Has anybody here used The Driver Exchange?
Is it really just a sneaky agency or is it genuinely a better option?
Cheers.
If you can be a little more specific the masses may be able to answer your OP.
Milestone the agency operate a “driver exchange” which is little more than a slick online interface between the agency/client/driver, for allocation of shifts, simplifying payroll etc
Ahem…I have become aware of an entity which calls itself ‘The Driver Exchange’. It appears to offer an alternative to Agency work in that it alleges to put drivers directly in touch with companies etc who wish to hire drivers for a temporary term of employment.
The Driver Exchange suggests that it is a better deal for self employed drivers as working directly for the company who require a driver will pay a higher rate as there are no ‘middle men’ taking a cut.
This seems to me to make perfect sense, but I have a gut feeling that The Driver Exchange may well be nothing more than a re-branded employment agency.
Can any other user of this forum confirm or refute my suspicions?
Thank you.
Will that suffice you ■■■■■■■■?
That’s a wonderful way to coax people to answer your questions.
This is what I was referring to driverexchange.co.uk/ in other words Milestone the agency
The guy “Steve Reynolds” on the bottom of the webpage is actually an FLM shift manager at DHL Bawtry
Coogy:
I have a gut feeling that The Driver Exchange may well be nothing more than a re-branded employment agency.
you are correct … Milestone purport to only taking 50p commission per booking from the driver, however IMO pigs will fly if that’s true
I suspected as much, cheers.
I did a shift for them a few weeks ago and have not been paid yet! ignoring calls and texts and when eventually getting hold of “the right person” there was lots of apologies and promises but still no cash! Looks like its heading to the small claim court now.
For something to be called an “exchange” - there has to be a process known as “price discovery”.
A shift is offered @ such and such time & place @ a rate. The time & place part are pretty much fixed, but if there are no takers for the job come the 11th hour, then the rate offered advances until someone takes it - like an auction. The price is “floating”, and the process is 100% driven by supply and demand. What you don’t get here is everyone “perching” for a better price, since sooner or later, the rate is going to reach a level that someone will grab with both hands. Holding out for say, £13ph isn’t going to do a driver any good if there are 80 drivers who’ll “fill” the shift when the price gets to £12.75. 
This “price discovery” isn’t happening here, so it isn’t an exchange.
Now… Who’s ever in the remote past - walked into a job centre, taken the card off the wall, and handed it over to the clerk - representing you “accepting” the job…only to get told off by said clerk!
Who remembers the Labour Exchange that existed when JobCentres (aka "joke shops) were still a gleam in the milkman’s eye? 
Note to Young’uns… The “Labour Exchange” isn’t where you decide to swap David for Ed.
Personally, I’d like to see the return of the “labour exchange” even though it was before my time as such.
Excellent, I can add it to the list that includes “recruitment” and “solutions”
mike68:
Excellent, I can add it to the list that includes “recruitment” and “solutions”
“Recruitment” is what Sergeant Major does with upcoming cannon fodder…
“Solutions” are when you dissolve a chemical in another liquid, such as water or alcohol.
We have been asked to post a “right of reply” (posted below) to the comments made in this thread-
Hi - Harry from the Driver Exchange here. I just wanted to clarify a few things about what we’re doing.
Drivers who’ve used the Driver Exchange will have used it in one of two modes: 1) as a work marketplace, where they find shifts to contract directly for end hirers, 2) as an online tool used by Milestone to plan and manage shifts. I’ll go into more detail on both below.
- The Driver Exchange is primarily a marketplace which directly connects drivers and hirers. Hirers post shifts, drivers apply for them. Drivers and hirers make a direct contractual relationship, we are not a contractual intermediary (this is why we are not an agency). We call this bit of our business: DX Direct.
We charge hirers a flat marketplace fee of 50p / paid shift hour to use DX Direct. Hirers are free to set rates. Our 50p / hour fee is analogous to an agency’s margin on its charge rate (but technically different, because the driver’s pay is part of an agencies revenue, but isn’t for us, because we’re not an agency). 50p per hour is a much smaller charge than any driving agency margin we know of, and we want it to lead to better pay for drivers as well as savings for hirers.
