I never said that agency workers were bad.
What I did say was true.
the company I work for uses agency workers to cover weekend shifts instead of paying overtime rate to its own drivers. Some, not all , of these drivers hold full time jobs during the week and DO work 7 days.
This does not show on paperwork because pushing a pen or stacking shelves does not show on tacho records.
I fully understand why some drivers enjoy the flexibility of working for an agency
and do know that may be the only way some can get experience. but it doesn’t alter the fact that in the main agencies are not good for the industry from the mainstream drivers point of view.
I tell you now del949 if my agency sends me into work on Saturday they pay me £15 per hour and on a Sunday they pay me £16 per hour, god knows how much the customer (your boss) pays the agency, so how can it be cheaper for your boss
Surely it would be far cheaper to pay you at your overtime rate
Driving agencies work on supply and demand, I work nights on companies that have trouble getting their own drivers working nights and I have to say the rate is very good 
DAFMAD, why?
They are allowed to submit hundreds of so called permanent vacancies a week on Job Centre Plus and other job sites, that is just in my area. We all know if they had such a vacancy they are never permanent. They advertise for work they do not have just to try and get some names on their books.
Where do the statistics come from that state there is a driver shortage and why ?
There are far too many of them and they are still growing in numbers, they are not regulated anywhere near enough, they keep rates down by fighting between themselves trying to get work or contracts. On some agency jobs you get no more or sometimes even less than the full time drivers. They do us out of possible real jobs. As said if you are a full time driver and your company uses agency, that can do you out of work and cause you unnecessary hassle with unneeded agency drivers being used. I have had this myself on some jobs. On some jobs you cannot get on full time unless you go on agency first.
BTW I have worked for several agencies, but, never again.
If they were no agencies or they were regulated anywhere near enough there may be more proper jobs and more jobs with reasonable money and conditions.
You can believe what you like, but, on some bigger companies there are backhanders given over to the appropriate person who has the say on which agency to have in, needed or not, usually not.
IMHO
there is no such thing as the right way around all of this. the ones who have full time driving jobs are busy looking over there shoulders and who can blame them? to many people looking for work from this country or the new eu.
and people like my self who have to use agencies because i haven’t got two years under my belt, but forget all the class2 years i have from 18 (army) to 43 (present day) driving experience.
its not what you know its who you know. and what about the down side of agency work. the worst wagon of the fleet with the worst drops on that the company employee does not want to do. or the boss who thinks taking your break is your way of fleecing the company of extra hours. but the best one is, " our driver doesn’t get the job done that fast".
class one upgrade for £1 extra?
£1500 class one upgrade
registered with 5 agency’s
the look on my face because i have had no work for 5 weeks now and reading all this bull…priceless.
I found when i was away from the driving and unemployed that i couldn’t see any jobs advertised and have never got a driving job through the jobcentre / paper etc.
All jobs i’ve got have been through bumping into someone at a truckstop etc and just being at the right place at the right time. Now i’m back driving, i’m hearing of companies looking to start drivers on an almost daily basis.
I have noticed that companies tend to use a lot more agency now but i would think this is more to do with the WTD rather than a shortage of drivers.
The myth about a driver shortage is probably so some small public sector vacancy can be created for someone to sit in an office and pick statistics off the top of their head, typical of the current government who have virtually destroyed the manufacturing industry in this country and replaced it with a couple of million public sector jobs
We never use agency drivers. We cover holidays and compassionate leave from within the company. This is primarily because we are specialised and require drivers with unusual qualifications and additionally agency drivers cost a significant amount more per hour than a regular driver.
As for the driver shortage, on the rare occasion we do advertise, we end up with around 100 replies. The majority - over 80% i would say are people in work looking to move somewhere else - and then a few people that have passed recently or getting back after a break and the rest doing some agency. So to be honest I haven’t experienced a driver shortage.
I suspect if you pay really **** wages then there is a shortage.
bbez:
The myth about a driver shortage is probably so some small public sector vacancy can be created for someone to sit in an office and pick statistics off the top of their head, typical of the current government who have virtually destroyed the manufacturing industry in this country and replaced it with a couple of million public sector jobs
In this governments first term they presided over the loss of 500,000 manufacturing jobs whilst employing 300,000 more in government clerical posts.
