I stand corrected.
Would you agree that:
Companies may have Traffic Clerks who they may call Transport Managers.
These are the people that do the day to day running of trucks and drivers? These are the "TM"s on the end of the phone?
They may well not be as knowledgeable about the law as they should be?
Each to their ownâŚbutâŚposts on SM are unlikely to help your case at all, and depending what your Contract of Employment states, could get you in further trouble.
Step away from from the keyboard.
At the company i work for they have transport clerks that answer the phone and dole out the work and deal with basic enquires. The âtmâ is there and has to be present in the office to deal with any legal matters apparently however as i said before the only one i have a name for doesnât know the company polices apparently
For future reference and to protect yourself from prosecution Coops if you find yourself in a similar situation or suspect that youâll be in a similar situation work out what time you need to leave site in order to be able legally return to base (add 30 minutes wiggle room in your favour) then politely inform the customer you are at of the time you must leave. Also inform your office pointy shoes of this too. If the pointy shoe insists âyou mustâ complete the delivery/collection simply reply with âonce you send me an email with your name on giving me permission to ignore tachograph regulations Iâm happy toâ I guarantee no such email will be forthcoming as theyâre happy to put your neck on the block, but not theirs.
There is no need to be abusive, threatening or whatever, remain polite but forceful. The law is on your side.
thanks for the advice i have a habit of recording all phone calls. I suspect that the bottom line is she didnât like being told i couldnât do something as she complained to the agency that i was rude to her (i wasnât). Trouble is im the wrong person to do that to.
So far it has cost them 40 quid for parking, night out money and another nights wages
Need to do away with agency work imoâŚ
The law doesnât say that the boss refusing to pay for appropriate accomodation is a defence regarding insufficient daily rest.
you are agency, your services are no longer required, that is what it means in a polite manner. standard after a situation as described
by the tone and wording youâve been using, seems like you are just being acquainted to what being agency driver implies, as de facto, in real world terms, in practical terms
you know i never got that⌠now that is sarcasm
If they couldnât come and get you when your time is up I think this what Iâd have done. Pointy shoes numero uno said find a safe place and park up so Iâd have found a hotel in Thurrock you could park at and got a room. Iâd call your office from the front desk so pointy shoes can give the hotel a credit card number.for the room. I think most of us have been caught out having an unplanned for night out.
I see sarcasm, and I see naiveness
your story and attitude made sense to me being a full time employee with a contract with the firm, the complaining to higher ranks and all the fuss.
Once I learnt you were being employed through an agency, no matter how unfair and against good workplace practices and morals that can be, if you are agency, it is another game when it comes to rights and avenues for their enforcement.
Do not be deterred from fighting for your rights, but make sure you know which ones apply to you as agency, and if it is worth your time and energy the quest for justice
You learn your lesson, and move on prepared for that not to happen to you again, in other words, cover your ass for the next to come.
Yes and no. The one on shift could have said that Bob was dealing with it, and you would have to speak to him, however in the case of the law, it doesnât matter whether Bob, Joe or Fred are in the office, as a decision has to be made, and you would be well within your right to advise them so.
But remember your contract to get paid is with the agency, not the customer. That is the agencyâs problem to have their invoice paid by their customer. I once had an agency threaten me that I wouldnât get paid. When I corrected them by saying that I will, and whatever happens between you, ( The customer ) and them, ( The agency ) isnât my concern.
i donât think im going to get stiffed re the money
i called the agency yesterday and they added the extra shift to the time sheet system but then again they could be doing that to keep me quiet for the time being. any nonsense about being paid and ill get in touch with the financial ombudsmen.
So how did you get back?
I think I could count on one hand the amount of times Iâve actually been in the situation of even just the potential of getting close to running out of hours with a day cab wagon.
But modern road conditions and strict enforcement of hours regs really make day cabs an unviable liability on most types of work unless itâs local and with multiple returns to base during a shift.
In my case it was mostly the risk of running out of driving time and most of my time was spent driving sleeper cabbed wagons providing the win win of options if run out of hours and better residual values for the guvnor.Weâd long reached the conclusion that day cabs were no good for trunking work at least.
In this case the OP needed to make the call to abort the job with enough time to get back to base with at least an hour to spare under the 13 or 15 preferably two.
The Transpot manager may not nescessarily be the Operator licence holder. Ultimately it is the O licence holder who is responsible should the â â â â hit the fan.
There is a little known rule that you might like to be aware of and if you say this phrase to pointy shoes, who is being rather negative on the phone, it usually prompts them to change their attitude. The phrase is " It is an offence to CAUSE a driver to break the rules on driver hours rules and regulations"
NEVER! let yourself be put in this position in the first place and a seasoned experience agency driver will always carry a backup card with enough funds to either pay accomodation or a taxi home.
Coop did call the office in time. He was told that if he couldnât make it back he would be met and ârescuedâ.
What if he had ignored this call, and headed back without doing the job?
It would have been legal but he may have lost his job?
With hindsight and now knowing he wasnât rescued in time? We can all be wise.
Unfortunately, you can never be ârescuedâ from running out of 13 or 15 hours. Only from driving hours.
⌠unless theyâre sending a Lamborghini that will make all the difference 
He should have been at home base within 15 hrs max to be legal. (if not in a sleeper or an hotel)
If he was picked up in car as he was told, he might well have been
over his max day, or more accurately, he would have had a too short Daily Rest.
A slight plus is that when returned to base his DR would have then started. It appears, with the â â â â -ups, that it may have never started for over 24hrs.
For the rescue to work he should have been met earlier, probably during his time at the delivery point.