Got told to be at a clients for 6am so up & at it @ 4.30am but when i arrived was told i was not needed & they had not asked for a driver, on phoning the agency they admitted it was there mistake.
The question is how much time should i ( would you) invoice them for ie for 8hrs, 2hrs or should i just take it on the chin.
Regards,
Jeff. 
Who exactly told you to be at work for 6am? If it was the agency then book the minimum 8hrs, their screw up not yours. Happened to me on more than one occasion, the latest getting told there was no work, being informed by another driver the next day that i was a no show, so on speaking to my agency they said it was their error, and gladly let me book 8hrs.
If the agency told you to be there then they must have had a booking so they need to take it up with the client, you on the other hand need to be booking 8 hours.
Over the years Iâve had this happen a few times, usually because the agency has double booked a job, unless the agency have been able to find me alternative work Iâve always booked and been paid 8 hours.
At the end of the day their mistake has cost you a days work so itâs up-to them to reimburse you for the days pay youâve lost.
As a seasoned agency bod, Iâve been fortunate enough not to be cancelled very often at a moments notice like that, but on the rare occasion that I have, and the agency has instructed me to be there, then 8 hours it is.
If however the customer has requested then cancelled, then you have no chance, as you take your bookings from the agency, not the client. (Unless the client fesses up to the agency.)
Ken.
Quinny:
If however the customer has requested then cancelled, then you have no chance, as you take your bookings from the agency, not the client. (Unless the client fesses up to the agency.)Ken.
Well you can bet your bottom dollar the agency have a clause in their contract with the client about a minimum notice period. The T&C I use are an amalgamation of those of a couple of well established nationwide agencies and they both had terms about minimal cancellation periods and penalty fees, usually 4hrs pay.
So the agency will be getting their money, theyâll just screw you over though.
tachograph:
Over the years Iâve had this happen a few times, usually because the agency has double booked a job, unless the agency have been able to find me alternative work Iâve always booked and been paid 8 hours.At the end of the day their mistake has cost you a days work so itâs up-to them to reimburse you for the days pay youâve lost.
+1
I had one agency in Ashford tell me once after a âcanceled on arrivalâ booking:
âIf you take this one on the chin pal, I can get you plenty of work the rest of this week ok?â
âNope. Iâll take the 8 hours please.â
âIf you press this, thatâll be the only 8 hours you get this week.â
âFine. 8 hours and the rest of the week off it is then. Iâm not addicted to 50 hour weeks, so no problem for me.â
I never got any work out of them after that, and because this was my first shift with them - I therefore never actually worked for them.
I eventually got paid ÂŁ50 6 weeks later which was â8 hours at minimum wageâ. When I enquired as to âwhat happened to the ÂŁ9.50 rate toutedâ - I was told âLook pal, you can have ÂŁ50 with no deductions for doing nowt - or you can chase us for what exactly? ÂŁ76 deducted at emergency rates?â
I shut up, and kept the ÂŁ50, which was better than nowt I suppose.
Should have gone for the ÂŁ76 as a matter of principle. Yeah tax would have been deducted but you would have got it back.
Thanks for the replyâs ill give it a go & see what happens.
Conor:
Should have gone for the ÂŁ76 as a matter of principle. Yeah tax would have been deducted but you would have got it back.
No I wouldnât, since if he wasnât charging deductions on the ÂŁ50 - it was clearly not being put through the booksâŠ
I figured ÂŁ50 to myself âoff bookâ was better than ÂŁ76 âfully deductedâ at the time, bearing in mind that I was clearly never going to get anything out of them work or cashwise if I pushed any more on thisâŠ
I believe what we had in the market of 2 years back is too many agencies undercutting rates charged by the already-established ones, and then of course being squeezed for margins.
As I said earlier - âfinancial riskâ is easier to deal with via risk management than âpeople integrity riskâ which involves a young business going bust because the playing field is a complete jungle.
Itâs almost got so bad now that a young entrepeneur would probably do better to engage in a home-made âbetting systemâ rather than burn cash in start-up overheads, only to fall down flat when you attempt to involve âother peopleâ such as âlipserviceâ colleagues and âlacklustreâ customers who expect to be paying a price where the starting point for negotiations is âfreeâ. 
At the end of September, Prestige in Hull booked me for Sat/Sun at Cranswick. I worked the Sat no probs and turned up at 5:45 Sun for a 6:00 start. The guy on shift said he wasnât expecting me but had me shunting for 1 hour before sending me home.
I booked the 8 hrs and ended up getting paid sweet FA.
I kicked off about it and after another fortnight got 4 hours pay. The agency complained to me that the company were refusing to pay them so they couldnât pay me. I pointed out that whatever contract or dispute they had with their client was their problem, not mine, and they still needed to pay me.
Then followed a Mexican stand off where they kept asking for availability and I kept saying âzero until you pay me what you owe me!â
Eventually I gets the transport gaffer on the phone who, after a little negotiation, agrees to pay me half of the outstanding after 2 shifts and the remainder after a further two.
So last week I did the first 2 shifts and guess whatâ â ?..they failed to pay me the first half even after I specifically pointed it out when submitting my hours. In addition they booked me for last Sunday again, yet when I worked on Saturday they didnât have me down for the Sunday, again.
Codswallop. Theyâve burned their bridges with me now.
The thinking is like this I reckon:
(1) There is this assumption by agency that there are far more drivers than shifts available to cover.
(2) If you therefore con each and every driver, you might find yourself as an agency paying out one shift for every three actually worked. Ie. You refuse to pay driver (b) and âaccidentally deliberately forgetâ to pay driver (c), who is the one thatâll kick up the fuss. Driver (b) might not kick up a fuss, because, letâs say - they caused some damage, turned up a bit late, or some other minor incident that can be trumped-up into âdoesnât get paid for the entire shiftâ. Speaking to our foreign cousins - They are the most likely to be in the âdriver bâ situation.
SO⊠From the crooked agency perspective - Youâve got for each 3 hours worked perhaps two of them paying out say, 2x8.50ph. (the third guy âsuccessfullyâ was not paidâŠ)
This is ÂŁ17 split three man hours ways - which of course is below minimum wage, and illegal.
Theft of course is also illegal, but as with other matters brought to the attention of the âpoliceâ - They are only interested in pursuing fines and other sources of income - so scant are their own resources.
So the major thrust of the Crooked agencyâs power is âNo action will ever be taken against themâ.
Even HMRC are taking a tad too long to getting around to busting up all these mickey mouse umbrella outfits - and thatâs an open goal for the authorities if ever there was one! 
tachograph:
Over the years Iâve had this happen a few times, usually because the agency has double booked a job, unless the agency have been able to find me alternative work Iâve always booked and been paid 8 hours.At the end of the day their mistake has cost you a days work so itâs up-to them to reimburse you for the days pay youâve lost.
This. Canât remember it happening to me though.
Have been booked as âspare driverâ and sat in the canteen until the last outgoing trailer has been dispatched and maybe done a bit of shunting, not a bad number except for the stupid oâclock start time.
In my agri-contracting business we work on the principle no further work if the last bill hasnât been paid, same applies to driving. Iâm not a â â â â â â â charity!
if its an error it happens and you should be paid for 8 hours simple.