I’m going to be applying for my first class 2 job pretty soon and two things I really don’t want to and that’s a job that requires a drivers mate, or a job that involves lots of drops at high street shops and stuff.
The ideal work for me would be delivering building supplies to sites or tipper work. I wouldn’t mind doing multi drop if it’s only a few drops a day and out the way of busy high streets.
Is an agency going to think I’m being too picky and just not bother with me, or will they respect my preferences and work with me to find a job I actually want to do?
you will never get respect from an agency as you are only a bum on a empty seat to them and nothing more.
if they are stuck,then they will lie,plead and cajole you into taking a shift.
if they are not stuck,then you will be ignored completely.
join several agencies and say what you want,then expect by law of averages that something will pop up suiting your criteria though
possibly your looking for a job as an astronaut by stating your not prepared to travel?
Depends on what sort of work is around you. as its your first job im assume your a relatively new pass that in itself can be a barrier to work. If you don’t want to do multi drop or have a drivers mate how about night shunter work. you get to stay in relatively one place and lots of experience reversing and manovering in tight spaces.
Unfortunately the office staff at the agencies have the power to effectively ‘punish’ you with the allocations if they want (and sorry to say they probably will).
maybe try to find someone local to you that has the full skinny on your local ones.
I used to do a lot of warehouse work through agencies and as a rule of thumb if they wouldn’t tell me the company name over the phone I didn’t bother going to sign up with them because most of them would promise you the world just to get you to sign up with them and then you would never hear from them again. A few got through the net but it did save a lot of wasted time and petrol.
I was hoping now I had some sort of practical qualification to my name although no experience it might be better and to be fair about 50% of the agencies I have called have told me up front that they don’t get much new pass work so its up to me if I want to come in and sign up.
The other thing I found out to my cost was I had an agency start messing me around to the point it cost me my placement. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford to survive on one or two days a week and got fed up with the agency. Unbeknown to me a lot of my local agencies had the same client so when I told them that the client didn’t want me anymore even though I explained what had gone on they lost interest and never rang me back.
I’ve signed up to many agencies in the past.
The Best Connection
Staffline
Extra Staff
Drive Hire
Search
PRS
Manpower
And probably more.
I’ve only had good luck with 2 of them. Each agency varies by office and how it is run. Some are not great and some are pretty good. The big alarm bell for me while signing up was the type of work they said they typically got and if they did PAYE or Ltd Company/Umbrella only - I would not complete signing up if they didn’t do PAYE.
To begin with, they’ll likely give you the stuff other agency drivers don’t want, until they see you do turn up and don’t smash the truck up. Then they’ll begin to listen to your wants and want nots.
Funny - I preferred having a drivers mate to begin with, as they were usually from the company and would vouch for traffic conditions etc and any delays, as a company is less likely to listen to the agency driver say there were delays, thinking they were stretching the the job out. Also it’s another pair of eyes to find the drop. The agency wont usually know if there is a drivers mate or not, unless you’re carrying something requiring special tickets, such as loading/unloading plant etc
If you are looking for a specific type of work I’d forget the agencies and go and look for a full-time job with a company doing such work.
Ok I can understand not wanting loads of drops, but I’m not sure how you’re going to avoid busy high streets on building site work, I used to do a lot of it, delivering precast concrete and steel beams, much of the work was London or other busy town and cities as well as out of town housing and retail parks, because that’s where they build stuff.
muckles:
If you are looking for a specific type of work I’d forget the agencies and go and look for a full-time job with a company doing such work.
Ok I can understand not wanting loads of drops, but I’m not sure how you’re going to avoid busy high streets on building site work, I used to do a lot of it, delivering precast concrete and steel beams, much of the work was London or other busy town and cities as well as out of town housing and retail parks, because that’s where they build stuff.
I feel your pain muckles, I drove in and out of London one time and I genuinely don’t know how anyone can work down there the traffic is chaos, be quicker abandoning ship and walking.
I’m in the same boat as OP would be soon a new pass on class 2 but not necessarily after a certain type of work more just after a certain number of shifts. I’d be only looking for 3-4 shifts a week is that possible with agencies or highly unlikely?
muckles:
If you are looking for a specific type of work I’d forget the agencies and go and look for a full-time job with a company doing such work.
Ok I can understand not wanting loads of drops, but I’m not sure how you’re going to avoid busy high streets on building site work, I used to do a lot of it, delivering precast concrete and steel beams, much of the work was London or other busy town and cities as well as out of town housing and retail parks, because that’s where they build stuff.
I feel your pain muckles, I drove in and out of London one time and I genuinely don’t know how anyone can work down there the traffic is chaos, be quicker abandoning ship and walking.
I’m in the same boat as OP would be soon a new pass on class 2 but not necessarily after a certain type of work more just after a certain number of shifts. I’d be only looking for 3-4 shifts a week is that possible with agencies or highly unlikely?
Cheers
My experience of driving a truck in London is the thought of it was always worse than the actual job, you just get stuck in and do it, however I’d rather not do it too often far more pleasurable places to drive a truck.