As an agency guy doing mostly weekends I can say that before a shift I always have to remove the regular guy’s sweet wrappers and other rubbish, I have to clean the steering wheel before I can touch it, I clean the windows and mirrors, and then after my shift I always leave the cab ‘undisturbed’. I will admit that I remove teddy bears from the windscreen but I do put them back afterwards. Other more permanent fixtures such as flags, football scarves, bar towels, etc I will leave well alone and just tolerate their presence. But having said all of this, you can’t really help it if you ■■■■ and “follow-through” on the seat, can you?
The-Snowman:
Just in the interests of a balanced opinion I can tell you that as an agency driver Ive been given the keys to a full timers units that are [zb] pig stys inside. On one occasion I refused to take a unit due to all the rubbish,dirt and smell inside.
I dont get the “agency drivers are minging” mentality. There are good and bad from BOTH sides.
Please stop trying to be balanced - this is England. There are no shades of grey here, everything is either black or white! 
30+ years ago when I was agency, I got given a lorry and I just got in and did my job.
Company I work for has 2 trucks.
For a tour, you’ll get assigned one and its “yours” for the duration of the tour. Means you can leave stuff in there and make it your own for a while. It might still be used if it’s back at the lockup for a quick run but they’re always left as they’re found and nobody messes with anything left him them.
This time of year when we doing multiple festivals you’re chopping and changing between each truck every week. Trucks are always left clean and have no clutter left in them by anyone.
Had mine assigned to me for 4 months now and tomorrow is my last day on this tour. Don’t understand how some people get a truck so dirty in a day looking at mine.
largebloke1969:
Muckaway:
Are the relief drivers scruffy, or are the regular drivers bordering on OCD?
I’ll look after a lorry but I wont waste my time ■■■■■■■ about to return a vehicle to show standard.Not a case of having ocd , not to much to expect to get your truck back as you left it is it ? Beats me how some drivers get it so [zb] up when there only in it for a nightshift
True, I was thinking more of those who leave stupid notes like “please use polish/don’t alter radio/don’t adjust the seat” etc.
I worked with a driver who had one of those awful All Ride steering wheel covers. I used to always take the stupid thing off, not only was it tacky but was irritating with those smooth plastic bits. I wasn’t the only one to take the cover off, and none of us put it back afterwards. That was because we loved seeing him get upset over it. 
Theres alot to be gained by firms giving units to one or two named drivers,less defects and downtime and usually a tidy fleet ,keep the scruffs and mingers in certain units to keep um in the filth together,once the firm starts giving keys out to every tom ■■■■ and harry soon enough all the lorrys are sheds and nobody gives a toss,its just a tool for the job then…
carryfast-yeti:
agy drivers leaving the cab in a mess?
They’d be banned from where I work. Even though the truck is washed by the day driver, if the night agency driver doesn’t wash it at the end of their shift there’s all hell to pay.
G6Bob:
I know what you mean, they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel at my place with agency.This is what I came into today, agency guy was asked to put fuel and adblue in the motor after not bothering most of the week… someone should told him not literally IN the motor
Sorry but why the hell is your company giving you containers of Adblue? The only company I’ve ever driven at who did that ran a fleet so badly I refused to drive for them.
Amen to dedicated units. We have 3 full time drivers using their own wagons. Each one is kept tidy and maintained to the “owners” satisfaction. The other one gets used by everyone and anyone, as such no ownership is taken and it looks a ■■■■■■■ wreck inside. And we don’t use agency drivers!
The only thing the OP can do is stipulate the wagon is to be left in the state it is found, or they won’t be using the services of that agency again. Worked at my old firm.
Only one agency guy has used my truck while had some time off, when I came back the entire unit was spotless. Inside and out!
We have our own wagons, been in mine 2 years now, things may change soon 
Anyway, we have one guy sagging another guys wagon off for being dirty, to be honest it’s not so bad just a bit dusty, the guy doing the sagging off, his wagon is like a right skip inside . 
