Hello I hope everyone is okay.
I just passed my class 1 test (Car to Artic) on the 9th of June 2022.
I am asking what I should look out for when looking for a job. Bad agency,what are the main difference between PAYE or umbrella and which one suits which situation, and general red flags and company/ agency I should avoid at all cost.
Thank you for any advice you can give me.
Congratulations!
Umbrella equals Red-Flag.
99.9% of the time you will be an employee on PAYE. Any agency telling you differently should be dealt with at the end of a barge-pole.
Franglais:
Congratulations!Umbrella equals Red-Flag.
99.9% of the time you will be an employee on PAYE. Any agency telling you differently should be dealt with at the end of a barge-pole.
Thank you for that advice I really appricate it!
Just for an extra bit of information, I can see people mentioning their rough location for the extra help. With that said I am from the south near Portsmouth way.
Congratulations on passing!
At the moment, you kind of have a blank canvas. You haven’t done any driving roles yet, so you have nothing to compare, and no way of knowing what will and won’t suit you. That said, I think getting some agency work under your belt would be a good move so that you can hopefully try a variety of different jobs and see if something seems right for you.
Have a few ideas in mind, such as tramping or not, days or nights, distance you’re willing to travel. But at this stage be open to giving things a go.
Agencies will want quite a bit of information from you, so make sure you have everything to hand when you want to sign up. It will all be a bit daunting at first. If there are particular companies you want to try working for - try to find out what agency they use. If not - give anything a go.
You’ll very quickly find the sort of work you want to avoid, but it’s different for everybody.
I think the one thing pretty much everyone wants to avoid is shifts starting at vastly different times of the day or night. But that’s what some employers call being flexible, which they might love.
It took me over a month of intense searching to secure a job when I got my license in March this year. It was a nightmare. I would say go for the big boys first, they are most likely to give newbies a go. Stobart, Culina, Tesco, DHL, maybe Turners.
Tesco easy assessment but you need to know how to bay park already. Stobart has a program for new drivers but they have long waiting times, same for Maritime. Call Jack Richards transport, they also have training programs, as long as you live close enough to their base (1h max). Agencies will usually ask for 6 months experience and it’s all sink or swim
It took me about a week to find work. Just keep pushing I applied to a few agency’s but I found too many lied in the ad or it started as “yeah it’s days on £18ph” and by the end it was “actually the days are gone it’s nights 1800-0600 for £17ph you can start tonight yeh”
Eventually found a role with a local firm was upfront and honest said Im new to class 1 and been on grab work with a few low loader runs.I start on the 27th with the driver trainer taking me out for the first week.
Keep the head and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call local firms.
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