I am currently doing agency work but (not unusually) my wages are being messed about it and nearly every week they turn up wrong. I’ve used many different agencies in my time and they all promise the world and tell you what you want to hear but in reality they’re all as bad as each other.
I’m on an above-average hourly rate (incl overtime) for the work I do in comparison to other agencies but I’ve been thinking about offering myself to companies as a self-employed driver instead.
I can see that there seems to be a lot of knowledgeable people on these forums so I’m hoping that other self-employed drivers might be able to answer these questions :-
a. do you need to have your own insurance cover or do you stipulate that your client is responsible for cover?
b. typically, what payment terms do you specify or do you leave it up to the client to tell YOU what their payment terms are?
c. do you stipulate the traditional agency ‘minimum 8hrs’ policy?
d. do you find you have problems obtaining work? If so, any tips on what to do to easily overcome this?
Any other comments, tips or suggestions would be most welcome.
I’m not self-employed but I can extol the virtues of working for an agency. I have had very few minor problems with the agency I’m with. Regular work paid on time, queries dealt with immediately. It just seems to me you’ve just picked a wrong’un or two or you are expecting to much from them.
Andy, welcome to TruckNetUK. Agencies are a topic often discussed and my first advice would be the look the at the REC website. The Recuitment and Employment Confederation. They lay down Codes of Practice in respect of employing drivers and using one of their members should give you a degree of confidence that you will be treated in a proper manner.
I know of one agency that is shown on the Companies House website to have ‘arisen from the ashes’ in the period (I think) 1998 - 2001, on two occasions. Their Modus Operandi was to show deductions for Tax and N.I. but never forward the contributions to the Treasury. The result was that drivers received letters asking about their lack of contributions and, if they were unable to produce pay slips, were liable to pay those contributions. Whilst I am not at liberty to name that particular agency, I have recently heard that they have changed their name to reflect the Anglo-Saxon name for South-West England in which they operate. (Answers only on postcard please.)
Some agencies will also operate a ‘guaranteed’ income, whereby you agree to accept any job within a reasonable distance from your home regardless of the nature of the work or the hours involved.
As regards the self-employed route, yes it can be profitable, but I believe that after somewhere in the region of 13 weeks with any one employer, the Inland Revenue start to look hard at your employment status. Others more knowledgable may be able to assist further in that regard.
As has been said, perhaps you have picked a “wrong 'un”.
On my last UK job i got 12 weeks holiday during the winter months each year, some of the time I spent over here with friends, some of the time back there I would earn extra through an agency, but I was self employed I would accept work from the agency but charge 12 quid an hour and give them a reciept. I found I made more money that way and had the powere to just say no when I wanted to Try it
Insurance. The vehicle owner should insure the vehicle for whomever they choose to drive it. However, if the vehicle should only be driven by employees, then presumably the agency driver (you or me!) could be prosecuted for driving an uninsured vehicle. I shall have to look into this, that’s after a year of self-employed (limited company) agency driving. Can anyone clarify this situation?
Payment terms. The agency I use tells me what the rate is, and I go with that. It varies between £8 and £10 per hour depending upon the contract. I was interested to read that Pat stipulated to the agency what he would charge them.
Minimum hours. My agency works on a minimum of 8 hours, even if I am sent home after two hours of waiting, as happened to me recently.
Obtaining work. I have had no problem obtaining work generally, though there have been some slack periods. I am a bit restricted in that I won’t start before 6 am, and I don’t like to start after midday.
Other comments.
If you want to enter into an agreement with a haulage company, ask some local ones informally if they would take you on on a self-employed basis. I would try the larger ones first, such as Tesco and Sainsbury, as they are more likely to have reliable payment mechanisms.
My agency wants me to sign a contract with them. The terms seem fine, apart from one section which reads:
“Defective work by the Supplier , his substitutes or hired assistance will be corrected by the Supplier at his own cost or in his own time.”
So does that mean that if a refrigerator falls off a tail lift, I will have to replace that fridge at my own cost? I will have to clarify that with the agency.
THe biggest issue is actually getting the money you’re owed out of the companies you drive for. I have a unique perspective in so much that a very good friend of mine runs an employment agency and his biggest headache was getting money out of the clients. Due to the amounts he is owed he has just gone bankrupt for the second time. There was plenty of work and he had plenty of customers but most seemed to think 30-90 days was an acceptable time to wait to pay invoices.
The question you need to ask yourself is can you afford for the clients to take up to several weeks to pay you for the work you’ve done and also be happy not knowing when/if you’ll be paid knowing that is your sole income? If the answer is no then being a self employed driver isn’t for you
Agency work has the advantages of Self Employment without the pitfalls, i.e you can choose when you work but you’re guaranteed you’ll get your wages the following week and you’ve people looking for work for you and not just yourself.
