Should I not be so fussy

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

As a agy driver on PAYE, in previous years I had a similar attitude to the OP, I prefered only Mon-Fri day work, I wouldnt work for less than £8/hr, 1-1/2 after 8hrs, 1-1/2 sat, 2x sunday etc, I was picky about what jobs Id do etc etc, Because of my attiude, As the only shifts going where either “rediculously” early starts, or very late finishes. Not to mention as a C+E driver, I wouldnt consider driving a rigid, and would walk off the job if asked to do so. I found myself getting less & less work. up to the point when I read my P60 from the only agy Id worked for, I only earned around £7K for the whole year! A lot of that year was spent on the dole!
After being sat down and the situation explained to me by a mate, it was either pack in the agy work, or adjust my attitude to what I was willing to do. Needless to say I did the latter.
Now even in the current climate Im getting 4/5/6 days a week regularly, split between 2-3 clients, though it isnt unusual for me to work wed/thurs, fri, sat, sun, & monday. with mon, tues, or weds as my rest days (mon & tues this week) Im working at 6am weds, and expect to be working thursday & boxing day too. driving .................. an 18T rigid DAF LF. But those shifts still attract the right premiums :wink: This was a job non of the other agy drivers was willing to do due to the rigmarole you have to go thru (prisons), a job that was only meant to last 3-4 weeks but as a favour, would I do it. Its a job that is still going 9 months later! it only pays 30p less an hour than the C+E driving jobs in the same yard, but is still more than I was getting last year or 4 years ago.
Yes Im aware "market forces" seem to have driven down basic rates for C+E (PAYE), As I was asked recently by another agy if I was free, & willing to do them an urgent job that evening that only paid £7/hr, with 1-1/3 after 8hrs. I didnt take the job because I was still out on the road driving the 18 tonner. the 1-1/3 for OT & sat, & 1- 2/3 for sun are becoming the norm round here, likewise flat rates for day & night working.
The point Im making is the same as everyone else, ask yourself ........ do you change your attitude and become more flexable, or do you sit at home more & more, while the phone doesnt ring, while others take the jobs your fussy over for a few bob less per hour.

I know its not perfect, but I know I now have more money in the bank than I earned the whole previous year, so I know Im able to have a presperous xmas, and should work dry up over the new year, I wont need to sign on, instead I`ll be queuing at the airport check inoff on my jollies

22

peirre:
As a agy driver on PAYE, in previous years I had a similar attitude to the OP, I prefered only Mon-Fri day work, I wouldnt work for less than £8/hr, 1-1/2 after 8hrs, 1-1/2 sat, 2x sunday etc, I was picky about what jobs Id do etc etc, Because of my attiude, As the only shifts going where either “rediculously” early starts, or very late finishes. Not to mention as a C+E driver, I wouldnt consider driving a rigid, and would walk off the job if asked to do so. I found myself getting less & less work. up to the point when I read my P60 from the only agy Id worked for, I only earned around £7K for the whole year! A lot of that year was spent on the dole!
After being sat down and the situation explained to me by a mate, it was either pack in the agy work, or adjust my attitude to what I was willing to do. Needless to say I did the latter.
Now even in the current climate Im getting 4/5/6 days a week regularly, split between 2-3 clients, though it isnt unusual for me to work wed/thurs, fri, sat, sun, & monday. with mon, tues, or weds as my rest days (mon & tues this week) Im working at 6am weds, and expect to be working thursday & boxing day too. driving .................. an 18T rigid DAF LF. But those shifts still attract the right premiums :wink: This was a job non of the other agy drivers was willing to do due to the rigmarole you have to go thru (prisons), a job that was only meant to last 3-4 weeks but as a favour, would I do it. Its a job that is still going 9 months later! it only pays 30p less an hour than the C+E driving jobs in the same yard, but is still more than I was getting last year or 4 years ago.
Yes Im aware "market forces" seem to have driven down basic rates for C+E (PAYE), As I was asked recently by another agy if I was free, & willing to do them an urgent job that evening that only paid £7/hr, with 1-1/3 after 8hrs. I didnt take the job because I was still out on the road driving the 18 tonner. the 1-1/3 for OT & sat, & 1- 2/3 for sun are becoming the norm round here, likewise flat rates for day & night working.
The point Im making is the same as everyone else, ask yourself ........ do you change your attitude and become more flexable, or do you sit at home more & more, while the phone doesnt ring, while others take the jobs your fussy over for a few bob less per hour.

