Hello all, long time lurker but waited till I had my credentials before asking.
I’ve had my class 2 for 15 years and been in the same general distribution job for 9 years earning £10 per hour Mon-Fri no weekends.
Now, my plan is to quit my job and do agency truncking or stores. Is it realistic to do this long term?
There seems to be loads of work out there at good rates. Agencies saying tell them your availability and they’ll work shifts round you. Ad hoc days, weekends etc. It all sounds too good to be true!
I haven’t quit my job yet, any thoughts welcome [emoji4]
i wouldnt give up a full time job on the books for agency work. Having said that i dontknow your personal circumstance. Trouble with agency is there are alot of cowboys out there that will promise you the world and entice you inwith supposedly high pay and other wonders. You only have to scratch the surface and the shine soon dulls.
if you do decide to go ahead dont go umbrella or ltd its a scam pure and simple designed to rip you off and make the agency more money. as an example i was on umbrella for 2 weeks and it cost me an extra 75 quid dispite the extra 2 pounds an hour. i even had one of the agency office staff tell me they had no idea how they worked out the wages even though it was explained to her every week for a month.
No we only have rigid trucks. And they’ve said the pay won’t be increasing. They’re quite cocky about it too!
I don’t have any dependants so I can afford to take a wee risk or two.
I’m thinking I could maybe do 3 or 4 days a week, maybe just weekends if the rate is good enough.
I know you don’t get 8 hour shifts in an artic but I ain’t doing 60 hour plus weeks anymore, or close to it. And all the full time jobs seem to want a lot of hours from you. Is there a happy medium?
Where are you located? There’s plenty ,full time “ agency work pretty much anywhere. Everyone is crying for drivers at the moment, it’s my 6th day this week [emoji16]
DSMRookie:
Where are you located? There’s plenty ,full time “ agency work pretty much anywhere. Everyone is crying for drivers at the moment, it’s my 6th day this week [emoji16]
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I’m in Glasgow. Is the work they gave you what you expected?
I haven’t dealt with agencies for 15 years. I know some of them are ‘slippery’ but not all. It’s just trying to find the good ones
DSMRookie:
Where are you located? There’s plenty ,full time “ agency work pretty much anywhere. Everyone is crying for drivers at the moment, it’s my 6th day this week [emoji16]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’m in Glasgow. Is the work they gave you what you expected?
I haven’t dealt with agencies for 15 years. I know some of them are ‘slippery’ but not all. It’s just trying to find the good ones
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Abit of a commute but I’d give JHP transport a go.
Good fleet and see them about alot.
RDC work but will get you going.
My advice would be not to listen to the permies like cooper123 and go chase the big money while it’s there on the table for the taking. If you’re happy to do nights you’ll get easy trailer trunking from Glasgow down to Manchester/Wakefield, drop and swap, have your break and cruise straight back home for £15/hr+.
I wouldn’t recommend store delivery work as a new class 1 pass. A lot of the drops can be a bit of a challenge even for the experienced drivers to get into if you get unlucky with some badly parked cars and vans where you need to manoeuvre. But if you like being thrown in at the deep end, it’s very good experience. I’d recommend some nice easy trunks runs to start off with where typically you’ll be dropping it off at an RDC with plenty of open space. Agency will have plenty of trunking work on nights as there’s never enough drivers to do that even in the ‘old’ days.
DCPCFML:
My advice would be not to listen to the permies like cooper123 and go chase the big money while it’s there on table for the taking. If you’re happy to do nights you’ll get easy trailer trunking from Glasgow down to Manchester/Wakefield, drop and swap, have your break and cruise straight back home for £15/hr+.
I wouldn’t recommend store delivery work as a new class 1 pass. A lot of the drops can be a bit of a challenge even for the experienced drivers to get into if you get unlucky with some badly parked cars and vans where you need to manoeuvre. But if you like been thrown in at the deep end, it’s very good experience. I’d recommend some nice easy trunks runs to start off with where typically you’ll be dropping it off at an RDC with plenty of open space. Agency will have plenty of trunking work on nights as there’s never enough drivers to do that even in the ‘old’ days.
That’s great info, thanks!
I remember the damage I caused and heart in mouth moments when I was let loose on my class 2! I can’t do that again with an artic [emoji15]
DCPCFML:
My advice would be not to listen to the permies like cooper123 and go chase the big money while it’s there on table for the taking. If you’re happy to do nights you’ll get easy trailer trunking from Glasgow down to Manchester/Wakefield, drop and swap, have your break and cruise straight back home for £15/hr+.