50p per hour is too low a fee for us to be able to afford to fund driver pay (in the way that agencies do), because of that, drivers are only paid when the hirer pays. Hirers on the Driver Exchange agree to pay on either one or two week terms (most go for two). The hirer pays a single amount to us for all the drivers who have worked for them, and we then distribute the funds to drivers. We don’t sit on the funds, the only reason hirers pay driver funds to us rather than directly to drivers is because their finance departments don’t want to have lots of billing arrangements with lots of drivers. Depending on the hirer’s payment terms, DX Direct drivers are paid either 17 days or 10 days after the end of their timesheet week. This delay is clearly worse than the 7 day one that agency drivers are normally used to, but our small fees should mean that DX Direct drivers are earning more than agency drivers for the equivalent shift at the same hirer.
Lordsock, I’m not sure what went wrong in your case, but I can only apologise and I would be very happy to discuss it with you if you want to call me at the office 020 7788 4870 (note I’ll be on holiday w/c 18th and 25th August, in which case you could speak to my colleague George).
Winseer, price discovery is definitely part of the plan. The system has been designed to support a reverse auction for shifts (although it’s currently not enabled). Once hirers feel comfortable with the idea, we’d like to introduce it.
- The driver agency Milestone licences the Driver Exchange and uses it to manage its operations. In this mode the driver contracts with Milestone and Milestone contracts with the end-hirer - it’s a standard agency setup. The Driver Exchange is simply used to automate a number of manual processes, to provide drivers with a shift calendar and to provide transparency on timesheet calculations.
Milestone’s owners co-founded the Driver Exchange with me, and the two businesses share an office. However, the two businesses are distinct legal entities, and whilst the Driver Exchange supplies a service to Milestone, it is also a competitor.
Clients will become “comfortable with the idea” once the possibility of getting “no fill” for a shift (because they won’t pay beyond a price they already have in mind) hurts the business a lot more than simply lapsing the job…
New, Major customers of the client are not going to be ■■■■■■ about by the yard, grateful to finally have won their business.
Customer phones yard and says “I want 100 tonnes of whatever delivered 11pm tonight” - and the full timers are all going “Sorry boss, I’ve got no hours left/I’m on days this week/I don’t do overtime/I can’t be arsed”
…So yard has the choice of lapsing, or getting cover at any price. Lapsing will lose the contract so then you phone the agencies that specialise in kicking 9-points-on-licence drivers out of bed, to see if you can fill the shift with a magnet-carrying cheapo driver…
Then when finally THAT doesn’t work - You go for the “price discovery” option, and find it gets filled at lower than you expected… say, £14.75 an hour…
Job done!
Drivers could even “go on the board” at the exchange, if the current bid/offer for the job was say, £12.25 (yard wants someone at this price) and £14.75 (lowest driver rate acceptable to someone who can make the shift at short notice)
If a yard goes in there and over-bids the current bid to say, £14.00, then the exchange price alters to BID £14.00 OFFER £14.75 which represents that yard’s offer (bid to the driver) in the market. Indeed it now IS the market!
For further bids/offers to be competetive - the new entry price needs to be in-between the current bid and offer - lest you literally be “pricing yourself out of the market”.
LIQUIDITY rather than “acceptance by yards” wil ensure the system keeps going, and is a success. A kind of “Betfair” for drivers seeking work that can later be expanded into ANYONE doing ANY TRADE seeking work… Everyone wins, because Tradespeople get paid more than what the base employer offer is, and employers get shifts filled that used to be well-nigh impossible to fill!
Thus, a walk-in driver can opt to “take the current best bid” and do that stable mucking job @ £14.00 and a yard just turning up can elect to take on Jeeves @ £14.75 because no one else will be seen dead on a tail lift in the high street come tonight (friday!) night otherwise…
Everyone has a price… 
I like the idea in principle. I shall probably sign up and see what kind of work is available. Having said that, the majority of reputable companies want drivers to have taken an assessment prior to starting so the idea of grabbing last minute shifts maybe limited.
damian39:
the majority of reputable companies want drivers to have taken an assessment prior to starting
I’ve had a quick look through and it seems they do require an assessment at your nearest venue.
All your licenses and stuff are scanned and uploaded, (didn’t go through the whole sign up).
It does look a good system and I’d be interested in using it to find new, ad hoc. customers. It’ll rely on a high sign up rate of hirers as well as drivers though, the majority of shifts I saw were all for one co.
Hi - Harry from the Driver Exchange here. I just wanted to clarify a few things about what we’re doing.