I know its not perfect, but I know I now have more money in the bank than I earned the whole previous year, so I know Im able to have a presperous xmas, and should work dry up over the new year, I wont need to sign on, instead I`ll be queuing at the airport check inoff on my jollies

Or to put it as my mate does
‘know one gets rich on principles’
2 other things I try to bare in mind ‘If you don’t do the job, some-one no doubt will’
‘If you sit long enough with a calculator, you can make anything look as good or as bad as you want it to’ :stuck_out_tongue:

23

jcfd55:
Enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon, I had an agency phone me up and ask if I was available today. Not being on duty until tomorrow evening I said yes.

They said Tesco MK this evening I said sorry, don’t drive for companies that won’t pay a premium rate for night or Sunday’s cos I may as well do days only for the same rate.

So they said how about Asda Bedford (an easy job asfaik)? “can you go in this evening, we will get back to you with the rate”. OK I said

20 mins later they come back with £10.48p ph, so I turned it down as well (thats a self emp rate btw). They apologised and said there were too many agencies and drivers undercutting each other.

Only a couple of years ago I was getting £18ph at Argos on a Sunday nights and £14 weekday nights. I appreciate there is a recession and jobs are not so plenty, so I have watched with fingers crossed as rates have tumbled.

Seems to me the biggest enemy to truck drivers, are drivers themselves. I appreciate that there are some intelligent and not so intelligent drivers around (in fact ive met some brilliant people) But collectively (and apologising) are we stupid? I despair at the idiot drivers who would shoot themselves in the foot working for next to nothing.

Should I not be so fussy and tug my forelock, surrendering whilst watching my more stupido contemporaries ruin the rates by accepting crap wages?

Should we as Drivers stop whining and procrastinating (oops obviously guilty…sorry!) and actually get together to fairly improve our lot. Is it possible?

Just wondered about peeps thoughts.

Jim

PS: I’ll get me coat!! :wink:

The problem you’ve got with agencies is that they all have their ‘favourites’. These will be the drivers that jump out of bed at 3am when the agency rings them pleading with them to do Brakes Bros hotel and pub deliveries because another driver has let them down. Anyone with any sense would tell them to gtfo but sadly there’s always some mug that will oblige. The agencies just want a load of ‘yes’ men on their books quite simply.

Basically, you dictating to the agency that you will only drive rigids, can only work Mon-Fri days and you will only work for x, y and z company means that the agency puts your card to the back of the pack and forgets about you until someone phones them up needing 50 drivers in the next half hour, and that will be the point when your phone rings. Pierre (above) illustrates this quite well in his post.

There isn’t any way that you can force the agency to give you work and my advice to you would be to seek out an agency that has contracts which you are happy to do and has plenty of work available. In the current climate this won’t be easy to do as a) good contracts usually don’t have a shortage of agency drivers ready to cover and b) there’s hardly any work about as it is.

Another thing that I learnt when I used to agency work is that if you get to do a contract that you enjoy but the money the agency is offering per hour is less than what you want, don’t turn down the work. Take the work and the reduced money but do a really good job, get really friendly with the ‘main’ people, ie. the dispatchers, the TM, the warehouse guys etc, and ALWAYS say yes if they ask to run any extra errands; basically make yourself out to be an absolute star. This serves 2 very important purposes : the first is obvious - they will be so impressed with you that whenever they need a driver they’ll be asking for you by name, and the second - which is your ultimate goal - is that once you’ve got your feet under the table and are pally with the TM you can pull him aside and tell him how you are setting up on your own as a s/e driver and how much he could save over an average week by using you instead of the agency (undercutting by 50p-£1 per hour is enough to get their interest in my experience). If you do everything by the book, ie. set up a Ltd company, then I think you’ll find they won’t take much talking around to get yourself working direct.

You’ll find some places will use s/e drivers already though, so don’t assume that once you’ve got in direct that that’s the end of it because it isn’t. If you want to make sure your number is rung first whenever they need someone then you need to be greasing the TMs hand with some notes periodically to ‘help’ ensure it stays fresh in his memory. A couple of 20s every few weeks can mean the difference between 3 days work and no nights out to 5 days and 4 nights out, which is a huge difference in earnings! :wink:

24

Rob K:
The problem you’ve got with agencies is that they all have their ‘favourites’. These will be the drivers that jump out of bed at 3am when the agency rings them pleading with them to do Brakes Bros hotel and pub deliveries because another driver has let them down. Anyone with any sense would tell them to gtfo but sadly there’s always some mug that will oblige. The agencies just want a load of ‘yes’ men on their books quite simply.