Stan
Stanley Knife:
In this governments first term they presided over the loss of 500,000 manufacturing jobs whilst employing 300,000 more in government clerical posts.Stan
In their Pre-Budget Report Nu Labour are expecting 200,000 jobs to be lost this year across all sectors. 
I am implying that unions (in some cases) helped to maintain a bit of status quo
Status Quo 
great band, no running them down or else 
Tiger.
Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 8:23 am Post subject:
I tell you now del949 if my agency sends me into work on Saturday they pay me £15 per hour and on a Sunday they pay me £16 per hour, god knows how much the customer (your boss) pays the agency, so how can it be cheaper for your boss
Surely it would be far cheaper to pay you at your overtime rate
No, not when you take into account pension, national insurance costs etc.
That is one of the reasons companies use agencies.
There is no need for any agency worker to take personal offence at what I say, i have good friends who are agency drivers and for a short time a few years ago I was one myself.
I would like to see a lot of these so called professional drivers who browse this site take a 16T wagon with a 16-18T load across the worst terrain imaginable and get themselves out of the mire when they are bogged in, so do
Do you really put 16-18 tons on a 16 ton wagon?
I have never managed more than about 9 tons
del949:
Do you really put 16-18 tons on a 16 ton wagon?
I have never managed more than about 9 tons
That’s a good question del949.
The answer is that we’re all correct, but it’s because of terminology. 
The armed forces or ex-military guys will tend to use the phrase “16 tonner” to describe a vehicle that can carry 16ish tonnes, whereas us civvies use the vehicle’s gross weight as you did.
The military do things their own way, which is fine, but when those guys leave the military they have to get used to a different way of doing things.
Kneal:
To many agencies spoiling the job these days, why employ somone full time when you can get drivers in when it’s busy and get shut when it goes quiet. Only every been on agency books once…NEVER AGAIN… AGENCY ( full of [zb])
its ■■■■■ like you that make me smile its cheaper employ a agency driver for 1 or 2 days a week on ad hoch basis that employ a newly passed driver like yourself … no holiday pay no n.i no tax and if tonight there no work then no work for him mind you all agency drivers r (zts) aint they ya muppet
Dieseldave, yes I realised that a few minutes after I had posted.
Presumably he means something like an 8 wheel tipper type chassis,
Funnily enough I was in RAF Northolt base today looking at hook over demountable bodies with 20 ft containers on and thinking that there is a lot of weight there.
del949:
Presumably he means something like an 8 wheel tipper type chassis,Funnily enough I was in RAF Northolt base today looking at hook over demountable bodies with 20 ft containers on and thinking that there is a lot of weight there.
They’re called the DROPS system, basically a hook-loader. Used to be mainly 8x4 Constructors or Fodens, not sure what they’re being replaced with. Some pull a drag too.
Found this, might interest you…
del949:
Dieseldave, yes I realised that a few minutes after I had posted.Presumably he means something like an 8 wheel tipper type chassis,
Funnily enough I was in RAF Northolt base today looking at hook over demountable bodies with 20 ft containers on and thinking that there is a lot of weight there.
Hi del949, Yes mate I’d go with that.
It must be difficult for the ex-military guys to suddenly have to get used to calling a truck by its GVW, rather than by its payload.
Just for the ex-military guys, the normal max weight of an ‘8-legger’ is 30t, but this can be increased to 32t if the vehicle is plated for it and the vehicle has road-friendly suspension, so IMHO a 16-18t payload on a rigid isn’t out of the question.
dieseldave:
del949:
Just for the ex-military guys, the normal max weight of an ‘8-legger’ is 30t, but this can be increased to 32t if the vehicle is plated for it and the vehicle has road-friendly suspension, so IMHO a 16-18t payload on a rigid isn’t out of the question.
With respect Dave I think it’s more to do with the date of registration than the springs. All of our 8-leggers (Volvo FM except for one ERF) are plated to 32 tonnes GVW except one old 1991 FL10 which is plated at 30.5 tonnes. All of them are on leaf springs.
