Hi Everyone,
I’ve been reading the posts here for a couple of weeks now since being made redundant from an office job that I had for 9 years. I was fortunate enough, because of my role as a trainer, to acquire my Class 2 and Class 1 last summer that were both paid for by the company. As part of gaining some driving experience, I would regularly go out under the watchful eye of our drivers and after a bit of practice was occasionally asked to do a load or a trailer swap. I must say that I enjoyed getting in to the drivers seat of our fleet of FH’s, FM’s, CF’s and XF’s albeit only occasionally.
When I finished I was comfortable in the knowledge that I have my licence and that I “knew” a few people and with that got my first Class 1 job 4 days after finishing. This is where things took a turn!
One of the agencies called me for a simple trunk job that night and I gladly accepted, I explained that I had an appointment the next day at 9:00am. No problem she said…… one run, simple trailer swap, new-ish lorry, 8 hours and job and done.
When I got to the company I was given two runs, quite local so not so bad. The oldest FM I had seen with the 3/3 splitter, again not to bad. A diverted run to fill up, not such a problem. No postcodes, scary. The load wasn’t ready to go, this is becoming annoying. And finally when I got back to the depot at 2:00am and needing a 45 minute break the second run had changed which meant another 5 ½ extended hours driving, and this without booking out/in and returning the lorry to the yard, BIG Problem!
I explained to the so-called transport supervisor that I couldn’t do this run and that I was only down to do one run in the first place. All she could say was that it had to go and that my driving hours was of no concern to her. She actually thought that my break meant sitting down with a coffee and tossing it off. She was not interested in the slightest and basically treat me like a piece of something you’d flush. 
My licence comes first, so I told her that the load wasn’t going anywhere and she could place it firmly where the sun doesn’t shine! I got in the unit and after my break returned it to the company.
Are all agencies liars and are all RDC staff un-knowledgeable twits or does it go with the territory?
RJ 
But you where right to stick to your guns most of those people who work in the office ie planners dont ever drive a Truck so look at a map on a pc and say oh yea that can be done (in a porsche) 
As an Agency driver You will find that a lot of companies will try it on with you …if they can