I "LL tell you why a company will be perhaps 90% agency , its the bottom line/cash /accountant advice ,if you have full time -on- the- books staff, you need to employ staff to deal with them ,you need room for same staff and equipment, the- on -the -books guys need ,holidays factored around deliveries ,they take sick days , they have opinions ,they may "know their rights, hell, they may even have their own car which requires space to be provided for parking ! they may be a member of a union (shudder !) they might call in short notice cos one of their kid/missus is sick /there is a footie match on they want to watch and so on and so on … £20 per hour over a year(Sunday s?) and the rest sounds a lot but to an accountant ? agency wins every time! trouble with this is ,the bean counter has no concept of ,loyalty,regularity,experience ,trust ,goodwill etc etc… << as told to me by an Accountant ,many years ago(i am not saying its right ,but i can see it making sense to a board of directors
i am pretty sure you have just described DHL down to a Tee
It’s the exact opposite where I work, the agency get the cream we pick up the slack.
I’m seriously considering ripped jeans bobble hat and greasy hi-viz coat in the hope I may get to go further south than Exeter and further west than Swansea.
Simple answer … DON"T WORK FOR AGENCIES, all they do is rip the driver off and make a fortune.
Get rid of all agencies ASAP.
Where will be be in a thousand years time?
At Least Richard III got to be King for a couple of years before he got killed off. 
pierrot 14:
Winseer, seeing where you are based, do you work for an agency beginning with “P” one office in Strood the other in Ashford ?
Funny enough just been chatting to a mate who is on that agency you mention,he told me that they seem a pretty honest bunch for an agency,no umbrella nonsense,no work for the big supermarket gang who dictate the terms,rates of pay about par for the course, wages in the bank regular as clockwork, he tells me the boss is an ex driver not an accountant or money man or a dopey so and so who would’nt know a lorry from a wheelbarrow 
Pat Hasler:
Simple answer … DON"T WORK FOR AGENCIES, all they do is rip the driver off and make a fortune.
Get rid of all agencies ASAP.
Some of us do it out of necessity and to be honest, I’m being treated a ■■■■ sight better by the agency than my last “real” employer.
Muckaway:
Pat Hasler:
Simple answer … DON"T WORK FOR AGENCIES, all they do is rip the driver off and make a fortune.
Get rid of all agencies ASAP.Some of us do it out of necessity and to be honest, I’m being treated a ■■■■ sight better by the agency than my last “real” employer.
+1
+2
i don’t get "£$%^& about by the agency either 
“Don’t deal with Agencies”
Easy to say if you have a full time job already.
FT jobs in this area are rare enough, but when they do come along, the T&C’s are hard to believe in an area where many have got £1000pcm mortgages or rents to pay out, and won’t manage it on Yorkie wage levels that seem to be being pushed upon us in this neck of the woods.
“Times are 'ard” has fallen upon us down here like the inquisition to be sure.
I blame the proliferation of housing benefits.
Without them, wages would have to rise and/or rents & mortages fall because people can only pay out of what they earn…
splitshift:
pierrot 14:
Winseer, seeing where you are based, do you work for an agency beginning with “P” one office in Strood the other in Ashford ?Funny enough just been chatting to a mate who is on that agency you mention,he told me that they seem a pretty honest bunch for an agency,no umbrella nonsense,no work for the big supermarket gang who dictate the terms,rates of pay about par for the course, wages in the bank regular as clockwork, he tells me the boss is an ex driver not an accountant or money man or a dopey so and so who would’nt know a lorry from a wheelbarrow
Totally agree, I’ve not a bad word to say against them, they did have a big contract with the Co-op in Thurrock once, but were ousted out along with 3 or 4 others, when ADR took over the hiring of temporary drivers, that was about a couple of years ago. As said the work is good, and regular (quiet like everywhere else at the mo), but still getting 3 to 4 shifts in the week. Money in every week, holiday pay, they also pay traveling expenses (tax free).
Winseer:
Nope. I think I know who you mean though. They have an office a few hundred yards from my front door, but chose to screw me about by booking and cancelling my first three shifts, then offering me work on minimum wage 50 miles away. Not darkened their door since.They seem to specialise in getting people on their knees in fields, whereas I’m not interested in being on my knees period!
Another wasted session signing upto that one alas… At least I didn’t spend any money getting to their office!50726F74656D
That seems very strange, can’t fault them, are you sure we are talking about the same agency? Which office do you live near Winseer, Ashford or Strood, ?
