I’ve never worked for an agency not driving work anyway, but a guy I worked with at my last place left a full time permanent job to go on an agency. Surely they can’t be that bad for someone to that?
Well I am going to write it !
Hahahahahahahahahaha…(stop draw breath). Hahahahahahahaha.
If you only want work here and there they are good but thats as far as it goes. Some have good experiences with them and are always in work while others like myself found very little work with multiple agencies.
3 wheeler:
Well I am going to write it !
Hahahahahahahahahaha…(stop draw breath). Hahahahahahahaha.
+1… 
Baldy91:
I’ve never worked for an agency not driving work anyway, but a guy I worked with at my last place left a full time permanent job to go on an agency. Surely they can’t be that bad for someone to that?
At our place the Agency lad’s get paid more per hour than us and we’re on a decent screw. Although I believe they don’t get allowances, so I suppose it’s possible.
It really depends on what you will /can or wont /cant do … if your not worried about long shift or weekend work and there are enough company’s around your area and the agency is somewhat level then you can make good money.
A chap worked with us did 6 mths the he’d bugger off to Tingtong land for 6 mths then come back for another 6mths or so … think he’s now made the move and lives there now and loves it.
When I first passed I went with a couple of agencies. They were fine. They listened to what I did and didn’t want and kept their word in regards to money etc. I even went back to one of them last year to complete all my CPC as I was happy with what they did for me when I needed it. One was local to me (Huddersfield) and the other was in Rochdale but had work in hudds
If you read the posts on here majority of the agencies are crap.
That said I have been working via an agency doing six months winter work driving a tanker for the past four years without any issues. The pay is just over £16 per hour and the minimum pay is for an 8 hour shift. The shifts have been 4 or 5 on and 4 off and the work has been full on since October. I put my paperwork in on a Monday and the money is in the bank on Friday.
I have in the past used an umbrella company again with no issues apart from the fact that they want to take up to £50 a week for doing sod all so I don’t use them.
On the down side I am self employed so have to do the books etc. I don’t get paid if I am off sick and don’t have any of the benefits of working for a large company.
I suspect the agency is charging the company about £22 and with about 30 drivers working full time hours they a making a few ££.
As the old school transport manager used to say " I you don’t like it leave the keys and close the door on your way out"
at our DHL site,the agency lads laugh at us company drivers for doing the same work as them for far less earnings than them.they get the chance of saturday o/t work where-as we are restricted by the 48hr rule 
we don’t get paid for POA either.loads of our drivers left last year,and we have been given a big pay rise now to stem the flow…but they still can’t temp any of the agy lads to come on-board.
The majority of agencies are utter crap, there is only the odd agency that is any good, and it’s a case of trying them all until you find that good one!
As a general rule of thumb agencies may promise many things (theyre a business after all) so dont believe everything your told. Then you won`t feel betrayed, misled or any animosity in your relationship with the agency. Its a symbiotic relationship, you want work, they want a profit. without each other no one benefits.
You as a driver seeking work from ANY agency, may need to do jobs outside your comfort zone, driving vehicles you are not familiar with, travelling to client sites in the middle if nowhere, doing runs no one else wants. Just so you can earn a wage for each day. You wont (or are unlikely) to get holiday pay, sick pay and every other perk a driver who is employed by an haulage company gets. Agency work suits only those whos (home and financial) lifestyle allows them a more flexible approach to working as & when. IE: young drivers who are still living at the parental home, mature drivers who`s children have flown the nest and they are debt & mortgage free, likewise retired drivers who are debt & mortgage free & seeking to top up their pension with a few days work hee and there.
Agency work does not suit drivers who need a regular income to pay a mortgage etc.
It does not suit drivers who dont want (multi drop, handball etc etc) to get there hands dirty & work up a sweat. It does not suit drivers with bolshie personalities, stomp around saying "Im not doing this & that" (been there had the T-shirt)
also as stated elsewhere, it doesn`t suit 1 trick ponies.
Your an agency driver, here`s the keys, trucks over there … get on with it
Until I left driving I worked for agencies for 7 years and when I come back it will be with an agency. Most drivers think that when they sign on to an agency they will have work the next day and never stop, never works like that (I don’t know of any agencies that have there own trucks) if there phone rings yours may do.
When you first sign up tell then what you can and will do then stick to it. I found out which agency had drivers where I wanted to work signed on with them and told them that is the only place I will go, they will ring with other work but if you turn it down after a week or two they will put you where you want because they don’t earn anything while your at home.
Drivers need to be fare with there agency but remember that they don’t work for there agency they should work together neither gets money without the other one.
carryfast-yeti:
at our DHL site,the agency lads laugh at us company drivers for doing the same work as them for far less earnings than them.they get the chance of saturday o/t work where-as we are restricted by the 48hr rule
Not being paid POA? And at a guess breaks, so why are you using it, leave it on other work if they don’t pay!
