'There's something wrong with you'

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Bit of a life advice needed here…In the last 2 months I’ve been on a very light schedule (1 agency, working for the same client since late February) with just 1 shift per week + the odd unscheduled day every other week or so, down from 5 days a week from before the apocalypse. It was originally supposed to be a 4 week temp to perm but just then - what do you know, national emergency etc. so all new contracts suspended.

Or so I was told by the agency. I had a chat the other night with a fellow agency driver from Romania (same agency, same client) who told me they gave a contract to some guy just last week. I commented on the situation that there’s very little work right now so they’re trying to spread what little work is available between all the agency drivers (most of their full timers are on furlough) and described my own situation as an example. ‘No, my friend - there’s something wrong with you. I work 5-6 days per week as usual’. He showed me his tacho app thing as proof (not that I was doubting him, lol) but yeah I 100% know that there are agency drivers getting full weeks while some of us are down to 1-2 days per week. I also saw with my own eyes last week another agency guy handing in his weekly timesheet and he had only done 2 days and can see some of the runs have been suspended.

Mr. ‘I get 5 days a week’ went on to tell me how he got a driver sacked because he forgot a half-eaten sandwich in the cab by going directly to the ‘top manager’ and leading him to the lorry to show him. He also admitted (bragged) about telling him other things going on in the yard which were new to the manager and he was very appreciative of this information so he started regularly inviting him to his office for a ‘chat’ - the guy is now his personal plant, lol. He also told me he’s next in line for a contract as the manager himself promised him.

Now to my question - is this the path to ‘success’ in this profession? Stalk other drivers and point out their ■■■■■■■ to the ‘big man’, tell on your planners, the loaders, the warehouse staff etc.? Because I’ve been trying to get a job for a year by simply showing up for work 5-10 mins before my scheduled start, doing what I’m being asked to do, not having any accidents or incidents, trying to fix others mistakes by myself where possible instead of reporting them and refusing to do anything about it, going to work on a short notice because someone else didn’t show up for whatever reason on I can’t remember how many occasions in just 4 months never trying to extort a higher pay rate but evidently, I’ve been doing it wrong all along. There’s something wrong with me indeed.

2

Yes you don’t lick the bosses rear and snitch on your fellow worker
Leave the EE snake to it and keep doing your own thing

Sent while in furlough

3

Sounds like the very last place i’d want a full time job, sacked outright for managing to leave half a sandwich in the cab? bollocking yes, but sacking sounds way over the top to me or rather a made up story from that bod.

Oh and if that Roma geezer told me his name i’d take it with a pinch of salt, same as every other thing that comes from his gob, Brits don’t have exclusive rights on being arses and compulisve liars, he sounds full of it and i’d avoid having any other contact with the bleeder, if his boasts of grassing are true he could be twisting anything you say for his next ‘report’ to his senior manager sugar daddy, ignore him because if you challenge him he wouldn’t be the first one to pull the race card and apart from anything else he’s already got under your skin.

If he’s really getting 5 days a week it isn’t just because he’s a grass, he’s probably working for a lower rate than normal.

PS, no this isn’t how you get on in this game, not at any place i’d want to work, you get on by being totally reliable and competent and looking after your equipment so you earn yourself the right reputation (and you never know where fellow drivers will end up, if they score a dead mans shoes job they ain’t going to recommend no-hopers for a job), and last but by no means least, by looking after the most important person in the company…the customer.

4

He’s getting 5 days a week because he’s working for £2/hr less than you. That’s why you’re sat at home.

5

R420:
He’s getting 5 days a week because he’s working for £2/hr less than you. That’s why you’re sat at home.

This ^^^

Its not his tacho app thing you want to see, its his payslip/invoice.

Say the agency charges the client £15ph to provide a driver. If they can send a driver and pay him £10ph or send you at £12.50ph who do.you think will get the gig?

Agencies. ■■■■■■■■■■ Same thing.

6

toonsy:
Its not his tacho app thing you want to see, its his payslip/invoice.

Say the agency charges the client £15ph to provide a driver. If they can send a driver and pay him £10ph or send you at £12.50ph who do.you think will get the gig?

Agencies. [zb]. Same thing.

I’m not sure that’s how it works. The agency doesn’t book the drivers, the company does and the agency simply lets you know that you’ve been booked for such and such. Only for ‘emergency’ shifts it’s up to the agency to find a driver.

Now that I think about it, it may well be that because they both know that I’m always available for an unscheduled shift and I’m usually there in 20 mins after the call ready to start, they’ve stopped booking me (the company that is) to keep me as a spare of sorts. :unamused: Also this Romanian fella has way more experience than me so it’s understandable if he’s getting more work but I can’t see any reason for other (also more experienced than me) drivers to be getting only 1-2 days.

Anyway I don’t really have an option to walk away at the moment but man, I really felt it like a punch in the stomach. And the preachy tone of his voice as he was telling me about all that :imp: I’ve been there 3 months and I don’t even know who the ‘big boss’ is, :grimacing:

7

To be honest you do come across on here as if you have a bit of an edge, maybe the other driver is more flexible and easier to deal with.

8

What company were this at??

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

9

There is a member on here who can help.
20 militant years at royal mail and a self confessed office ■■■ pest, he knows how to get the premium shifts.
He will be along shortly I’m sure

10

This all sounds very familiar to me…

Whereas giving work to one bod over another could be within the “pecking order” remit used by most agencies,
there’s the mis-use of furlough grants going on where the yard stands down it’s full time drivers on paid furlough leave, dished out the work that the full timers would usually be doing to the more favoured agency bods (If the job is furloughed, then how come the firm is claiming the 80% grant for it’s stood-down full timers when it’s “business as usual”?

Surely the yard should be completely shut down, or at least down to a skeleton staff in order to not claim the grant “fraudulently”?

Agency - is aiding and abetting the client here of course, perhaps even being bullied into doing so… “If you don’t help us rip off the government scheme here, we’ll find another agency who will, and give them your contract with us here as block supplier of drivers”…

Meanwhile, either the agency bod is flat out still, meaning that they are working for their pay as per normal, or stood down 100% and not on any pay, “because they are zhc scum”. Right?
That just leaves those happy few agency ZHC bods that managed to scoop the 80% whilst stood down… Not sure how come they’ve managed that, but there’s clear uneven playing field, favouritism, and even nepotism there most likley if it is true, of course… “We’ll give it to one, 'cos we like him, and we’ll deny it to another 'cos we don’t like him.”

Of course, all this seems to be being classed as “Ok” by most people right now, whereas yours truly has been nothing but a voice crying in the wilderness as per usual banging on about it… :angry:

There will be a reckoning when this is all over.

I reckon even at “minimum damage” now, the most likely outcome is the clients try to cut loose and throw the agencies under the bus, when this all comes out in the wash, as eventually it surely must.
You’re not supposed to claim money from the government if you are working your yard up-and-running as usual.
If you furlough a full timer, claim the money, and then give the work they have vacated out to agency cover - then that’s like the old days of brudders routinely “working and signing on” which they could get away with in former times because of “cash-in-hand work”…

The lockdown wasn’t supposed to be a “management excercise in systemic fraud” FFS…
Bigger fool Sunak for drafting very expensive plans without “moral hazard” safeguards built-in, let alone “normal legal over-sight” currently impossible, because the watchers are thinned-out because of legitimate furlough-stand-down meanwhile. :unamused: :unamused: :unamused:

11

Juddian:
Sounds like the very last place i’d want a full time job, sacked outright for managing to leave half a sandwich in the cab? bollocking yes, but sacking sounds way over the top to me or rather a made up story from that bod.

Oh and if that Roma geezer told me his name i’d take it with a pinch of salt, same as every other thing that comes from his gob, Brits don’t have exclusive rights on being arses and compulisve liars, he sounds full of it and i’d avoid having any other contact with the bleeder, if his boasts of grassing are true he could be twisting anything you say for his next ‘report’ to his senior manager sugar daddy, ignore him because if you challenge him he wouldn’t be the first one to pull the race card and apart from anything else he’s already got under your skin.

If he’s really getting 5 days a week it isn’t just because he’s a grass, he’s probably working for a lower rate than normal. Or both…

PS, no this isn’t how you get on in this game, not at any place i’d want to work, you get on by being totally reliable and competent and looking after your equipment so you earn yourself the right reputation (and you never know where fellow drivers will end up, if they score a dead mans shoes job they ain’t going to recommend no-hopers for a job), and last but by no means least, by looking after the most important person in the company…the customer.

Staff who lose the firm less, are as important as staff who make the firm more.
Doing a 10 hour job in 8 hours “to keep a firm happy” - isn’t much good if you’re smashing up kit every five minutes,
whereas the bod who puts in more hours, and costs the firm more in that way, isn’t causing damage, has the cheapest “■■■■-ups”, and who cares a ■■■■ if they rub fellow staff up the wrong way, as opposed to the company’s customers, who like said bod’s “can-do” attitude when asked to go the extra mile?

12

toonsy:

R420:
He’s getting 5 days a week because he’s working for £2/hr less than you. That’s why you’re sat at home.

