Bigtruck3:
There is always the stink if being agency that you’re not good enough to be employed full time by any reputable company, nothing personal it is what it is, it’s also about respect for yourself, it can be a bit off putting when out in company and someone asks you who you work for
It’s like your scabing a living and couldn’t ever get a real job,
What a load of Bollox
That’s an outdated decade’s old image regularly spouted by company drivers, usually in RDC waiting rooms.
Don’t tell me that you also have them chalk your tyres and cone off the bays when you run out of time
Noremac:
In terms of pros of being an agency boy, things like holidays, freedom, variety would be valid pros, however agency boys being better than full-time boys, not sure about that one. Fair enough, they may well be better, but how is that an advantage to the agency boy? The full-time employee who may take an age to get on a bay is still reaping the benefits of being an employee.
The more skills I have, the wider range of work I can do and the trucks I can drive the more work I get and the more I get paid not only for the more specialised stuff (for example I’ve moved 100ft long wind turbine blades and mast sections from Hull to Ireland, 14ft wide static caravans, hook loaders, driven 80 tonne Terex tipper trucks in a quarry as some of the more notable stuff) but getting more for other jobs too due to the fact that often I’d have multiple companies asking for me at the same time with some even phoning me direct eventually ending up in a position where I can say I want to work Mon, Tues, Wed next week and say Mon, Wed, Fri the week after and get work for those days. And that’s not just me blowing my own trumpet, I’ve known other agency drivers in the same position. When you use less fuel, bend the motors less and cause the traffic office less grief than the majority of their own drivers do they tend to want you and will give you stuff they won’t give their own drivers because they know they’ll ■■■■ it up.
The full time employee still has all the downsides of being a full time employee, mainly having to work when they don’t want to, having to take holidays when they’re told they can which often means not during any school holidays as others in the company will have booked those off long before you do. I’ve seen drivers putting in holiday requests not just for the up coming holiday year but the one after that. You then go along in say April and say you’d like the first two weeks in August off only to be told no because the number of drivers they allow to have holiday at any one time has already been reached for that fortnight.
Bigtruck3:
It suits some people and others it don’t
When have you ever heard someone saying I’d love to work for that agency, ie never
I love working at the agency I’m at, I’ve been with them 9 years now. I’ve got on well with the agencies I’ve been at and I’ve usually been with them 2,3,4 or more years, typically it only ending when my back has stopped me working.
Look at the advantages you can take 20 minutes to put a trailer on a bay and you dont have to get use to new equipment all on company
I’ve driven new lorries at plenty of places on agency. Literally the week they’ve arrived in some cases. I’ve picked up brand new trailers from the manufacturers, I picked up the first of Reed Boardall’s first double deck trailers when they got them, partly being tasked with it because I’d already driven double deck curtainsiders on agency for pallet networks so they didn’t need to worry about me smacking a bridge with it on the way back.
msgyorkie:
I too have been looking to step down to 3 days a week. The trouble is nobody wants a permanent driver for just 3 days, they are still wanting drivers to bang a 5 day followed by a 6 day. Its looking like I too may have to become a limper.
Tesco let FT drivers drop down to 2/3 days/week,
there are a right few drivers in my DC do exactly this.
In fact they are about to start eight new PT drivers on days/nights with perm set
shifts (x3/week) but it’s perm on weekends.
Noremac:
In terms of pros of being an agency boy, things like holidays, freedom, variety would be valid pros, however agency boys being better than full-time boys, not sure about that one. Fair enough, they may well be better, but how is that an advantage to the agency boy? The full-time employee who may take an age to get on a bay is still reaping the benefits of being an employee.
