Information on Agency charges

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

Hello everyone, i’m a newbie to this site but i think i have come to the right place for the information i require.
Basically i am looking into what agencies charge companies for the hire of professional HGV drivers.
I wondered if anybody on here hires agency drivers regular and i am particularly interested in the cost paid out to some of the biggest agencies in the country such as ADR Network, TaskMaster, Blue Arrow and Milestone.

I wondered if any of you have had direct dealings with any of the above agencies in the last 18 months, and most importantly i would like factual information on the charges set out and not just guesses.

If you would like to email me in private or PM me about this subject rather than post on here i fully understand, i would just like a a run down on the costs and terms and conditions.

Thanks in advance for your time

Rob

2

why are you collating this information and what are you going to do with it once completed.

3

m.a.n rules:
why are you collating this information and what are you going to do with it once completed.

I am collecting this information as a business plan and before anyone jumps down my neck it has nothing to do with starting up another employment agency.
The information provided to me is 100% confidential, and i do not intend to use it for anything other than my own business plan.
If anyone would prefer to help me by sending an email or PM me in private i fully understand.

Agency costs and charges have been a grey area in this county for well over a decade and my business plan for now is to investigate how much of the cost is actually paid to the driver.

Thanks for your reply.

Rob

4

well from my very small experience of the gangmaster’s club i have been told they work on a 15/20%
margin.

5

m.a.n rules:
well from my very small experience of the gangmaster’s club i have been told they work on a 15/20%
margin.

Your in the same boat as me then, just guesses.

Just out of interest what do you think my chances would be of getting this information out of a Major agency user such as Tesco or DHL?
Finding out how much a company turns over or how much profits a company makes is easy information to obtain but still it tells me nothing about what they are actually charging the client.
But what the figures do tell me is that most of the companies above are showing an ever increasing turn over, yet drivers wages have not changed for over 15 years.

6

Why would anyone trust you with this info?
I smell a rat, soz but…

BTW, drivers wages have changed, they’ve gone down mainly due IMHO to the influx of immigrant job thieves and Agency wage thieves.

7

Here we go, this is the beauty of the internet…
What’s not to trust?

If you wanted the information i seek how would you do it?
First thing i do is search the internet and then i find this wonderful forum full of drivers just like me, then i also see fleet owners and operators on the forums and drivers working for blue chip companies, so why not give it a try…

Somebody on here should be able to help me, they will have been billed by one of these companies for there services and i would like to talk about it because it genuinely effects my livelihood.

I’m far from a Rat, i’m just a driver.
I could knock on ADR’s door and i am quite sure they would just hand over this information and make me a cuppa tea while i am waiting.

Said it twice before, if the information i require could compromise your position as a driver or employee but you would like to chat to me about this topic then PM me or Email me.

I know what agencies are, and i know why major companies have chosen to use them as much as they do ,personally as a driver i think it’s time for a change, but to do what i intend to do i need the real figures and true costs charged to companies by employment agencies.

Major Blue chip companies setting on HGV drivers in the UK today are few and far between, infact for the last 10 years they have been relying on agency drivers to do the work.
It’s a fact that the wages set by agencies to drivers have not changed at all, yet there profits and turn overs have doubled so i find this very interesting, because when you stand behind a goods in or out desk at Tesco for example the number one topic amongst drivers would be how Tesco are trying to drive the wages down, to a degree i would agree with this comment as far as manual labor is concerned, but not for drivers, i think the money has always been paid well-it’s just that drivers never get to see it.

It’s a very greedy world we live in.

So lets see it, somebody prove me wrong.

8

dinosteveus1:
Why would anyone trust you with this info?
I smell a rat, soz but…

BTW, drivers wages have changed, they’ve gone down mainly due IMHO to the influx of immigrant job thieves and Agency wage thieves.

It’s a fair opinion but i would be pointing the finger at the Government allowing this to happen -but your right it is morally wrong (Great word that Dave!)

Lets take the Tesco RDC at Goole and use this as an example of what our friend is saying…

I agree the wages have gone down, not just for the drivers but for the loaders and order pickers too.

Over 7 years ago the people who lived in Goole had a standard of living that was suddenly brought to an end, no longer were those people working for the same wage-but of course they were offered a life for much less thanks to the great british government.

