If I’ve worked it out right it’s still £9 per hour some on here get less for class 1 but work 80 hours every week to get total up, so if you can live on it stay on it.
Conor:
Newbie Pete:
Didn’t won’t to go on a agency because of all the thing you here about them.Half of it is crap spouted by people who’ve never used them. They’re not all bad, you just have to have your wits about you when you sign up and understand you won’t get 5 days a week every week of the year. One thing agency work will do is get you experience in a very wide range of different types of work, load and vehicle, far more than you’d ever get if you went with regular employment which is good for a new starter. It gives you the opportunity to try something that you’d never ever consider for a job but may end up liking, in my case it was waste food skips and compactors on class 2. Didn’t want to go, thought I’d just do the days I was booked for never to return but ended up loving it. If I’d have seen the job advertised in the newspaper before doing it on agency I’d have never applied.
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please enlighten us conor old chap.
half of it may be crap by non agency drivers,but the other half will be accurate about how bad they are by drivers who actually have used agencies at one time or another.
you keep telling us that you get so much work offered to you constantly that you can pick and choose just what work you want to take and when you want to take it as agency bods get much superior wages to direct employed in real jobs.?
the you say you wont get 5 shifts a week all year round?(unless your such a driving god that anywhere you go they will see how great you are and immediately ask you back)
the job of your dreams is a class2 waste food compactor/skip job,so why arnt you a skip lorry driving god instead of doing a night trunk for howdens lugging loads of chipboard on a curtainsider travelling a 60 ish mile round trip just to get a shift in the 1st place?
…do tell 
dieseldog999:
half of it may be crap by non agency drivers,but the other half will be accurate about how bad they are by drivers who actually have used agencies at one time or another.
I have no doubt it is but that is drivers allowing themselves to be treated badly and going to these agencies.
you keep telling us that you get so much work offered to you constantly that you can pick and choose just what work you want to take and when you want to take it as agency bods get much superior wages to direct employed in real jobs.?
Yep.
the you say you wont get 5 shifts a week all year round?(unless your such a driving god that anywhere you go they will see how great you are and immediately ask you back)
Correct especially when you start. I don’t but that is because I’m picky. If I was willing to go to Tesco at Goole and drive for Stobbies on agency I’d have 5/6 days a week 52 weeks a year if I wanted it and on the run up to Xmas getting £100 a shift bonus.
the job of your dreams is a class2 waste food compactor/skip job,so why arnt you a skip lorry driving god instead of doing a night trunk for howdens lugging loads of chipboard on a curtainsider travelling a 60 ish mile round trip just to get a shift in the 1st place?
…do tell
Because I’ve three knackered discs in my lower back, two which I knackered when I was a mechanic were operated on in 1992 before I started truck driving and the third above those which I knackered slowly over the following 6 years jumping on and off the backs of trailers, ■■■■■■■ sheets onto the top of loads of timber to sheet them down, unloading 20 tonnes of flatpack kitchens a night with a pallet truck, being bounced around in quarries driving Terex dumper trucks etc etc etc is inoperable because of the previous operation. If I followed the specialist’s advice I’d be sat at home on benefits because I’m not allowed to stand for long periods, sit for long periods, pull, push or lift anything of any weight so that rules out shovelling up stuff when you’re doing compactors. The reason I do agency work and solely at Howdens is because it is something I’m capable of within my disability and even there I have certain loads I don’t do such as chipboard collections where I have to strap them down. I’m OK de-strapping but strapping them down to the amount they need to be causes me issues. I used to also do pallet network night trunking as well but when they changed over to the XL curtains on double deckers opening them left me in severe pain so I couldn’t even do that any more.
So that’s why I travel a 60 mile round trip to do night trunks at Howdens because the alternative is sat at home on benefits watching Jeremy Kyle all day which whilst it may sound great drives me mad. I only managed a couple of weeks not working when my disability forced me to stop driving in 2008 before I found something else to do which fortunately I could given other things I’d done in the past and alongside truck driving.
