Driver Hire

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hiya all,

Just signed up with Driver Hire Nationwide, has anybody or does anybody work for them if so what they like to work for ? Been told I could well be working out of Newark for Stobbies as of Monday !

Once again, can anyone give me a heads up on what to expect ? I know that Newark is Chilled distribution but has anyone worked as an agency driver for them or permantley ?

Cheers peeps :slight_smile:

2

did 6 months for them for the local one to me on builders merchants were sound and offered me plenty of overtime but it was about 7 yrs ago :smiley: :smiley:

3

Baffles me why anyone signs up with an agency or company and THEN asks what they are like. Why not ask FIRST. Would you agree to buy a car BEFORE you had a test driveā– ā– ?

4

hes only signed up thats not a comitment to them :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

5

dreva:
hes only signed up thats not a comitment to them :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

That is exactly my point, do the research first. Why go to the trouble of paperwork, interview etc. before you know anything about them.

6

The problem with driver hire is that they are a franchise. That is why you get conflicting reports on them

Driver a in, for example, Manchester could find them to be the best thing since sliced bread, whereas driver B in, for example, Birmingham could find them to be the biggest shower of ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā–  gowing.

(These are only examples and no way an indication of what the 2 mntioned locations are like)

The main positive is that they do give newbies a chance
The main negative is that the rates tend to be a bit on the low side

7

Because signing up to driver hire involves filling out the total of around 6 lines on an A4 sheet of paper and a photocopy of your license.
Certainly no interviews or anything like that at any of their offices Iā€™ve been to!

Back to the original question:
If you can get work from them, then they are one of the best agencies to work for. But a lot of the offices donā€™t have that much work, and the stuff it does is often not what you want (warehouse, packing etc)
If you get the work you like, then Iā€™m sure youā€™ll get along with them just fine. Generally good at paying (although ALWAYS check your payslips with a fine toothed comb) and not too many 4AM wakeups.

Hope it goes ok for you.

Alex

8

waddy640:
Baffles me why anyone signs up with an agency or company and THEN asks what they are like. Why not ask FIRST. Would you agree to buy a car BEFORE you had a test driveā– ā– ?

not really the correct analogy but i no what your saying but i think its down to circumstance if you need the job and money you will sign up and worry about it later, as most times when u join an agency there is no work but least he got a start straight away, personally i think agencies are ā– ā– ā– ā– 

9

i work for them for a while, they wre good for a whileā€¦then they just stopped calling me, 6 months with no work from them then they phone me to do some warehouse work. left them last year. rates are pretty crappy tbh.

10

I worked for them in 2005, then in 2006, then recently.

I was registered with three offices:

  • one was crap, stupid jobs at low rates, not too busy.
  • one was also crap, but it was the one which used to give me lot of jobs in the past. Now they are not so good, as they have some certain areas to cover and their best customers moved away to the other officeā€™s area. Rate was low, job was hard, but the folks were decent, they were not hiding anything from you and were ready to stand up for you if any problems. I was though working for them rather on the basis of ā€œfavour for old friendsā€.
  • one was having plenty of good jobs and was paying decent money, but sometimes there were other issues with them (delayed payments, sending to the class 1 jobs by mistake and did not willing to pay for a lost shift etc).
11

Iā€™ve worked for the Nottingham office twice, first time was a temp to perm & after it went perm the TM told me that he uses several agencies & DH charge him the most yet pay the driver the least.

When that job went bottoms up I went back to DH, they kept me working for a few months but mostly very short term or odd days untill they placed me on a 6mth contract. This was very much a bait & switch job, I was offerred Mon-Fri 7-5 @Ā£7.50ph. The client immediately put me under pressure to work 4on 2off at the same rate, Ā£7.50ph to work weekends isnā€™t going to happen ! There was another agency supplying that contract paying Ā£9ph Mon-Fri & Ā£11.75 Sat & Sun & their drivers were happy to switch to 4on 2off, DH wouldnā€™t budge on the rates so the client tried to engineer us DH drivers to switch to the other agency.

Stupidly, the TM on the contract kept me informed of DHā€™s behaviour & their various threats throughout the negotiations, I didnā€™t care, I walked away from the both of them. Over the length of the contract I estimate that Iā€™d have earnā€™t Ā£1200ish less than the other agencies drivers, yet DH were charging the client more !

I canā€™t fault the Nottā€™m offices admin & ā€˜Bevā€™ is a very VERY good controller but there are agencies out there paying a lot more if youā€™re prepared to put up with imbeciles doing the admin & lizards handing the work out.

12

Thanks for the heads up guys !!!

Just to put it to restā€¦ I signed up so i can get some more experience on class1 ! Plus its the nearest agency i have found to my area in Gainsborough !