Just wondering, do agency’s pay more for antisocial shifts i.e nights,weekends, bank holidays? Or is it the same rate anytime, take it or leave it?
They pay as little as they think is possible to get you in the seat.
It`s all index-linked to their level of desperation…or perhaps your own.
Really? Reason I asked is I’m off for a couple of weeks and I was contemplating doing a few shifts with an agency but they didnt mention overtime just basic hourly rate and I’ve never done any agency work before so wasn’t sure if this was normal.
But I most certainly won’t be working New Years for no extra.
I loved working bank hoildays when on agency. It was double bubble sunday rates.
most agencies will pay overtime rates, it’s usually time and a half after 8 hours and double time on a Sunday, but will stand corrected on that one as I don’t work Sundays.
If your chosen agency doesn’t pay overtime rates go to one that does
As said above,they pay as little as they can get away with.Find out first and get it in writing.
jay0:
Just wondering, do agency’s pay more for antisocial shifts i.e nights,weekends, bank holidays? Or is it the same rate anytime, take it or leave it?
We get paid a quid an hour more for nights, get paid a higher rate for Saturdays, an even higher rate for Sundays, bank holiday is Sunday rate and if you keep ignoring the text messages when its busy your normal rate will start to go up as well as they offer more and more to get bum in seat. Its almost like a game of Russian Roulette when its really busy as to how high you can let it go before saying yes. Leave it too long they’ll not bother but pull the trigger too early and there’s a couple of quid an hour you could’ve missed out on.
In regards to overtime its quite common now to be paid flat rate throughout. It should be higher than the normal rate on a 8hrs and overtime after 8hrs and unless you’re doing more than 13hrs leave you no worse off.
■■■■■■■:
It`s all index-linked to their level of desperation…or perhaps your own.
The trade-off between “Driver Desperation” and a yard’s “Need bum on seat NOW!” is the natural, and healthy process of price discovery.
What’s wrong with the market - isn’t so much this process of price discovery - but the fact that the bar has now been set far too low.
In my mind, being able to drive for an agency should uphold the sheer professionalism of the driver. Agencies that employ Catweazle lookalikes that ming to high heaven, can’t speak English (or any of the EE languages already around the yard either!) and have a licence that looks like it was printed with a john bull kit - should not be let anywhere near a truck in my mind. Letting them do so is surely to satisfy the otherwise fact that there are not enough PRO drivers to put on those seats otherwise, and prices rise…
Yards will PAY higher prices - IF the quality of staff they get is top notch as it should be at all times.
Surely NO yard wants to wonder if the latest “new face” is gonna smash all their kit up and cause a headache in insurance claims yet again this month… 
Ask the rate before you take the job, agency’s all advertise their top rates which could be true or just complete bull. Watch out for flat rate and pay overtime after 40 hours, I.E. work 2 15 hour shifts you will end up with flat rate, you want overtime after 8 hours daily.
jay0:
Just wondering, do agency’s pay more for antisocial shifts i.e nights,weekends, bank holidays? Or is it the same rate anytime, take it or leave it?
Increasingly they don’t. In my area the hourly rates have been going up (£10.50/hr for class 1 for example) but that’s a flat rate for everything except bank holidays. Overtime, Saturday, Sunday, all paid the same. There was one company in north London paying £10.25/hr for class 2, which I thought was very good, but they pay the night drivers the same rate, which some might not be so happy with.
Winseer:
In my mind, being able to drive for an agency should uphold the sheer professionalism of the driver.
I’m glad don’t work through agencies i set my own rates had a few calls off them over the years when I told them the rates they didn’t bother to call back I wonder why