The more skills I have, the wider range of work I can do and the trucks I can drive the more work I get and the more I get paid not only for the more specialised stuff (for example I’ve moved 100ft long wind turbine blades and mast sections from Hull to Ireland, 14ft wide static caravans, hook loaders, driven 80 tonne Terex tipper trucks in a quarry as some of the more notable stuff) but getting more for other jobs too due to the fact that often I’d have multiple companies asking for me at the same time with some even phoning me direct eventually ending up in a position where I can say I want to work Mon, Tues, Wed next week and say Mon, Wed, Fri the week after and get work for those days. And that’s not just me blowing my own trumpet, I’ve known other agency drivers in the same position. When you use less fuel, bend the motors less and cause the traffic office less grief than the majority of their own drivers do they tend to want you and will give you stuff they won’t give their own drivers because they know they’ll ■■■■ it up.
The full time employee still has all the downsides of being a full time employee, mainly having to work when they don’t want to, having to take holidays when they’re told they can which often means not during any school holidays as others in the company will have booked those off long before you do. I’ve seen drivers putting in holiday requests not just for the up coming holiday year but the one after that. You then go along in say April and say you’d like the first two weeks in August off only to be told no because the number of drivers they allow to have holiday at any one time has already been reached for that fortnight.
Conor, don’t fool yourself into thinking you are the caped crusader of driving, you ain’t.
Goff118:
Just hoping my agency contact is right when he tells me that there is plenty of work as long as I’m flexible on start times.
I wouldn’t have…
Much faith in what agency contacts tell you.
Someone I know fairly high up in the agency world admitted to me the other day they are ■■■■■■■■ themselves with the post xmas slump, fearing it dying a death even more than usual.
Noremac:
In terms of pros of being an agency boy, things like holidays, freedom, variety would be valid pros, however agency boys being better than full-time boys, not sure about that one. Fair enough, they may well be better, but how is that an advantage to the agency boy? The full-time employee who may take an age to get on a bay is still reaping the benefits of being an employee.
The more skills I have, the wider range of work I can do and the trucks I can drive the more work I get and the more I get paid not only for the more specialised stuff (for example I’ve moved 100ft long wind turbine blades and mast sections from Hull to Ireland, 14ft wide static caravans, hook loaders, driven 80 tonne Terex tipper trucks in a quarry as some of the more notable stuff) but getting more for other jobs too due to the fact that often I’d have multiple companies asking for me at the same time with some even phoning me direct eventually ending up in a position where I can say I want to work Mon, Tues, Wed next week and say Mon, Wed, Fri the week after and get work for those days. And that’s not just me blowing my own trumpet, I’ve known other agency drivers in the same position. When you use less fuel, bend the motors less and cause the traffic office less grief than the majority of their own drivers do they tend to want you and will give you stuff they won’t give their own drivers because they know they’ll ■■■■ it up.
The full time employee still has all the downsides of being a full time employee, mainly having to work when they don’t want to, having to take holidays when they’re told they can which often means not during any school holidays as others in the company will have booked those off long before you do. I’ve seen drivers putting in holiday requests not just for the up coming holiday year but the one after that. You then go along in say April and say you’d like the first two weeks in August off only to be told no because the number of drivers they allow to have holiday at any one time has already been reached for that fortnight.
Conor, don’t fool yourself into thinking you are the caped crusader of driving, you ain’t.
The more you have to brag and try to convince others of your supposed superiority and skills then the more BS it really is. I think Conor has shown this on here time and time again as nothing more than a run of the mill bang average driver.
Noremac:
In terms of pros of being an agency boy, things like holidays, freedom, variety would be valid pros, however agency boys being better than full-time boys, not sure about that one. Fair enough, they may well be better, but how is that an advantage to the agency boy? The full-time employee who may take an age to get on a bay is still reaping the benefits of being an employee.
The more skills I have, the wider range of work I can do and the trucks I can drive the more work I get and the more I get paid not only for the more specialised stuff (for example I’ve moved 100ft long wind turbine blades and mast sections from Hull to Ireland, 14ft wide static caravans, hook loaders, driven 80 tonne Terex tipper trucks in a quarry as some of the more notable stuff) but getting more for other jobs too due to the fact that often I’d have multiple companies asking for me at the same time with some even phoning me direct eventually ending up in a position where I can say I want to work Mon, Tues, Wed next week and say Mon, Wed, Fri the week after and get work for those days. And that’s not just me blowing my own trumpet, I’ve known other agency drivers in the same position. When you use less fuel, bend the motors less and cause the traffic office less grief than the majority of their own drivers do they tend to want you and will give you stuff they won’t give their own drivers because they know they’ll ■■■■ it up.
