Does anyone know of any “fair”, “friendly” and “nice to work with” driver agencies out there in or near to the Surrey area■■?
I did some work for the agency Contract Options and noticed that after initially paying me for typical days of 13 plus or so hours, the pay for 3 of those hours would then be deducted from the following weeks pay slip, and would simply read “deductions £30” without explanation, if it was £10 per hr.
When I asked them about it, they said that the haulier in question “never” paid any more than 10 hours for any shift, regardless of “actual” hours worked in the day.
Taking into account your vehicle checks, other work; loading and unloading, waiting around in yards etc. time not spent driving, how often is anyone lucky enough to finish their working day within 10 hours…?
When you sign up for this agency, they phone you asking your availability on a particular day and tell you the hourly rate for that particular job. You then receive a text with the address and start time, although the hourly rate of pay is usually spoken over the phone and not always confirmed on the text in writing, which can also lead to confusion on their part.
I agreed to working for an hourly rate for each job, but I did not agree that once you have worked over 10 hours for any company, you would not be paid anything extra.
As far as I understood, you should work your hours and be paid your hours.
I explained this to the agency via email and telephone, and said that I couldn’t take on any further work until it was sorted out and I had received pay for all of the missing hours worked with an explanation. Consequently they have not been in touch since.
Am I missing something here? Has this sort of thing happened to any other drivers recently? Is this typical?
I enjoy my truck driving, but having already spent hundreds out of my own pocket on CPC training to keep my licence current, I’m starting to feel very disillusioned and let down by this impersonal approach and lack of professionalism and wonder whether the enormous expense on an individual is worthwhile for this kind of treatment.
I would love to work with an agency who actually give a monkeys, if there is any such thing.
Any help from fellow drivers would be gratefully received, especially those currently working for agencies.
