bigchief:
In answer to the last post, when I did agency work for a period I turned up with Hard hat, gloves, safety specs, high vis coat (clean), torch as a minimum. Plus of course licence, ADR and ID. This was done before the days of CPC so that didn’t apply.
Your licences, for sure. But the employer is always the ultimate supplier of those other items, and can all be subject to loss, wear, or soiling. If the driver has them then happy days, but I don’t see why any employer would think it odd for a driver to be asking to be supplied with them.
I had that a few times when I was in the UK. I would turn up for a 4am start and there would be all sorts of things wrong with the vehicle. If it was unroadworthy and there was nobody about I would ring the agency 24 hour number and wake them up and refuse to drive it.
It was usually bulbs or lens covers and there were never any spares in the vehicles. This only happened about 3 times before the agency put me with a decent outfit.
But I am sure they kept sending the agency drivers who wouldnt complain to the crap outfits.
If its unroadworthy its your licence that gets stamped.
As for the best agency driver not being as good as the worst non agency driver. That is total bxxlocks. I moved on to be a permanent driver and met an awful lot of cowboys.
Bulbs are an essential part of the agency drivers kit.
I still have the 24volt set I got cheap from Halfords.
Buy ‘cheap’ I mean free as I took me granddaughter with me when she was still at the phase of picking stuff off shelves and hiding them in her pushchair.
Got loads of useful free swag by hovering the pushchair close to stuff I wanted in shops whilst uttering the phrase “prittys for grandad”.
Not allowed to do it now since the preparation H theft incident when little un was waving the tube about singing ‘prittys for grandma’. I was literally in tears.
True story honest…
In defence of the full timers, the outfit I work for is only small time and uses agency near enough every day and it’s a lot of hit and miss to be honest. We get some chaps come on who are great, don’t hang around and actually look after the gear and are friendly and do get called back as they do what is asked but on the flip side, we get a fair few who are absolutely useless, a few weeks ago we had one who swapped a trailer somewhere and ripped a huge hole in the side of the trailer and when asked on returning to the yard, he told the management it was like it when he picked it up. Luckily I was at the same place the following day and found out that it was in fact the agency driver who hit a gate post on his way out the yard, point is, one of our drivers was being ■■■■ on by this guy. Last week, I arrived for work to start at 0130, company driver usually rolls in at about 20 to or quarter to 2, agency rolled in at nearly 3am, he was sat on a bay waiting to be loaded for 3 hours and got half way up the m5 and stopped for a break! No reason why he couldn’t have a break on the bay, his response was “I wouldn’t have been paid” half the agency don’t fuel up the unit on the way back to the yard as asked, fuel card is on the key ring, half don’t fill the ad blue on return to the yard bearing in mind there is a pump in our yard and half leave the cab with rubbish stuffed in the door. When I start or other company drivers start in the morning, we end up leaving late because we have to fill the ad blue or stop for fuel. Like I said, we do get a few decent chaos but we get a load of crap ones too.
Scraggy88:
In defence of the full timers, the outfit I work for is only small time and uses agency near enough every day and it’s a lot of hit and miss to be honest. We get some chaps come on who are great, don’t hang around and actually look after the gear and are friendly and do get called back as they do what is asked but on the flip side, we get a fair few who are absolutely useless, a few weeks ago we had one who swapped a trailer somewhere and ripped a huge hole in the side of the trailer and when asked on returning to the yard, he told the management it was like it when he picked it up. Luckily I was at the same place the following day and found out that it was in fact the agency driver who hit a gate post on his way out the yard, point is, one of our drivers was being [zb] on by this guy. Last week, I arrived for work to start at 0130, company driver usually rolls in at about 20 to or quarter to 2, agency rolled in at nearly 3am, he was sat on a bay waiting to be loaded for 3 hours and got half way up the m5 and stopped for a break! No reason why he couldn’t have a break on the bay, his response was “I wouldn’t have been paid” half the agency don’t fuel up the unit on the way back to the yard as asked, fuel card is on the key ring, half don’t fill the ad blue on return to the yard bearing in mind there is a pump in our yard and half leave the cab with rubbish stuffed in the door. When I start or other company drivers start in the morning, we end up leaving late because we have to fill the ad blue or stop for fuel. Like I said, we do get a few decent chaos but we get a load of crap ones too.
Rant over!!!
Sounds bang on to me!
And in answer to the PPE question, see bigchief’s comment. +1
half the agency don’t fuel up the unit on the way back to the yard as asked, fuel card is on the key ring, half don’t fill the ad blue on return to the yard bearing in mind there is a pump in our yard and half leave the cab with rubbish stuffed in the door. When I start or other company drivers start in the morning, we end up leaving late because we have to fill the ad blue or stop for fuel. Like I said, we do get a few decent chaos but we get a load of crap ones too.
lmao… I found every time I got a unit almost always had to fill both fuel and adblue before going much anywhere and I always ensured at the end of the shift that the unit had sufficient for the next man and the cab was clean and tidy… even though half the crap wasn’t mine…
This went on for pretty much a while until I found out they where playing this game where drivers would offer there unit for my shift…of course coz they where to lazy to refuel… so I pretty much played them at there own game… just refueling enough for what I was using it for and that’s it…Soon got to a clear understanding with them regarding the refueling issues…
Swampey2418:
This went on for pretty much a while until I found out they where playing this game where drivers would offer there unit for my shift…of course coz they where to lazy to refuel… so I pretty much played them at there own game… just refueling enough for what I was using it for and that’s it…Soon got to a clear understanding with them regarding the refueling issues…
Never felt I’ve needed to even play that game so far, even though it does annoy me when you pick up a motor that has been brought back to the depot with less than 1/4 of a tank. I guess it depends on the work, but with multi drop, the time in the early part of the shift is more valuable than the time later on, so why waste it fuelling up? Plus if you’re paid by the hour, to me, it’s 15 mins extra pay on the end of the day for old rope!
Dipper_Dave:
Bulbs are an essential part of the agency drivers kit.
I still have the 24volt set I got cheap from Halfords.
Buy ‘cheap’ I mean free as I took me granddaughter with me when she was still at the phase of picking stuff off shelves and hiding them in her pushchair.
Got loads of useful free swag by hovering the pushchair close to stuff I wanted in shops whilst uttering the phrase “prittys for grandad”.
Not allowed to do it now since the preparation H theft incident when little un was waving the tube about singing ‘prittys for grandma’. I was literally in tears.
True story honest…
