Living in West London , class 1 licence, have plenty of work on till after xmas , but in the last six weeks lots of agencys been contacting me that have my number from years ago and not heard from for years offering me work.
Just to pee them off I tell them yes I am available can start in the morning but my rate for class 2 is £18 a hour daytime hours and no breaks deducted, Class 1 is £20 ltd company.
Still none of them have bit yet , they all say we cant go to that rate , they don’t even offer 15 , 16 or 17 , so I say no probs thanks for calling.
What does everyone reckon will we see rates like that yet?
By the way I am getting 15 flat rate for all my hours for class 2.No extra for weekend , night , etc etc but they don’t deduct breaks
I had a text from an agency I did some work just after I passed in 2014, asking if I was around to do a run to Germany. Not heard from this lot since September of 2014.
I keep getting one phone up asking me if I wanted work but he don’t like it when I say I’m happy with my full time job
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nedflanders:
they all say we cant go to that rate
Because there is no shortage of drivers, not even remotely. Agencies aren’t seeking additional workforce, they are looking to undercut the existing workforce or undercut another agency.
I don’t agree 100% with that
Yes there is lots of drivers out there but I think they are scraping the end of the barrel as in anyone decent
from what I can see the crowd I am with are running out of road with agencys and all our drivers are foreign guys which wasn’t too bad before as there English language was liveable with where as now the grasp of the English language is disaster.
we used to get away with before as if u got a complaint from a customer you could swap a guy out and send a guy in with good English and all happy again where as now there is no guys left with good English
our customers getting pee ed off with what is happening
the amount of damage wasn’t a big problem to crowd I work with as was all covered up , customer didn’t see it and it didn’t affect the delivery most of the time
Now the problem we have is send a truck and driver into a customer and they haven’t a word of English and cant take direction as they don’t understand whats been said to them.
its very rare to see a English man sent In on agency work and we would have about 200 agency placements every week out of that about 3 English guys , never a irish guy or polish guy, rarely a Lithuanian , mostly Romanian and one regular Chinese guy and majority of these have limited English language.
I don’t blame any of the guys coming in as they only trying to make a living and me been irish was same when I landed in London hadn’t a clue where anywhere was and sat nav s were crap then so it cant be easy for them either.
The point I am making is the companys getting pee ed off so surely the rates will keep rising which is a good thing for us all.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is, the hgv licence isn’t worth the plastic its printed on anymore. EU migrants are allowed to buy a fully entitled licence for 50 Euro with no test taken. This reduces the demand and keeps wages low.
Companies using these drivers are placing its employees and other road users in danger on a daily basis as ‘most’ simply do not have the relevant skills or experience and unqualified for British roads.
It’s wrong, clear and simple and is only being tolerated as it suppresses wages and boosts profits for big corporations. Until someone gets prosecuted for corporate manslaughter matters will only get worse.
Honestly !
blue estate:
I keep getting one phone up asking me if I wanted work but he don’t like it when I say I’m happy with my full time jobSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I wonder if we’ll end up like Japan - where people are sick and tired of chasing a decent pay rise - so opt for the real easy jobs instead?
The problem at the moment is when you get an agency that then says "YES we’ll pay you your £20ph - can you start at 5am tomorrow?"
only for you to do the damned job, and the £20ph never materializes, because you never got it in writing or an email confirm… You end up getting £8.50 and a promise “Better luck next time sonny”… 
Honestscott76:
The unfortunate fact of the matter is, the hgv licence isn’t worth the plastic its printed on anymore. EU migrants are allowed to buy a fully entitled licence for 50 Euro with no test taken. This reduces the demand and keeps wages low.Companies using these drivers are placing its employees and other road users in danger on a daily basis as ‘most’ simply do not have the relevant skills or experience and unqualified for British roads.
It’s wrong, clear and simple and is only being tolerated as it suppresses wages and boosts profits for big corporations. Until someone gets prosecuted for corporate manslaughter matters will only get worse.
Honestly !
Notice that when a member of the public gets killed by a “trucker” - He’s named pretty smartish if he’s one of us - but “no name to be found anywhere pending the enquiry” - when it’s … dare I say an immigrant?
What I’m getting at is that the public think that it is the average age 54 overweight British trucker that’s knocking them off bikes, running them over on zebra crossings, rolling them up in carpets - or whatever.
The media only reports this stereotype - when it happens to be true on that occasion, which is how often statistically I wonder? 
As most of us are, I am witnessing the poor standard of driving on a daily basis. The damage caused is astronomical, Assessors must be getting backhanded. I just do not know how the insurance companies are allowing it to carry on.
Honestly !
Honestscott76:
As most of us are, I am witnessing the poor standard of driving on a daily basis. The damage caused is astronomical, Assessors must be getting backhanded. I just do not know how the insurance companies are allowing it to carry on.Honestly !
But think how much more they’re saving on wages!
There comes a point when some bright spark manager is going to sit down and work out how many “truck hours” are driven, wages saved, and knocks+bumps paid for from those savings.
Insurance companies must be being ripped-off large - as who among the insurers would allow a firm to take on any old dross, and make them “reasonably priced” to BE taken on?
Rjan:
Honestscott76:
As most of us are, I am witnessing the poor standard of driving on a daily basis. The damage caused is astronomical, Assessors must be getting backhanded. I just do not know how the insurance companies are allowing it to carry on.Honestly !
But think how much more they’re saving on wages!
You cannot put a price on a persons life!
Honestly !
Honestscott76:
Rjan:
Honestscott76:
As most of us are, I am witnessing the poor standard of driving on a daily basis. The damage caused is astronomical, Assessors must be getting backhanded. I just do not know how the insurance companies are allowing it to carry on.But think how much more they’re saving on wages!
You cannot put a price on a persons life!
If you can’t put a price on it then the accountants won’t want to know!
But seriously, causing serious injury or death is quite a different matter to causing property damage, and evidently those who are prone to cause even a lot of property damage are not more prone than the norm to cause serious injury or death.
If they were then the insurers would already have clamped down.
A key difference between humans and inanimate objects is that humans jump out of the way of danger, so even when a driver’s manoeuvring skill on the road is akin to a bull in a china shop, it is not normally enough to cause an increased risk to life and limb.