This ^^^

Its not his tacho app thing you want to see, its his payslip/invoice.

Say the agency charges the client £15ph to provide a driver. If they can send a driver and pay him £10ph or send you at £12.50ph who do.you think will get the gig?

Agencies. [zb]. Same thing.

“The Death of Agencies” now in sight doya think?

…Just a few months ago, someone like me would have waxed lyrical about how decent agencies seemed to be, and now I’m a complete convert to the way others on here considered them agencies “scum” all along, by the looks of it… But there’s a paradox! If it’s ME that’s changed, then how come people still despise me for being my same-old self in their eyes?? :open_mouth:

13

Winseer:

toonsy:

R420:
He’s getting 5 days a week because he’s working for £2/hr less than you. That’s why you’re sat at home.

This ^^^

Its not his tacho app thing you want to see, its his payslip/invoice.

Say the agency charges the client £15ph to provide a driver. If they can send a driver and pay him £10ph or send you at £12.50ph who do.you think will get the gig?

Agencies. [zb]. Same thing.

“The Death of Agencies” now in sight doya think?

…Just a few months ago, someone like me would have waxed lyrical about how decent agencies seemed to be, and now I’m a complete convert to the way others on here considered them agencies “scum” all along, by the looks of it… But there’s a paradox! If it’s ME that’s changed, then how come people still despise me for being my same-old self in their eyes?? :open_mouth:

Thing is small companies dont commit to agency drivers they want competant manageable think for themslef drivers.

Whereas the big firms dont care about bump or scratches on motors as thier profits outweigh the carnage caused.

Agencies will go on forever. Its sad to say but only 25%of tesco or any other supermarket drivers are full time. Reason being these guys dont damage wagons and turn up on time.

14

It is if you’re a douche. These guys have their cards marked and the names go in other drivers pocket books for future reference.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

15

Winseer:
This all sounds very familiar to me…

Whereas giving work to one bod over another could be within the “pecking order” remit used by most agencies,
there’s the mis-use of furlough grants going on where the yard stands down it’s full time drivers on paid furlough leave, dished out the work that the full timers would usually be doing to the more favoured agency bods (If the job is furloughed, then how come the firm is claiming the 80% grant for it’s stood-down full timers when it’s “business as usual”?

Surely the yard should be completely shut down, or at least down to a skeleton staff in order to not claim the grant “fraudulently”?

Agency - is aiding and abetting the client here of course, perhaps even being bullied into doing so… “If you don’t help us rip off the government scheme here, we’ll find another agency who will, and give them your contract with us here as block supplier of drivers”…

Meanwhile, either the agency bod is flat out still, meaning that they are working for their pay as per normal, or stood down 100% and not on any pay, “because they are zhc scum”. Right?
That just leaves those happy few agency ZHC bods that managed to scoop the 80% whilst stood down… Not sure how come they’ve managed that, but there’s clear uneven playing field, favouritism, and even nepotism there most likley if it is true, of course… “We’ll give it to one, 'cos we like him, and we’ll deny it to another 'cos we don’t like him.”

Of course, all this seems to be being classed as “Ok” by most people right now, whereas yours truly has been nothing but a voice crying in the wilderness as per usual banging on about it… :angry:

There will be a reckoning when this is all over.

I reckon even at “minimum damage” now, the most likely outcome is the clients try to cut loose and throw the agencies under the bus, when this all comes out in the wash, as eventually it surely must.
You’re not supposed to claim money from the government if you are working your yard up-and-running as usual.
If you furlough a full timer, claim the money, and then give the work they have vacated out to agency cover - then that’s like the old days of brudders routinely “working and signing on” which they could get away with in former times because of “cash-in-hand work”…

The lockdown wasn’t supposed to be a “management excercise in systemic fraud” FFS…
Bigger fool Sunak for drafting very expensive plans without “moral hazard” safeguards built-in, let alone “normal legal over-sight” currently impossible, because the watchers are thinned-out because of legitimate furlough-stand-down meanwhile. :unamused: :unamused: :unamused:

When this jolly interlude is over and we finally get to a new normal, I’m fairly certain it’ll come out in the wash that certain firms have rooked the government to a high degree - as for Roma man he won’t last long - he’ll pick on the wrong guy one day - karma always comes a’calling.

16

I don’t know how that happened but my reply to Winseer has found its way into the middle of his post - anyway I mention firms rooking the government and karma will fix the Roma speakeasy.

17

Maybe stop giving full availability and let the agency and client know that they don’t have exclusivity anymore because of the reduced work. It is rocking the boat slightly, but that is probably what the other drivers have done to get the work.

