Waited 3 hours for the agency driver to bring my truck back after bring out since Monday. He said iv cleaned your cab mate not many agency drivers do that. I thought fair one and said thanks. then climbed up into the cab and the smell was indescribable and a nasty stain on the mattress. This guy badicly looked homeless I don’t feel sorry for the dirty ■■■■■■ as my firm pays for parking and you always get a free shower. So refused to stay in the waggon and the boss is going to get the waggon valleted on Saturday. My question is why do agency’s take these people on. The febreze and detail will be out tomorrow.
They take them on because it’s a bum on a seat that earns them 2 quid an hour
After passing my C+E (not so long ago), I was working agency before finding a full time job, and worked by the following -
I treated all vehicles entrusted to me as if I was an owner driver and it was MY vehicle, and aimed to leave it in the same state (if having a lazy day) or a better state (if having a bright eyed and bushy tailed day!) than when I signed over for it at the beginning of the shift.
At my old firm, there was a driver who would stink of urine, and on the unfortunate occasions I drove his vehicle, I would catch a whiff of it every 30 seconds or so. There was also dried mucus found on various surfaces (including the steering wheel) following him having a cold. I used the sanitizer sachets from a first aid kit to clean it off before driving. Now THAT is disgusting.
This old one again, it’s not just agency drivers that smell there are just as many dirty drivers working direct for companies.
mac12,
The example I gave above is testament to your statement - he’d been with the company years! Agree with your comments also.
mac12:
This old one again, it’s not just agency drivers that smell there are just as many dirty drivers working direct for companies.
Sorry Iam not saying all agency drivers are like this and I totally agree with you. I have good friends that are agency and are clean professional drivers. It’s just really annoyed me as I have to live in that cab all week and iv had it from new only 6 month old and Iv looked after it.
I hope you left him some biscuits
Cleaning some one else’s mucus of windows/doors where they’ve spat and not managed to get it through the window is a lovely job, found myself doing this yesterday
The joys of cab hopping
when I use to get my unit back on a Friday morning at stobarts it was generally left in a ■■■■ state both by agency drivers and stobarts finest.
being a meth is a disease that afflicts all types of drivers 
Flippin eck glad my truck is only used by me except when I am on holiday a regular guy stands in for us (only four drivers) and looks thankfully after the truck and keeps it tip top, I would go nuts having to sleep in a truck that was mingin 
Drift:
Flippin eck glad my truck is only used by me except when I am on holiday a regular guy stands in for us (only four drivers) and looks thankfully after the truck and keeps it tip top, I would go nuts having to sleep in a truck that was mingin
That’s why iv refused to night out until it is valleted.
Good man, and your boss seems understanding too, always a bonus.
Javiatrix:
After passing my C+E (not so long ago), I was working agency before finding a full time job, and worked by the following -I treated all vehicles entrusted to me as if I was an owner driver and it was MY vehicle, and aimed to leave it in the same state (if having a lazy day) or a better state (if having a bright eyed and bushy tailed day!) than when I signed over for it at the beginning of the shift.
At my old firm, there was a driver who would stink of urine, and on the unfortunate occasions I drove his vehicle, I would catch a whiff of it every 30 seconds or so. There was also dried mucus found on various surfaces (including the steering wheel) following him having a cold. I used the sanitizer sachets from a first aid kit to clean it off before driving. Now THAT is disgusting.
i would have pulled him over that and sorted it out,no excuse for that
A few years ago I was driving for a firm based just outside of Exeter. They had a driver that quite frankly if I was the boss would have got the boot for being a scruffy minging dirty barstuard, you could smell him from 100 yards and as for the state of his lorry. I was asked to move it once, said o.k. took the keys got to the drivers door opened it and… well I seriously cannot find the words to describe the stench. Promptly returned to the office and told them no way am I stepping foot inside that lorry, I could of caught something.
