Looking for advice on... Recruitment Agencies

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
21

I hope you’re not 18 stone! Dude, you need to lose weight! I’m 15 and that’s bad enough. Driving is notoriously bad for your weight. Sat on your bum all day, eating from burger vans, ok so there may be a bit of handball, but it’s an unhealthy job.

Ok, so 7.5 is out. Maybe a van driver is possible? Cat d may sound good, but I hated it when I did it. Why? Passengers for a start, people are ■■■■■■■ and it changes throughout the day. In the morning you get the people on their way to work, they are ok. Then you get the school kids, they are tossers! Then you get Doris and Herbert doing their shopping, they are ok. Later on you get the school kids on their way home, if you thought they were tossers in the morning, they are infinitely worse on the way home, they have had all day at school with their mates and they are now full blown ■■■■■■■■■ Vandalism on the bus! A bit later you get the Jeremy Kyle crew on their way to the pub to spend their dole money. That’s not too bad, but later on when they’ve had a skinfull and are on their way home the fun really starts!

Complaining customers and being responsible for everything. And the driving is so boring, all you do is drive round in bloody circles all day. Trust me it gets to you! And if you want to leave, you have to pay for the training. I stuck it for 6 months and if I hadn’t left when I did, I would have slit my wrists!!! I hated it. I have thought about going back to bus driving for a while whilst I was on agency, but if I had, it would have been coach holidays or day trips, certainly not service work!

I know what you mean about sticky situations, you have my sympathy! I had a good job a few years ago and had to leave because of what happened. My first marriage broke up and one of the women suggested I take her daughter out, which I did. We dated for a couple of years until we started breaking up. I went out with her mum to talk and we ended up sleeping with each other, too much beer and a total f up!

Anyway, her mum decided that she was in love with me. I wanted no part of it! She left her husband, got a flat and tried to seduce me! I nearly had a nervous breakdown! My girlfriend found out, that whole thing just got totally fubar! I got another job and left a really good job, she was taking every opportunity to ■■■■■■■■ pester me! I walked away and regret it to this day, but it was the only way I could wash my hands of the whole family.

So, you have my sympathy! I don’t know your situation, but ■■■■ happens and my advice would be to think carefully and do what you need to do, any advice you need, on here or by pm, ask away and I will do my best to help. Seriously dude, sometimes work stress can be toxic, so do what it is that you need to do.

22

The reason bus companies have a 18 stone limit on them is because the bus or seat manufacturers put a weight limit on them which varies depending on manufacturer. Unfortunately, the bigger companies have had overweight drivers breaking the seats, injuring the driver and/or costing them money on replacements/vehicles off the road. Seems unfair, but as with anything, there’s normally a reason behind it. (Usually 1 idiot ballsing it up for everyone else, but not always!)

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23

I did three months with Palletways and then went agency. I’ve had no issues finding work in the Midlands and until recently rotated between around three clients of the same agency so I was fairly settled once I knew each job.

I’m now working as a ‘long term agency driver’ (client’s words) and have worked every week day since November at 50p an hour more than most of the permanent drivers (however, this is balanced by me having to cover early shifts at short notice etc). There has recently been talk of them offering me a permanent job soon too.

So my experience hasn’t been bad with agencies, but I’ve encountered a few ■■■■ ones and found that generally have to haggle a bit (e.g. tried to tell me overtime rate was £15 but I’ve negotiated it to £18 after finding out others got that).

24

My biggest big bear with agencies is advertising jobs saying new drivers accepted for assessment then when you contact them they say you need x amount of experience first. I passed the usual theory test on site at one agency was booked in for assessment and then cancelled a day later because the actual company wanted two years experience.
Experience is another minefield. I had 11 years experience before leaving the industry years ago but that doesn’t count now so I am classed as a new driver, fair enough, but I get mixed messages when I speak to agencies as to what’s accepted as experience and what’s not.

25

Franglais:
One slight chance is if you can get a job van driving, on your current car licence, and get “a foot in the door” with a transport company that way?
Any experience with driving will do you no harm if you do opt to go on to bigger vehicles. Reading the road well applies to all vehicles.
There are some awful van jobs out there, but maybe if you take one on, thatll give you the time to look for something better, and maybe look at training up? A bad job wont be so bad if you know its only temporary. Sorry, Ive no better ideas, but hopefully someone else will have.

One of my drivers did that, came to us as a van driver and did his Class 1, didn’t tell anyone until he had passed. We said, good on ya, next vacancy for an artic and the job is yours. He hung on for a couple of months IIRC as a van driver and then moved across.

We also would take on a new pass occasionally because having been young and looking for a job, I can remember what it was like. I had a 23 year old join me and he was getting over 40k in his first year. Though that kind of thing is a rarity, but just pointing out it can be done.