…go figure
I am an agency driver, working almost exclusively on a specific contract covering leave on day tramping. I wanna address a couple of points here:
Muckaway:
True, I was thinking more of those who leave stupid notes like “please use polish/don’t alter radio/don’t adjust the seat” etc.
I will ensure that top surfaces are clean. I will sweep out floors and footwells, I will polish glass. I will tune the radio as I see fit, ensuring that the regular driver’s preferred station is saved as a pre-set so I can re-instate it. I will adjust the seat to my satisfaction. Any driver who doesn’t, shouldn’t be driving. If you are not comfortable in the seat you will not be able to concentrate properly and respond as quick to developing road situations.
Muckaway:
I worked with a driver who had one of those awful All Ride steering wheel covers. I used to always take the stupid thing off, not only was it tacky but was irritating with those smooth plastic bits. I wasn’t the only one to take the cover off, and none of us put it back afterwards. That was because we loved seeing him get upset over it.
I cannot abide steering wheel covers, I cant comfortably grip the steering wheel with them on. I remove them at the start of every shift. Same with those stupid belly dancer ■■■■■ tassles many drivers like to hang around the windscreen. They are a distraction to me. I like to sit high up and they are in my eye line while driving.
Cosmic:
I will admit that I remove teddy bears from the windscreen but I do put them back afterwards. Other more permanent fixtures such as flags, football scarves, bar towels, etc I will leave well alone and just tolerate their presence.
Teddy bears and crap around the windows go in a locker and stay there until I am out of the cab. I will inform the traffic office of where they have been put but also say that I will not put them back in place as the Vostapo don’t like them and I wouldn’t want to be a party to their driver being fined. Its up to him, i’m not helping.
The-Snowman:
On one occasion I refused to take a unit due to all the rubbish,dirt and smell inside.
I dont get the “agency drivers are minging” mentality. There are good and bad from BOTH sides.
The last truck I drove I filled a pedal bin liner with empty cheese and onion crisp packets stuffed under the bunk. The wagon stank of ■■■■, (Im a vaper, not a smoker) and the cup holders were minging. I cleaned up as best I could because while it is ‘his wagon’, its my home for a week and I shouldn’t have to live in that.
Next week im double truckin’ it, back to the yard on Wednesday to change over. I think I should stock up on dash polish before I leave.
R49S:
We run a smallish fleet with long time drivers with their own trucks. As times gone on we’re having to occasionally do night runs… it’s ad-hoc a lot of the time so we’re not able to take anyone on full time on nights. So we end up using agency drivers.A lot of our guys take real good care of the trucks, and we’d love to keep to one man one truck, but it’s daft not to take this work on at night when the vehicle is just stood there. However a lot of the time the agency lads are making a real mess in the guys cabs… Tempers flair sometimes and it causes animosity with the office lot, who get the blame.
I was wondering if any of you guys have had this problem and had seen any solutions that might be worth trying out?
So far the only thing we’ve tried is ‘black listing’ an agency driver if the regular driver reports that they’ve messed the cab up - or items have gone missing. But as it is with agency’s; its a different guy, pretty much every night.
Cheers.
Ever thought of buying a spare motor and allowing the agency driver to use that. Doesn’t need to be anything special but would work for night trunk and back up if required
Just hand out a sheet with paperwork or integrate it into check sheet, for drivers to make sure the truck they are given is clean at the start of the shift and to report it if it isn’t. Warn on agency sheets leaving the truck a mess could lead to being banned from the site. Get rid of the ones who trash the trucks. All you really can do.
As for not fueling up when i was at DHL there was a memo that fueling the vehicle up at the end of the shift was part of the job and if you didn’t bother could be seen you didn’t complete your shift and maybe not paid. Doubt that threat was legal or ever carried out but when you came back in would look over your sheet and if fuel was left blank would be told to go back our fill it up.
Current job we don’t have ad-blue pumps and local garage only has those 10litre bottles of it, so i don’t fill it up at the end of the shift, i’d rather wait because know at some point in the week no doubt be passing a garage that has a ad-blue pump and just fill it, plus its usually nearly half the price.