shep532:
Problem has been solved. here is a potted history. Not perfectly accurate but gives you the idea.
Company received an NIP for an HGV speeding. Employer (me) gave driver details to the Police. Police wrote to him suggesting he was speeding in our vehicle. Driver failed to acknowledge or answer NIP.
DVLA award him 6 points at £500+ fine for failing to answer NIP. Driver still fails to acknowledge this by post.
Meanwhile company received ANOTHER speeding notification. Again supplied information to Police who again send NIP to driver who fails to acknowledge. DVLA now disqualify him from driving ANYTHING and write to him telling him so.
He now returns said NIPS etc - they send him a licence application pack D1 - he completed it, they send him a new licence with all these points on. HOWEVER … form D1 only got him his ordinary licence back - no HGV. he needed form D2 for that.
Therefore - he was driving for around 3 weeks with no licence at all - he was disqualified. He then got his ordinary licence back but no HGV and has been driving a 44t Artic since!! This was brought to light by a company licence check.
he now has to apply for his HGV licence back. There is a good chance becasue he got 9 points in a 3 month period for HGV related offences - the TC will not grant his CE entitlement - if indeed DVLA inform the TC, which they often do it seems.
Meanwhile - he can’t work. has to send in form D2 and wait for the outcome.
I think he now realises how important his licence is and perhaps wishes he hadn’t been speeding in an HGV.
Pete
Surely as the employer, if it was the same driver would you not of asked him depending on the amount of employee’s of course, personally the driver is an idiot and doesnt deserve to get licence back ignoring the NIP’s and then only knew due to u the employer donig your legal checks personally I would sack said driver no excuse even if it was sent to wrong address is obligation to keep the licence up to date address details etc.
If he has lost his HGV entitlement then surely you would be justified in dismissing him anyway?
starfighter:
Sounds like you need a new policy that drivers notify you of any points/convictions immediately, or record anyone who gets an NIP through and follow up the result, with disciplinary action against those who hide convictions that are found at licence check. You already have quarterly licence check so that’s one key process in place. The company shouldn’t get in trouble over it, but if you can show you have taken measures to avoid a recurrence then that’s plus points should you have to meet the TC.
The policy is already in place but poorly carried out by the office staff. NIP comes in - we complete drivers details, tell said driver what’s happening then that’s it - we leave it to them to inform us of the outcome. The process will be changing in light of these circumstances - which will just ■■■■ drivers off even more
Beats me though - that a system exists whereby a professional driver can have his licence disqualified and nobody tells the employer. So a driver is detected speeding in an HGV. They check who the vehicle is registered to and write to them. The owner supplies the drivers details - then hears nothing more. Surely as the owner of the vehicle and more than likely employer of the driver they should be kept in the loop?
This is the second driver in 6 months with no licence. The last one had received a ban by post with a nice letter asking him to return his licence. he didn’t - meaning he had what looked like a valid photocard and paper counter part. he lost his licence in July - we actually gave him a job in August - his licence looked fine. September Police turn up at the yard looking for him and he’s out in a wagon in deepest Wales. Police made us park him up and go get him … he got back to the yard - did a runner and was last heard of driving for some Irish outfit - still no licence. Police visit my house to take statements and tell me the guy is currently at 21 points but still has his licence in his hand.
On top of this i had to then write to the TC to explain what we had done to prevent this happening again (quarterly licence checks) - and it flamin well happens again
Of course our company could PAY to check licence details with Swansea … another bite out of the already small profit margin. And on
I suppose it all comes down to due diligence, I would say that if you have required drivers to inform you of convictions and you have a quarterly licence check then there isn’t much more you can do. Certainly some ■■■■■■■ with a clean, non-returned licence in his hand can’t be ousted without checking with DVLA, which seems over the top to me. How much do they charge for this service? Good luck with the TC.
waddy640:
DVLA is run by Welsh prople who never admit to making mistakes, therefore it must be someone else’s fault not theirs.
Considering more than half the employees working at DVLA will be English, this seems a strange comment
They seem to have thicker accents than that traffic bird on R2 whenever I ring up.
