From a personal point of view ( at this particular moment in time i prefer agencies ) rather than full time employment.
When i first passed i was agency ( obviously ) then gained full time employment which i thought would be better. Turned out was absolute crap and soon found out i could earn ex amount an hour more through agency. So, decided to hand my notice in and couldnt be happier.
No 28 days holiday, need to work this day and cant have holidays on certain days etc. I holiday when i want. Dont ask, i tell them.
Works great for me, not for everyone i understand but at this moment in time i dont want a full time job as most are sh ite wages amongst other reasons
Glad to be back to agencies tbh! Thoughts on the matter?
Tommy7437:
From a personal point of view ( at this particular moment in time i prefer agencies ) rather than full time employment.
Your not allowed to say that on this forum Tommy, it causes upset amongst a section of the employed staff - even if it is your personal opinion and it suits you down to the ground.
Tommy7437:
From a personal point of view ( at this particular moment in time i prefer agencies ) rather than full time employment.
When i first passed i was agency ( obviously ) then gained full time employment which i thought would be better. Turned out was absolute crap and soon found out i could earn ex amount an hour more through agency. So, decided to hand my notice in and couldnt be happier.
No 28 days holiday, need to work this day and cant have holidays on certain days etc. I holiday when i want. Dont ask, i tell them.
Works great for me, not for everyone i understand but at this moment in time i dont want a full time job as most are sh ite wages amongst other reasons
Glad to be back to agencies tbh! Thoughts on the matter?
Would you be happier full time or agency?
There’s a lot to be said mate for being ‘happy with your lot’
Agencies are not for me, but broadly speaking, and if used properly, I can see the benefits.
The downside is the crap that drivers have to put up with by those agencies who think they own you, and the ones who think they can treat a driver however way they want to.
However I prefer full time work with one co. at a time.
The firm I work for aint the best paid, but I aint pushed.
Been there, done that with mega buck firms, just prefer a quiet life nowadays, UK only, no early starts, 4 and a half days, home every (long) weekend and left alone to do the job.
pickandmix:
I’d do agency if they weren’t full of bull crap and lies.
And fulltime isn’t? So you’ve never been promised you’ll be home at a certain time when you’ve asked for it only to then be given an extra job to do? Not once ever? You are truly a lucky man if that is the case.
Haulage is full of bull crap and lies from top to bottom.
blue estate:
And if proper PAYE
I spent two decades on agency, have always been PAYE and since holiday pay got introduced in the mid 90s have always got holiday pay. Never been umbrella, never been self employed. If you’re not on PAYE on agency its because you choose to be or you choose to let them put you on umbrella/Ltd.
Go agency if it suits your ‘lifestyle choice’, as many of them like to say, because naturally it will allow you to spend all of January and February on the beach in Phuket, Rio, Key West or any other exotic destination of your choice.
But if like most you live in the real world, get a proper job.
Work however you want to, each to their own and all that.
The problems come because the goal posts are constantly shifting on agency and what constitutes self employed, quite apart from the heffelump in the room which is your pension, will the shifting pension goal posts see the govt of the day (left holding the baby when the country finally goes broke probably around the same time civil strife erupts, when the debtors call their loans in?) declare these self employed years as different, no one knows.
Getting towards pension age seems so far away when you’re in your twenties and up to forties, all of a sudden in your fifties you realise things have changed drastically over the last fifteen years so you wonder just what the last fifteen might hold in store before it your turn to get shafted.
Many of us are in far better paying jobs than agency will ever be, and not by working all hours God sends either, these jobs are still out there but you need a combination of luck, contacts, experience and work attendance/performance history, plus the right attitude and some nous to find and land them at all, they never advertise, and then if you land one to act sharp and keep them as good jobs by doing your best and not (like so many do) by taking the ■■■■ out of the sick schemes etc.
Usually the best jobs are in a transport dept which is basically there to service the customer, as in own account, or own depots, as in supermarket type RDC work, and not as a hire and reward haulage operation.
I’ve done short agency stints over the years, on paye, depends on what the job is, if they give you a job you like and the customer likes you so asks for you then it can be fine, but being sent into the usual suspects who can’t get staff because A they pay peanuts and B their work type and attitude is crap, frankly i can do without.
Conor:
So you’ve never been promised you’ll be home at a certain time when you’ve asked for it only to then be given an extra job to do? Not once ever?
I’m sure Dozy will testify that this kind of thing is normal
After recently coming to an end of my recent career choice, I find myself considering returning to driving, but with no intention of wanting to get into full time work before I’ve had an overdue holiday to sort my head out after the end of May, I find myself considering returning to casual agency work for the next few weeks until the end of May when I intend to head off on my jollies. After I return, IF I decide to continue driving I will seek FT work. Any work I take (agency or FT) will be paye
pickandmix:
I’d do agency if they weren’t full of bull crap and lies.
And fulltime isn’t? So you’ve never been promised you’ll be home at a certain time when you’ve asked for it only to then be given an extra job to do? Not once ever? You are truly a lucky man if that is the case.
Haulage is full of bull crap and lies from top to bottom.
blue estate:
And if proper PAYE
I spent two decades on agency, have always been PAYE and since holiday pay got introduced in the mid 90s have always got holiday pay. Never been umbrella, never been self employed. If you’re not on PAYE on agency its because you choose to be or you choose to let them put you on umbrella/Ltd.
Dozy, knows all about being home on Fridays in full time employment seek his advice.
Right now, I’m starting to regret coming off Agency and going back to full time - because the agency are getting the runs, and I keep getting withdrawn for dogsbody duties and grounded, which ■■■■■■ me off greatly.
The money is irrelevant here, as it was the same rate (around £12.75ph) on both jobs) This month five years ago I remember as being dreadful “outside” of full time, with Easter falling in the middle of April. This time around, I seem to have fallen foul of the “bittyness” of the work even though I AM full time.
The main reason I don’t like agencies is being unemployed for the first 3 months of the year and they don’t pay that much more than a full time job for that.