I think you need to find a better agency. Stick with Manpower, Driver Hire and the other big ones.
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I’ve been looking into this myself recently and there are a number of large companies in my locale that are paying very tasty money and have sensible payment terms.
One such haulage company near me who have some big blue chip contracts have no problem paying me well into double figures per hour on weekday day work and time and a half overtime. It’s not really the kind of work I particularly like but when that kind of money is on offer I think I could make a few sacrifices .
I belled up what I thought was a haulage company to see about working for them self-employed on container work but it turned out to be an agency. While they could only pay me £8.75/hr on night work working for them, they could easily pay me £10/hr working self-employed for their client through them. I asked how that works and they just said, "dunno, it’s always been like that’.
A friend of mine who has contacts at Phil HanLeys asked them if they were interested. They said yes and asked for a quote in writing so I gave them one. Apparently the rates I’ve quoted are very favourable and once their HQ authorise it they’ll let me know .
As far as the tax & ni are concerned, I belled up my local IR office and told them what I wanted to do.
‘Oh yeah, no problem. You need to register as self-employed with us within 3 months of starting working as self-employed and then we’ll tell you how much ni to pay which will be worked out under class 2 ni contributions and we’ll send you out a tax returns form at the end of the financial year so we can work out how much tax you owe us’, and that was just about the long and short of it.
If you’re in the Barnsley / Wombwell area, I know for a fact that Perfecta / Layezee Beds on Barnsley Road will pay you £11/hr and time 1.5 after 8hrs and a minimum of £22 night out money on store deliveries nationwide. I’d give it a whirl myself but it’s too far to run from here.
All I’ll say is give it a go, but like others have warned, choose your company carefully or you might not see your money.
ive been considering doing the exact same thing, hiring my driving services out to any one needing a driver, i havent got round to contacting company,s yet though.but it does sound like the way to go for me.dependind on what rates could be agreed of course…
Terry, I’d advise finding out what the agencies charge the companies you’re interested in working for and then phone the companies direct and match it or knock a quid off.
I’d also suggest phoning a few agencies and telling them you’re a self-employed driver and see what they offer you. I bet it will be a couple of quid more per hour. When they’ve given you their rate, tell them that’s too low and you’d do it for two quid more. They’ll say no but will meet you in the middle more than likely.
I’ve been in contact with MacFarlanes today and you can’t work direct with them self-employed so I’m told, and need to use their main agency. Belled the agency up and after some haggling managed to secure £11/hr, time 1.5 o/t and £25 night out through the agency. This is the same agency that won’t pay you more than £7.50/hr and time 1.5 o/t if you work for them employed. Crazy. The good thing about working self-employed through the agency is that you’re on 7 days payment terms whereas you’d be on at least 28 days working for the company direct, if not 60 or 90 days.
I’ve got another week booked with Roadways direct but then I’m going self-employed as the feedback I’ve received is very attractive and it’s time to give it a whirl. Wish I’d got off my arse and done it years ago .
CHEERS ROB
ive got another week doing nights to fradley park on a self employed basis for a local firm, then i,ll get intouch with the agencie that i,m registered with and put this to them see how quick they put the phone down on me .
but the general idea of it sounds good to me, as all the agencie is doing is getting rich off our backs really… it kinda ■■■■■■ me off a bit…
i,ll keep you informed though…
i wouldnt care really but i had to knock a double man job to italy down on monday as i had committed myself to this night work for two weeks… …would of loved it… that is a problem i see occuring though rob… you are booked to do say two weeks for a company, and all the time you have to knock others back…how soon will the others get sick of you saying sorry m8 i,m booked up…and stop ringing you.?..
The way I plan to go about it is to seek long term contracts. I would imagine that the bigger, more established agencies will probably have the big clients and long contracts. Smaller agencies tend to have more odd-day work and that isn’t work I would be interested in, either self-employed or employed, unless it was astoundingly good money.
I’ve had a change of plan for next week in that I won’t be working another week for Roadways. I had a huge barnie with Freightliner last night which resulted in me being banned from their site. Roadways made a complaint to my agency about it which was unjustified so I got hold of Gordon Mosley who is the MD of Roadways Leeds and ‘discussed’ the matter with him but even though he pretty much agreed with what I did, upsetting Freightliner causes him problems. He then attempted to lecture me on why one must bow to Freightliner at all times and I wasn’t buying it. I told him I was there to do a job and not be [zb] about by ■■■■■■■■■■ If he didn’t want me to do the job then that’s fine, we shall agree to disagree and I will work elsewhere, so that’s what happened.
