kr79:
Ive never done agency work but from what i gather from reading posts here it tends to me mainly trunking and supermarket work on class1
Not sure about that mate, I looked into a Euro job for a Dutch outfit at a Hull agency 2 or 3 years ago, I (naively 
) thought ok, agency/Euro combination, it should be ok,… £7 for first 40hrs, £9 thereafter 
. Agencies are a bit like cancer (or stobarts 
) they can, and do, get everywhere and ■■■■ things right up.
I have been looking on the job centre websites lately.While there are a few jobs being advertised they are all with agencies.There are no hauliers looking for drivers.
newmercman:
WhiteWhiteWhite:
Seriously though… I have never ever used agency drivers. I find if you pay very good wages it attracts the right kind of driver that looks after your kit and does the job properly and care about the truck that you give him/her. All of my drivers are 100% reliable and if I tell them on a Friday on their weekend off what their job is for a Monday I know they will turn up on time. As I have said before, Good wages attracts the good drivers, the good drivers save you thousands each year by not knocking the kit around, (and I have expensive kit) Pay peanuts get monkeys, SIMPLE !!! I have got some top blokes (& 1 very very good woman) that work for me. My job is difficult but having drivers like I have my job is made easier.If any of my drivers would be willing to show you their wage slip it would prove this !!
This goes to prove that you can have another business model other than pile em high and sell em cheap
More people in the industry need to adopt the same practices before the race to the bottom actually reaches the bottom
+1 …this is the way to run a trucking business, need more like this.
The quip about peanuts and monkeys couldn’t agree more with, you pay and treat well and you can cherry pick from the best.
Respect and care is a two way street, good drivers if they have an ounce of common sense look after a good job, its in everyones interests, quite apart from the fact that good drivers take pleasure in doing their jobs well if allowed to.
alamcculloch:
I have been looking on the job centre websites lately.While there are a few jobs being advertised they are all with agencies.There are no hauliers looking for drivers.
Get on the net google for local firms and give them a call. Or take a ride down to your local industrial estates and call in on firms.
The only jobs advertised in the jobcentre are the crap ones.
The companies know that a person on the dole will have to accept the job offered to them or else they lose benefits hence the national minimum wage being offered in most cases.
Ask yourself if this is the kind of employer you would like to work for, the kind who values his staff so highly that he sees fit to only pay them what he legally has to according to the government.
Most drivers are now wise to the agency advertisements and therefore no longer respond to the fake ads offering immediate starts for right candidates. The agencies are rapidly becoming victims of their own lies and greed.
As advised above, the best way to get on the ladder as a Lgv driver is to go knocking on doors, drop off CV’s and generally blag it. If they say you have no experience then argue that you have had 5 lessons a week for the past 3 weeks so you are pretty hot in the seat. Your dad was a driver and you lived in the cab as a child, you know, anything that gives off some confidence and willingness to work.
Don’t offer your services for free because that leaves you open to being abused and taken advantage of. You are worth just the same as the next driver but you lack experience, that will come in time.
Truckbling:
The only jobs advertised in the jobcentre are the crap ones.The companies know that a person on the dole will have to accept the job offered to them or else they lose benefits hence the national minimum wage being offered in most cases.
Ask yourself if this is the kind of employer you would like to work for, the kind who values his staff so highly that he sees fit to only pay them what he legally has to according to the government.Most drivers are now wise to the agency advertisements and therefore no longer respond to the fake ads offering immediate starts for right candidates. The agencies are rapidly becoming victims of their own lies and greed.
As advised above, the best way to get on the ladder as a Lgv driver is to go knocking on doors, drop off CV’s and generally blag it. If they say you have no experience then argue that you have had 5 lessons a week for the past 3 weeks so you are pretty hot in the seat. Your dad was a driver and you lived in the cab as a child, you know, anything that gives off some confidence and willingness to work.
Don’t offer your services for free because that leaves you open to being abused and taken advantage of. You are worth just the same as the next driver but you lack experience, that will come in time.
This is why when a driver finds themselves signing on, they keep stumn about holding a heavy goods licence. 
Well iv’e found my old agency pay slips from 2002 to 2003 from when I first got my class 2 license and working out of Dagenham Essex I was on £9.75 per hour
which went up to £14.50 per hour after 8 hrs or if you went past 6pm. Sundays I was on £14.75 per hr which at the time was great especially after 23 years working in the Post Office for crap money unless you done 50 to 60 hrs overtime. Iv’e been a class 1 driver for 8 years now & i’m on £10 to £11 per hour depending on where I am on days & £11.50 to £13 per hr on nights & £14.50 per hr on Sundays and I think i’m at an high paying agency as I always look what other agency’s pay & it don’t seem to be as much as mine so while i’m happy that mine pays well you can still see pay has been at a virtual stand still for the last 10 years.
Didn’t rates also stagnate starting from 1988 through to 1997? If it’s another 9 year cycle, then this time around they’ve been going nowhere since 2002, so we assume that this recession is worse than the 1990’s one, but also that the end to it could come to an end at any time - if political pundits are to be believed…
…Then we have the Federal reserve talking about scrapping QE, and raising interest rates, and look at what’s happened to the markets…
The suggestion is of course that monetary policy is tightened just as the green shoots of recovery start to appear.
Goodbye “recovery”!
