yorkielee:
I was on agency as I couldn’t get a full time job with a real wage working regular hours. Now finally I have n hopefully the agencies will all get closed down and abolish 0 hours contracts.
Hypocritical statement: It was okay for you to use an agency until you got a full time job but now you have one all agencies should be closed down so no-one else can follow the same path.
I must be the same type of hypocrite also then mate.
I also used them briefly as a means to an end, to get used to rhd.s again, no other reason.
My idea was if I ballsed up, such as ending up in the dyke or whatever the agency will foot the bill, no skin off my nose or a transport firm good enough to employ me.
(btw for the record I didn’t )
My train of thought was they use and abuse drivers to their own ends, so I will do the same to them, ■■■■ em.
They seemed unused to a driver trying to call the shots in terms of when I wanted and not wanted to work, and to a driver saying ‘No’
(in a pro non agressive bolshy manner btw)
To be fair I got on ok with the guy in charge after he got to know me (and my lovable personality ) and he did treat me with respect, but however tended to do all the agency style bs to a lot of other drivers…A message in there for some of you agency lads if you are clever enough to accept it.
So no, I would not shed a tear if agencies were ■■■■ ed off, I hate everything they stand for, they have gone a long way to make the job as crap as it is today.
But that’s probably because I don’t talk to anyone there. Get in, smile politley, get keys, kick tyres etc, couple up and go. If there’s a delay, I can choose to listen to the full timers whinning about going here, there or getting shafted by the TO again. I usually just sit in my lorry surfing the net til the load is ready.
I deal with the agency on my terms and I’m happily earning more than the full timers where I am. Start when I want, never work Fridays unless they offer £100 on top.
I couldn’t care a toss about a slang termination in here. But, seeing as the suggestion was made for full timer nicknames how about ‘the herd’?
yourhavingalarf:
I don’t get called any names at all…
But that’s probably because I don’t talk to anyone there. Get in, smile politley, get keys, kick tyres etc, couple up and go. If there’s a delay, I can choose to listen to the full timers whinning about going here, there or getting shafted by the TO again. I usually just sit in my lorry surfing the net til the load is ready.
I deal with the agency on my terms and I’m happily earning more than the full timers where I am. Start when I want, never work Fridays unless they offer £100 on top.
I couldn’t care a toss about a slang termination in here. But, seeing as the suggestion was made for full timer nicknames how about ‘the herd’?
You couldn’t give a toss about slang termination on here but then offer an alternative.Pull the other one limper.
m1cks:
You’ve been at Howdens for quite a while now so why aren’t you on parity pay with the Agency Worker Regulations?
Because like the WTD has “POA” to make it pointless so the AWR has the Swedish Derogation which achieves a similar thing in regards to parity pay and the agency use the Swedish Derogation. I’ve got paid under that just once in two and a half years in the first week in January last year but because they use that I’m down £4/hr. I know that some of the unions were trying to get the derogation revoked but I’ve heard nothing for a long time now.
Juddian:
Actually is this a 30 something fad this being so bloody perfect, so many of the 30 somethings i know take themselves seriously to a level of unbelievable boredom, no sense of humour at all, any joke cracked must be analysed for political correctness, no independent thoughts so no opinion on anything from their own mind or heart, offence taken for any of the myriad of (usually hostile to others) minority groups that already have too high an opinion of themselves anyway.
Grauniad readers and BBC/Sky/Chanel No4 viewers i suspect in the main…
There’s a reason that their generation, Generation Y, has been nicknamed Generation Snowflake.
Does this article seem to apply to our poster and others of his age?
yourhavingalarf:
I don’t get called any names at all…
But that’s probably because I don’t talk to anyone there. Get in, smile politley, get keys, kick tyres etc, couple up and go. If there’s a delay, I can choose to listen to the full timers whinning about going here, there or getting shafted by the TO again. I usually just sit in my lorry surfing the net til the load is ready.
I deal with the agency on my terms and I’m happily earning more than the full timers where I am. Start when I want, never work Fridays unless they offer £100 on top.
I couldn’t care a toss about a slang termination in here. But, seeing as the suggestion was made for full timer nicknames how about ‘the herd’?
You couldn’t give a toss about slang termination on here but then offer an alternative.Pull the other one limper.
Full time Herd? How very dare you, I’m deeply offended, and hurt. (back of hand on forehead in a drama queen stylee )
Yeh pull the other one, you you, you… limping limpet you, with your earpiece in and your hi viz on when driving, with hands at 10 to 2 and nose up to windscreen .
You aint wanted on here.
OMG, WTF did you expect OP when you started this thread?
Were you expecting the TNUK community to issue a full and public apology for calling us agency workers Limpers?
But more importantly as others have asked, WTF do you even care what you’re called on a forum■■?
All you have done mate if make yourself look a prize plum, well done bellend…
(And that’s one agency limper to another! )
I couldn’t give a rats arse about the limper term as it’s banter, and the fact you can’t grasp that and are so worried about your perception, screams that you are deeply insecure about yourself…
So get a grip, dry your eyes and ■■■■ IT UP BUTTERCUP!
