Is it just me but has it gone too quite again on the agencys , ?
i’ve only worked 5 days so far after xmas !
yet i’m registered with 6 of the scum bag agencys !!
i’m seriously thinking about calling it a day … it aint worth the agro being an agency driver any more.
i hope youve signed on
always quiet after christmas
its not been too bad up to now
but am not holding my breath for Feb
Very quiet at the moment yes. I’m getting 3 days a week at the moment which is enough to live on but not good enough to enjoy other stuff. Not a lot of work around anywhere else though at the moment.
i’m thinking its time to go sign on … the situation is just to dire now …
whats most annoying is when you look for jobs at the job centre their all scummy agencys with non existant jobs , most of them are ones i’m registered with so i know they aint got any work , their just increasing ther driver pool like always. As always their full of promises but they deliver nowt.
First week was quiet, as I expected it to be, but I’ve been bombed out since.
I’m getting enough, which is more than I can say for the same period of last year. 
I was after more parcel trunking work though, and apart from RM over Christmas, I’ve not had a sniff of that since before haloween! 
I was looking at agency work. I applied to Milestone. They were interested then I didn’t here owt A couple of weeks later and some one asked if they’d been in touch (which they hadn’t) and they haven’t rung back since…to55ers 
If thats agency work for you, you can keep it!!!
After a long and hard 3 weeks of unemployment I’ve got a full time driving job. Monday to Friday. Saturdays optional.
So the agencies can stick there work (or lack of it) where the sun don’t shine.
I did a brief spell on agency and I found that the secret is to not wait for them to phone you, but for you to phone them, every single day, about mid-afternoon. Just a very brief courtesy call to ask them if they have anything for tomorrow, if they don’t then thank them cheerily and then rinse and repeat the next day, they soon get fed up with it and give you work.
The key to agency work is be reliable and only say no if you really really have to. Spend time being good and reliable at the jobs they give you. Like Harry said, pester them, I ring around 11.30ish and then if nothing has come up I tend to text them a few times. The sad thing is that there isn’t much happening at all at the moment. A lot of drivers have left my agency since they lost the Asda work and the ones who are left are basically sharing the work, hence the 3 days a week minimum (I think it’s a fair system they use to be honest). Some of the agency’s are having a hard time this January though. I do have 2 container companies that I could go full time for but 1) It’s not something I really want to do and 2) I’d probably only come out with £50 or so more if I do the container job all week than what I earn on the agency for 3 days.
Just to play devils advocate then…
…are Stobarts really that bad?
The hours are long but the works there and it’s easy.
You know your going to be pulling £4-500 a week so all in all it makes you wonder doesn’t it? 
It perhaps also doesn’t help if you call them scumbags 
Worked Sunday night on chilled, then today and tomorrow on dustcarts…
…Job interview on Monday too 
ukthugz:
Is it just me but has it gone too quite again on the agencys , ?
i’ve only worked 5 days so far after xmas !
yet i’m registered with 6 of the scum bag agencys !!
i’m seriously thinking about calling it a day … it aint worth the agro being an agency driver any more.
Its January FFS. It is always quiet in January and usually up to March.
Conor:
ukthugz:
Is it just me but has it gone too quite again on the agencys , ?
i’ve only worked 5 days so far after xmas !
yet i’m registered with 6 of the scum bag agencys !!
i’m seriously thinking about calling it a day … it aint worth the agro being an agency driver any more.Its January FFS. It is always quiet in January and usually up to March.
Don’t forget after easter to the main summer holiday season, and then back to school upto the runup to Christmas as well.
i looked around in october to choose my loyalties for the xmas period. i knocked back the higher paying short term work (£3 p/h more) and went for the still decent standard rates with the hope of that work not dropping off after xmas and the hourly rates not changing. i made the right choice!
It would make sense to just work for the first firm to book you out, but in real life this itself is a problem.
You’ll get nothing all week, then a call friday with work for the whole weekend, which you take.
5 minutes later, every other agency calls, strangely enough NOT to offer you the same work, but the same timed shifts at another establishment not related to the one you’ve taken.
Sod’s Law - or something else?
I even get calls saying “Ditch the one you’ve booked, and take ours” rather than “You’ve got theirs this week, Here’s some work for NEXT week” Yeh right. Never happened to me yet!
Why bother to phone me for availability if they’ve still got nowt until I’ve taken a booking elsewhere?
WTF are they doing??
I’m on the Agencies after Monsur Dentressangle said that I was surplus to requirements on New Years Day.
I signed up with agencies on the 3rd, worked that night!
Since then I have had a minimum of four days a week. Often, more than one agency wants me. I am giving my loyalty to the one which does best for me, which means I am mainly working for Monsur Dentressangle! Another agency called me up last week and has got me a weeks trial, (next week) doing trunks for a big courier firm in Milton Keynes. That should turn into a casual contract and then a full time job within the next three months or so.
I also have got two possible full time jobs on the go which are not from agencies. One with Mr D and the other is still on-going from November last year driving transporters.
Its not quiet out there, some people just either live in the wrong area, or are not trying hard enough.
Still steady enough here in NI for Grafton,
5nights/week since 1st January and have asked me twice to do 6 but refused and I thought it was supposed to be quiet in January too 
Have four booked for this week, just did 13hours yesterday 0230 til 1530 for DFDS on Sainsburys contract 
“A week’s trial”?
This sounds a bit suspicious, but I assume you’ve been paid the expected amounts by this point…