New Lad. First few agency jobs done

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi. Been reading the forum for a while now and have got some great info from everyone on here, thanks for that.

Passed Cat C last October and signed on with an agency. No work till 2 weeks ago when they rang with my first job. I dont really know wether these jobs were good, bad, a ■■■■ take or what but I had a bash at em anyway.

First job. Take 5 pallets from Preston to Derby, class 2. Truck was Daf CF. No problems really apart from not knowing there was an isolating switch in the cab for the tail lift, looked a right nooob while the fork lift driver waited for me to suss it out. Anyway, sorted it after a few minutes. Returned home feeling pretty good about it all.

Second job. Same place but driving a van. Agency said about 8 drops round Manchester. Turned out to be 19 drops! Managed to do 14. The guy that planned the route made a total balls of it and everyone seemed to be having a bad day there lol. One driver said to me " I’m suprised your still here mate, most agency guys just walk out of here"

Last job. Class 2. Agency guy said 8 drops round Liverpool. Turned out to be 15 (is there a pattern emerging here?). Picked up the truck at 8am, Daf LF. It was loaded to the hilt! Guy said " I know it’s daunting but do your best". No juice in it. Went straight to garage and filled it up, went to pay with the fuel card and they hadn’t give me the pin number for it. Rang office and they gave it me, put it in, wrong one! Rang em back, they gave me another number, that worked. Didn’t have a clue where any of the drops were, don’t know Liverpool, but I now know it’s a ■■■■■ to drive round lol.

Managed to do 12 drops, rang office at 4.30pm, they said “Come back now mate, you’ve done what you can” An hour and a half it took to get back to depot, 6pm finish. They want me there again on Tuesday.

Is this good work, bad work? The norm? Will they be ■■■■■■ off I didn’t do all the drops? Don’t know, can only do ya best and if that isn’t good enough then ■■■■■■■■ to it. :wink:

2

its about standard mate :slight_smile:

When they give you the drops ask if they are in order, sometimes its just printed and your left to make your decisions. Agency’s tend to tell you its less than it is, just go with the flow. You got a decent sat nav and an atlas?

Third job sounded ok tbh, they loaded the wagon on the hope you would do it all (sometimes the gods smile on you, the lights go your way, the forklift is available when you get there and the worlds waiting to off load you and go to the pub) but the TM appreciates that sometimes your gonna get crapped on, its a numbers game and companies play it.

My ■■■■ up on friday was managing to get the pallet truck lodged between two oversized pallets, first drop of the afternoon was to CB Shack[?] at Lymm Services, they didnt have a truck and mines wedged… 1 pallet hand balled in to the shop. Its a lesson I wont forget soon :slight_smile:

It did mean that I missed a collection last thing, but they packed up for the weekend early so nobody seemed bothered about it. The only thing said to me was ‘see you 7 am tuesday’

3

actually it was thursday, curse you and your bank holiday malarkey… not a clue what day it is :slight_smile:

4

Hiya Jimbob
lol yep sounds about right mate for Agency work oh wait till you get a bad run :open_mouth: ha as for Liverpool well
i do a regular job on a tuesday normaly for a double glazing windows company and even with a good satnav its a nightmare matey lol . im sure you would have done all the drops had the truck been fueled up for you before you started :frowning: i hate that messing about in the morning .when i first started my tuesday regular job I used to waste 30 mins putting the bunk back up after the other driver (who must have been a dwarf to drive the truck with the bunk down ) and then going to fuel up a truck before even starting my work :angry: untill i educated them by saying ( oh was it an agency driver who left the truck like that yesterday with an eggcup full of fuel in the tank and the bunk down ) or was it YOUR OWN DRIVER ?.. :smiley: So i have fueled it up twice today there are the reciepts …and it has a full tank now please will you ask the dwarf can i have it back like that next week :wink: …
yep welcome to the crazy world of the Agency driver mate :smiley: but it does get better when you know the Jobs to avoid like the plague lol.

5

Hello Welder and Yambol.

Yeah, it sure is fun I’ll say that. I’ve been finding my way round with a truckers atlas and an ordinary sat nav. Seems to do the job, although it did send me onto a retail park with a 12’ height restriction and it was busy!

As for pallet trucks, a guy that helped me unload at one place nearly killed me with it. Pushed it too hard onto the tail lift and it ran away with itself, I had to jump off the back and let it go, nothing damaged fortunately. His boss said to him " WTF are you doing? trying to kill him?!"

Tell you what Yambol, Liverpool was like a car park after 4pm, what a joke, and yeah, I reckon they should bring the truck back with a full tank. It’s a bad start in a morning that. To top it off the pump I got on kept cutting off for some reason, took me ages to fill it, shoulda known it was gonna be one of them days lol.

Moaning already, starting to sound like a trucker :wink:

6

First of all congratulations on your first couple of jobs and well done mate. Sounds about right for agency but don’t let them take a loan of you. If they weren’t happy with your work then they would tell the agency not to send you again, after all they’re probably paying the agency double than what you’re getting.

7

Thanks Sam,

It’s all good fun at the end of the day, and gets me experience. Apart from everything else, it is a great buzz driving a truck. See how I feel when the novelty wears off. :smiley: