Don’t take this negatively but iirc the OP has posted on here various threads in the past looking to see if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but eventually retreats back to to his secure, maybe a job he’s unhappy with. The only advice I can give the OP is IF you want to leave your current employer, only you can decide if taking the plunge into the unknown is ok. It’s also a leap of faith stepping out of your secure comfort zone and something only you can decide to do
Pat Hasler:
Sigh
Agencies are the curse of the industry (I believe I have said that before) They exploit drivers and treat them like crap, don’t give a toss about their rights and when work drops off they will just leave them sitting at home, unpaid and no benefits of any type. Agencies should be outlawed.
Alternatively…
They give drivers who would otherwise have no work at all, some work.
They give the chance for fairly inexperienced drivers to try work they’ve not done before.
Oh, and when you are sitting at home with no work, you can claim unemployment benefits…
Actually, you can’t
You don’t know you’re not going to get any work on agency until a week has gone by and you didn’t get any.
If you then try and sign on for that nothing week, you’ll be told. "Ah. You’ve got to not work for the NEXT week to actually get a week’s money as UB in some form.
The only way you can know in advance that you’ll not be working the next week is to turn work down.
Conor:
Pat Hasler:
Sigh
Agencies are the curse of the industry (I believe I have said that beforeAlternatively…
They give drivers who would otherwise have no work at all, some work.
They give the chance for fairly inexperienced drivers to try work they’ve not done before.
Oh, and when you are sitting at home with no work, you can claim unemployment benefits…
…
Dont agree with this
If there were no agency there would be loads of fulltime jobs for everyone
They generally DONT give inexperianced drivers a chance
I would rather be a toilet cleaner than a uneployed sponger
scanny77:
COOKiEEES!!:
deano32:
you hear lots of agency drivers tell you they are earning £700/800 a week^^ ahahahahahahahahahaahaaaaaaaaaaahh, classic
i have actually broken the £700 threshold a couple of times but its very rare. its certainly not every week and its more luck than anything else ie getting the right runs. double manned multi drop runs in aberdeenshire are pretty good for getting a high figure without paying dearly in working time
I think I cleared £700 once or twice but only once or twice.
I did make a habit of doing 2 15 hour night shifts at the weekend and then one other good shift through the week and making as much for the week as I would on a full time job. Weekend jobs are usually pretty good moneywise.
bob96:
Conor:
Pat Hasler:
Sigh
Agencies are the curse of the industry (I believe I have said that beforeAlternatively…
They give drivers who would otherwise have no work at all, some work.
They give the chance for fairly inexperienced drivers to try work they’ve not done before.
Oh, and when you are sitting at home with no work, you can claim unemployment benefits…
…
Dont agree with this
If there were no agency there would be loads of fulltime jobs for everyone
They generally DONT give inexperianced drivers a chance
I would rather be a toilet cleaner than a uneployed sponger
Not everyone wants to work full time.
Some firms like to have the flexibility of an extra driver or two for a couple of weeks so they can take on work they would be otherwise unable to cover.
It was an agency that took me on with no experience not long after passing my test. Perhaps I was an exception.
Nothing wrong with claiming what you’re entitled to if you find yourself out of work for a while. That’s partly what you pay your taxes for isn’t it.
Cadwell Parker:
I didn’t give up a well paid job but I did fall into agency work soon after passing my test and worked for various agencies for 20 odd years up until the start of this year.Whether agency work suits you will depend on a few things. If you can be flexible with when you work and what you do, can accept there may be periods where you spend more time at home than working (it’ll help if you have little cash put away to tide you over) accept that you’re most likely to be given a motor that gets driven by any number of drivers and might not be as clean as you’d like (I did find some notable exceptions), if you’re happy to say yes to whatever you get offered for a few weeks until you get your feet under the table and might be able to be a little more choosy and think you’ll enjoy getting a variety of different work then you might as well go for it and see how you get on. If you find you don’t get on with one particular agency you can always go elsewhere. If you have experience and good references you should find it easy to get a start with someone new, as long as it’s not January/February.
This time of year they’re likely to falling over themselves looking for drivers to cover the pre Christmas work but after then work is likely to dry up fro a while. It might be better for you to hang on to you current job for a while, maybe look at doing some weekend agency work for a while so you get a foot in the door. When work starts to pick up again next year you can tell them you want something more full time and see how it goes. If you’ve already been doing good work for them they’ll be glad to give you more if it’s available.The thing you hear all the time is how they’re all liars and don’t give a s**t about anything other than filling jobs. Ultimately filling jobs is what they have to do to survive but the agencies I’ve worked for know that they have to balance that with keeping drivers happy, otherwise they’ll end up with no drivers to do the work. There are exceptions and maybe I’ve just been lucky.
Round where I live the rates for agency drivers compares very well with those for full time employed, in fact we used to get a fair bit of resentment at a few firms when their drivers saw us ‘getting all the cushy jobs’ and getting paid more than them for doing them.
