Agency

[win-stone]

I’ve always rolled my eyes at people who at the slightest thing wheel out “Agency” because, up until very recently, I’ve had nothing to do with them (agency drivers that is).

Until about 3 weeks ago.

One of the blokes is off long term (cancer… poor sod) and until we can get a temporary/permanent replacement, the Boss decided he needed to get an agency driver.

Driver one… Came back into the office after 10 minutes and said he couldn’t get the lorry started.

A quick look found that it was because he hadn’t put the thing into Neutral.

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Driver two… Asked to ‘drop the trailer’. Dropped legs, pulled pin and drove off.

Would have been good if he’d disconnected any of the suzies first!

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Driver 3… Asked to ‘pick up that trailer’. After ten minutes I wandered out to see what the hold -up was. Stated that he “Can’t find reverse”. (In a Volvo!?)

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Driver 4… ‘Take that [full] trailer of wood to x’.

We managed to stop him before he left the yard. When challenged he said – and I quote “Oh. Do you need to fasten the stuff down, then?”

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Driver 5… Held up his tacho card and asked “Where does this go?” (Oh - I could suggest a couple of places )

I could go on…

We are now on our (I think) 9th driver and it looks like this one might last but the experience begs some questions.

1/ The agency was specifically asked (for insurance purposes) for drivers with at least 12 months experience.

If they all had the said experience… what the [zb] have they been doing all this time?
If they don’t have the experience… what the [zb] is the agency up to

(You should note that it was only a change of agency that provided Driver 9!)

2/ If, as someone in another thread said “the driving test is getting harder”, how the [zb} [zb] [zb] did these cretins manage to pass the test?

3/ If these morons are the standard of relatively newly qualified drivers (on the presumtion that anything under two or three years is still ‘wet behind the ears’), is it any [zb] wonder that the job is constantly getting dumbed down!?

I am not saying that these muppets are representative of all agency drivers but, bl[zb]dy hell, I’m certainly beginning to understand why calling someone Agency is becoming such an insult!

[truckyboy]

Thats a total disgrace…charge the agency for any damage caused…then flood the market with the name of the agency…to warn others of who they employ…9 different drivers…ffs

[the_maoster]

I love 'em, every one through the gates just increase my bargaining power come the pay talks.

[win-stone]

I do know that the Agency tried to bill the Boss for the drivers (a minimum of 8 hours, regardless… as per contract) … and got told – in no uncertain terms – where to go!

[sammym]

Your boss sounds like a tool.

Some of those things are totally unaceptable. However sending someone home because they didn’t put the truck in neutral and someone needed to tell them… Or sending someone home because they didn’t know how to put the truck in reverse when it’s a random gearbox (assuming it’s the Renault/Volvo one and is done through the stalk). Again if it’s that type of box then the driver might struggle to know how to even put in neutral.

Also, you don’t sound much better… A driver tells you he can’t put a gearbox into reverse and rather than helping him the first thing you do is run into the office and tell tales…

[actrosman]

You need to get to the same place as I frequent at night… I often wonder if any of the agency bods that are used by (name withheld!) have even got a ticket for anything, let alone the bendy ones! Saying that though, I had one of our fresh off the test ones with me a while back (the one who wrecked the under run on his first go whilst out with a day driver the week after I had to suffer!) and how quickly he forgot the general idea of how to reverse was an understatement… I’ve got another newbie to endure soon and he’s already told me that he’s ‘forgotten how to reverse’, despite him being entrusted to do a bit of shunting around the yard at night to get some practise in!

[basket]

Mind saying which agency supplied the first 8 please? I fancy working for them when I’ve passed

[win-stone]

sammym:
Your boss sounds like a tool.

Some of those things are totally unaceptable. However sending someone home because they didn’t put the truck in neutral and someone needed to tell them… Or sending someone home because they didn’t know how to put the truck in reverse when it’s a random gearbox (assuming it’s the Renault/Volvo one and is done through the stalk). Again if it’s that type of box then the driver might struggle to know how to even put in neutral.

Also, you don’t sound much better… A driver tells you he can’t put a gearbox into reverse and rather than helping him the first thing you do is run into the office and tell tales…

This is such a load of [zb] that I’m really struggling to know where to start!

