Hi folks went for interview today for a job, advertisement said 15 - 20 per hour. During interview was told its £10 an hour to drive 7.5 ton but the odd day I will have to drive an 18.5 ton and will get £15 per hour for that. I cannot drive the 18.5 ton every day as there is not a need for it to be on the road everyday which is a bit of a bummer but oh well.
The company said I have to go self employed in order to work for them which I thought a bit strange is this normal? or is that just a way of getting around having to guarantee me hours as it seems to be a small enough company but are expanding and are looking at getting more 18.5 ton trucks on the road according to the guy in the interview
I am keen to get a start as I have no experience thus far, only getting my CPC mod 4 last Thur so I am keen to get miles under my belt but don’t want to be taken for a mug either. Agency work doesn’t seem to pay great at the all having spoke to a few today and some agencies wont even entertain me as I have no experience.
If you work for a company, you cannot be “self employed”. It’s clearly a contradiction. The legal definition used to refer to a “servant/master” relationship. Don’t know if that’s been updated. The reason they want to do it is to avoid paying holiday pay and employer’s National Insurance. You could be self employed if you are working for more than one company and if you have the right to pick and choose the work you want to do.
Be extremely careful. If HMRC got interested, they will be looking for the tax and insurance that hasn’t been paid.
The only way round it, and this is borderline, is to form a limited company. Then, the operator is asking the limited company for a driver which it then supplies. And this is you.
But I would steer clear of anyone offering work on this basis. If the hours are insecure they are perfectly legal to offer a zero hours contract which entitles you to holiday pay automatically. (But this is one of the reasons they don’t want to do it). I would question what else they could be taking short-cuts with.
It’s not really that great money for what would be an extra headache for you at best tax wise. I’d leave it alone. Sounds a bit like they are trying to take advantage of a greener driver to me.
F-reds:
It’s not really that great money for what would be an extra headache for you at best tax wise. I’d leave it alone. Sounds a bit like they are trying to take advantage of a greener driver to me.
Yep and in January they’ll drop you like a hot potato
I would suggest that this thread should be discussing you getting some experience, as there is nothing stopping you working for them for a month and then saying Bye Bye!
To be honest it just stinks Ill not bore you with even more details of what was spoken about at interview but the more I think of it the more it just doesn’t sit right. Think ill just try it with agencies for a while just to get some miles under my belt its probably the safest option because what this lot are offering is just headaches.
