For the last few weeks I have been doing some agency driving, mainly as I know very few permanent jobs come up in the main holiday season with so many folks away. Consequently there is a lot of agency work in July and August for holiday cover, which I have been happy to cover. To be fair to the agency I use have found me work every week, albeit not full weeks, keeping my on my preferences of construction related or industrial deliveries. On a couple of quiet periods they did try to palm me off with pallet network till I reminded them I don’t ‘do’ shop or home deliveries, followed by another call a hour later offering me an ‘opportunity’ which turned out to be a one day long distance hop to three retail drops in Essex. Needless to say that was also rejected, quickly followed by me sending them an email reminding then of my preferences and asking (politely) that they don’t waste my time with work I am not interested in.
Now the main holiday season is effectively over and with construction starting to slow down for the winter months the tipper work will dry up and the industrial work will be covered by the regular drivers, which makes me consider what wonderful ‘opportunities’ will be pushed in my direction this coming week? What are other agency drivers experience at this time of the year, is it suddenly going to go real quiet now? I do have another ‘trade’ I can do in the winter months if needed, but have enjoyed being out and about for the last few weeks.
I too have turned down some quite pleading requests for me to accept store delivery work right up to christmas. Cant stand all the pillocking about, playing tetris in the trailer with all the cages/dollies for return. Quite blessed at the moment it seems - im enjoying full-time, ongoing medium distance general work, which i infinitely prefer. Seems to be entirely based on where you live, as i`ve very rarely had less than weeks of back to back block bookings. Long may it continue!
It shouldn’t go quite, unless your petulance for being fussy about what you will do & not do changes you will be without work more than you like. The only real quite times I’ve experienced tend to be 1 week in Oct which is the end of the post holiday cover period, when firms hit a slack point before the Xmas build up, and all regular staff are at work. So they’re over staffed. The next is the post Xmas bleak time, but that is becoming less each year.
I’ve been there and had the T-shirt, being the most pedantic person on site, saying I won’t do this & that, ending up spending half the year sat at home without work, being the last person the agency calls. You soon learn that sometimes going what you don’t like, does put money in you pocket. You don’t have to be a yes man, but occasionally doing so will pay the bills until more favourable work comes along.
I do parcel delivery through agency been at this company 11 months booked everyweek Thursday for the next week in advance starting to get busy again now for xmas quite time was march to may but still got minimum of 4 shifts a week it is home delivery but maximum 15 drops a day average about 9 on most runs 60 mile. Radius home every night mostly by 2 pm
peirre:
It shouldn’t go quite, unless your petulance for being fussy about what you will do & not do changes you will be without work more than you like.
Respect to the guy for not eagerly bending over and lubing himself up like most agency limpers do.
midlifetrucker:
So if I was agency owner who would I ring with juicy jobs. The nope nope nope I don’t do that driver or the driver who is versatile. Go figure.
I guess a lot depends on what you class as ‘juicy jobs’. All the stuff I do whether it be tippers, effluent tankers, steel deliveries or machinery movements tends to be the stuff many agency drivers (and regular drivers) tend to avoid like the plague. Many drivers nowadays just want to do clean van work, but that’s not my thing at all. I get covered in mud, oil grease and all sorts of crap (literally sometimes)… I purposefully avoid shop deliveries and home deliveries because I am not a ‘people person’ and best kept away from the general public if you get my drift.
I freelance and Wednesday night was told Thursday morning I would be on a bulker. When I arrived that had been cancelled due to weather so I was offered a day on a beer tanker.
Tomorrow collecting and delivering compost in a bulker. Far more interesting to mix and match. Only thing I won’t do is livestock.
LIBERTY_GUY:
On a couple of quiet periods they did try to palm me off with pallet network till I reminded them I don’t ‘do’ shop or home deliveries
Pallet network is rarely shop or home deliveries because its palletised. Whenever I’ve done it its been to industrial estates, farms, places with a fork lift truck.
What are other agency drivers experience at this time of the year, is it suddenly going to go real quiet now?
Those who are prepared to be flexible will have plenty of work the same as they were getting full weeks whilst you were sat at home. Those not flexible will be sat at home til November. Those unwilling to do pallet network and retail deliveries will be sat at home til March.
Since I came back to truck driving last August I’ve been flat out. The quiet period never ever happened for me and in fact ended up being busier than ever but I did end up doing a lot of pallet network night trunking from Jan to March.
peirre:
It shouldn’t go quite, unless your petulance for being fussy about what you will do & not do changes you will be without work more than you like.
Respect to the guy for not eagerly bending over and lubing himself up like most agency limpers do.
Agreed, that was the original concept of Agency work in transport when it all kicked off in the 80s
. The driver hired out his services, and chose when or if he worked, and basically called the shots. Where as now they spit the dummy out if a driver dares to show a bit of resistance to the ■■■■ and ■■■■ ing about that they dish out.
However I suppose that there are a few fair ones among them.
Conor:
Those who are prepared to be flexible will have plenty of work the same as they were getting full weeks whilst you were sat at home. Those not flexible will be sat at home til November. Those unwilling to do pallet network and retail deliveries will be sat at home til March.
Now here is the thing Conor, whilst I obviously cannot comment on the area you live in, the agencies in this part of the world are forever advertising driving work with steel, machinery, industrial, trunkers, tankers etc, on a daily basis sometimes and in every main town for miles around. Naturally if these are just a front to draw people into doing the crappy multi drop pallet network and retail deliveries that many drivers wouldn’t even apply for, then I am more than happy to leave those jobs to the drivers that are happy to pander to that sort of work. My skill set lies elsewhere and whatever others may think of agencies, I regard it nothing more than casual work offered by people with no concept of the word honesty. I don’t delude myself otherwise.
midlifetrucker:
Form a queue Syrian / Polski/Martians. Plenty of work here.
That’s the problem, there is plenty of work here right now, so instead of upping the conditions and pay of the workers to encourage people into the industry, lets just bring more crap into the country to fill the jobs.
Sod safety and ability to do the job, and when more cyclists die it will be the drivers fault, not the industry.
midlifetrucker:
Form a queue … / …/Martians. Plenty of work here.
Now THAT has potential.
“Police were called to a regional distribution centre in Berkshire today to investigate the shooting with a ray gun, of a security guard who had tried to demand the keys of a Martian freighter that was delivering there”.
I know someone that employed a Romanian lorry driver and thought the tracker on the truck had malfunctioned as it was showing it parked in the scrap yard just down the road – till they lost the signal…
Pallet network is rarely shop or home deliveries because its palletised. Whenever I’ve done it its been to industrial estates, farms, places with a fork lift truck.
In my opinion, both sides of this debate are correct and you need to get the balance right between the two for the best results for yourself.
Firstly I agree that you don’t just roll over and agree to everything the agency asks of you in terms of work, shift patterns and all that, if for whatever reason it doesn’t suit you. Do that regularly and you are on a hiding to nothing and will always get offered the crap as you are seen as an easy target.
However a degree of flexibility or whatever you want to call it is always going to get you further - Whether that makes it right or not is another debate. If you are the sort of driver who refuses to budge on “anything” that is outside of what he/she will do then you will probably find yourself without work or way down the pecking order for periods of time. Accepting things that aren’t 100% what you want from time to time doesn’t automatically mean you are being shafted and walked all over. It is the nature of agency work in the year 2015.
Contrary to popular belief it is entirely possible to establish a good working relationship with an agency so both parties benefit.