You think it’s acceptable that a professional Driver, with at least a years experience, doesn’t know that he has to put an Auto into Neutral before it will start??

You think that it’s acceptable for a Professional Driver to sit in a Volvo, where there is an ‘Armrest’ and be unable to work out that R = Reverse??

… and where in my post did I say that I’d “run into the office to tell tales”■■

You’re right. There is a tool… but it’s not my Boss!

[mike68]

Maybe a bit of a site induction is in order, an hour or so going over the do’s and don’ts.

To expect someone to know everything is a bit much and some drivers may feel embarrassed to ask questions for fear of ridicule.

The driving test is rudimentary at best and the DCPC is a joke and is not fit for purpose, however I have to agree the level of stupidity among many “drivers” is quite staggering.

My favourite of late was the tale of one such imbecile, unable to find the store he brought the load back walked up to the desk and asked for another load this time one that was easier to find.

Or another who was given the paperwork for a load and told to take it to another depot he did, the paperwork duly arrived minus the trailer.

[proudnewbie]

sammym:
Your boss sounds like a tool.

Some of those things are totally unaceptable. However sending someone home because they didn’t put the truck in neutral and someone needed to tell them… Or sending someone home because they didn’t know how to put the truck in reverse when it’s a random gearbox (assuming it’s the Renault/Volvo one and is done through the stalk). Again if it’s that type of box then the driver might struggle to know how to even put in neutral.

Also, you don’t sound much better… A driver tells you he can’t put a gearbox into reverse and rather than helping him the first thing you do is run into the office and tell tales…

Love it… Well said

[winseer]

One doesn’t just have to be “newly qualified” to be a bit of a moron when turning up for agency work.

Let’s say you are a full timer who’s worked in the same job for years and years. Chances are, you won’t know one of more of the following, simply because your yard had no need of such practices…

(1) Shipping Containers
(2) Roping & Sheeting
(3) Drawbars
(4) Split Coupling
(5) Moffat/Palfinger/HIABs/FLT both Electric and Gas powered/Reach Truck etc.
(6) Dock Levellers
(7) Unmanned Yards (DIY everything when you turn up with a load - more than just “Self-Tip”!)
(8) Fridges
(9) Paperwork, in partucular CMA stuff.
…and finally
(10) Being able to SPEAK.
(Yup, had an agency driver turn up gesticulating wildly… Turned out he was a deaf mute, who expected at least some of the office staff to be able to read his “signing” to them. His old job was carting NHS kit about the country apparently, which he’d done without a hitch for over 20 years…)

There was me thinking you couldn’t get a licence in the first place, if you were a deaf-mute, but having said that - this was a 7.5t job that he’d turned up on agency to do… Grandfather Rights? - Or maybe he hadn’t always been thus afflicted?
I’ve met people that went deaf, and I’m having my left hearing go downhill myself due to tinnitus - but every mute I’d ever met up until that point - had been born that way, from being born deaf.

[basket]

You can get a truck licence as long as you can use a textphone in an emergency

Buses might be a different story though, understandably

[conor]

Win-Stone:
I’ve always rolled my eyes at people who at the slightest thing wheel out “Agency” because, up until very recently, I’ve had nothing to do with them (agency drivers that is).

I am not saying that these muppets are representative of all agency drivers but, bl[zb]dy hell, I’m certainly beginning to understand why calling someone Agency is becoming such an insult!

Whereas I’ve gone to places as an agency driver and its been double facepalm watching what some of the regular drivers do at those places. I’ve seen some monumental acts of sheer stupidity that has left me wondering whether there was actually anything other than empty space between their ears.

I’ve gone to places on agency and as you never get told anything and nobody wants to bother showing you done things the way that looked like the blatantly obvious way it should be done only to have those company drivers come up to me who have been doing the job there for years and say “Bloody hell that’s marvellous that, I never thought of doing it that way”.

I’ve worked with drivers who have been at companies that have always run say Scanias and seen those drivers sat there scratching their heads wondering how to get the thing to move forwards when their wagon has been in for repair and they’ve been given a MAN or a Volvo. Almost all company men I’ve seen scratching their heads when they were given an Iveco Stralis or a Mercedes Actros with an EPS gearbox and its been the agency drivers who’ve had to show them how to drive them.

