Radar19:
If you only want work here and there they are good but thats as far as it goes.
Not stopped. Been working flat out. I think at the moment the days of spotty work seem to have disappeared. Of course if you’re fussy and will only do certain things then you might find it quiet from time to time. Historically it used to be the case that Jan-March was quiet and a few weeks in October as well but this last year hasn’t had that at all. What I used to do in the past was kick the crap out of it from March to Xmas and then just have 3 months off. Used to work out great and because the pay used to be a fair bit higher than employed drivers were on (at some places my basic was their overtime rate), you weren’t skinting yourself putting a bit away.
What you do have to be completely aware of and be able to accept is the sheer amount of unadulterated crap they’ll sometimes come out with to try and get you to do a job. The more the stench of bull manure the more you need to avoid it. It doesn’t take long for you to learn what the lies are.
i gave up full time work for an agency and i think it was the best thing i ever did with my class 1.
just done sunday morning to friday lunch time tramping and back out for another 5 days from monday then taking the sat-tues off to get the car mot and svs.
nobody to ask just say you are not avalible.
its all about finding the right agency because for every good one there is 5or 6 bad ones.
Presumably some agencies have limited clients and sufficient drivers on their books to cover their needs most of the time meaning new drivers signing up are only covering the cover?
I’d also guess that some of the worst stories regarding agency work has more to do with their clients than the agency themselves, the client says one thing to the agency, the driver turns up to find things not quite as expected. If drivers don’t give feedback to the agency its not going to help either, chuntering away online, to the missus or anyone else that is prepared to listen isn’t going to change things for the better for themselves or anyone that follows. Drivers are very good when whining to each other, doing it constructively to those that can make changes to working practices is very rare. I’ve had some interesting exchanges with various levels of management over the years, some have made a difference, others you just shrug your shoulders, keep going whilst it suits and walk away when it doesn’t.
Chucked in job I’d had for 7 years last summer to go back with the same agency I was with when I took the job, life circumstances had changed and getting out was the only option. I’ve been back to a firm that I did a fair bit for 8 years ago, they didn’t have a transport manger then, they do now, his addition is not for the better, so glad I didn’t take the option of going to them full time back then. I don’t mind working for them every now and again, job is straightforward enough, just couldn’t take too much of it.
What I’ve been getting has been a bit hit and miss over the last month or so, but quite prepared to accept that right now, unfortunately the missus isn’t and pressure from her could well push me into taking work that I’m not happy with, we’ll see.
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 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.
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!
i use it to try and get my hours down a bit so i can get a 6th shift(the only o/t they’ll pay) in now and then.no one else at our place uses it,understandably,but there is only 2 of us wants to get a bit of o/t pay.as it is they work us up to our 48hrs over the 26 week period.
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?
I did the same… The redundancy package added some extra incentive though…
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 :x 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.
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!
If you leave it on “other work” - then your 48 hour limit is going to be reached pretty damned quick with most work these days…
You won’t get 70 hours pay for 70 hours at work basically. You’ll get 48 hours pay max for 70+ hours work if you’re mug enough to use POA when they’ve expressly told you not to. It’s your funeral.
With those firms that offer the “48 hour limit” on paid working weeks - the 12 hour 4-on-4-off pattern absolutely rocks… The spare capacity each week left over covers you for the need to book a couple of hours of overtime here and there, for excessive delays driving on our straining road system.
the way i look at it Winseer is that if i am hanging around say an hour a day waiting for them to check my load,and put it on POA,that’s 10 hrs over a fortnight,then i can do a 10 hr shift every other saturday at time and a half.just trying to earn a bit more money,that’s all!
carryfast-yeti:
the way i look at it Winseer is that if i am hanging around say an hour a day waiting for them to check my load,and put it on POA,that’s 10 hrs over a fortnight,then i can do a 10 hr shift every other saturday at time and a half.just trying to earn a bit more money,that’s all!
Do i understand this right, you don’t get paid POA so you do 1 hour per day so you can work every other Saturday. If you get paid £10 per hour you lose that every day so you can get £15 on a Saturday to me that means you work Saturday for £5 per hour. If i’m right the boss must love you.
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 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.
At our DHL site, the agency are getting all the easy numbers and they are just shafting full time drivers now, If you want a overtime shift… “No, agency are covering it!” is all we get. If some of us are delayed and go over 13 hours duty time, you get taken off your well paying shift, agency get it, and you get shafted!!!
But at least we get paid for our POA, we get 30mins deducted from clock in to clock out
carryfast-yeti:
the way i look at it Winseer is that if i am hanging around say an hour a day waiting for them to check my load,and put it on POA,that’s 10 hrs over a fortnight,then i can do a 10 hr shift every other saturday at time and a half.just trying to earn a bit more money,that’s all!
