I passed my class 2 in April this year and my class 1 in May, I never really got into looking for work as we had sold our house and were expecting to move during the school holidays to the opposite end of the country, Anyway the house sale fell through so once the kids went back to school I mad two phone calls, the first last Wednesday to an agency looking for class 2 in Peterborough, I have been for my induction this morning working on the bins £10hr and pretty much as much work as I want, the second phone call I made to a local haulage firm which run a large fleet of tippers typically they have just rang me back this afternoon wanting me to go out tomorrow with one of their drivers to learn the ropes and have a driving assessment.
basically I was only looking for the odd shift as I have a pension so don’t want or need to work full time yet the two companies I have approached both seem to want as much as I can give.
I am set up as a LTD company as I suspected I would be working for a few different companies so it seems to be working well, Anyway this is in the Peterborough area, I know the council bin agency job are desperate so there are still vacancies there if anyone is interested.
I suppose I am just posting this to reassure any prospective drivers that there is work out there and so far t doesn’t seem hard to get given that I have no experience to speak of.
There’s loads of jobs out there our company are taking on at most of their depots and are struggling to fill the vacancies. Also we are struggling to get enough agency drivers at peak times or in fact most times.
Hi
Would that be P J THORY or would it be the other large tipper firm in Peterborough.
Remember to move forward when tipping other wise the tailgate may get torn of.
Only happened to me once, its heavy putting it back on.
Don’t forget to wave will you.
Spoke to a friend of yours on Saturday, didn’t have much time to chat as we were kept busy.
Cheers
David
clubadria:
Hi
Would that be P J THORY or would it be the other large tipper firm in Peterborough.
Remember to move forward when tipping other wise the tailgate may get torn of.
Only happened to me once, its heavy putting it back on.
Don’t forget to wave will you.Spoke to a friend of yours on Saturday, didn’t have much time to chat as we were kept busy.
Cheers
David
yea its Thory’s I have an old sweat with me for the morning showing me the ropes so should be ok and its just shuttle runs from Whittlesey to March so should be a nice gentle first day fingers crossed, and yea my mate said he was talking to you his son is booked in on Saturday to start the theory and medical side of things he was impressed with the set up and obviously I warned him about the moody instructor lol…ok I sang your praises. I am pleased it till working out foryou down there and you are getting plenty of work.
Good to have work so close to home. Make sure you hammer the “old sweat” for all the info you can. Important with tippers to make sure the truck is level and on firm ground before tipping. Anything short of that will eventually go horribly wrong.
Thanks for recommending us and calling in on Saturday.
Pete 
Hi, thanks for the informative and positive post!
I am very interested in how you manage the limited company side of your venture - how does that work? What is the advantage to you? How is it preferable to bring a sole trader? If your company is hiring you out, didn’t that mean you needed an o license?
(sorry for the barrage of questions!)
Shandy.
Shandy123:
Hi, thanks for the informative and positive post!
I am very interested in how you manage the limited company side of your venture - how does that work? What is the advantage to you? How is it preferable to bring a sole trader? If your company is hiring you out, didn’t that mean you needed an o license?
(sorry for the barrage of questions!)
Shandy.
I am in a bit of a unique situation as I have a pension from a previous employment and as a result my own personal tax allowance is used up with this, which means that everything I earn is then taxed, as a self employed person you can obviously right off certain expenses against your tax liability, this just works better for me, the reason I have had to become a limited company is as a self employed person I am currently working for two different companies and this could and may increase, a lot of agencies want you either PAYE which doesn’t work for me as I have explained or as a limited company as they niavly think this is more official than being a sole trader, the agency I am working for on the bin wagons would not take me on unless I went PAYE or Limited, all I do is invoice them at the end of each week on behalf of my company and they pay a week later, but I am claiming 45p mile to get to and from work, obviously things like my computer, phone etc etc are being used to offset my tax liability (it is only a percentage of things like cost of phone as its not solely for business) I have an accountant who has told me to just keep a full record of my invoices and my expenses for milage etc, I don’t need an operators licence as I am not operating any vehicles as a company I am purely a driver.
other people on here may be able to shed more light but prior to the agency telling me I had to be PAYE or a limited company my accountant had already mentioned when I explained what I was hopeing to do that I may have to become a limited company.
Thanks for the explanation. I was interested, as I recently set up my own ltd. company, then decided not to move forward with it, as the business model was flawed, but I have wondered about doing my agency work (supply teaching and driving) via the ltd. company, in order to take advantage of tax deductable things like fuel to jobs, workwear, lease car, etc.
I guess I should speak to an accountant and my agencies?
Clearly this is a matter for professional advice. But the main reason for going “Ltd” as a free-lance driver is to overcome the traditional “master/servant” relationship between yourself and the operator.
You would have trouble, as a self employed driver, justifying that status to the taxman if you were only working for one operator. If you have a large portfolio of operators then there is no established “master/servant” relationship and this would be fine. In the first instance, you overcome this as a Ltd company as you are working for the limited company, not for the operator.
There are tax/accountancy costs implications both ways and this is where a good accountant is worth his salt.
Pete