Today I’m guessing I experienced a normal day in the life of an agency driver. Different truck, report to a big company with just a load number and get on with it.
Agency workers I salute you. Soul destroying and hard work.
Tin hat firmly on
I couldn’t do it. Especially on the receiving end of the amount of flak folk like me give them.
PaulNowak:
I couldn’t do it.
Me neither. The drop in pay and not knowing if I’ll have any work tomorrow puts me off.
PaulNowak:
I couldn’t do it. Especially on the receiving end of the amount of flak folk like me give them.
We are hardy ■■■■■■■, we can take it.
Most agency drivers choose to be agency for the flexibility it offers.
It has never been easier to get a full time job in this game, if you have half an idea of what you are doing.
Most firms are crying out for drivers.
When I started out in 1990 it was nigh on impossible for anybody to give you a start with no experience.
Now firms advertise that they will take new passes!
It took me a few years to get established with the agencies in the 90’s. A lot easier now.
zip929:
Most agency drivers choose to be agency for the flexibility it offers.
Contraflow:
PaulNowak:
I couldn’t do it.Me neither. The drop in pay and not knowing if I’ll have any work tomorrow puts me off.
You probably also couldn’t do without your frilly curtains! 
Evil8Beezle:
Contraflow:
PaulNowak:
I couldn’t do it.Me neither. The drop in pay and not knowing if I’ll have any work tomorrow puts me off.
You probably also couldn’t do without your frilly curtains!
I haven’t got any curtains, never mind frilly ones.
zip929:
PaulNowak:
I couldn’t do it. Especially on the receiving end of the amount of flak folk like me give them.We are hardy [zb], we can take it.
Most agency drivers choose to be agency for the flexibility it offers.
It has never been easier to get a full time job in this game, if you have half an idea of what you are doing.
Most firms are crying out for drivers.
When I started out in 1990 it was nigh on impossible for anybody to give you a start with no experience.
Now firms advertise that they will take new passes!
It took me a few years to get established with the agencies in the 90’s. A lot easier now.
As you are a the king of agency men will you be able to answer me this,why do most agency fellas holiday in thailand and bring wives back 
seth 70:
…why do most agency fellas holiday in thailand and bring wives back…
Because they can’t get a proper wife.
They can’t get a proper anything. Proper job. Proper haircut. Proper wash…
I could forgive them if they chose a more up market carrier bag.
I done agency from start off 1998 to 2011. Most of it was through choice apart from the end. I got soft from 2003 to 2010 and stayed with one firm but thinking back about all the hassles, cancellations etc makes my blood run cold.
I’m settled in my staff position now but if I’m in office and an agency driver needs help I will go the extra mile to help him because I know what it’s like going to different companies every week.
Agencies are vital for me at this point in time… being already in a full time job but looking for ‘ad-hoc’ work…
yes I have approached some companies directly for ad-hoc work but with agencies I have a shift 100% of the times I want one… (I can only drive lorries about 2 days a month for the present time and/or when on annual leave in my full time job…)
I am off to my first agency shift now in 20 years for Manpower (I worked for them 20+years ago!), let’s see if I ‘survive’
PS I don’t do holidays in Thailand and neither bring ‘husbands back’
Contraflow:
seth 70:
…why do most agency fellas holiday in thailand and bring wives back…Because they can’t get a proper wife.
They can’t get a proper anything. Proper job. Proper haircut. Proper wash…
[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
The tipper company I have been doing work for have two vehicles off the road being repaired and even though mine is still working ok, I would have been laid off for the day (this also happened to me last Wednesday too). Instead I am going into another tipper company for just one day today, meaning another vehicle, another yard, another set of paperwork and procedures. Been running with these guys on the same muckshift job and they have been driving like nutters. Will I be rushing around like a maniac today for a single days agency work - not bloody likely!!
It not so much the agencies that take the pee, as the companies themselves and one of the reasons agencies struggle to retain drivers on their books. At the moment I am doing agency work as it still the main holiday season and lots of folks are away at companies. Very few places show you the truck properly, or spend any time explaining their paperwork, or give any information on drops etc. You are just left to it, with very little input or help. Couple of weeks ago I had a days work and a truck with virtually no fuel in it. Asked where I filled up with diesel, to be told there is a fuel card in the cab. Yep I explained I have found that, but no map of where these fuel stations are and I need to fill it up pronto as below quarter of a tank. This is the sort of muppetry you have to contend with.
Pimpdaddy:
Contraflow:
seth 70:
…why do most agency fellas holiday in thailand and bring wives back…Because they can’t get a proper wife.
They can’t get a proper anything. Proper job. Proper haircut. Proper wash…
[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
The only proper thing they have is a limp 
Oh I love reading threads like this… nice to see that the hatred and resentment of agency drivers is still strong…Oh the force is strong …lmao
Contraflow:
seth 70:
…why do most agency fellas holiday in thailand and bring wives back…Because they can’t get a proper wife…
Judging by the greggs pie eating lardies (sorry ladies) I see locally, a Thai bride is probably more economic to keep
Contraflow:
They can’t get a proper anything. Proper job. Proper haircut. Proper wash…
… And judging by the state of some of the permanent drivers, I’d struggle to tell the difference 
at the risk of repeating myself the 2 trucks I have point blank refused to drive were both full time drivers vehicles and smelled like they had ■■■■■■ the bed.
I enjoyed being an agency driver for the ten years I did it. What made me move was that they started giving me 2am starts all the time.
The big advantage for me was that I could take days of whenever I needed to without having to give three month’s notice. I had two kids in school, so I often needed to be at parent’s evenings etc. I was lucky in that my contract guaranteed me 5 days work a week and I worked a lot of Sundays at double time.
In general, I found very little hostility - It was only at Salvesson’s Worcester, who had many other problems, where agency drivers were resented. I think my worst experience was at a small local haulier: I turned up ten minutes before my 6am start and the place was in darkness - when I eventually found a door and then a guy in an office, he just threw some keys at/to me and and said “It’s in the yard. Paperwork’s on the seat”
“It” was a 12 tonner in rather shabby condition, but not so bad that I could reject it (and believe me - I tried). I had 8 or 10 drops, starting in Leamington and finishing in Watford - none of which I had ever been to before. At 4pm I am thinking that I will run out of time, so phoned the office to see what they wanted me to do. The answer was a curt instruction to bring the last two back. Needless to say, I told the agency to never send me there again. They went ■■■■ up a few months later.
Contraflow:
seth 70:
…why do most agency fellas holiday in thailand and bring wives back…Because they can’t get a proper wife.
They can’t get a proper anything. Proper job. Proper haircut. Proper wash…
Class 