As for the discussion about agencies, I too agree that most of them are scum!
But it does suit some and there is a place for them in the industry. However they are overused, as we are seeing companies choose to use them to employ staff on a full-time basis rather than employ FTW’s. Basically these limpers are FTW’s with few rights and a zero hour contract to boot! But is that the agency’s fault, the company’s fault, or the Government’s fault? As if a firm can efficiently employ staff in this way, why wouldn’t they? Where I limp none of us are directly employed, yet it is a full-time gig. Do I like that, no I don’t! But I blame the government for allowing this bollox, and think there should be rules in place to stop it, or rather make it less attractive to the firms to employ long term and trained this way. That doesn’t mean limpers will disappear, just that they will be used as intended, to provide cover for busy periods or short term staff shortages.
yourhavingalarf:
I don’t get called any names at all…
But that’s probably because I don’t talk to anyone there. Get in, smile politley, get keys, kick tyres etc, couple up and go. If there’s a delay, I can choose to listen to the full timers whinning about going here, there or getting shafted by the TO again. I usually just sit in my lorry surfing the net til the load is ready.
I deal with the agency on my terms and I’m happily earning more than the full timers where I am. Start when I want, never work Fridays unless they offer £100 on top.
I couldn’t care a toss about a slang termination in here. But, seeing as the suggestion was made for full timer nicknames how about ‘the herd’?
You couldn’t give a toss about slang termination on here but then offer an alternative.Pull the other one limper.
Full time Herd? How very dare you, I’m deeply offended, and hurt. (back of hand on forehead in a drama queen stylee )
Yeh pull the other one, you you, you… limping limpet you, with your earpiece in and your hi viz on when driving, with hands at 10 to 2 and nose up to windscreen .
You aint wanted on here.
Keep insulting me like this and I’m gonna get my big brother onto you…
yourhavingalarf:
I don’t get called any names at all…
But that’s probably because I don’t talk to anyone there. Get in, smile politley, get keys, kick tyres etc, couple up and go. If there’s a delay, I can choose to listen to the full timers whinning about going here, there or getting shafted by the TO again. I usually just sit in my lorry surfing the net til the load is ready.
I deal with the agency on my terms and I’m happily earning more than the full timers where I am. Start when I want, never work Fridays unless they offer £100 on top.
I couldn’t care a toss about a slang termination in here. But, seeing as the suggestion was made for full timer nicknames how about ‘the herd’?
You couldn’t give a toss about slang termination on here but then offer an alternative.Pull the other one limper.
Full time Herd? How very dare you, I’m deeply offended, and hurt. (back of hand on forehead in a drama queen stylee )
Yeh pull the other one, you you, you… limping limpet you, with your earpiece in and your hi viz on when driving, with hands at 10 to 2 and nose up to windscreen .
You aint wanted on here.
Keep insulting me like this and I’m gonna get my big brother onto you…
Yeh?? Seriously??
Well I’ll get Evil8beezle on to you, he’ll handle your big bro no bother.
Juddian:
Actually is this a 30 something fad this being so bloody perfect, so many of the 30 somethings i know take themselves seriously to a level of unbelievable boredom, no sense of humour at all, any joke cracked must be analysed for political correctness, no independent thoughts so no opinion on anything from their own mind or heart, offence taken for any of the myriad of (usually hostile to others) minority groups that already have too high an opinion of themselves anyway.
Grauniad readers and BBC/Sky/Chanel No4 viewers i suspect in the main…
There’s a reason that their generation, Generation Y, has been nicknamed Generation Snowflake.
Does this article seem to apply to our poster and others of his age?
I’d heard of this Snowflake but hadn’t read into it, until now, thanks for those links.
The articles seem to be aimed at student Grant in the main, but then how many of our students are approaching 30 i wonder in their quest to avoid having to work for as long as possible… , others younger than that but seem old before their time.
The perma offended desperately searching for something else to give them a purpose in life? students arn’t alone in this of course, there is a whole industry devoted to it and its often politically motivated using useful idiots as its front line soldiers (without the possibility of receiving a bullet or grenade) whilst being bankrolled by the seriously rich.
Getting back to the agency lads, and yes i was one for a while (and took the good with the bad like all do), in the vast majority of cases they are just ordinary drivers who use an agency cos it suits them at the time, most of them join in with a bit of banter, most of them are polite and decent drivers, no worse nor better to any degree than any other bunch of drivers.
Kerragy:
Why don’t you suggest another name we can use for an agency driver that would save us a few keystrokes?
How about ‘driver’, we are no less qualified than many of you, why do we need to distinguish between the two?
James the cat:
All this wanting to work hours you want any old time, self employed business is corrosive to working conditions in the longer term. Short sighted. I don’t have a great opinion of long term “lifestyle” limpers.