18

Winseer:
This all sounds very familiar to me…

Whereas giving work to one bod over another could be within the “pecking order” remit used by most agencies,
there’s the mis-use of furlough grants going on where the yard stands down it’s full time drivers on paid furlough leave, dished out the work that the full timers would usually be doing to the more favoured agency bods (If the job is furloughed, then how come the firm is claiming the 80% grant for it’s stood-down full timers when it’s “business as usual”?

Surely the yard should be completely shut down, or at least down to a skeleton staff in order to not claim the grant “fraudulently”?

Agency - is aiding and abetting the client here of course, perhaps even being bullied into doing so… “If you don’t help us rip off the government scheme here, we’ll find another agency who will, and give them your contract with us here as block supplier of drivers”…

Meanwhile, either the agency bod is flat out still, meaning that they are working for their pay as per normal, or stood down 100% and not on any pay, “because they are zhc scum”. Right?
That just leaves those happy few agency ZHC bods that managed to scoop the 80% whilst stood down… Not sure how come they’ve managed that, but there’s clear uneven playing field, favouritism, and even nepotism there most likley if it is true, of course… “We’ll give it to one, 'cos we like him, and we’ll deny it to another 'cos we don’t like him.”

Of course, all this seems to be being classed as “Ok” by most people right now, whereas yours truly has been nothing but a voice crying in the wilderness as per usual banging on about it… :angry:

There will be a reckoning when this is all over.

I reckon even at “minimum damage” now, the most likely outcome is the clients try to cut loose and throw the agencies under the bus, when this all comes out in the wash, as eventually it surely must.
You’re not supposed to claim money from the government if you are working your yard up-and-running as usual.
If you furlough a full timer, claim the money, and then give the work they have vacated out to agency cover - then that’s like the old days of brudders routinely “working and signing on” which they could get away with in former times because of “cash-in-hand work”…

The lockdown wasn’t supposed to be a “management excercise in systemic fraud” FFS…
Bigger fool Sunak for drafting very expensive plans without “moral hazard” safeguards built-in, let alone “normal legal over-sight” currently impossible, because the watchers are thinned-out because of legitimate furlough-stand-down meanwhile. :unamused: :unamused: :unamused:

Same crap you post in every other thread, just copied and pasted here. No-one cares.

19

toonsy:

R420:
He’s getting 5 days a week because he’s working for £2/hr less than you. That’s why you’re sat at home.

This ^^^

Its not his tacho app thing you want to see, its his payslip/invoice.

Say the agency charges the client £15ph to provide a driver. If they can send a driver and pay him £10ph or send you at £12.50ph who do.you think will get the gig?

Agencies. [zb]. Same thing.

Yep. I’ve said it in other threads, agency work is approx 80% politics and 20% work/driving. You can be the best driver in the world but if you don’t figure out the politics of who’s who, who the main agency supplier is, what they’re paying, what they’re charging, who the first choice regulars are and who the people are in the office that liaise with the agencies to book the drivers, you’re wasting your time. It’s all about getting ‘in’ with the right crowd of long-termers and office staff, timing your visits to the coffee machine and cig shelter to coincide with theirs so you get talking and you build up a rapport. The jigsaw pieces slowly come together and if you don’t ■■■■ it up you’ll eventually get your name close to the top of the list when they need drivers.

20

R420:
Yep. I’ve said it in other threads, agency work is approx 80% politics and 20% work/driving. You can be the best driver in the world but if you don’t figure out the politics of who’s who, who the main agency supplier is, what they’re paying, what they’re charging, who the first choice regulars are and who the people are in the office that liaise with the agencies to book the drivers, you’re wasting your time. It’s all about getting ‘in’ with the right crowd of long-termers and office staff, timing your visits to the coffee machine and cig shelter to coincide with theirs so you get talking and you build up a rapport. The jigsaw pieces slowly come together and if you don’t [zb] it up you’ll eventually get your name close to the top of the list when they need drivers.

Ain’t that the truth ^^^ ?

I may not be the crunchiest cookie in the box (otherwise I’d be wearing a sharp suit instead of peddling tat up and down our mortorways) but I’m smart enough to figure out how things works in the real world. During my foray into limpdom I quickly figured that it’s all about doing what’s best for you by maximising your potential. I’m not talking about sucking the proverbial or kissing ■■■, I’m talking about being the “go to” guy every single time, be that guy and you’ll maximise your earning potential, and let’s be honest here, none of us work for the kudos of being a lorryist, it’s all about putting food on the table. If you find that your stance is getting in the way of that you need to adjust your stance or switch careers.