So next week I will be paying Charlie ■■■■’s a visit to discuss rates and ringing a contact who runs his own self-employed driver ‘agency’ to get the SP and making a decision from there.
ohterry555 — committing to work and then having to turn down the cream is the way it goes, unfortunately. However, the cream jobs aren’t always “repeaters”. My strategy is to be 100% reliable. That’s what gets the repeat orders and builds a reputation. Let people down, then word gets around and mud sticks. I’m in with a few “friendly competitors”, this is a good way to cover double bookings and as a contingency in the event of breakdowns etc. All the “friendlies” have to trust each other to do the work and not to market themselves to the others customers.
Rob — reving up at people is not good, particularly if you’re going the S/E route. My work is different, but when I come across the “obstacles”, as an O/D I can usually find someone sensible to talk with, or find a brains over brawn compromise.
I had a situation a few weeks back when delivering to a motor manufacturers r&d site on a Sunday (in Essex, so not too many guesses required!). Security had not been informed, and wouldn’t let me in. I spoke with the security manager, and he had pleasure in telling me he had “sent trucks back to Germany in the past”. After seeking confirmation that the main security gate was manned 24hrs, I (very politely) said I would unload the “secret” development car, park it by the gate, and throw the keys over the fence! Five minutes later, I was in. But I had also phoned my principle and agreed (nicely) that my fee would treble if I couldn’t drop, because there was no way I would have dumped the car and run!
Working with, rather than for or against, is the best policy.
spaceman:
ohterry555 — committing to work and then having to turn down the cream is the way it goes, unfortunately. However, the cream jobs aren’t always “repeaters”. My strategy is to be 100% reliable. That’s what gets the repeat orders and builds a reputation. Let people down, then word gets around and mud sticks. I’m in with a few “friendly competitors”, this is a good way to cover double bookings and as a contingency in the event of breakdowns etc. All the “friendlies” have to trust each other to do the work and not to market themselves to the others customers.
Rob — revving up at people is not good, particularly if you’re going the S/E route. My work is different, but when I come across the “obstacles”, as an O/D I can usually find someone sensible to talk with, or find a brains over brawn compromise.
I had a situation a few weeks back when delivering to a motor manufacturers r&d site on a Sunday (in Essex, so not too many guesses required!). Security had not been formed, and wouldn’t let me in. I spoke with the security manager, and he had pleasure in telling me he had “sent trucks back to Germany in the past”. After seeking confirmation that the main security gate was manned 24hrs, I (very politely) said I would unload the “secret” development car, park it by the gate, and throw the keys over the fence! Five minutes later, I was in. But I had also phoned my principle and agreed (nicely) that my fee would treble if I couldn’t drop, because there was no way I would have dumped the car and run!
Working with, rather than for or against, is the best policy.
I fully agree with you Spaceman. I am also very aware that much tongue-biting is required when working self-employed when things go wrong. A large amount of diplomacy is certainly essential and I’ll have to do some serious searching to find out where I left mine… .
That’s where the steel toe capped boots come in useful Rob. You can smile and bite your tongue and resolve the situation and THEN go round the other side of the truck and kick the tyres.
Coffeeholic:
That’s where the steel toe capped boots come in useful Rob. You can smile and bite your tongue and resolve the situation and THEN go round the other side of the truck and kick the tyres.
The hardest part is staying cool with anyone who takes the P with invoices / terms of trade. If you’re not bothered about working for them again, then there is nice bit of legislation called The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998
.
I sent the following letter to a firm this week, and they paid the same day.
“Dear Sirs
Your payment for invoice number xxxx for the transportation of 3 vehicles at the pre-agreed rate of £■■■ + Vat per vehicle is now 166 days overdue. Other than requesting these transits to be separately itemized, no queries have been raised on your account, so the balance remaining is undisputed.
In accordance with the late payment legislation, our company is legally entitled to charge a debt recovery cost of £■■ and interest on late payments of 11.75% to 30/06/04 and 12.5% from 01/07/04 to 31/12/04 (i.e. the reference rate plus 8%).
The attached calculation shows the interest and recovery cost of £■■ which we will require you to pay should the net balance of £■■ remain unpaid on 30/09/04.
An invoice for £■■ will follow should your payment not be received by 30/09/04.
Interest will continue to accrue on the outstanding balance and the recovery cost during October. Thereafter, should the net balance of £■■ remain unpaid, we will instigate court proceedings. In this event, further recovery costs and expenses will be submitted for consideration.”
Yours faithfully”
It’s a bit nasty, but I’m in business to make a living/profit. Debt collecting this way is better than smacking. You can smack an individual, this is how to smack a company!
I would accept work from the agency but charge 12 quid an hour and give them a reciept. I found I made more money that way and had the powere to just say no when I wanted to 
.
…would of loved it… that is a problem i see occuring though rob… you are booked to do say two weeks for a company, and all the time you have to knock others back…how soon will the others get sick of you saying sorry m8 i,m booked up…and stop ringing you.?..