Darb:
There’s good agency drivers
There’s bad agency drivers
There’s good regular drivers
There’s bad regular drivers
There’s good day drivers
There’s bad day drivers
There’s good night drivers
There’s bad night drivers
There’s good part time drivers
There’s bad part time drivers
There’s good tipper drivers
There’s bad tipper drivers
There’s good trampers
There’s bad trampers
There’s good VOSA officers
There’s bad VOSA officers
There’s good car drivers
There’s bad car drivers
There’s good coach drivers
There’s bad coach drivers
There’s good policemen
There’s bad policemen
There’s good gatehouse staff
There’s bad gatehouse staff
There’s good flt drivers
There’s bad flt drivers
There’s good shunters
There’s bad shunters
There’s good planners
There’s bad planners
There’s good …The sooner we start to judge people for who they are and not what they do/where they work etc. the better off we’ll all be
Highlighted the bit I disagree with LOL
“That seems very strange, can’t fault them, are you sure we are talking about the same agency? Which office do you live near Winseer, Ashford or Strood, ?”
They’ve got an office in Ashford, Strood, and Chatham a couple of hundred yards from my house. 
I’ve already crypted up the name. 
Anyone who’s spotted a bad night driver might well have become one to do it!
When I did some agency work, was asked to do a shift as a Standy-By driver, easy money etc, went in at requested time, told to wait in the canteen or car whatever I wanted to do and wait for a call if required blah blah - about 15 minutes later got called into the Office - guy behind the desk chucked a pile of paperwork on the counter and said “you can do that” and turned his back on me; I replied - in a semi-humourous manner - “you forgot the magic word…” to which he turned back around and replied “how does F**k Off sound to you”….
I’m not a big guy, or of a violent nature, so I offered him two choices…. (A) step outside or (B) have a friendly chat in the Transport Director’s office upstairs.
He pointed out I was just a crappy Agency Driver and he could speak to me how he pleased.
I took the keys (not the paperwork) walked out and drove the truck into the street, from where I phoned the Transport Director’s Office and advised him of the situation; he came straight out to speak to me, very amicably. After our chat he went into the Office and about 10 minutes later Mr Rudetw*t was seen getting in his car and leaving site. Four days later a written apology came in the post
OP is in a postion that most of are not = solvent.
If the written apology was from the same bloke you phone from the lorry, then that’s a real result because it means that the Ruudtwaat Sol guy was sacked on the spot, and escorted from the building! 
After reading the various pages of instructions procedures etc at one blue chip company and signing to the effect that I had been ‘trained’, came the query why I had not put the unit and trailer through the vehicle wash.
Simple, I had never been trained to do it… ‘But you only have to push a button’.
Yes, but I haven’t been trained HOW to push that button!
Had it recently at a large high street retailer in worksop. Was told that as I hadn’t been in for 8 months I was no longer classed as inducted, so just did a trailer swap up north. On return to the depot I had a rollocking as to why I hadn’t dekitted and dieseled up, I didn’t do it as I wasn’t inducted to do it according to them.
The agency rang last week to ask me to go again to do store deliveries, when I said about the induction, they said they’d have a word and sort it out. I told them not to bother as I wouldn’t go back as the rates crap and its too far to travel.
TBH not had much work since, but not bothered as I’ve plenty of work elsewhere. I know they’ll be back on when the work picks up, but it’ll be on my terms or not at all.
cav551:
After reading the various pages of instructions procedures etc at one blue chip company and signing to the effect that I had been ‘trained’, came the query why I had not put the unit and trailer through the vehicle wash.Simple, I had never been trained to do it… ‘But you only have to push a button’.
Yes, but I haven’t been trained HOW to push that button!
You may scoff but last year I pulled into our Motherwell depot for fuel and spotting the drive through decided to put the truck through it. WRONG! Just as I was about to push the big green button handily marked ‘PUSH’ I spotted the office bod rushing over to me with much arm flapping. He then questioned whether I’d been trained on using said device, my telling him that after many minutes studying the complex machinery I reckon I had it sussed made no difference to him.
So off to the office we trooped, filled in a two page risk assessment, watched a short film, then accompanied by the depot trainer warily approached the wash whilst scanning for debris, bare wires, stray animals (wtf) and other traffic driving through the wash.
Anyhoo, long story short I not only survived the truckwash experience I also got my name in the approved book. Should look good on my cv though.