I’d like to see YOU do agency Win-Stone and see just how bloody useless you end up being when you go to places for the first time. When you turn up, assuming that there’s actually someone in the office and it isn’t one of the quite often "keys are hung up under the bonnet, paperwork is in the cab, gate code to get in is 123456, you’re usually thrown a set of keys, a pile of paperwork and pointed in the general direction of the motor. Nobody tells you anything at all and almost every company operates differently. You have to figure out everything on your own from how to fuel up the motor, ie whether you do it on the fuel card or using one of a dozen different types of automated pump on site that nobody tells you how to use, do the paperwork which nobody shows you how to do, how their site works and where everything is and who to see, how their customers sites work and you’re expected to still do the same amount of work as the guys who’ve been shown and been doing the job full time.

I expect that every first day you had at a new company and every time you got in a new truck you were no different than agency drivers are when they’re in the same boat. Difference is that unlike you where you’re only likely to have a “first day” once in a blue moon, for an agency driver it could quite easily end up being that every day of the week.

[juddian]

the maoster:
I love 'em, every one through the gates just increase my bargaining power come the pay talks.

Yep.

I’ve seen this happening several times over the years at various places i’ve worked, just because they have a core of competent drivers gaffers get carried away with the idea there’s hundreds of A1 top class drivers out there just itching to come and work for them.
After a bit of ‘new blood’ recruitment and the £000’s worth of mayhem that usually follows, brings them back down to earth for a time.

Attn Mike68 please stop for a minute with the latest tales of half wits at your place, i dunno whether to carry on ■■■■■■■ mesen with laughter or bloody cry

[sammym]

Win-Stone:
This is such a load of [zb] that I’m really struggling to know where to start!

You think it’s acceptable that a professional Driver, with at least a years experience, doesn’t know that he has to put an Auto into Neutral before it will start??

You think that it’s acceptable for a Professional Driver to sit in a Volvo, where there is an ‘Armrest’ and be unable to work out that R = Reverse??

… and where in my post did I say that I’d “run into the office to tell tales”■■

You’re right. There is a tool… but it’s not my Boss!

Does any of it even matter? What harm was done… Tell/show him to put into neutal and then engine starts and it’s problem over. Sending him home and refusing to pay him wages… Your boss sounds like a total bellend.

Again - if you are not used to the renault/volvo box it’s not easy. I learnt in one so know them. I’ve had to show a 40 year driver how to use one. He drove so well I was watching him and trying to get tips - not knowing a box makes no difference to someones ability to drive.

And why would your boss be sending someone home for this unless you ran in and told tales?

[cav551]

Agree totally with Winseer and Conor, some very valid points. I was born with the knowledge that there is an electrics isolator hidden behind the ashtray, but since the cab interior lights don’t work I can’t find it in the dark. I would add that there is often a very good reason why the company has got an Agency driver in to do the job… there is something dodgy about it (usually on a Friday) and all the company drivers have refused to do it. So it is lie through the company teeth and keep the fingers crossed that the Agency bod doesn’t smell a rat and go home again.

[rjan]

Win-Stone:

sammym:
Your boss sounds like a tool.

Some of those things are totally unaceptable. However sending someone home because they didn’t put the truck in neutral and someone needed to tell them… Or sending someone home because they didn’t know how to put the truck in reverse when it’s a random gearbox (assuming it’s the Renault/Volvo one and is done through the stalk). Again if it’s that type of box then the driver might struggle to know how to even put in neutral.

Also, you don’t sound much better… A driver tells you he can’t put a gearbox into reverse and rather than helping him the first thing you do is run into the office and tell tales…

This is such a load of [zb] that I’m really struggling to know where to start!

You think it’s acceptable that a professional Driver, with at least a years experience, doesn’t know that he has to put an Auto into Neutral before it will start??

You think that it’s acceptable for a Professional Driver to sit in a Volvo, where there is an ‘Armrest’ and be unable to work out that R = Reverse??

… and where in my post did I say that I’d “run into the office to tell tales”■■

You’re right. There is a tool… but it’s not my Boss!

