Working "for the agencies" - driving?

Nine_Lives

I hear of it a lot as i work quite closely with drivers. People going "working for the agencies".
All you ever hear is the good stuff. A chap has recently left & before he went he told me that he will only be doing 40-50 hours (we do 48-60 really). He doesn't have to work weekends (we HAVE to work Saturday's & we get told at 5:30pm Friday whether we're due to work it or whether we're lucky enough to get the day off) and he'll easily be pulling £400 per week (we need to bust a gut to hit £320-£330).

Like with anything in life there's always the flipside though.

Is working "for the agencies" decent work or is it generally not all it's cracked up to be?

paddedjohn

If you are driving lgv you are being short changed if thats all you are earning.
Agency work can be hit and miss but you can choose when you want to work and when you dont, the advantage you have is regular work/pay.

Nine_Lives

Sorry i should've specified - the chap who was telling me was driving above 3.5t.

Short changed? You mean £400 is nothing working for them?

flea72

Nine_Lives wrote: »

Sorry i should've specified - the chap who was telling me was driving above 3.5t.

Short changed? You mean £400 is nothing working for them?

No, he means you are being short changed, if you only earn £320 for a 60hr week

Nine_Lives

flea72 wrote: »

No, he means you are being short changed, if you only earn £320 for a 60hr week

Oh right.

Well not really. Unfortunately right now it's the best i can do. I suppose there's jobs that require no skills that pay more per hour, but have less hours & no option of overtime, so i'd be no different or even worse off.
This is lowly paid, but there's always a stack of overtime.

Both situations aren't great - hence me being interested when this bloke started talking of an easy £400.

57 & 3/4hrs got me £327 take home. Not great, but at the same time while there's many better off than me, there's also many that are worse off.

paddedjohn

Have you considered investing in an ADR licence? it can widen your scope for work and help you get better paying work.

RobTang

Generally as an agency worker you would be a contrator ie self employed.

The main things you have to account for is you get no paid holidays and no sick pay.
Additionaly you would have to fully fund your own pension and the employers side of the NI, and other misc costs.

Even with this you should end up with more money IF you have constant work, which you potentially might not have.

Generally its a trade off between money and stability.

AP007

RobTang wrote: »

Generally as an agency worker you would be a contrator ie self employed.

The main things you have to account for is you get no paid holidays and no sick pay.
Additionaly you would have to fully fund your own pension and the employers side of the NI, and other misc costs.

Even with this you should end up with more money IF you have constant work, which you potentially might not have.

Generally its a trade off between money and stability.

I have worked for an agency before and got paid holiday after 13 weeks and never paid the employers side of the NI at all as they agency was my employer.

lemontart

RobTang wrote: »

Generally as an agency worker you would be a contrator ie self employed.

The main things you have to account for is you get no paid holidays and no sick pay.
Additionaly you would have to fully fund your own pension and the employers side of the NI, and other misc costs.

Even with this you should end up with more money IF you have constant work, which you potentially might not have.

Generally its a trade off between money and stability.

I think you may have got your wires crossed if you work for a agency you are a temp or the company you are actually work for have a contract with the agency to supply staff.

What you are referring to is as self employed contractor with whom a company would deal with directly cutting out the agency.

And the law changed couple of years ago regard to agency workers rights though some like myself have got short changed under a get out clause know as the Swedish Derogation

Nine_Lives

Thanks for the info.

Regards driving, i can't actually drive anything beyond a car right now.

A relative of mine is also very interested in this, but they're in a better position than i am as they have more licenses.