Is that OK with you?
Conor:
dieseldog999:
half of it may be crap by non agency drivers,but the other half will be accurate about how bad they are by drivers who actually have used agencies at one time or another.I have no doubt it is but that is drivers allowing themselves to be treated badly and going to these agencies.
you keep telling us that you get so much work offered to you constantly that you can pick and choose just what work you want to take and when you want to take it as agency bods get much superior wages to direct employed in real jobs.?
Yep.
the you say you wont get 5 shifts a week all year round?(unless your such a driving god that anywhere you go they will see how great you are and immediately ask you back)
Correct especially when you start. I don’t but that is because I’m picky. If I was willing to go to Tesco at Goole and drive for Stobbies on agency I’d have 5/6 days a week 52 weeks a year if I wanted it and on the run up to Xmas getting £100 a shift bonus.
the job of your dreams is a class2 waste food compactor/skip job,so why arnt you a skip lorry driving god instead of doing a night trunk for howdens lugging loads of chipboard on a curtainsider travelling a 60 ish mile round trip just to get a shift in the 1st place?
…do tellBecause I’ve three knackered discs in my lower back, two which I knackered when I was a mechanic were operated on in 1992 before I started truck driving and the third above those which I knackered slowly over the following 6 years jumping on and off the backs of trailers, ■■■■■■■ sheets onto the top of loads of timber to sheet them down, unloading 20 tonnes of flatpack kitchens a night with a pallet truck, being bounced around in quarries driving Terex dumper trucks etc etc etc is inoperable because of the previous operation. If I followed the specialist’s advice I’d be sat at home on benefits because I’m not allowed to stand for long periods, sit for long periods, pull, push or lift anything of any weight so that rules out shovelling up stuff when you’re doing compactors. The reason I do agency work and solely at Howdens is because it is something I’m capable of within my disability and even there I have certain loads I don’t do such as chipboard collections where I have to strap them down. I’m OK de-strapping but strapping them down to the amount they need to be causes me issues. I used to also do pallet network night trunking as well but when they changed over to the XL curtains on double deckers opening them left me in severe pain so I couldn’t even do that any more.
So that’s why I travel a 60 mile round trip to do night trunks at Howdens because the alternative is sat at home on benefits watching Jeremy Kyle all day which whilst it may sound great drives me mad. I only managed a couple of weeks not working when my disability forced me to stop driving in 2008 before I found something else to do which fortunately I could given other things I’d done in the past and alongside truck driving.
Is that OK with you?
Stobarts we’re offering there own drivers £200 to do a extra shift upto xmas , so if you were only getting £100 you were being taken for a mug .
Conor:
Half of it is crap spouted by people who’ve never used them. They’re not all bad, you just have to have your wits about you when you sign up and understand you won’t get 5 days a week every week of the year. One thing agency work will do is get you experience in a very wide range of different types of work, load and vehicle, far more than you’d ever get if you went with regular employment which is good for a new starter. It gives you the opportunity to try something that you’d never ever consider for a job but may end up liking, in my case it was waste food skips and compactors on class 2. Didn’t want to go, thought I’d just do the days I was booked for never to return but ended up loving it. If I’d have seen the job advertised in the newspaper before doing it on agency I’d have never applied.
I’d agree with that. Despite what some might tell you, there are good and bad agencies just as there are good and bad employers in every form of work. I’ve been all sides of the agency game, driver, consultant and even client when I was a TM. There are a few on here who do agency full time and are happy with it; there are others who’ve either have never done it but know all about it cos their mate told them, or have been unfortunate enough to get one crap job from a crap agency and think they’re all like that.
The one thing, however, that neither I nor any reputable agency would suggest that you do, is pack in a full time job to go on agency especially if you’ve got a family to support. That is too risky, especially at this time of year; and of course if you only have a cat C licence there’s a limit to the work available to you, as the agency will always try to keep its regular class 1 men busy, as they’re its bread and butter.