Does that mean it will be a stampede back to trucknet for alder?
Stampede. Like it , hee hee!
alder:
I asked a few agencies why the jobs are still advertised and between them I got these reasons:A/ We get a block to post our vacancies and it is cheaper to advertise a block so we just let the old jobs run even though they have been filled.
B/ We get allocated a block size so if we do not take our full allocation another agency gets the space and keeps it preventing us getting back in. So each agency tries to grab more space and then keeps it.
C/ By having more adverts than other agencies, drivers look at the first few pages and call the agency they think is more successful and maybe chase one particular job that has been filled but we tell them that when they have registered. We can always get them something else.
I was shocked to hear this but it made commercial sense. However it is devastating to a driver looking for work as they are likely to be reading a job description that does not exist and they may register with an agency that all along planned to give them the work no one wants. You go through 2 hours of tests and forms then they either tell you that this job needs someone older, more experience, ADR or some other excuse but the favourite one is “oh I am sorry my colleague filled this job this morning and did not tell me”. I have heard that excuse a few times. The last time I heard that she followed it with “We have a two man furniture job 04:30 tomorrow morning and then we can plan you in next week”. This is a common tactic as you have just sat there for two hours and filled all the forms in passed the tests etc. and now you have to go home and tell the Mrs you have no work. So you are pressured to take the lousy furniture removal job on HGV 2 rate just so the day is not wasted. The agency then will know that you are desperate enough and they have you. My answer to the lady was “No sorry, I want class 1 trunking” and I did not go back.
I remember the day when having just signed up for a national agency, I’d signed up, passed the “100 from 1000” test, etc… The job I was interested in was delivering to the west end monday-friday lates in a rigid, £12ph.
… I reluctantly accepted a 06:00 monday morning start when I had completed the tests, because the job I’d turned up for had “gone”, and the colleague had not updated the system (as you depicted above…)
I got offered an 06:00 start, perhaps offered to me, as I stated I hate early starts…
01:00 monday morning (I, having gone to bed early for this anticipated early start…) get a call from said agency, Sorry they’ve cancelled, but we’ve got some farm work starting at 02:00 if your interested…
Grr…! But "Yes, I’ll take it. (30 mins drive away, I’ve got to get my skates on!)…
5 minutes later…
*"Sorry bud, they’ve cancelled now as well. You can go back to bed.*WTF?
Of course, it was all lies, lies and damned lies.
Even when you fall to your knees straight away when applying for the agency, fully prepared for full-on ■■■■■■■■ - you still get ■■■■■■ about. 
What’s even more annoying, is that agency is still in business! 
Winseer I have heard that from a lot of agency drivers and I have actually turned up for shifts at yusens logistics when I was class 2 and they said “Tell your agency to read their ■■■■■■■ emails, we have told them upteen times we need a class 1 driver on this job now”. That actually happened to me 3 times in two weeks. Not funny when you have a 5am start and you have got up at 3:15 to shower, dress and have a cup of tea then drive to get their in time! I had one god job through greenlight recruitment in leeds and it was working for potters at Selby (good firm) and it was temp to perm but it was just too far for me 1.5 hour drive away 
Happy now though I am a full timer woo hoo 
FLIP:
The only issue I can see is that they can’t spell despatch.
I would be concerened if my future employers couldn’t master basic English…
Sorry, but that is really funny 
robroy:
alder:
LIBERTY_GUY:
alder:
However it is devastating to a driver looking for work as they are likely to be reading a job description that does not exist and they may register with an agency that all along planned to give them the work no one wants. You go through 2 hours of tests and forms then they either tell you that this job needs someone older, more experience, ADR or some other excuse but the favourite one is “oh I am sorry my colleague filled this job this morning and did not tell me”. I have heard that excuse a few times. The last time I heard that she followed it with “We have a two man furniture job 04:30 tomorrow morning and then we can plan you in next week”.Apart from a few smaller agencies that still have some level of decency and integrity, I have found most agencies out there to be a complete and utter waste of time nowadays. It is to the point where I only contact agencies via email now if they are advertising a specific vacancy I am interested in and tell them upfront I am not interested in shop deliveries or home deliveries so we don’t waste each other’s time. Needless to say, I never hear from some of them again. Suits me though, as at least one of us is being honest.
