The main purpose of any agency is to chase up clients and connect them with contractors. They are not there to provide the comforts afforded to permanent employees - they dont have the time or the inclanation. I see it as my responsibility to chase agencies for work - not the other way around.
I work through agencies to get work in computing and (in between contracts) LGV driving (8 years as a computer contractor, 6 years LGV driving). I find the way in which I am treated by my driving agency is far (far) better than any computing agency, but at the end of the day they are both there to provide me with work, not be my new ‘best friend’.
gnasty gnome:
Now do you see why agencies post multiple vacancies?
Nooooooooooooo
Hello, my first time posting here.
I have had a few good jobs with agencies. I can recommend Best Connection, I have been with them for over 12 months and only had 2 days out of work. I went to them from Blue Arrow, don’t want to say too much about them for fear of libel but I was forever chasing my money and due to mistakes by them I didn’t get paid on a regular basis (they blamed Nova)… Blue Arrow never “got back to me”, waste of time.
I had references, good work record etc, Best Connection always kept me in work. I went temp to perm recently and have just started permanently for DHL. A warning about DHL… Class 1, money is cack on a flat week… take home £285 per week on nights, 7pm to 5am, INCLUDING shift allowance!!! They pay monthly and overtime is a month in hand. Therefore I have to wait 8 weeks for my first weeks overtime!
Go to Best Connection, they are good.
When i come to think of it, Blue Arrow made an arse of my pay once.
Didnt pay me for a 13 hour shift, had to chase them up about it and then they said no one in the office had given me the shift.
Eventually got it sorted out a few weeks later, again they made an arse of it paid me nightshift rate for the 13 hour day shift 
I had a typical job offer from an agency today: Fox Wellingorough.
They rang me with an offer of work next week, i asked them where is was and what it was doing, he then asked me again if i would do it, and was, as he put it ‘being an agency he didn’t have to tell me a single thing (not a time or who with or what) about the job until after i’d agreed to do it’. !
ROG:
I do understand agency position but that will not cost much more for them to send me a message “Sorry, we got another driver to do this urgent job”. If that urgent job is really existing off course.
Don’t know how things work in your country of origin but in the UK, lorry drivers are regarded as second class citizens, jobs wise, so it would be very unlikely to get some courtesy
Maybe thats why some agency get messed around with drivers.
ive been with lots of agencies in my time, typical stuff like “yeah we have loads of work” then not get a phone call for a few weeks, then suddenly get a phone call at 3am asking if you can go into a place straight away even tho its a 100 mile round trip because someone hasnt turned up. Then they slam the phone down on you when you refuse to do it and they won’t call you again until they are desperate. Or when your sent someplace and the boss treats you like crap and expects you to take out a defective motor and the agency won’t back you up.
I guess i was lucky landed in with an agency where the boss was the nicest guy you could meet. He always had your back with any genuine problems and always asked if you could do a shift and if you couldnt wasnt a problem. Also kept a track of your hours no carry on where you have worked 6 days and they are trying to get you to go in the next day without your weekly rest. Worked with this agency up until xmass, after xmass boss calls up informs me its going to be quiet, and calls regularly keeping in contact apoligising if there is not much work about. Has no problems either when you tell him you are working for someone else when thing are quiet with his agency. That guy gives his drivers respect and gets it in return. He never has problems getting drivers and at times i don’t mind going out your way to help him if he is desperate and other drivers feel the same.
Maybe if other agency has his ethics they would get on better.
orys:
I do understand agency position but that will not cost much more for them to send me a message “Sorry, we got another driver to do this urgent job”. If that urgent job is really existing off course.
In an ideal world it would Orys but I can assure you the consultants simply do not have the time. They have a client on the phone who wants a driver immediately if not sooner; client is also waiting to hear from the three other agencies with whom he deals, and basically the first one to turn up with a driver gets the job.
It follows that the consultant, having found a driver, then rings the client with the good news only to be told that they’re already sorted. He then has to call the driver back and tell him he’s not required after all.
In other words, it ain’t as simple as you’d think. Agencies aren’t perfect of course and sometimes you do get some bull from the consultants, but they in turn can be messed around by clients, and sad to say by some drivers too.
yeah I got your point. But I know some people working for agencies, so I know, that’s not all time is so busy… They have time to chat with me over the net, so they should find some time to send few message “we don’t need you, sorry, but thanks for your time” to few drivers…
But that’s I understand, and that’s not a problem
My main question is why they advertising as “drivers urgently required”… At 247 staff in Glasgow on Hope street there are posters hanging over one year. I am reading some polish-scottish forum and never heard anybody, who got that job…
My main question is why they advertising as “drivers urgently required”…
Because thats how they entice you in to sign up with them
oh. THAT i know. I just wonder if that’s legal to put fake offers…
oh. THAT i know. I just wonder if that’s legal to put fake offers…
Thats how things work in this country (and Scotland too)
Hm. Good to know. And is that working? 
If yes, I’ll start my own business with used car sales. I’ll place an advert “beautifull mercedes for sale! Mint condition! Bargain”. And when people will turn up to see that I’ll tell them “unfortunably I have only this scrappy rover 214 with no MOT, but as you already came here, maybe you will buy it?”
Hm. Good to know. And is that working?
Trucking agencies advertise ‘phantom’ jobs on a tiny scale compared to computer agencies. It is accepted practice for agencies to ‘trawl’ for CV’s during quiet periods to keep their databases current, using the ‘bait’ of non-existent jobs.
The whole system seems to work very well because a lot of computer agencies have grown from modest beginnings to multinational companies.
It does seem a bit naive to assume that the application of some sort of government control (the law as you call it) would do anything other than result in more gravy being provided for the government gravy train. (or perhaps i am just beieng cynical
Here is a classic example of what this thread is about…
MY JOB is still advertised on Best Connection website:
thebestconnection.co.uk/vaca … 86432305f4
5th one down on that page. I have been doing the Luton (Dunstable to be exact) run every night for 4 months!! The Scotland run (Mossend) went 3 months ago! That advert has been there for about 5 months.
Also another point to make is this advert does not say there was no shift allowance or overtime available on those runs! That was the wage, temp to perm, end of.
It is for DHL Trafford Park.
Reason drivers tolerate the wage is the job is easy. Luton and back every night, mind numbing but easy. Phone never rings asking where you are etc.
[MN0802] C&E driver NIGHTS, Manchester
Trunking parcels/packages to Scotland or Luton
Digital licence an advantage
TempToPerm, 1800 onwards
Salary: £8.50 per hour- time and a half after 8 hours
orys:
oh. THAT i know. I just wonder if that’s legal to put fake offers…
IIRC agencies cannot be too specific if there’s no job at the end of the ad, but the catch-all “HGV drivers required” is OK.
Just as an amusing aside; owing to a typo error, our agency once ran an ad in the local paper for a “NIGHT SHANNER” rather than a “night shunter”; for two days we were inundated with calls, mainly from Asian gentlemen who thought it was something in the hosiery trade! 