The full time employee still has all the downsides of being a full time employee, mainly having to work when they don’t want to, having to take holidays when they’re told they can which often means not during any school holidays as others in the company will have booked those off long before you do. I’ve seen drivers putting in holiday requests not just for the up coming holiday year but the one after that. You then go along in say April and say you’d like the first two weeks in August off only to be told no because the number of drivers they allow to have holiday at any one time has already been reached for that fortnight.
Conor, don’t fool yourself into thinking you are the caped crusader of driving, you ain’t.
The more you have to brag and try to convince others of your supposed superiority and skills then the more BS it really is. I think Conor has shown this on here time and time again as nothing more than a run of the mill bang average driver.
ATJT:
Someone I know fairly high up in the agency world admitted to me the other day they are [zb] themselves with the post xmas slump, fearing it dying a death even more than usual.
That wouldn’t surprise me at all, especially in certain sectors such as clothing and food, non food retail is already feeling the effects
Thanks to everyone who replied to my post. It has certainly given me food for thought but I’m pretty sure I will make the switch to agency only at the end of March. Thanks again. Glyn.
I’ve done a lot on Class 2 and depends on the agency. The best ones would bounce me around 2-3 different companies that regularly needed an extra driver. One was a big outfit that always had at least one driver off on holiday. Another had a spare wagon which was used for breakdowns and for overflow agency drivers.
I enjoyed it. Got to know the lads at each place and the routes and was on £3 more an hour than the employed drivers. Could take days off whenever I wanted but did try to give notice if possible to help them out.
Other agencies would call me at 5am asking if I could do a shift at 7, which really ■■■■■■ me off as I’d sometimes had a few beers/late night thinking I had next day off. Blocked their numbers pretty fast.
My mate is working for DPD doing loooong shifts and reckons he’s taking £1300 after tax some weeks. He gets £27 for first eight hours then 1.25x that. 65 hour weeks aren’t my cup of tea but he reckons he’s having most of Jan/Feb off so seems to work for him.
Tailschwing:
I’ve done a lot on Class 2 and depends on the agency. The best ones would bounce me around 2-3 different companies that regularly needed an extra driver. One was a big outfit that always had at least one driver off on holiday. Another had a spare wagon which was used for breakdowns and for overflow agency drivers.
I enjoyed it. Got to know the lads at each place and the routes and was on £3 more an hour than the employed drivers. Could take days off whenever I wanted but did try to give notice if possible to help them out.
Other agencies would call me at 5am asking if I could do a shift at 7, which really ■■■■■■ me off as I’d sometimes had a few beers/late night thinking I had next day off. Blocked their numbers pretty fast.
My mate is working for DPD doing loooong shifts and reckons he’s taking £1300 after tax some weeks. He gets £27 for first eight hours then 1.25x that. 65 hour weeks aren’t my cup of tea but he reckons he’s having most of Jan/Feb off so seems to work for him.
That sounds like an argument to move to wherever he’s at, rather than if Agency is better than Full Time Employed there…
DPD among the full timers is that you get treated like a Robot, with 12-15 hour shifts expected of you at a drop of a hat…
OK in itself if you get that 1.5x after 8 hours regardless I guess…
I mean, who moans about having to do long shifts IF they are paid @ Top dollar anyways?
if it is ot after 8 hours rather than ot after 40 hours minus breaks and anything else they can get away with. probably fine if your employed direct if you have a minimum amount of hours they have to pay you. However if your agency i would bet that you would do 3 13’s then all of a sudden be stood down.
Alot of the agency warehouse work i did was like that would work you up to what ever the overtime point was then send you home.