We don’t use agency and I don’t night out but I treat my motor like I own it it’s my home for the day and the only thing that separates me from drivers that don’t give a ■■■■ I’m the only one who drives it and I take the keys home. I have no experience really with agency we’ve had a few drivers help us on a busy week but there people my boss knows but surely it’s not just an agency thing, even my boss will very occasionally get in mine on a Saturday and on Monday morning ill be washing it of where he’s been on every verge and through every bloody puddle and caked it and have to run a wet wipe and dash spray over the dash where he’s yacked all over it it really ■■■■■ me off when someone gets in it when I spend all week trying to keep it up together. I also know a fair few full timers where you look at the state of there motors and think I wouldn’t wanna go round his for a cupa. So is it really an agency thing or an individual thing, some take pride and some don’t give a toss regardless of who they work for or where they come from.
I was an agency driver for several years.
I made it my habit to leave a truck in a similar condition to how I’d taken it over.
If it was a mingin’ hole, it would be left the same, possibly with a few more crumbs added to the general litter already there.
If it was clearly the full time drivers pride and joy, it would be swept out, wiped down and if possible given a quick polish up as well.
Some drivers can be a bit OCD though. One regular agency job was for the Co-oP from Inverness. I’d go up there to do a weeks holiday cover, always on the same run - Wick Thurso and return. As a result I got to know several of the other regulars using those roads. One driver was spitting feathers about an agency driver leaving his cab in a state. The ‘state’ was, two foot prints in the polish of the passenger side floor mat. Nothing else what so ever. The agency driver had polished up everything else and had clearly (to me) wiped down the mat, but hadn’t polished it 
. He must have even carefully placed his feet and not moved them at all, no scuff marks. I thought that driver was going a bit OTT to be honest.
It isn’t always the agency.
One place I worked, me and another driver had sister wagons.
Mine was always washed when I got back early, I kept the cab clean and polished, it smelled like a new wagon most days, and I have been known to touch up any scratches on it. I once even re-painted the chassis one day as it looked bad.
The other driver, didn’t care. He once phoned in sick, and I had to take his wagon out for a timed drop already loaded.
The steering wheel and gear leaver were gopping and sticky, and the cab had a mountain of old newspapers in the passenger footwell, the drivers seat was broken and the back wouldn’t lock in place. His fix was to use a roll of pallet wrap and some tape to hold it in place. There were a collection of styrofoam cups behind the passenger seat, mostly partly full, seeping their mouldy contents everywhere. His curtains were badly damaged, as were the back doors. It was a right state.
When they made him redundant, they told me that the bosses wanted me to drive his wagon, as mine was in better nick and worth more. I refused unless they cleaned it up.
Surprisingly, they did.
Cab was stripped out and steam cleaned, and a new seat was fitted, steering wheel was replaced, new curtains, new back doors, new mirrors, and it was thoroughly cleaned before it was given to me. It was like a new wagon. Well, as new as an 8 year old motor could look.
Yeah just refuse it till it’s been valeted & fumigated, gaffer wouldn’t drive it would he so why should you?
Always give the truck i’ve used a clean (mainly for the extra 15 minutes pay or 30 if I stretch it out a bit).
This week I had to do a bigger clean than normal though.
It all started Monday when I was given a job by the agency to cover for another driver till Thursday, all went well keeping his truck nice and clean until Wednesday night when I had enjoyed a nice chicken roast dinner on the evening looking forward to an easy run in on Thursday.
Fell asleep on the bunk only to be rudely awoken by agonising stomach pains and finding I was in the process of severley letting my self down, the smell was horrendous which lead to me starting to vomit. It was literally coming out both ends, managed to get out the cab but by then the damage as done.
Then began the whole cleanup operation, bucket + sponge + £10 worth of wetwipes (most of that was just for me) and I did the best job I could. After my hard work cleaning the cab and scrubbing the bunk all that was left was a faint oudour and a stain on the mattress, which i hoped would dry off with the night heater on.
As I’d written off my under-crackers and the rest of my clothes where also ruined I had to purchase some ill fitting garments from a local charity shop just to get back to base.
In the end I was 3 hours late due to whole fiasco and the regular driver must have thought I was homeless the state I was in. Anyway told him I had cleaned his cab and that not many agency drivers do what I just have and left him to it. Just hope he was OK with the smell and doesn’t go on the internet and tell everyone about it.
mac12:
This old one again, it’s not just agency drivers that smell there are just as many dirty drivers working direct for companies.
+1
Ken.