Drivers who’ve used the Driver Exchange will have used it in one of two modes: 1) as a work marketplace, where they find shifts to contract directly for end hirers, 2) as an online tool used by Milestone to plan and manage shifts. I’ll go into more detail on both below.
- The Driver Exchange is primarily a marketplace which directly connects drivers and hirers. Hirers post shifts, drivers apply for them. Drivers and hirers make a direct contractual relationship, we are not a contractual intermediary (this is why we are not an agency). We call this bit of our business: DX Direct.
We charge hirers a flat marketplace fee of 50p / paid shift hour to use DX Direct. Hirers are free to set rates. Our 50p / hour fee is analogous to an agency’s margin on its charge rate (but technically different, because the driver’s pay is part of an agencies revenue, but isn’t for us, because we’re not an agency). 50p per hour is a much smaller charge than any driving agency margin we know of, and we want it to lead to better pay for drivers as well as savings for hirers.
50p per hour is too low a fee for us to be able to afford to fund driver pay (in the way that agencies do), because of that, drivers are only paid when the hirer pays. Hirers on the Driver Exchange agree to pay on either one or two week terms (most go for two). The hirer pays a single amount to us for all the drivers who have worked for them, and we then distribute the funds to drivers. We don’t sit on the funds, the only reason hirers pay driver funds to us rather than directly to drivers is because their finance departments don’t want to have lots of billing arrangements with lots of drivers. Depending on the hirer’s payment terms, DX Direct drivers are paid either 17 days or 10 days after the end of their timesheet week. This delay is clearly worse than the 7 day one that agency drivers are normally used to, but our small fees should mean that DX Direct drivers are earning more than agency drivers for the equivalent shift at the same hirer.
Doesn’t matter how you try to dress it up, you’re still an employment agency. You are acting as an agent in sourcing/providing the work and still handling the money. The main difference I’m seeing here is the likelihood of a further erosion of the driver rates as there’ll be no end of thick [zb]s agreeing to do the work for peanuts which the clients will just love and you won’t care because you’re getting your £4 per 8 hours. One advantage of a proper agency is at least they generally dictate what the rates are to the client and market forces mean that everyone is charging in the same ballpark in order to stand any chance of getting the work and this generally filters through to the drivers who are also paid roughly in the same ballpark across all the agencies.
Of course you could argue that business is business and if the drivers are stupid enough to agree to do the work for peanuts then that’s their problem, but I’m fairly confident your plan for “better pay for drivers” will actually prove to be anything but and more likely do the exact opposite as in essence you’ve just created an Ebay for drivers where the cheapest offer to the client will secure them the work.
I would have no objections to paying an agency 50p/hour IF the process was fully fit for purpose - which it’s not, because the vital bit is “switched off”.
Without honest price discovery - with the inherent “fast markets”, “bad ticks”, and “dry spreads” that it sometimes brings - the system will only ever work for the client, who’ll stubbornly push the agency to “ring around demanding a driver takes the crappy offer currently in the market”.
A proper market sees roughly an equal amount of business being done both ways. In this case, that would mean a new offer coming into the market for every job a driver picks up, or each driver placed - gets replaced by another one straight after placement. Liquidity is EVERYTHING.
I would estimate that such a properly-run drivers exchange would trade in a similar manner to the CME Hogs market (open outcry pit and fungible electronic market) which I’ve traded on and off for many years. In this market, if I stick a sell order in (naming my price - not taking the current market’s), and no one shows any interest, then I keep hold of my contract for another day. If I’m looking to buy, and the current offers are taking the ■■■■, then I’ll not buy - because I don’t have to! It’s all about desperation. If you’re desperate - you’ll trade at any price. These are the people who’ll “trade at market” and run the big risks of price moving against them. If you’re patient, on the other hand, - you’ll sit back, and wait for easy money to come from the desperate.
As that Dan Aykroyd quote goes… “Fear? - That’s the other guy’s problem!”
Just wondering if anyone has used Driver Exchange since this thread was started and if so, how was it and do you still use them ?
(I’ve just found this thread through the Search as I’ve just come across the ‘Driver Exchange’ website).
It says ERF not RAF:
Just wondering if anyone has used Driver Exchange since this thread was started and if so, how was it and do you still use them ?
(I’ve just found this thread through the Search as I’ve just come across the ‘Driver Exchange’ website).
Anybody ■■