I wouldn’t recommend store delivery work as a new class 1 pass. A lot of the drops can be a bit of a challenge even for the experienced drivers to get into if you get unlucky with some badly parked cars and vans where you need to manoeuvre. But if you like been thrown in at the deep end, it’s very good experience. I’d recommend some nice easy trunks runs to start off with where typically you’ll be dropping it off at an RDC with plenty of open space. Agency will have plenty of trunking work on nights as there’s never enough drivers to do that even in the ‘old’ days.
Dont jump ship to go agency. You can work for an agency on one day every two weeks, do that first and see how it goes. You can tell when the agency guy lies, his lips move.
There has never been a better time to ‘jump ship’. The OP is a single bloke with no dependants so there is no reason to stick with his current job.
Hand in your notice and check out some agencies. It’s hard to tell which ones are any good, but I would avoid the ones with big flashy offices (someone is paying for all that). The best thing about agency work is that you can quit, or just stop accepting work whenever you like, so go for it.
Christmas is not far away with all that entails and I can see some even bigger bonuses being on offer for drivers who stay where they are needed. Twenty years ago I got £1000 for sticking with Halfords delivering bikes up to Christmas eve - hard work and max hours, but well worth it financially.
DSMRookie:
Where are you located? There’s plenty ,full time “ agency work pretty much anywhere. Everyone is crying for drivers at the moment, it’s my 6th day this week [emoji16]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’m in Glasgow. Is the work they gave you what you expected?
I haven’t dealt with agencies for 15 years. I know some of them are ‘slippery’ but not all. It’s just trying to find the good ones
Sent from my MRD-LX1 using Tapatalk
At the start you can’t really choose I’m afraid, you take everything just to get experience. I would avoid supermarket deliveries if possible unless you want to cause damage or o everything.
Out of all the jobs I did fridge use my favourite at flatbed is the least favourite [emoji23]. Although I hate every type of pallet work also especially the double decker tuns to hubs etc ( the waiting times are just crazy )
Wether the OP quits a full time job is dependent on his circumstances.Santa has eluded that the Op is a single guy, and so long as he doesn’t need a dependable income to pay a mortgage and feed a family, then go for it. Drivers are now making a career out of doing agency work full time.
I’ve been working for the agy in my current site for 2yrs, prior to that I was at another site for 10yrs+. But overall I’ve been doing agy work for close to 20yrs, earning between £30K-£45K a year for Mon-Fri day work depending on continuity of work. But in recent years it’s got a lot easier to find regular jobs
Truckulent:
If you’re on 10 quid an hour in this financial HGV climate tell them to go [zb] themselves and sign on to 3 or 4 agencies
I’d say 20 quid an hour is doable class one easily, and 15 plus class 2.
£10/hr is an utter ■■■■ take. Go work at a supermarket filling shelves and you’ll earn more than that.
Good luck.
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I have yet to see a HGV driver on a flat rate of £20 an hour advertised in my area.
Maybe on weekends or thats the overtime rate or thats the rate after 40 hours etc.
Truckulent:
If you’re on 10 quid an hour in this financial HGV climate tell them to go [zb] themselves and sign on to 3 or 4 agencies
I’d say 20 quid an hour is doable class one easily, and 15 plus class 2.
£10/hr is an utter ■■■■ take. Go work at a supermarket filling shelves and you’ll earn more than that.
Good luck.
Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
I have yet to see a HGV driver on a flat rate of £20 an hour advertised in my area.
Maybe on weekends or thats the overtime rate or thats the rate after 40 hours etc.
You’re not looking hard enough.
Rates are above 20 class 2 in some parts of the country.
The rate doesn’t matter if you’re happy with it.
But 10 quid an hour is a definite ■■■■ off…
Truckulent:
If you’re on 10 quid an hour in this financial HGV climate tell them to go [zb] themselves and sign on to 3 or 4 agencies
I’d say 20 quid an hour is doable class one easily, and 15 plus class 2.
£10/hr is an utter ■■■■ take. Go work at a supermarket filling shelves and you’ll earn more than that.
Good luck.
Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
I have yet to see a HGV driver on a flat rate of £20 an hour advertised in my area.
Maybe on weekends or thats the overtime rate or thats the rate after 40 hours etc.
You’re not looking hard enough.
Rates are above 20 class 2 in some parts of the country.
The rate doesn’t matter if you’re happy with it.
But 10 quid an hour is a definite [zb] off…
Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
£20 an hour base rate is pretty rare.
Unless your on about random agency work that is offering high temporary rates then ye.
For full time staff not so much
