I am trying to ascertain what the average hourly rates of pay an agency would charge a client. For example, if a driver was paid £10 per hour by the agency there would be additional costs on top of this for the agency but what is the margin the client would pay the agency. Would this be £12,£13 or more £s per hour.
Hoping some of our more business minded members can help out here
Cheers JQ
jonnyquango:
I am trying to ascertain what the average hourly rates of pay an agency would charge a client. For example, if a driver was paid £10 per hour by the agency there would be additional costs on top of this for the agency but what is the margin the client would pay the agency. Would this be £12,£13 or more £s per hour.Hoping some of our more business minded members can help out here
Cheers JQ
This isn’t easy to generalise on as there is some variation based on job/area etc.
But often well over double what the driver is paid. I have successfully extracted quite a bit out of agencies in the past without effort… up to five quid + per hour on occasions without too much effort.
It would surprise a lot of drivers the amount (though not always of course), the company are paying for their services…
At one of my previous jobs we paid the agency £170 for the driver and the driver got £85-£95 shift rate.
£8 an hour dayshift, £9.50 nightshift and £10.50 for sundays through PAYE from the agency. A pound an hour extra if paid through umbrella.
The agency were charging the hirer about £12.50 dayshift and £14.50 nightshift (it wasn’t exactly 12.50 and 14.50, it was actually 12.4x or 12.5x but I can’t remember the exact figure). Don’t know what they charged for sundays but they hate using agency on a Sunday so at least £16-17
This is for a company based near Glasgow
jonnyquango:
I am trying to ascertain what the average hourly rates of pay an agency would charge a client. For example, if a driver was paid £10 per hour by the agency there would be additional costs on top of this for the agency but what is the margin the client would pay the agency. Would this be £12,£13 or more £s per hour.Hoping some of our more business minded members can help out here
Cheers JQ
The guy I work for pays me £10/hr on PAYE and charges me out at £15. He’s making £2/hr. At another place I’m at where I’m subbied, the agency pay their PAYE drivers £10.50 and self employed drivers either £12.50 or £13/hr. Again I reckon they’re billing £15.
So effectively whatever the PAYE rate is they’re charging 50% more and that’ll give them about a 10% to 15% profit margin.
Truckulent:
But often well over double what the driver is paid.
Not if they want any business unless they’re screwing over their drivers and paying them next to nowt.
In a competitive area agents charge about 25-30% above ltd rate. This can be less when they have all the work at a client and benefit from placing a bigger number of drivers.
Some agencies have profit targets to meet, these will often be a bit more flexible on rates. Sometimes thay can cut margin to nothing when they are trying to impress a client.
why do you want to know?
Conor:
Truckulent:
But often well over double what the driver is paid.Not if they want any business unless they’re screwing over their drivers and paying them next to nowt.
Precisely. you sum up (some) agencies in a sentence. I merely assumed that, as they’ve been happy to pay me a fair bit extra then they could afford to. Sadly, I suspect that could be at the expense of another driver (or three) too daft to ask for more.
I don’t know if such a thing exists (sounds like suicide to me) but maybe the agency are obliged under contract to supply a driver so were willing to pay you that bit extra?
Rates vary in regions and how greedy/needy the haulage company’s are.
Down south you can score nearly £4 to £6 an hour more weekends, compared to the rates up north.
Yes the price of a loaf of bread is the same everywhere, and petrol a few pence difference. I look at it as discrimination. 
rant over.
Agencies are reluctant to give out a written booking confirmation email/text with a visible hourly rate. This is wrong on so many counts, as some placements can get cancelled leaving you with nothing that day.
Booking confirmations need to be made with a rate attached, and should be made a requirement by Law, so you at least get a min of 8 hrs pay for your lost time.
My latest one was a discrepancy in start and finish times ripped off and only paid on tacho times. I said my work starts the minute I walk through those gates, with inductions paperwork to go through and night out kit to set up.
Agencies must be on a good thing if there paying there recruitment staff top dollar, along with there high street offices.
why would you expect to be paid when you arrive? that is why you get given a start time 
if you need an induction do it at set start time, need to kit wagon out again set start time (when you are getting paid for it), i get a fair few drivers who think it is acceptable to ‘start’ at say 0730 rather than the 0800 time they have been allocated then moan when not paid from the time they choose to turn up (if it was me i would be getting the chap to change my start time on the run sheet as a minimum).
my hours are 0800-1730 i dont get paid extra because i choose to miss the traffic and arrive at 0730 
I had a talk with one of the clients I was driving for. Without telling me how much he was paying the agency for me, he said it was more than he was paying for his own drivers, a lot more.
work out pay rate add on NI, holiday pay and pension then add on how much you want to ‘make’ then thats it!
fyi if you pay someone £10 per hour it costs approx 12.40 before any profit
Never understood the big problem some have with Agencies, they serve a purpose for both Driver and Haulier. Shortening the pay delay for S/E drivers and offering cover to companies short on labour.
Agencies risk not being paid by Haulier,
Staff costs, outlay for drivers and their own staff,
Rent + business rates, utilities etc,
Profit for the owners who spend an awful lot to keep the business ticking over in what is an immensely competitive market.
Typically an agency will whack 50% on top of any rates. I know this as a very close mate of mine works as a branch manager. The bigger the number of agency workers/driver needed the lower the margins. Much like most things in business.
As said, the best thing a driver can do is play agencies off against each other as the recruitment consultants ‘play the rates’, they have flexibility and the moral of the story is - ‘You get paid what you negotiate, not what you deserve’.
Good luck folks.
CMH:
‘You get paid what you negotiate, not what you deserve’.
Nail… Head 
war1974:
work out pay rate add on NI, holiday pay and pension then add on how much you want to ‘make’ then thats it!fyi if you pay someone £10 per hour it costs approx 12.40 before any profit
It should be pointed out that this relationship is NOT linear.
