Long story short.
We own a truck and we do some work for 3rd party place/warehouse. We only do their jobs and truck is being parked on their yard overnight. They have a spare key in case if main gets lost.
Last night one of their managers made one of their staff, ex driver who gave up his licence and tacho card to do 7 miles driving my truck on public roads shunting trailers.
Wtf
If they keys are there, there is always the possibility. Maybe place a small key safe?
7 miles.
I don’t know, but someone might well have to account for that.
So either someone says “Yes, I allowed Joe Bloggs to drive it illegally”, without a licence, without keeping records, without (99%sure) insurance,
Or
Some one says “I did not give permission for anyone to drive it”,
So
Joe Bloggs …took a vehicle without consent, no record keeping, no licence, no insurance.
The manager who requested/ordered that is an idiot who should be sacked on the spot. The person who did it should probably get the same too.
Someone had no respect for your livelihood (your operators licence, insurance etc), or for you by implication. People like that will transgress again. They’ve technically broken any contract you had with them. If it were me I’d ditch 'em like a hot potato and move on quickly, even if I had to endure a tight few weeks.
Were you really surprised!!
They had a job, had a vehicle, had the keys and had a driver.
Let your company decide how far they want to take it. I know how I’d take it forward.
Mentioned above about contract, guessing it wasn’t in writing so not a formal matter?
Yes, I would agree. Leaving keys with a third party on an ongoing basis with various people having access could leave the operator taking a share of the blame.
That’s a severe breach of trust. Also, they were driving without insurance, so double-plus ungood all round
You’ll need to do a “missing miles” report for your own records, you also need to put something in writing to them about this incident and have the guy who told their driver to do this, sign it.
This is a difficult position they’ve put you in because, if I’m reading it correctly it’s your only work, nevertheless you should report the manager to his/her bosses.
If it’s anything like a reputable company they will be as angry as you, you don’t say whether or not they also have their own HGV transport but if they do that manager was putting the companies operators licence in jeopardy.
If the bosses don’t care you should find somewhere else to park your truck asap.
Ignore the driver and TM/ manager, take it direct and in person to the directors - assuming they’re a Ltd Co. The impact on them is way above the drivers pay grade, and you have no influence on their manager/ driver re discipline etc
Review your own systems as they clearly font work as they are at the moment