Basically, you dictating to the agency that you will only drive rigids, can only work Mon-Fri days and you will only work for x, y and z company means that the agency puts your card to the back of the pack and forgets about you until someone phones them up needing 50 drivers in the next half hour, and that will be the point when your phone rings. Pierre (above) illustrates this quite well in his post.

it always makes me laugh when drivers winge about agencies an their favourites, of course they do, would you be any different if your agency?

stevie

25

“Yes men” is being used as some sort of criticism, of course we want “yes men”.

We are asked to supply drivers, is it really a shock that the ones who want to go and work are our favourites?

If you want to make a moral stand against agencies then don’t go to them for work full stop.

26

i get £14 an hour withtesco on a sunday, mayby you shouldnt besoo fussy and do it now and again. obviously though when it drops below £8 an hour you tell them to get stuffed.

27

If you are on agency work have business cards made up give them to your boss and the folk that you have contact with.warehouse forkie etc.If there is a pin board with agency no. in the office leave your card beside it.

28

It appears that the moral of the story is, if you are going to do agency work, you cannot afford to be fussy. :unamused:

29

leyland510:
Blimey, you should be grateful for 10-odd per hour even at the weekends… I drive coaches and I get 7.20 per hour and that includes washing, cleaning (inside) and fuelling the thing once I get back to the yard irrespective of what day it is! On top of that, there is a fine of 50 quid a time if we damage the vehicle.

MUG

30

44 Tonne Ton:
MUG

It’s not as if I do it for a living, I have a nice cushy salary and a 40hour week with strict 12 hour break rules to adhere to. A spot of driving just keep my licence in check and pay for CPC training. Now, who’s the mug? :laughing:

31

ATJT:
“Yes men” is being used as some sort of criticism, of course we want “yes men”.

We are asked to supply drivers, is it really a shock that the ones who want to go and work are our favourites?

So by that clearly you think it is unacceptable for a driver to turn down work when you wake them up at 3am to do a job, and hence put their number to the back of the pack to punish them. And don’t tell me it doesn’t go on because over the years I’ve worked for around half of the total agencies in W Yorks and they all do it.

The thing with you lot is that you want the best of both worlds. You want to have a ton of drivers on your books even though you can only keep 5 of them working full time, but the other 95 must always be sat by the phone 24/7 at your beck and call for the odd couple of days a year when you have some extra work. :unamused: Unfortunately most agency drivers are too stupid to realise this and put up with it. If they had any sense they’d do what I did and go direct to their customers and work for them s/e. It’s quite satisfying to know that through their own greed they’ve lost a good driver and typically a couple of hundred quid per week in profit. :smiley:

32

stevieboy308:

Rob K:
The problem you’ve got with agencies is that they all have their ‘favourites’. These will be the drivers that jump out of bed at 3am when the agency rings them pleading with them to do Brakes Bros hotel and pub deliveries because another driver has let them down. Anyone with any sense would tell them to gtfo but sadly there’s always some mug that will oblige. The agencies just want a load of ‘yes’ men on their books quite simply.

Basically, you dictating to the agency that you will only drive rigids, can only work Mon-Fri days and you will only work for x, y and z company means that the agency puts your card to the back of the pack and forgets about you until someone phones them up needing 50 drivers in the next half hour, and that will be the point when your phone rings. Pierre (above) illustrates this quite well in his post.

it always makes me laugh when drivers winge about agencies an their favourites, of course they do, would you be any different if your agency?

stevie

I wouldn’t have a problem with it whatsoever if the agencies were transparent instead of telling you BS that they’ve got loads of work when they haven’t and always share the work out with everyone when it’s quiet because they don’t. If they haven’t got that much work then they should tell you this FIRST before getting you to waste a couple of hours of your time going down and filling in a whole bunch of forms that they don’t need because they’ll never ring you :unamused: . There seems to be some unwritten law with agencies that they must never turn down any work. If they kept their driver levels roughly matched to the amount of regular work that they have then the agency:driver relationship would work a whole lot better and the ‘favourites’ thing wouldn’t be an issue because ALL the drivers would be out working regularly.

33

leyland510:

44 Tonne Ton:
MUG

It’s not as if I do it for a living, I have a nice cushy salary and a 40hour week with strict 12 hour break rules to adhere to. A spot of driving just keep my licence in check and pay for CPC training. Now, who’s the mug? :laughing:

Well I can’t remember the last time I worked as a class 1 driver for £7.20 and cleaned up a coach full of puke from a stag party so I reckon it’s still you that’s the MUG. You only do it to keep up the licence and pay for the CPC? Yeah and I came up the Clyde on a banana boat! :stuck_out_tongue:

34

A decent driver, like a decent agency is in constant communication, so I know ■■■■ well who I can ring at 3 in the morning without them being tired/illegal or otherwise.