Like our friend says this was down to mass Immigration of European workers coming mainly from Poland, they were then exploited by employment agencies then sold to companies like Tesco’s to work for much less while the agencies took huge profits.

The outcome of this of course was no longer could the people who originally work at Tesco work side by side with the very people they blame for bringing the wage down when in fact it was not there fault, they just came to better there selves like most of us aspire too.

What should have happened was a Cap put in place introducing a Law that any company in the UK taking advantage of the cheap Labor introduced by Europe would only be allowed to employ 5 % of that workforce-infact they should have been rewarded to make them feel welcome but reminded not to take the ■■■■, hence a fine of £5000 for any company exploiting the 5% rule.

The power of ten percent is all it takes to sway popular opinion, which is why most companies have managed to change the whole structure of there workforce using cheap labor like this.
It takes only ten percent of people to change things in general, for example if i was to stand you amongst 99 people and convince only 10 of you that i will become the next Mayor of England- in time i would be and that’s a fact. :wink:

Back on topic anyway and the reason i came here…
Can anyone crunch some figure with me on this subject.

9

You only have to look at G4S and the olympics fiasco to see how rates of pay have been driven into the ground by employing inferior foreign labour, most of which cannot even speak English. The same thing has happened in the transport industry, then this foreign labour returns to their native countries leaving behind the legacy of low wages, doesn’t really matter because more foreign labour will take the jobs… and so the cycle continues.

The government could do something about it but instead prefer to “embrace this richness of multiculturalism which as a nation we are so proud of” (David Camerons words, not mine!).

Tiger.

10

Fastrantiger:
You only have to look at G4S and the olympics fiasco to see how rates of pay have been driven into the ground by employing inferior foreign labour, most of which cannot even speak English. The same thing has happened in the transport industry, then this foreign labour returns to their native countries leaving behind the legacy of low wages, doesn’t really matter because more foreign labour will take the jobs… and so the cycle continues.

The government could do something about it but instead prefer to “embrace this richness of multiculturalism which as a nation we are so proud of” (David Camerons words, not mine!).

Tiger.

Again it all boils down to the power of ten percent, Multiculturalism amongst so many other things that have been put in place for the good of the people were never put in place for that reason.
The more you control just ten percent of votes, the less the people will stand together.

There will come a day when David Cameron or his predecessor will sit at a table without steak, the day this happens will be the day that things will be done for the better of the people and nothing will happen unless it effects that steak.

If somebody was to knock on my door right now and say we are going to war with France, join us!
I’d probably wish them well, tell them to keep there chins up, close the door and that’s there problem because i don’t give two monkeys about France or somebody else’s fight.

Then the strangest thing happens, one year later my little lad runs home from school to tell me the French are coming, there armed to the teeth and there going to turn us into French or shoot us all…
That’s what you call ‘■■■■■■■ in somebodies back garden’ (Pardon my French) - nobody will stand for that, not even the rich.

That’s the problem with this country, nobody is taking the fight to the rich, nobody are pulling up there daffodils or throwing tins of special brew in there garden-because when they do, things will change i guarantee it.

A simple little thing like Transport could make this happen, we control all the steak! :open_mouth:

Don’t get me started :laughing:

11

LCDRIVER:
I am collecting this information as a business plan and before anyone jumps down my neck it has nothing to do with starting up another employment agency.
The information provided to me is 100% confidential, and i do not intend to use it for anything other than my own business plan.

What is your business plan for then if it isn’t to start an employment agency :question: If it isn’t to start an employment agency then why would you need this information (which incidentally would be viewed as commercially sensitive) :question:

12

Why don’t you ring some agencys and ask for a quote for supplying a driver or two :confused:

13

4whatitsworth:
Why don’t you ring some agencys and ask for a quote for supplying a driver or two :confused:

Hi mate, thanks for the reply.
Yes i have thought of this but i have a gut feeling that supplying drivers to Major Blue Chip Companies will be a different kettle of fish to hiring one or two for a small haulage company.
It’s the big fish i would like info on because lets face it there are hundreds of Major companies using agencies this way and i want to know how it works.

If i ran an agency i would want a contract with that company to supply a minimum amount of drivers per week to succeed other wise i don’t think i would last long in such a competitive market-it’s also why the above names have succeeded where most have failed (Just a gut feeling)

I have also got a feeling supplying drivers in bulk will bring that hourly rate down for the client.
There will also be fee’s to pay by the client for canceling a driver at such short notice, and wanting to hire a driver at such short notice, but i do realize that this no longer gets passed on to drivers. (well rare anyway, but on the occasion some agencies pay huge bonuses to go in last second dot com) client will be billed more of course.