To be honest, I think your boss is being unreasonable.

If you have little experience and are starting a new job, you might well face issues in the first hour or so of work like remembering to put the gearbox into neutral, just because of the mental demands of starting a new job. It doesn’t help that there seem to be no standards in relation to the placement and configuration of the gear selectors or dashboard warning indications.

Just off the top of my head, I’ve seen selectors that are levers, stalks, dials, and push switches. Some have positional indications and won’t start out of neutral, some do not and default to neutral when the engine is switched off. Some are behind the wheel, some are on the centre console, some are on the armrest, some are almost behind the chair. Some are easy to tell what position they are in from a glance, some are more subtle, some have no indication at all. If you haven’t already seen every variety and come a cropper with their nuances, I can see why confusion arises. If you haven’t ever driven an auto that refuses to start out of neutral, why would you look for it?

It’s the same with snapping suzies. Different cabs and trailers have parking brakes in different places, steps on different sides, and store the number plates in different places. Different side lockers have different mechanisms to open them - some a lever, some a pull-ring - and some of them are dodgy. Parking brakes can be almost anywhere from the rubbing plate to the arse end, on either side, inside boxes or not, and sometimes you can hardly tell which lever is which. If you haven’t got wide experience already, you’ll be distracted from the procedure handling these issues and you’ll forget something, and that’s where accidents happen.

And with the unsecured load, perhaps he simply assumed that because it wasn’t already secured, it didn’t need to be - if you’ve only worked for cowboy firms before with all sorts of skeletons hidden behind the curtain, that’s possibly the norm.

With 12 months experience, you might be looking at someone who has only ever driven one model of truck from a single production year! And even guys with 10 years driving experience under their belts, may have accrued most of that on battered old rigids with manual gearboxes, and may not have seen your particular model of vehicle or trailer before.

The bottom line is, bosses need to accept the need to either to pay the sort of hourly rates that allow them to attract exactly the sort of experienced driver that they need, or if they’re taking someone with only 12 months experience, they need to look at performing a proper induction and training (it doesn’t have to be a big thing, just basic shadowing and supervision in the yard, especially on the first day).

Better management in other words. If you’ve got a driver who hasn’t been in your place before, welcome him in, get a cup of tea or coffee in disposable cups for yourselves first (as a wheeze for putting someone at ease), and go and have a look at the wagon and trailer together and get him set up.

[good_friend]

Anyone who gets into a new Renault, who hasn’t driven one before, can be stumped without being shown how to put it in gear.

Also the handbrake can be a surprise the first time you see it. It’s a plastic flap with a red light on it!

[rob_k]

good_friend:
Anyone who gets into a new Renault, who hasn’t driven one before, can be stumped without being shown how to put it in gear.

Also the handbrake can be a surprise the first time you see it. It’s a plastic flap with a red light on it!

Agency driver in the yard of the place I was working for got a Renault (the one before the T series) and must have knocked the stalk which put it into manual mode without realising. He set off out of the gate presumably in 2M and got about 25 yards up the road with the engine screaming its ■■■■ off before suddenly coming to a halt in the middle of the road. 2 mins later we watch him jump out of the cab with his bag, slam the door and storm back to the office where he launched the keys over the desk, shouted “I’m not driving that [zb] thing”, stormed back out, got in his car and went home.

Far be it for me to be seen to be agreeing with Conor on something, but he is right in what he says above.

[welshgooner]

I will give you a tip on how to find out if they have the experience they say they have, by down loading there digital card, and if it’s a new card ask for company he has worked for recently and give them a ring, also why ain’t you taking them out for a driving assessment first and then a induction like all insurance companies ask before commencing work, I’m sorry to say your company don’t sound that PROFESSIONAL if you expect a driver you don’t know to jump in you trucks and get on with it ? ? ? ? ?

And by the way I left a full time job working for XPO logistics ltd on a BOC ltd contract on a night shift and now I love the freedom I have working on the Agency’s by taking holidays when I want and working for who I want,

and working for various haulage companies I have met a lot of full time drivers that are nice but dim, so it goes both ways.

And like the other driver said a professional driver will help if another driver is struggling, and don’t forget every day is a school day.

Happy Days.