From the horror stories on here I reckon I landed on my feet with the agency I’m with, decent rate for the work, pay in the bank the following Friday, as much (more) work as I want, backs up his drivers. Another more local agency (national franchise) got me 2 shifts in one month and the pay was less so dropped them as soon as I started with the other one.
Agency suits me as I have my own business which is very seasonal. Our workload starts building from April, is flat out from from mid May - end of September then eases of with sod all November to March. So the Christmas driving build up is a perfect fit, son’s flock lamb in Jan/Feb, March to get all our machinery prepped, Cherry and other consumable organised and any new kit bought ready for the start of the new season. April pulling everything together for the accountant, working on the next year’s budget and banging my head off the wall with the bank box-tickers
Farm contractor?
peirre:
As a general rule of thumb agencies may promise many things (theyre a business after all) so dont believe everything your told.
You as a driver seeking work from ANY agency, may need to do jobs outside your comfort zone, driving vehicles you are not familiar with, travelling to client sites in the middle if nowhere, doing runs no one else wants. Just so you can earn a wage for each day. You wont (or are unlikely) to get holiday pay, sick pay and every other perk a driver who is employed by an haulage company gets. Agency work suits only those whos (home and financial) lifestyle allows them a more flexible approach to working as & when. IE: young drivers who are still living at the parental home, mature drivers who`s children have flown the nest and they are debt & mortgage free, likewise retired drivers who are debt & mortgage free & seeking to top up their pension with a few days work hee and there.Agency work does not suit drivers who need a regular income to pay a mortgage etc.
It does not suit drivers who dont want (multi drop, handball etc etc) to get there hands dirty & work up a sweat. It does not suit drivers with bolshie personalities, stomp around saying "Im not doing this & that" (been there had the T-shirt)
also as stated elsewhere, it doesn`t suit 1 trick ponies.Your an agency driver, here`s the keys, trucks over there … get on with it
Don’t know if I would agree with all of that, I am lucky that I don’t need to work full time but I have always had enough work that I could have done or I have worked full time for a few months then gone away on holiday.
I would never do multi drop in as more than maybe 3 drops unloaded with forklift and never any handball can’t remember the last time I worked up a sweat at work.
mac12:
I would never do multi drop in as more than maybe 3 drops unloaded with forklift and never any handball can’t remember the last time I worked up a sweat at work.
horses for courses, whatever suits you.
I dont mind 1, 3, 5, 7+ drops, some handball, others via forklift or backdoor tip. Sometimes manually shifting pallets with a pump truck, dragging cages etc, handballing product isnt my favourite. But I do regularly handball 16kg sacks of flour into customer premises 2 & 3 sacks at a time on my shoulder. Sometimes up 1-3 flights of stairs, or round the back of the building etc. These drops are anything in between 350kg and 10 tonnes (65 bags to a tonnes). I get paid the same C+E money rate driving vans, 7.5t, 4/6 wheelers or arctic`s.
GasGas:
Farm contractor?
Yup, mostly baling and wrapping but we sub out man+tractor to haul trailers & tankers for other contractors if we’re not snowed under but we’ve built enough of a client base to where we’re having to turn that kind of work down, though we do sometimes link up with a 2 man outfit for some bigger jobs. My son and the other lad that works with us are currently doing their C+E which will hopefully mean I can start to take things easier. Took us a while to get established and find a couple of niches, driving keeps the cash coming in throughout the year, looks good to the bank, covers monthly fixed costs and allows the season’s surplus to be reinvested in upgrading in the kit and expanding our options as new opportunities arise. Already have a pretty good idea of requirements for the next 3 years.
Had costly lessons in the first couple of years 3 customers went bust on us and we bought machinery on the basis of a ■■■■■■■■■■■ ‘guaranteeing’ us work which never really materialised and we had to get a solicitor involved to get the money he owed us for any work we did with him 
. Lessons learned, in principle, 1. we don’t do further work until the last bill is paid, though if people are up front with us we are prepared to negotiate, for example paying it up monthly, 2. we are prepared to get solicitors involved.
Hi my experirence of agency work is overall pretty good ups and downs as always i have a very good relationship with my current agency plenty of work very few days off i can and do turn down jobs for companies who i have had bad experiences with in the past
the main reason i went back onto agency around 2005 was that i got fed up of being lied to and taken for granted(treated like SH*T) at my last fulltime job working long hours for a fixed salary ie its swings and roundabouts dont worry we will make it up to you next week… all the usual B.S.
so i got on agency self employed and have never looked back i have the attitude that if im gonna work long hours etc at least i get paid for it
in my opinion i belive every one should be paid by the hour with overtime after 8h and enhanced for sat/sun/bank holidays non of this oh youll be doing 50 h a week which suddenly turns into 60+ with poa and breaks etc etc . i find it odd the companies plead poverty when their own drivers ask for a pay rise but are quite happy to get an agency driver in at an agency hourly rate
Radar19:
If you only want work here and there they are good but thats as far as it goes. Some have good experiences with them and are always in work while others like myself found very little work with multiple agencies.
+2 