As for payload, 18 tonnes is on the light side, most of ours will handle 19 and a bit, and they’re bulk blowers so heavier by design; an “ordinary” tipper may do 20 tonnes I think…
I suspect we’ll have to assume all this because it’s asking a bit much for tipper boys to operate a PC!
gnasty gnome:
With respect Dave I think it’s more to do with the date of registration than the springs. All of our 8-leggers (Volvo FM except for one ERF) are plated to 32 tonnes GVW except one old 1991 FL10 which is plated at 30.5 tonnes. All of them are on leaf springs.
Hi gnasty gnome,
I’m usually quite careful before venturing a comment from outside my area of expertise, and this was no exception.
I had a look at a CPC instructor friend’s PowerPoint slides for the CPC national dated 2008.
I’m having trouble with the ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ features on my lappy,
so I’m not quite sure how the whole lot ended up on my hard disc.
Here’s a screenshot of the relevant EOS slide, which is the source of my info:
From my days of teaching CPC, ‘Road Friendly suspension’ (RF) was taken to mean ‘air bags,’ as opposed to steel springs.
gnasty gnome:
As for payload, 18 tonnes is on the light side, most of ours will handle 19 and a bit, and they’re bulk blowers so heavier by design; an “ordinary” tipper may do 20 tonnes I think…I suspect we’ll have to assume all this because it’s asking a bit much for tipper boys to operate a PC!
possibly
gnasty gnome:
With respect Dave I think it’s more to do with the date of registration than the springs. All of our 8-leggers (Volvo FM except for one ERF) are plated to 32 tonnes GVW except one old 1991 FL10 which is plated at 30.5 tonnes. All of them are on leaf springs.
chrishodgetrucks.co.uk/pixlaw/wd04.jpg
DD is right
gnasty gnome:
rhudson:
I may not have realised why Margeret Thatcher was so focused on destroying unions (I was too young at the time) but I realise now.
Back in my box !If she hadn’t reduced the power of the unions they’d have destroyed this country. For all the blather about how good Labour (New or otherwise) are, I don’t recall them renationalising the railways, opening new coal mines and steelworks, or even reversing many of the changes, good or bad, which the previous Conservative government instigated. I’d even suggest that some of them Labour were quietly grateful for, including the pit closures, because they were inevitable and it was one job Labour could never have done.
Go back a bit further to the Wilson/Callaghan administration which preceded Thatcher if you want the answers, or even if you want to se history repeating itself; funnily enough all the Labour diehards seem to think the world began in 1979!
Excellent post gnasty gnome.
This country was on the brink of total collapse by May 1979 because the Unions were running the Callaghan Labour government - a Labour government who by that time could barely run the country!
The Unions (particularly the TGWU) had a lot of power in the 70’s. However several Union bosses back then, got greedy and power hungry and spent too much time “looking after” Labour politicians instead of looking after the working man!
Most of them were in each others pockets because it suited them and kept them in their jobs. It really was a time of wasted opportuninties!
No wonder Maggie’s party won the election in 79’ by such a large margin - the British people were fed up being shafted and needed a change!
And guess what! The “New Labour” government of the last 11 years has done everything in it’s power to try and rid the country of the now weak “Union power” that’s left, because it doesn’t suit them to have Unions around!
As an ex-Shop Steward myself I’m all for the Unions - but I want a Union that works ■■■■ hard for me and the money I pay them!
The TGWU - certainly in Scotland in recent years - has done as little as possible to defend the working man/driver. They seem far more interested in keeping the managing directors of haulage companies happy BEFORE “sorting out the problems” (serious or otherwise) of the drivers!
Try tracking down on the phone your salaried Union Representative in his office when you need advice, especially on a serious matter. It would be easier to get the President of the United States of America!!!
They’re only interested when it suits them and that’s a scandal!
Me? I’ve stopped my direct debit payments to the Union…and I WONT be voting Labour in the next election!
The country is falling apart! The government needs to CLOSE THE COUNTRY’S BORDERS NOW and start looking after it’s own people!
Sorry - back on topic! lol. Agencies…yep - they’re here to stay!
as a TGWU branch sec. I have got to agree with most of the above poest…regretfully!
However , regardless of what you yjink of unions in the past, we need them now, agency or permanent because you can be sure of one thing… bosses will never give us anything without a shove.