If the firm recognise POA then you can get paid 50,60 whatever hours per week.
If they don’t recognise it, then trying to manpiulate some extra booked hours on your timesheet I find does not work.
Daft thing is, I’ve only come across my old employer so far that categorically doesn’t recognise POA, and limits everyones working week to 48 hours…
The large amount of agency work available all the time at Royal Mail is mostly down to the fact that the full time staff don’t have enough hours left to do the “longer” shifts themselves.
The full timer’s basic week is 36.25 hours paid, with unpaid meal breaks added to that time. You can essentially do 11.75 hours per week of paid overtime - and that’s it.
Thus, if a 12-15 hour shift comes up - it will ALWAYS go to agency.
The full timers get odds and sods duty patterns which might give them a 12 hours monday, 7 hours tuesday, wednesday as “rest day”, 10 hours thursday and 7.25 hours friday.
You can pick up on the “wednesday” any block of hours that does not exceed your spare capacity of 11.75 hours on top of your basic hours (not including the meal break within it)
Strategy, therefore is no longer to “Pick into a duty that has 11.75 hours scheduled attendance on it” - because such duties are now as rare as rocking horse crap.
Picking another duty with “some” SA on it isn’t necassarily any good either. Get 4 hours per week built in - and you can only do a 7.75 hour shift on your rest day - right?
“All or Nothing” with regards to overtime would seem to work better, but that still resulted in my pay dropping every year from 2002 when I was there - just not allowed to do all the overtime I wanted any more. My best years at RM were 1999-2002. When I left in 2010, I’d already dropped down a third in takehome pay. Not good for nearly a decade later. Just one reason among many that I left when I did. They do kind of close the door firmly behind you though - I’ve never got one of those cushy regular agency duties via Manpower - since they always knocked me back when I turned up there to sign up… “We only want to sign you up if you have a HIAB ticket” I got told. Others before and since didn’t seem to be held back from being put straight on to RM work (which was my intent as well), so I guess it must be “me”.
Biggest problem I found with agencies as regards driving jobs, was them deliberately advertising non existent jobs just to get the drivers on their books. You know, the trunking and tipper work that always fails to materialise.
Offering multi drop parcel or shop deliveries with ridiculous number of drops was never going to inspire…
Conor:
Yes Mac, you’re completely correct. He is effectively working Saturdays for £5/hr.
Yes, if I it read it correctly he does hours during the week for free so he can then go in at time n a half at the weekend! Well, thats how I read it but surely that cant be right. Amazing!
Anyway, as for agencies, I would say sign up with one which comes recommended. The agency is as good or as bad as the guys in the local office. Mine, Best Connections in Middlesbrough treat me very well, but I wouldnt say that necessarily would apply to other branches, I have no way of knowing. So you cant say ADR is better than DriverHire or Manpower, its a person thing.
The other variable is what work any particular agency can offer. I was asked to sign up for a new agency who did work for a recycling company. Im happy enough doing what Im doing now so declined but the thought of shifting rubbish about didn`t appeal. The money was low too.
Another aspect is…what stage of your life you happen to be at. I can remember when I was younger I wouldve had little choice in what I did. Now with age and experience not just of driving, but of life as well, I can be more choosy and am confident in what I do regarding speaking to clients and agency staff. So when people get told on here to "tell em to stick it" or “walk away” …that’s easy for some of us older boys to say but not so easy if you`re starting out with a wife/kids/mortgage.
Agency suits me better that a full time job. I would recommend it to guys in their fifties+ who could use more free time but if you`re younger with commitments etc then it should be seen as a stop gap in my opinion.
Agencies are like everything else get good ones and bad ones.
Done agency work for 10 years, if your new to it ask advice from people you know pay, type of work they have, how much. If you don’t know anyone basically just try different agencies till you get a decent one. They typically have no serious commitment to you, so you don’t need to have one to them, change if it doesn’t suit.
Past three years worked with one agency and they tend to do contract work which tends to work all year round. Some are 4 on 4 off, others like mine are day shift mon-fri with some over nighters. When i started was on one contract wasnt that great i took it because it was working FT through Jan onwards, the contract went, a month into it, wasnt happy but agency decent and got me on another contract a few days later, been on it ever since. Nothing is guareenteed, but past three years been stood down about 5 times during a quiet spell in Spring of 2013, even then it was a case of getting 4 shifts a week rather than five plus they always tried to get you in somewhere else if they stood you down, most times they did.
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 spare capacity each week left over covers you for the need to book a couple of hours of overtime here and there, for excessive delays driving on our straining road system. 
