Good evening all,
I’ve just joined this forum.. so after passing my class 1 in December, I’ve signed up with Tomlin, I’m based in Chesterfield, I’d be interested to hear from any others local to me who maybe worked this agency as to what sort of work I’m likely to be offered?
I’m employed elsewhere 34 hours a week doing office based work, so I’ve said I can only do one shift a week max.
Cheers
Aidan
Welcome to the mad house 
I don’t know the agency in question but if it was me I’d give it a week to see if they offer me any work and if they don’t I’d sign up with other local agencies to, there’s no rule that says you can only work for one agency though obviously it is best if you can get all your work off one agency.
By the way, if you work 5 days a week in an office and you want to work one HGV driving shift every week you will need to be careful that you comply with the weekly rest requirement.
When driving HGVs you must have a regular 45 hour weekly rest period at-least every second week and a 24 hour reduced weekly rest period on alternate weeks, you will also need to allow for the compensation for the reduced weekly rest periods.
Many people who work 5 days a week in none driving jobs find they can only legally do one driving shift every fortnight, whether or not you can legally do a driving shift every week depends on the hours you work.
Good luck with the driving jobs 
Shall we introduce the OP to Carryfast?
What I learnt from agency work was never to turn down what they offer for the day but you perfectly entitled to say no.
What I noticed was if accepted all the rubbish jobs that the boys in blue refused to do because they have been on their books for a long time, I would eventually get some better jobs and and a decent truck instead of the junk yard truck on its last legs that has not been looked after and has a stinking cab, the vehicle would have been abused.
Give the guy a break he’s only just joined the forum 
Would the OP have to do a manual entry for the office job to show all work activity and rest?
Good point tachograph.
We don’t want to scare the OP away.
Well I do 5 on 4 off but will be very careful to watch my WTD
Legally he would need to record the office work as other work and also record weekly rest periods, in my opinion the easiest was to legally keep these records is by manually writing them on a piece of tachograph printout paper
For a manual entry that would be a right pain and so easy to mess it up and get it wrong.
The hand written suggestion is much better.
Fire away with any questions, we are a friendly bunch on here.
It’s better to ask than prevent any run in’s with the CVU and DVSA enforcement, they are not so bad as people think, humans make mistakes, they are only after consistent attempts of tachograph fraud.
If it was a genuine mistake to leave the tacho mode on work mode instead of rest, they know it’s not done on purpose.
The work for none driving jobs can be written in blocks without the need for too much detail.
Weekly rest periods must have dates and times.
There are examples in this article, scroll down to 4.3 Common Rules / How to record on printout paper.
Cheers tachograph, that’s useful information.
Thanks for this!
Make sure give them as much notice as possible for what days your available. And be prepared for last minute phone calls to say your needed tomorrow or what ever.
And try not to say no to much.
If your willing to accept anything they give you over time it looks good for you.
If you keep saying no to work there soon stop offering you any.
And just tell explain your a new driver where they send you take your time and don’t let places pressure you into cutting corners or doing to much
As they say slow and steady wins the race.
But as you only want few days here and there might be a struggle as most companies want a driver Mon to Fri.
Long as you just accept what ever they give you and don’t complain your be fine.
Some people complain about agency’s but I found them ok.
Can get away with little less than drivers that are permanent.
Your not involved in office politics.
You want get told off for getting a bad score on telematics etc unless your there long term
Plus get holidays when you want as well on agency can work when you want lot of flexibility
You cruel fellow, Aidan justifiably would never forgive you.
I’m intrigued.. do tell 
You will need a few days or weeks to read all the posts by Carryfast, a bit of trawling will reveal all.
Some say I’m a narcissist with egregious and pernicious qualities to be nefarious.
Can we really inflict the pain of Geoffrey Village on a new member?
That’s sapient advice from ed,especially in not getting involved in yard and office politics, and avoid getting in to any disputes in between the permanent drivers, fork lift drivers(Yard God’s that they think they own the company and the yard) and the planners/managers.
I have seen the best agency drivers come in and out of the depot and you don’t realise they are there, as they just keep quiet and keep away from any groups of drivers planning the mutiny against the office staff because Sid never goes to London as he doesn’t like it and refuses to drive there.
Or why does Bob always get the one drop and all the long distance work?
And by Friday at 11.00 am he is off home for the weekend while the others are running in on Saturday morning as they were planned for a late tip on Friday afternoon and got delayed unloading then hit congestion to run out of hours.
You could even run out of driving or duty time 20 minutes from the yard and have to park up, I would ring the office to be rescued but they would say that they have nobody available as it would mean sending out two people to get me, in the company van, one would the driver who would get the truck back to the yard, the other one to drive the van back to the yard.
I should not be driving their van back to the yard.
If they only send out the van with anyone driving it such as the garage mechanic, then expected me to drive the van back and the mechanic drives the lorry back to base this falls in to very tricky territory.
That is classed as work, don’t forget where I ran of hours 20 minutes from the yard, I have booked off and removed the digital tachograph card, driving the van puts a spanner in the works for DVSA enforcement and the regulations.