Common sense is that an agency driver lets his agency know when he is happy to work, and the agency respects that.

I hate waking people up unnecessarily, just like I hate being woken up unnecessarily, at 3 in the morning I only want to ring people who want to be rung.

You obviously have only dealt with muppet agencies, with an attitude like yours you deserve each other.

35

I can well understand the motives of a man who has a well paid non driving job.He wants to be current with the driving and hold on to the licences as they were difficult to achieve in the first place.Also the present job could go ■■■■ up.

36

ATJT:
A decent driver, like a decent agency is in constant communication, so I know ■■■■ well who I can ring at 3 in the morning without them being tired/illegal or otherwise.

Common sense is that an agency driver lets his agency know when he is happy to work, and the agency respects that.

:laughing: :laughing: Are you for real? Agencies don’t give a toss about “respect” for their drivers when they urgently need a bum on a seat, they will pull out their driver directory and ring every single number in it until they find a mug who will say yes, and nor do they give a toss that it is 3am in the morning and all their drivers are sleeping. Those are the facts!

Your posts on this site prove just how out of touch with reality agencies really are, but then us drivers have always known that.

37

alamcculloch:
If you are on agency work have business cards made up give them to your boss and the folk that you have contact with.warehouse forkie etc.If there is a pin board with agency no. in the office leave your card beside it.

I would suggest that whilst that might seem a good idea, it’s also likely to bite you in the backside.

  1. The agency could reasonably suspect you of working “on the side” for their client. This could cause problems for both sides, and even cost you your position.

  2. Unless you’re in a stable long-term contract with one client, it simply ain’t a good idea. When I was managing a Nightfreight depot some years ago, I had one very good multi-drop driver who did just what you suggest. Sure enough, I used him a couple of times after that, just told the agency afterwards. A few weeks later the agency rang me to tell me the guy was no longer on their books; apparently he’d been touting himself round and had got into the habit of taking on several jobs, then doing the best-paid one and throwing sickies on the others. An extreme case I admit, but not unusual.

  3. You’ll end up getting phone calls at silly hours. Leave that to the consultants, it’s what they’re paid for!

38

Rob K:

ATJT:
A decent driver, like a decent agency is in constant communication, so I know ■■■■ well who I can ring at 3 in the morning without them being tired/illegal or otherwise.

Common sense is that an agency driver lets his agency know when he is happy to work, and the agency respects that.

:laughing: :laughing: Are you for real? Agencies don’t give a toss about “respect” for their drivers when they urgently need a bum on a seat, they will pull out their driver directory and ring every single number in it until they find a mug who will say yes, and nor do they give a toss that it is 3am in the morning and all their drivers are sleeping. Those are the facts!

Your posts on this site prove just how out of touch with reality agencies really are, but then us drivers have always known that.

I’ve ran one for 15 years, so who do you think knows more about them?

You might have been treated badly by them, that says either a lot about how useless a lot of agencies are (and they often are), or yourself, I’m guessing the latter, with some drivers you can just tell :laughing:

39

ATJT:

Rob K:

ATJT:
A decent driver, like a decent agency is in constant communication, so I know ■■■■ well who I can ring at 3 in the morning without them being tired/illegal or otherwise.

Common sense is that an agency driver lets his agency know when he is happy to work, and the agency respects that.

:laughing: :laughing: Are you for real? Agencies don’t give a toss about “respect” for their drivers when they urgently need a bum on a seat, they will pull out their driver directory and ring every single number in it until they find a mug who will say yes, and nor do they give a toss that it is 3am in the morning and all their drivers are sleeping. Those are the facts!

Your posts on this site prove just how out of touch with reality agencies really are, but then us drivers have always known that.

I’ve ran one for 15 years, so who do you think knows more about them?

You might have been treated badly by them, that says either a lot about how useless a lot of agencies are (and they often are), or yourself, I’m guessing the latter, with some drivers you can just tell :laughing:

What’s the name and location of this agency you claim you’ve run for the past 15 years then? :laughing: I reckon this could be the last post on this thread… :laughing:

40

I’m not here to advertise and I have worked for/managed the same agency since 1995 in different Leics/Warks locations, if anyone wants me to pm them the name I’ll be more than happy to oblige.