Why don’t you have a great opinion of those of us who don’t tie into the company line just for a quiet and easy life? Why are we the subject of your scorn because we are willing to take the more difficult route to achieve the work/life balance we want?
The point I was making, and it was a serious point by the way is that several of the recent uses of the term limper, and the recent possibly auto-correct induced use of the term Limpet have come across is insulting. People on here tend to use the term Limper to describe someone under qualified, incompetent and of generally unsavory appeal and appearance. It is the setting in which the term is used which makes it offensive.
I would also point out that while there are some agency drivers are are under qualified, incompetent and of generally unsavory appeal and appearance, there are many more who are not. There are also many full timers who fit the same description.
Most of us are skilled men, more skilled than the average full timer on direct comparison because we have to be. We don’t know what wagon we will be driving from one day to the next, what job we will be doing. Many have every additional qualification under the sun, ADR, Hiab, Moffet et al because we never know when we might need to use them. (I dont btw claim to have moffet or ADR yet but will be doing my ADR in November ish and probably wont do a moffet, not enough work to make it pay back.)
Full timers on the other hand tend to be a lot more specialised. They have been driving the same wagon since the days of Churchill and know it inside and out, they are experts in the doing of their specific job, be it trunking, brick and block, containers or whatever. We are the Jacks of all trades, you are the Masters of one and there is a place for all of us. But there is no need for slang terms, insulting or otherwise to distinguish between the two.
Very well said, most on here would be afraid to work for agency because they would not be able to drive different trucks every day, it would put the fear of god into them and that’s why they are not professionals at what they do and post here to get a feeling of they think they are and slag people off, it sticks out a mile
Does it really matter though in the grand old scale of things I see pass and am overtaken daily by trucks cars (overtaken once by Tesco ) uphill though.
I don’t care who’s driving it, it’s nothing to do with me. Good and bad in EVERY job whether full time, agency or casual!
I’m knocking on now and have never been out of work, never signed on and to be honest I’ve seen a lot. Just crack on with your own business and do whatever you need to - everyone else will.
Kerragy:
Why don’t you suggest another name we can use for an agency driver that would save us a few keystrokes?
How about ‘driver’, we are no less qualified than many of you, why do we need to distinguish between the two?
James the cat:
All this wanting to work hours you want any old time, self employed business is corrosive to working conditions in the longer term. Short sighted. I don’t have a great opinion of long term “lifestyle” limpers.
Why don’t you have a great opinion of those of us who don’t tie into the company line just for a quiet and easy life? Why are we the subject of your scorn because we are willing to take the more difficult route to achieve the work/life balance we want?
The point I was making, and it was a serious point by the way is that several of the recent uses of the term limper, and the recent possibly auto-correct induced use of the term Limpet have come across is insulting. People on here tend to use the term Limper to describe someone under qualified, incompetent and of generally unsavory appeal and appearance. It is the setting in which the term is used which makes it offensive.
I would also point out that while there are some agency drivers are are under qualified, incompetent and of generally unsavory appeal and appearance, there are many more who are not. There are also many full timers who fit the same description.
Most of us are skilled men, more skilled than the average full timer on direct comparison because we have to be. We don’t know what wagon we will be driving from one day to the next, what job we will be doing. Many have every additional qualification under the sun, ADR, Hiab, Moffet et al because we never know when we might need to use them. (I dont btw claim to have moffet or ADR yet but will be doing my ADR in November ish and probably wont do a moffet, not enough work to make it pay back.)
Full timers on the other hand tend to be a lot more specialised. They have been driving the same wagon since the days of Churchill and know it inside and out, they are experts in the doing of their specific job, be it trunking, brick and block, containers or whatever. We are the Jacks of all trades, you are the Masters of one and there is a place for all of us. But there is no need for slang terms, insulting or otherwise to distinguish between the two.
Very well said, most on here would be afraid to work for agency because they would not be able to drive different trucks every day, it would put the fear of god into them and that’s why they are not professionals at what they do and post here to get a feeling of they think they are and slag people off, it sticks out a mile
Oh please, how many gate change Scammells does the average agency bod get begged to drive cos he’s the only bugger in the depot that can manage it.
Modern lorry you find D and press the loud pedal, thats about the sum total of skill the job now demands, sadly, and some even more sadly can’t manage that simple task seeing as we now need auto braking and radar distance controls.
Any bloody fool can sit behind the wheel of a lorry now, and thats why the job is cheap.
Whether the person behind the wheel is directly employed or some wide boy in a shiny suit is taking a large drink out of every pound the wheel attendant earns is a moot point.
Its as said above, banter.
What a bloody pity the PC ■■■■■■■■ that has infected and ruined everything else in our lives is seeping gradually into our once happy go lucky industry.
)
) and he did treat me with respect, but however tended to do all the agency style bs to a lot of other drivers…A message in there for some of you agency lads if you are clever enough to accept it. 
How very dare you, I’m deeply offended, and hurt. 
(back of hand on forehead in a drama queen stylee 