There’s a lot of ignorant stuff talked about agency drivers by those that have no experience of that side of things. These are usually the guys who spend years doing the same job day in day out and think they know it all. They don’t have to think about doing their job any more so they have more time left to spend moaning about others. There are good and bad everywhere it’s true but in my experience agency drivers are as good as anyone else, better in some ways as they are having to put more effort into doing unfamiliar jobs more often and so are more on the ball. If you start getting any of that don’t let it get to you.
I have a full time job now. I have to do more work to make the same money I used to make from agency jobs but have the security of ongoing work and a brand new truck all to myself but I’d still go back to agency work if the fancy took me. I loved doing it while I was involved in it, the flexibility suited my lifestyle, the variation of work kept things interesting and I always had enough continuity of work (with a bit of cash put by to cover the quiet times) to keep me going. In the quiet times I made the most of it and enjoyed the opportunity for a break. When the work was there I did as much as I could to build up a cushion for the quieter times.
It’s horses for courses in the end though. Some love it, some don’t. Try it and see how you fit with it. Nothing’s forever and it might just give you a stepping stone from where you are now to somewhere else you’ll be happier.
exellent post…absolutely spot on
I gave up a full time job about 4 1/2 years ago to go on agency. I don’t have kids and the house is paid for so don’t mind if i get a week with no work,i am signed on with 3 agencies and do alot for sainsburys at sherburn for £10.75 per hour but will not work for less than £10 per hour. The thing i like about agency work is the freedom if i see cheap holiday for me and wife we go i don’t have to book holidays same if the weather is bad in january i don’t work. So far this year i have earned £13750 from april so should be about £27000 for the year with no nights out and on paye so if you can manage give it a go.
mac12:
I gave up a full time job about 4 1/2 years ago to go on agency. I don’t have kids and the house is paid for so don’t mind if i get a week with no work,i am signed on with 3 agencies and do alot for sainsburys at sherburn for £10.75 per hour but will not work for less than £10 per hour. The thing i like about agency work is the freedom if i see cheap holiday for me and wife we go i don’t have to book holidays same if the weather is bad in january i don’t work. So far this year i have earned £13750 from april so should be about £27000 for the year with no nights out and on paye so if you can manage give it a go.
Yes, the freedom was the best thing for me. If you feel like having a break for a few days just ring them and tell them you’ll not be available. Just don’t be too rigid. If they ring you and beg you to go and do a shift it’ll work better for you to go and do it if you can. If you get a decent agency and have good relationship with them you can be fairly sure they won’t try too hard to get you to work when you’re ‘not available’ unless they really are stuck. I’ve often been able to negotiate some rather good rates in these cases… ‘We know you’re busy but can you go to ■■■ to do a shift tomorrow morning?’
‘No sorry, I have plans for tomorrow.’
‘We’re really stuck and have rang everyone else (this may or may not be true). If you can make it we could pay you £■■■ on top of the usual.’
‘I’ll see what I can arrange and ring you back in half an hour.’
If you ring back in half an hour you may well find they’ve covered the job. If not you get an extra shift for better money and brownie points in the bank for next time you want something/don’t fancy a certain job etc.
Agency beats full time in lots of ways if you have the right attitude.
Thats true once got call on easter sunday afternoon offering £38 per hour to go in right away,only thing is i was 200 miles away so had to turn it down
bob96:
Conor:
Pat Hasler:
Sigh
Agencies are the curse of the industry (I believe I have said that beforeAlternatively…
They give drivers who would otherwise have no work at all, some work.
They give the chance for fairly inexperienced drivers to try work they’ve not done before.
Oh, and when you are sitting at home with no work, you can claim unemployment benefits…
…
Dont agree with this
If there were no agency there would be loads of fulltime jobs for everyone
They generally DONT give inexperianced drivers a chance
I would rather be a toilet cleaner than a uneployed sponger
So, if a young passer of LGV1 can’t get any work, they’ll automatically get branded “sponger” then?
Or are you saying if you were in that position, you’d take a job as toilet cleaner just so you can put something on your CV. Two years later, you’ll still have 0 years driving experiernce, and still won’t be able to get work on the agencies. More years as toilet cleaner I guess.
Makes you wonder why bother getting a LGV1 below the age of 25 at all - and yet it’s now been ratified from 21 to 18 I understand…
My own definition of “sponger” is someone who gets paid over £50k for a 35 hour week, and then has the audacity to claim child benefit. incapacity benefits, and childcare vouchers on top “because they’re entitled to it”.
By my reckoning, people who don’t work at all should get nowt, and people who are paid rich wages get to CLAIM nowt.
Full time education for complicated but useful to the workplace subjects should be fully funded by the state. Instead, we have top-talent school leavers who can’t afford to go to univeristy, and thicko rich kids that get thrust into it by their parents who were never there for them whilst they were growning up as it is… Then of course there’s the argument that choosing Higher Education because you can’t get a job when you left school (like I did) also counts as sponging, because you’re not paying anything into the system. As far as I know, FT education attendees do not and have never got UB. I didn’t that’s for sure.
bob96:
Conor:
Pat Hasler:
Sigh
Agencies are the curse of the industry (I believe I have said that beforeAlternatively…
They give drivers who would otherwise have no work at all, some work.
