.
It all comes down to BS baffles brains, agencies use it so why shouldn’t we.
I would suggest next time that agency offer you work ask them to either text or email job details along with job rate, agency’s I worked for have always been happy to do this
Whirlwind:
I would suggest next time that agency offer you work ask them to either text or email job details along with job rate, agency’s I worked for have always been happy to do this
Sounds like a plan, then they have no grounds to argue with me!
In my past experience of agencies, they will say they have work, because if you sign up they get commission. However, the last proper agency I was with had written in the contract the rates of pay, and were totally honest. if they had no work, they would tell anybody who rang them, not to come in and sign up as it was quiet at the moment.
As for recording phone calls, you are meant to tell the other party that the call is being recorded. That was told to me by a solicitor I was using in an employment issue.
As others have said, next time the agency ring you with work, ask them to email confirmation over to you including the rate of pay, if they don’t find another one…If you want the name of the decent one, feel free to pm me and i’ll send you info
They will tell you anything to get you there. In the last week I’ve had a lad tell me what an easy job such and such is and how you’ll be done in 8 or 9 hours…
He then said it was a ‘fixed rate’ job…
And admitted he didn’t have an HGV licence…
So I concluded that:
The job could have been anything but was probably pretty ■■■■■
It was likely to be max hours as it was a job rate
He was telling me how easy a job it was and yet how would he know? He doesn’t even have a licence.
Any job that is ‘fixed rate’ I turn down unless I fixed the rate.
Anything else an agency tells me I disbelieve, unless there is strong evidence to support it.
Assume you’re being lied to because you will be being lied to!!
some good advice above…especially the “getting it down in writing” theme.ill also add,it may be unwise to let the agency know you have a large family. theyll know youre desperate for money,and will use this to their advantage. its a steep learning curve when going from full time to agency…you gotta learn fast.first things first though…you have to show them youre competant.if you're not,theyll continually ■■■■ on you until you walk.
if you are any good…then you will gradually become more use to them,and you`ll gain more bargaining power…hence get the better work.
much of what is written on here about agency drivers is true…so it aint hard to start moving up the pecking order
look how fussy winseer is…and he still gets work
as for chasing the extra £1.50 an hour they owe you…unlikley
I had an interesting run in with a BS agency, they said that I had a job, went to do it and it took 3 hours 55 minutes, booked 4 and invoiced minimum 8.
Agency pay 4,call them up and they said it’s minimum 8 if over 4 hours.
I wasn’t happy as I had travelled a long way and it wasn’t worth getting out of bed for.
I called the customer and he said that he got charged 8 hours, so the agency had kept £48 for themselves. It was sorted and I was paid the difference but the agency lost a customer out of it.
to be honest asking around I’ve not heard anything good about the other agencies in the area.