14

I doubt the information will be in a transparent manner you expect. For example a rate might be invoiced but the agency might then pay kickbacks either monthly or annually for example or even more convoluted than that.

15

Own Account Driver:
I doubt the information will be in a transparent manner you expect. For example a rate might be invoiced but the agency might then pay kickbacks either monthly or annually for example or even more convoluted than that.

I agree which is why i came on here, i think they bend over backwards to keep there contracts to be honest but that said there will be a minimum fee they can supply drivers for and that minimum fee is generating huge profits year after year.

16

Beware those that deny information to you - for they dream of becoming your master.

A paraphrase of Machiavelli maybe, but there’s an up-to-date warning there nonetheless.

If the information were to be UNconfidential - i.e. to be put into the public domain, then I’d be all for it.

CONFIDENTIAL information is that which can be used against you, but not BY you because you don’t have it!
I don’t want to know what I’m getting, because I already know that. What I want to know is what ‘Mr 6 points OK’ is getting, so I can ask for a raise! :grimacing:

If it were generally known how much each employer is paying each agency, then it may turn out to be worth going Self-Employed, and thus the labour market in this sector becomes more competetive from both ends…

17

MeatintheSeat:

LCDRIVER:
I am collecting this information as a business plan and before anyone jumps down my neck it has nothing to do with starting up another employment agency.
The information provided to me is 100% confidential, and i do not intend to use it for anything other than my own business plan.

What is your business plan for then if it isn’t to start an employment agency :question: If it isn’t to start an employment agency then why would you need this information (which incidentally would be viewed as commercially sensitive) :question:

It’s just for an idea i have and no it has nothing to do with setting up an agency at all, i just want to know how much they are making on drivers or how much they are charging the Big Fish-what there terms and conditions are, stuff like that.
Because lets face it they have been around for a long time, and year after year these profits are getting higher and higher, yet more and more drivers seem to be suffering wage cuts or redundancy.

I understand the topics commercial sensitivity which is why i would rather be emailed or have a chat on the phone about exact figures and numbers as long as the figures are accurate and not a case of “My mate down the pub says there on a grand a day!” :wink:

18

Winseer:
Beware those that deny information to you - for they dream of becoming your master.

A paraphrase of Machiavelli maybe, but there’s an up-to-date warning there nonetheless.

If the information were to be UNconfidential - i.e. to be put into the public domain, then I’d be all for it.

CONFIDENTIAL information is that which can be used against you, but not BY you because you don’t have it!
I don’t want to know what I’m getting, because I already know that. What I want to know is what ‘Mr 6 points OK’ is getting, so I can ask for a raise! :grimacing:

If it were generally known how much each employer is paying each agency, then it may turn out to be worth going Self-Employed, and thus the labour market in this sector becomes more competetive from both ends…

In a world where we can’t compete or compromise all i ask for is a fighting chance, no harm in that surly? :wink:

19

Winseer:
If it were generally known how much each employer is paying each agency, then it may turn out to be worth going Self-Employed, and thus the labour market in this sector becomes more competetive from both ends…
[/quote]
Which is kind of what i am getting at…
Nail on the head Mr Winseer! :smiley:

20

You claim that the agencies are “generating huge profits year after year” and “year after year these profits are getting higher and higher” but do you have any factual information to back up those claims?

What I see is more and more agencies popping up all over the place which would suggest to me that the competition for the work is probably greater than ever.

My belief is that one of the reasons agencies are now forcing people to go self employed is because it gives them more scope to undercut other agencies, however as most of the agencies are now playing the same game they are once more on a level playing field with the workers as the biggest loser.

I have to say that for someone who’s having to come on an Internet forum and ask about agency rates you seem to have an uncanny and so far unexplained knowledge of the agencies rising profits
To be honest as much as I dislike and despise agencies I’m finding it hard to take you seriously, you claim that you have no interest in starting an agency but also say that you’re putting together a business plan, you claim that the agencies are making bigger than ever profits and yet appear to have no idea how much they charge their clients and have even had to ask for clarification on what expenses agencies have :confused: