I have an old mate who came out of retirement and went agency down south, he seems to be doing well and getting the pay and hours he wants.
He seems happy and I would be when he told me his rate 
I can only speak for where I live but there is a driver shortage here in the East Midlands. Rates have been rapidly rising all year, there are loads of permanent jobs around, agencies are on the phone begging for work as they cant get the drivers and its not the usual case of just wanting you on the books, they really cant get drivers to cover the work. I must get about 4 or 5 calls a week from different agencies that Iâve never even spoken too. Also would I have been able to up my rates by ÂŁ2 an hour and still be offered more work than I either want or can physically do. Now is the time for the driver to have the power, you tell them what you want take it or leave it, this isnât just the summer holiday season kicking in this has been happening all year,
That all sounds like good news, for as we all know a shortage is the same as supply and demandâŚrightâŚi would like to earn a few quid before i go on holiday, but seing as DVLA are still processing my renewal licence, and so far its been 5 months, i am hoping to do a few days a week once it comes through, but dont hold out much hope as i go on holiday on the 22 august.
Anyway experienced agency drivers/employees or even S/E whats the craic with agencies, i have never in my career ( cough-cough ) ever worked for an agency, i have all the qualifications, clean licence, DCPC card, years of experience in all aspects of the job etc etc, so i guess they will grab me with both handsâŚright⌠what i want to know is this, do they pay weekly, or 2 weekly or monthly, does one have to be self employed and invoice them or please explain how it works, i have heard about umbrellas, but if i work the hours, thats what i expect to collect and not pay some numpty to collect it for me, take a cut, and hand me the rest.
As a retired old â â â â , but indeed young at heart i do not pay N.I. and my tax is sorted on a yearly basis, whereby HMRC have decided to add to my earnings my pension and then tax the lot, but by having a few weeks off in the summer, it overrides the threshold and they end up paying me.
I am possibly looking at working weekends to maximise my earnings, for i can earn more in a weekend than i can all week ( almost ) and i can have all week off i`ve earned it, have worked for it, and deserved it, but if the system dont agree, then i wont workâŚsimplesâŚwho said thatâŚ
truckyboy:
i would like to earn a few quid before i go on holiday, but seing as DVLA are still processing my renewal licence, and so far its been 5 months, i am hoping to do a few days a week once it comes through,
Here, have mine:)
truckyboy:
does one have to be self employed and invoice them or please explain how it works
Usually paid weekly if youâre lucky & I think they prefer self employed, zb knows whyâŚ
truckyboy:
That all sounds like good news, for as we all know a shortage is the same as supply and demandâŚrightâŚi would like to earn a few quid before i go on holiday, but seing as DVLA are still processing my renewal licence, and so far its been 5 months, i am hoping to do a few days a week once it comes through, but dont hold out much hope as i go on holiday on the 22 august.
Anyway experienced agency drivers/employees or even S/E whats the craic with agencies, i have never in my career ( cough-cough ) ever worked for an agency, i have all the qualifications, clean licence, DCPC card, years of experience in all aspects of the job etc etc, so i guess they will grab me with both handsâŚright⌠what i want to know is this, do they pay weekly, or 2 weekly or monthly, does one have to be self employed and invoice them or please explain how it works, i have heard about umbrellas, but if i work the hours, thats what i expect to collect and not pay some numpty to collect it for me, take a cut, and hand me the rest.
As a retired old â â â â , but indeed young at heart i do not pay N.I. and my tax is sorted on a yearly basis, whereby HMRC have decided to add to my earnings my pension and then tax the lot, but by having a few weeks off in the summer, it overrides the threshold and they end up paying me.
I am possibly looking at working weekends to maximise my earnings, for i can earn more in a weekend than i can all week ( almost ) and i can have all week off i`ve earned it, have worked for it, and deserved it, but if the system dont agree, then i wont workâŚsimplesâŚwho said thatâŚ
The decent agencies are now offering both PAYE as well as umbrella/S.E. In your situation I would definitely stick to PAYE so it sorts itself out at the end of the year, and there are still a lot of concerns about the legality of umbrella and sham S.E. working.
You will get a premium for working weekends but the differences these days are not as great as they used to be - blame the 24/7 supermarkets working for that.
You may be knocked back by some agencies if you havenât driven in the last 6 months - just consider it their loss and move onto the next one.
Juddian:
ââŚa shortage of drivers for ages, but not necessarily a shortage of licence holdersâŚâ
I sense an increasing shortage of good-will amongst UK citizen licence holders as we brace ourselves for a politically uncared-for unknown future 
Winseer:
ââŚif youâre below par with wimmin like I am.A woman has never offered me a job in my life, and Iâve never got a job that involved meeting one in the application process eitherâŚâ
It aint just me then
Pimpdaddy:
ââŚI tried it alright, Tesco went & zbâed it up thoughâŚâ
Maybe they disapproved of it in their frozen aisle 
I visited three hauliers a week or two ago.
One large - depots nationally through out GB.
One medium - a number of depots throughout England.(regional lets say)
One small - Portacabin 20 wagons and a yard.
All three stated the same thing through out the day whan I asked them about a driver shortage.
YES.
All three told me that they are losing veteran drivers who have been with the company 30 - 40 years and donât want to do the CPC.
They are struggling to replace them.
One told me drivers want an 8 hour day ÂŁ900 a week and home everynight.
One lad refued a job because he couldnât take the wagon home at night / weekends.
So come September their will be jobs out there.
I heard a whisper that 25% of HGV holders havenât done any CPC training.
Itâs August next week.
Chatted to the owner last week and I asked if he found it hard to get drivers. Said itâs not hard to find a driver but itâs hard to find one he would employ.
Soldier z:
One told me drivers want an 8 hour day ÂŁ900 a week and home everynight.
Sounds pretty reasonable to me:)
Gotta admit Iâve had my class 1 since 95 and never been out of work when I wanted it. I just get on and get the job done in a timely manner and donât wanna speak to the office unless I have a problem
In the east lonxon essex area there strugling to find experinced skip ro ro and tipper drivers. Paying well but a lot of older blokes havent renewed there brief on medical this year and tesco dc near by paying 31k starting wage
kr79:
experinced skip ro ro and tipper drivers.
Thats the problem there, how can you get experience if you donât give people a chance!?
Strugling to find newbies too
kr79:
In the east lonxon essex area there strugling to find experinced skip ro ro and tipper drivers. Paying well but a lot of older blokes havent renewed there brief on medical this year and tesco dc near by paying 31k starting wage
And no rushing about with Tescos or playing in the mud. TBH tipper firms are to blame, the London boys like Keltbray and Thames Materials have such a bad reputation (just google them and âlorriesâ to see what I mean. Tipper firms have treated drivers like crap with their push push push mentality, probably because theyâre undercutting each other like an Olympic sport just to get the work. They then expect the driver to get the extra load or two per day to pay for their rate slashing. I found out in my last tipper job what our customer was paying our boss, subtract the tipping charges etc and it turned out the job was at a loss (the site foreman told us the rate per load). Obviously we werenât allowed a steady day when to fly about like an idiot turned a loss to a break even/slim profit. We were on day hire so the customer was obviously going to turn the screw on us.
kjw21:
Chatted to the owner last week and I asked if he found it hard to get drivers. Said itâs not hard to find a driver but itâs hard to find one he would employ.
This is the problem when you have dumbed the job down to the lowest common denominator, people are no longer allowed to think for themselves, so when a business requires a driver that is still able to do this, then they will find it hard to replace. Why? Because the ones who had a brain are leaving or have left the industry and those with a brain would not entertain it as a vocation.
This industry has been killed by the EU and the supermarkets in the never ending task of enabling a chimpanzee to drive a lorry as they want to keep the costs down. It is nothing short of criminal in my opinion.
kjw21:
Chatted to the owner last week and I asked if he found it hard to get drivers. Said itâs not hard to find a driver but itâs hard to find one he would employ.
Whatâs a shame here is that the criteria for âwould employâ isnât the old fashioned stuff, but all the newish bull stuffâŚ
âHave you driven in the last 6 monthsâ instead of âHow long have you held your licenceâ?
âWhy should I give the job to you, when I can get a ÂŁ1000 bonus for employing a foreignerâ?
âHow low are you prepared to go hourly rate wiseâ rather than âWhatâs your accident/endosement record like?â
âThereâs no actual regular work here - itâs all last minute sick coverâ instead of âWe actually want some new drivers full time here, with full rights, sick pay, etc etcâ
It seems to me that thereâs a lot of weak hands out there that could do with pushing off the transport business potâŚ
Supermarkets in particular are always moaning about ânot being able to get enough bodies inâ for their block-book tactics - But it doesnât seem to occur to them that âproviding the security of an actual pensioned full time jobâ rather than thorugh a contractor firm might curry a lot more staff loyalty than the current âjust in time, use & discardâ system of running what is after all, an essential businessâŚ
To be fair to him, and probably cos itâs a relatively small firm - it is more a case of the old fashioned criteria thankfully.
In the 7/8 years I have been here we have used agency drivers twice and only for a night trunk when it was first set up and we just hadnât got a spare driver at all.
He has employed newbies before but only if they have a bit of âsomething about emâ in his words. BUT this has gone wrong to my knowledge in the past as well as producing about a third of the drivers here it has resulted in damage, shot loads and â â â â â â off customers.
And they are shown how to do the job if new.
Winseer:
â⌠Supermarkets in particular are always moaning about ânot being able to get enough bodies inâ âŚâ
There is defo truth in that - having had it whinged at me by a suit this last week
The same corporate extolling and âfocussedâ whores for whom I flog in this sector regularly prove both corporate and individual ghastliness to those that may inadvertantly get caught up in their too often blunderbuss but narrow-sighted tactics of operation.
Wriggling free is a doddle by simply cosying up their South facing (aft) orifice - although properly rising above it as a regular wage-slave is proving here to be a greater challenge 
Winseer:
Supermarkets in particular are always moaning about ânot being able to get enough bodies inâ for their block-book tactics - But it doesnât seem to occur to them that âproviding the security of an actual pensioned full time jobâ rather than thorugh a contractor firm might curry a lot more staff loyalty than the current âjust in time, use & discardâ system of running what is after all, an essential businessâŚ
Too true, but the bean counters have decided that this is the cheapest way of running their transport side. Unfortunately for them they didnât bother to look at the bigger picture.