Anyone considering going self employed should work all the agencies in the area for at least 3/5 months first and get in with all the TM’s around.
Always leave them a card with your name and number on it and as long as you work hard then you will soon start getting calls to work for them direct at a much higher rate (as they are used to paying the agency)
If you don’t get any work that way then you probably are better off just sticking with the agency.
no one takes on self employed any longer. not if they’ve got any sense.
they will only take on LTD companies.
but why do people charge by the hour?
why not charge per shift? something like £250 per shift? everyone knows where they stand.
I charge by the shift for some places but quite simply some customers won’t pay it anymore.
The ones that have the set runs will, because they know it will balance out, some shifts you’ll work 8 hours, some 15.
But the ones that have as many slow days as busy ones prefer to pay by the hour because if you’ve started at 10am and finished by 1pm then they don’t have to pay the full whack - thats where you need a 9 hour minimum pay agreement.
It can work out better hourly sometimes anyway. I have a customer where I know I’ll hardly ever have to work past 4pm and its an 8am start They pay me £150 a day and I’m happy. If sometimes I’ve got to work till 8/9pm for them then I don’t mind as I know its only a one off.
Once place however, who insists on paying hourly, seem to always screw themselves out of money if only they go day rate. I did a night out for them last week, full use of hours, some POA in there (for which waiting time was paid) and night out money, as well as petrol to get to and from their yard (as it wasn’t the usual yard) meant they ended up paying out an extra £130-ish than they’d have done if it was on a single rate.
The key in negotiating all your contracts is screwing them down to the best price and practice that is for that place. Simply having a one-size-fits-all price for everywhere isn’t going to work unless you mainly do the same shifts, for the same places, week in-week out.
I reckon for the purposes of ease here everyone who is saying self employed means as a Ltd company.
Alex
I appproximate your replies as:
Euro Cheshire £8.50 +o/t, £90per ■■■■
Hitch Warwick £10.50
Scarab Eastbourne £9.50, £150/day
jrl Halifax £9.00
Bald Bristol £9.50
Bateman ? £9.25
Waynedl £9.00 (paye)
Limephil £250/shift
Rough average hourly rate is £9.32 excl shift rates
0r
£373 per 40 hour week
or
£17987 pa assuming 28 days holiday
I shall keep quiet about this as we don’t want lots of gold-diggers rushing into this industry just to get their hands on this level of income
Euro:
I appproximate your replies as:Euro Cheshire £8.50 +o/t, £90per [zb]
lol lol. Guessing Euro mistyped the word shift leaving out the f.
Limey seems to be doing well!
My worst lately has been £9 an hour for days on a parcel company. Currently on a steady number at £13.50 p.h. doing nights 10 to 6 shunting at a multinational company. Not my preferred type of work but i spend 4 or 5 hours per shift on the internet or sitting in the rest room watching Sky news and drinking coffee.
looking at these post just convinces me even more that all agencies are downright slave labour and need making illegal. They should be made to pay time and a half after 8 hours, full holiday and sick pay and a minimum of 50 hours a week. If agencies paid what they should and give job security they wouldn’t exist and companies would have no choice but to employ full time drivers with proper benefits and workers rights.
Agenies pay you 10 quid an hour or less and charge the company about 25 - 30 quid an hour, then sit back and relax while you earn them all that money.
When I first started at Tesco MK it was as an agency driver as it was the only way to get a full time job there, I worked for park st agency and soon got fed up with the treatment, I found another agency (ABC) who paid all holidays, sick pay and 50 hours min a week. I and a few others came up with the idea of all the drivers clubbing together and just setting our own drivers service company, paying 25% more for each of us per hour and charging the company 50% less and we could have still made a profit fro emergencies like drivers sick pay etc. The idea caused total panic amongst the agencies who heard of this and a lot of drivers were kicked out for even thinking of it.
My whole point is to stop agencies from ripping you guys off, stand up for your selves and stand together.
Totally agree Pat … and I’ve worked Tesco for Park St & Optimum, although I wouldn’t think they have £10-20 an hour out of it these days, more like £2 - 3 I’d guess.
I’ve come accross agencies who even tried to make on the night out allowance!
I’m with Pat on this one as well, if these agencies were made uneconomical both to
operate and use we would have a better variety of firms with proper jobs available.
axletramp:
I’m with Pat on this one as well, if these agencies were made uneconomical both to
operate and use we would have a better variety of firms with proper jobs available.
Agencies have their place. There are many drivers (myself included) who cannot due to other commitments or do not wish to drive full time. There are also some who go abroad for a while in the Winter time.
However, right now, I think 4 on 4 off might suit me.
…well I’ve just been on the Job Centre website these are the ourly rates for class 1 jobs
8.75
8.00
“exceeds minimum wage” …(take yer hats off and form an orderly queue for this one)
20,000-25,000 (family men need not bother to apply)
£7.00 (yes, this is for class1)
8.25
7.50
8.00
7.50
8.75
8.25
8.00
8.49 (cunning employer this one eh? undercutting the £8.50 people!)
professionals! 