They give the chance for fairly inexperienced drivers to try work they’ve not done before.
Oh, and when you are sitting at home with no work, you can claim unemployment benefits…
…
Dont agree with this
If there were no agency there would be loads of fulltime jobs for everyone
They generally DONT give inexperianced drivers a chance
I would rather be a toilet cleaner than a uneployed sponger
Why would there be loads of full time jobs alot of agency jobs are for things like holiday cover,what would make jobs would be if they stopped drivers working more than 40 hours a week.
What is wrong with benefits claim them if you can
Wh
mac12:
Thats true once got call on easter sunday afternoon offering £38 per hour to go in right away,only thing is i was 200 miles away so had to turn it down
They have to keep their clients happy. If they let them down too many times the client can always go elsewhere so they’re willing to spend a bit more rather than risk an ongoing contract. That’s why some of the less scrupulous get the dishonest reputation that tarnishes the rest by giving drivers any old bull to get them on a shift they don’t want to do. Find a decent outfit and you’ll get treated as well, if not better than on a full time job.
So, if a young passer of LGV1 can’t get any work, they’ll automatically get branded “sponger” then?
Or are you saying if you were in that position, you’d take a job as toilet cleaner just so you can put something on your CV. Two years later, you’ll still have 0 years driving experiernce, and still won’t be able to get work on the agencies. More years as toilet cleaner I guess.
Makes you wonder why bother getting a LGV1 below the age of 25 at all - and yet it’s now been ratified from 21 to 18 I understand…
My own definition of “sponger” is someone who gets paid over £50k for a 35 hour week, and then has the audacity to claim child benefit. incapacity benefits, and childcare vouchers on top “because they’re entitled to it”.
By my reckoning, people who don’t work at all should get nowt, and people who are paid rich wages get to CLAIM nowt.
Full time education for complicated but useful to the workplace subjects should be fully funded by the state. Instead, we have top-talent school leavers who can’t afford to go to univeristy, and thicko rich kids that get thrust into it by their parents who were never there for them whilst they were growning up as it is… Then of course there’s the argument that choosing Higher Education because you can’t get a job when you left school (like I did) also counts as sponging, because you’re not paying anything into the system. As far as I know, FT education attendees do not and have never got UB. I didn’t that’s for sure.
[/quote]
…
Thats a nice idea but dont think that realistic in the UK at the moment the government gives an opportunity to all with student loans and education for free from a young age, yes there are inequalities throughout society but it has always been this way.
bob96:
Dont agree with thisIf there were no agency there would be loads of fulltime jobs for everyone
And as the old saying has it, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Time some of you (and not just you bob96) faced up to the fact that agencies have been around for longer than most of you have been driving or even breathing, and they’re not going to go away any time soon. I started on agency work in the early 1980’s; admittedly there were far fewer around then but even in those days there were a few who made a steady living out of it, depsite the fact that back then you didn’t get holiday pay at all unless you were with Manpower.
I did it for several reasons; I liked the variety, I was willing (like Peirre) to be flexible and sometimes take some of the crap jobs that no-one else wanted, and because there wasn’t a helluva lot else about in my area. I had a wife and a young child, and I’d been brought up to believe (as I still do) that if you want money you go out and earn it, not sit on your ■■■■ demanding government handouts.
The bottom line is this; for as long as employment legislation makes it more financially viable for companies to hire temps instead of employing direct; for as long as regular drivers go sick and take holidays; and for as long as hauliers have a truck sitting there with no spare driver and a load to go, there will be agencies and agency drivers. Not everyone can do it; indeed, from my experience as a consultant and TM I’d suggest that most of those who bad-mouth the job are themselves chronically unsuited to agency work, and from the tone of some posts I’ve seen on this board,there’s even a small minority averse to any kind of work that involves the remotest chance of leaving the driving seat, getting dirty hands or breaking sweat.
And mac12; I don’t know what kind of cloud cuckoo land you inhabit, but I’d love to know how you’re going to convince anyone that by working less hours they’d be better off and there’d be loads more jobs around? You don’t work for UNITE by any chance do you? 
Agency work is generally more flexible than FT and because you aren’t tied to one place you won’t be shafted like you can be on the FT circuit. (Well you will be, but you can say ■■■■ and walk away and work elsewhere very easily!)
If you do it right, you can make a lot more money on agency, but it’s not easy to do and you certainly won’t do it straight away…
It depends on the type of person you are. I’ve only ever been self employed so I much prefer working independently, these days avoiding agencies 99% of the time. If you’ve only ever been employed, it’s probably a scary step too far for most.
You’ll only know if you give it a go!
Sidevalve no i don’t work for unite and i didn’t say anyone would be better off,what i said was there would be more jobs if drivers worked 40 hours per week for a weeks pay instead of 80 hours for the same weeks pay it seems to work everywhere else so why not driving