I have told them that until I am blue in the face but they do not listen as they know the majority of drivers are desperate to get earning. Right its 11am and I have another interview to go to
I will keep this up until I get a good job or until I run out of job applications but I ain’t going back on agency
Agencies are one of the reasons that this job has turned to [zb]. These parasites cream off what could, and should, be a decent rate paid direct to the driver, and at the same time ■■■■ drivers about and make them jump through hoops.
Good luck with your job hunting mate.
So what’s the other reasons for this job turning to ■■■■ then?
Job hunting has never been so expensive as it is right now.
Most people in a crap job - dare not risk even a “short” period of “no job at all” in between, because they’ll waste all their savings flitting around from place to place only to be told “We are not recruiting right now” when you know all the local agencies are putting drivers in there every damned day…
The yards themselves have elected to operate this way - because of the HUGE swings in workload from day to day that makes it uneconomical to have a full timer base beyond what you need to tick over at the quietest time of the year… These days that could be ANY time, so the full time base is minimalist at best. Combine this with the “20 wasted years”-following Japanese “Just In Time” model - and the destruction of real job opportunities is complete, long term.
Agencies need to start pushing up their rates - but every time there is a shortage of agency drivers, another agency pops up and undercuts the rest instead, making it ever easier to get signed up with “10 points OK” and “no experience required” etc. Soon it will be “No licence requried, full training given” at which point applicants will be expected to pay £3000 up front as “bond”.
A few mugs will fall for that old tosh I fear…
Only the ex-cons and long term benefits claimants have got any hope of getting some kind of “free” licence as provided by the state - and even that’s most likely to be Class 2 with HIAB rather than the hallowed Artic licence. 
The driver shortage is definitely out there now, with Asprays, Pentalver and Swains amongst others, offering to upgrade people from class two to class one now. Even the signs on roundabouts and fences are everywhere I look now and somewhat surprisingly many of those are the companies themselves advertising, rather than agencies.
A lot depends on the type of work that is being offered out there. If I was prepared to do two or three nights out per week, I know two companies where I could have a permanent job with a regular truck no problems at all, but like many others, I really prefer to sleep in my own bed, than in some litter strewn layby with no facilities.
Sadly some companies have unrealistic expectations of their drivers, which is why they have a constant flow of agency people through their doors and really struggle to get people to stay. It not always about pay, but the way those drivers are treated.
I have only been there two days but the boss is a really approachable guy so I asked him this question of why use agency drivers when you obviously need full timers and he honestly replied that the contract side of it is so fierce and competitive that contracts change all the time. Therefore say we have only got a 6 month trial contract we can only use agency for it otherwise we have took on a lot of full timers that we suddenly have to find work for. We have took a few drivers like yourself full time now because this yard has just got 2 long term contracts and we know the work is coming in indefinitely but we are still using a lot of agency for weekends, nights, overruns with short term contracts etc.
Seemed to make a lot of sense to me. 
Alder that is exactly why companies use agencies, they also on a temp to perm get to see how a driver performs risk (well within reason) free. if your a bad driver/sick day throwing/I aint doing that type of guy they normally find out before they take you on full time.
an advert nowadays will cost up from £7/800 for a small one, add on the time spent sifting through cv’s, interviewing etc. this is why a lot also use agencies.
what does get me is the whole stupidity of me spending 2 hours registering you if I have nothing remotely suitable (I don’t register trampers at present as I have no tramping work), the trouble is I have been on the other side of the desk and will quite happily let my boss know why I do what I do. a lot of the dolly birds / slick ricks at most agencies couldn’t point to a class 1 / 2 /7.5t without needing a course prior.
Why isn’t more use made of yards actually employing people on their own rolling one-year contracts?
If a yard has got enough work for 20 drivers for a year, but then a contract will expire, and thereafter there might only be enough work for half of the drivers - it would make sense to have 10 drivers with a permanent contract, and 10 drivers on a rolling year’s contract surely?
It is going to be way more expensive to use agency for weeks of work at a time, rather than just the odd bit of leave cover, dcpc withdrawn, sick absence, etc. that agencies tend to specialise in covering…
The advantage to the job seeker is that on a rolling year’s contract - an employer can be much more amenable to the new recruit actually picking and choosing their own hours - since it’s only for a year at a time! (hours within reason of course… Eg. one driver might offer to cover an overnight waste collection contract round on a 20:30-06:30 shift of his own choosing, negotiated at the one year’s contract pick-up stage - rather than the 18:00-04:00 shift as performed by other night workers at the same depot… 