For £20ph, it would not cost “£24.80” - but more like £22.40 is what I’m saying…
The higher the base rate of pay therefore, the lower the percentage overhead.
Agencies, therefore would stand to make a lot more money should wages rise in general, since the overhead as a percentage falls in real terms for them - just as the yard also finds it cheaper in percentage terms to pay “more”. It’s the excessive red-tape involved with employing people full time that I have always associated with the employer’s “preference” for using agency staff, rather than just take on an extra full timer for every 50 odd man-hours required every week without fail. 
daffyd:
£8 an hour dayshift, £9.50 nightshift and £10.50 for sundays through PAYE from the agency. A pound an hour extra if paid through umbrella.
The agency were charging the hirer about £12.50 dayshift and £14.50 nightshift (it wasn’t exactly 12.50 and 14.50, it was actually 12.4x or 12.5x but I can’t remember the exact figure). Don’t know what they charged for sundays but they hate using agency on a Sunday so at least £16-17This is for a company based near Glasgow
That doesn’t sound too far off the mark. Looks like a tidy profit margin at first till you factor in the following;
Employer’s N.I. contribution
Driver’s holiday pay
Cost of agency premises (Rent, utility bills, telephone, business rates)
Cost of agency staff (Wages, N.I. contributions)
Insurance
Advertising
Stationery
Computers (including maintenance and repairs)
Photo-copier
Membership of trade organisations etc.
Bank charges
Accountants’ fees
And a host of other things, including that one thing that the haters think agencies shouldn’t make, PROFIT! 
On those rates I’d guess they’re making about £1.00 per hour NET margin; if they’re lucky.
CMH:
Never understood the big problem some have with Agencies, they serve a purpose for both Driver and Haulier. Shortening the pay delay for S/E drivers and offering cover to companies short on labour.Agencies risk not being paid by Haulier,
Staff costs, outlay for drivers and their own staff,
Rent + business rates, utilities etc,
Profit for the owners who spend an awful lot to keep the business ticking over in what is an immensely competitive market.Typically an agency will whack 50% on top of any rates. I know this as a very close mate of mine works as a branch manager. The bigger the number of agency workers/driver needed the lower the margins. Much like most things in business.
As said, the best thing a driver can do is play agencies off against each other as the recruitment consultants ‘play the rates’, they have flexibility and the moral of the story is - ‘You get paid what you negotiate, not what you deserve’.
Good luck folks.
This comment won’t prove very popular but one thing that always gets overlooked is that the agency is entitled too and allowed to make a profit after all costs have been taken into consideration. After all they are a business and what is the point of being in business if your not there to make a profit. Factor in running costs, holiday pay, staff wages/salary etc and the margin between what they charge the client and the rate they pass onto the driver is not as great as people might think.
I use agencies to my advantage as a driver and I manage to do well from a financial point of view out of them but I don’t begrudge them making money out of me by using my services. I’m happy with what I make by the rates I negotiate with them, their happy because they are making money by using my me - everyone’s a winner. Boot on the other foot if I ran an agency I would charge the client as high a rate as I could get away with and pay the least out as possible, business is a ruthless thing you know.
tmcassett:
CMH:
Never understood the big problem some have with Agencies, they serve a purpose for both Driver and Haulier. Shortening the pay delay for S/E drivers and offering cover to companies short on labour.Agencies risk not being paid by Haulier,
Staff costs, outlay for drivers and their own staff,
Rent + business rates, utilities etc,
Profit for the owners who spend an awful lot to keep the business ticking over in what is an immensely competitive market.Typically an agency will whack 50% on top of any rates. I know this as a very close mate of mine works as a branch manager. The bigger the number of agency workers/driver needed the lower the margins. Much like most things in business.
As said, the best thing a driver can do is play agencies off against each other as the recruitment consultants ‘play the rates’, they have flexibility and the moral of the story is - ‘You get paid what you negotiate, not what you deserve’.
Good luck folks.
This comment won’t prove very popular but one thing that always gets overlooked is that the agency is entitled too and allowed to make a profit after all costs have been taken into consideration. After all they are a business and what is the point of being in business if your not there to make a profit. Factor in running costs, holiday pay, staff wages/salary etc and the margin between what they charge the client and the rate they pass onto the driver is not as great as people might think.
I use agencies to my advantage as a driver and I manage to do well from a financial point of view out of them but I don’t begrudge them making money out of me by using my services. I’m happy with what I make by the rates I negotiate with them, their happy because they are making money by using my me - everyone’s a winner. Boot on the other foot if I ran an agency I would charge the client as high a rate as I could get away with and pay the least out as possible, business is a ruthless thing you know.
Market forces dictate that the line between “what you can charge” and “what you can get away with” is like the parting of the red sea.
To be competetive, any new agency starting up will merely emulate the ones already in existance.
Wot a crap business model!
The only way you’ll have an edge with a policy like that, is if the photocopier & stationary budget for the newbie office is practically zero - so the agency keeps more of the same amount charged for them supplying, say, the same driver rather than the longer established agency.
One business model that never seems to be taken up is the agency who ONLY take on the elites, charge the earth for them, and get enough work for all the drivers on their books.
Problem with this scenario is, it doesn’t factor in the employing yard who don’t give a ■■■■ about some newbie smashing up their kit - because it all comes off the insurance, rather than their own pockets. If insurers refused to cover yards, because of a high number of back-to-back claims, then there might one day be a market for “elite drivers” - but until then, all a driver has to do is find an agency that’ll pay the “going rate” without too much hassle over what the job actually entails.
Me? - I’ll do anything if the money is right. The money usually isn’t however, so I get to be a very fussy picky-choosy driver instead. 