That’s because they spend so much time dealing with thicker people!
Only 27% of employees at DVLA Swansea consider themselves English, 97% were born in the UK, 64% are female, 36% are male, 3% consider themselves African/Caribbean.
Once again the Welsh blaming the English when only 27% are English. In my dealings with the DVLA over the years I have never spoken to a male and all the rest were Welsh. They also have this obsession with female sheep, because everything is ewe should have done this or ewe you should have done that. It is never their error, only the customers.
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Only 27% of employees at DVLA Swansea consider themselves English, 97% were born in the UK, 64% are female, 36% are male, 3% consider themselves African/Caribbean.
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Once again the Welsh blaming the English when only 27% are English. In my dealings with the DVLA over the years I have never spoken to a male and all the rest were Welsh. They also have this obsession with female sheep, because everything is ewe should have done this or ewe you should have done that. It is never their error, only the customers.
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Oops, guess I touched a nerve
DVLA are not people. Lying, cheating bastids, but not people. No Sir, we didn’t receive your sorn, £80 fine. Err, how come you received the other two that were in the same envelope… 1000 V5’s lost a week now it costs £25 to replace them as well… and many of them in the same envelope as the one they got.
Not now but may help in the future your driver qualification card gained by doing a cpc has your category of entitlement. Not bikes but coach and LGV. i am sure that would be proof.
starfighter:
How much do they charge for this service? Good luck with the TC.
DVLA charge something like £12. other licence checking places offer various contracts. 75 drivers it soon adds up.
TC won’t be a problem - Beverley Bell … she’s nice
She’s busy trying to shaft us at the minute according to our driver trainer when I attended a nice little anti speeding workshop. Just do the checks on the new drivers.
Ive also heard first hand about DVLA ■■■■ ups. A driver i know sent his license away for a change of address. It came back with an SP30 AND the 3 points. When he questioned it, he pointed out that he wasnt actually in the UK at the date of the alledged offence and he proved that to be the case via a solicitor. The DVLA later removed the points from his license but charged him the 19 quid for a new paper part. Tossers.
Some years back they removed all provisional licence entitlement and then wanted to charge £10 to reinstate it.
I was asked to take one of my vehicles to the LVLO for inspection. The woman at Swansea insisted that I took it to an address that they had moved from 27 months earlier.
That DVLA check is a good idea but I went to a company the other day they paid £12 per driver to be checked. The results all come back clear.
I went in checked their licence and there were 2 drivers driving with no module 4 when they had no grandfather rights to DCPC. When it was investigated turns out they had cocked up and the drivers were driving illegaly and have now got to go to the test centre for their mod 2 and 4 as stated in another post the military dont do DCPC so when they leave they could be illegal. Apparantly this is or has changed and they now do the modules as part of their training.
I came acroos exactly this today A driver passed his Cat C on 17th September 2009 and has been actively driving a HGV since.
He came to me for Driver CPC training and has completed two 7 hour sessions over the last few weeks. I have carried out licence checks for ID and expiry date for class but didn’t spot the issue date for his Cat C was AFTER the DCPC started.
The driver came in today with a letter from DSA asking me what it meant. Having read it I can see he should have completed the INITIAL DCPC because he obtained his DCPC AFTER 9th September 2009. He has been driving illegally since. Obviously his current boss gave him a job when he didn’t have the DCPC he should have had.
The two 7 hour sessions he has done so far have been declared as INVALID. Bit rediculous really.
He now has to go and do Mod 3 & 4 before he can drive again. His boss aint happy and I aint too happy I didn’t spot this earlier.
I’ll be refunding the cost of the courses he has done so far … once he passes Mod 3 & 4 he can then come back and do the training again to count towards his 5 year 35 hour target.
It seems VOSA are currently issuing a lot of graduated fixed penalties for not having a valid DCPC. This is people who have taken their theory & hazard perception, then taken their driving test but not gone on and completed the DCPC modules - therefore they have no DCPC card. They do however have what appears to be a vlaid driving licence.
So Clara - yes you are right that licence checks at DVLA don’t check for DCPC. But how can they? They don’t know if you are going to use that licence for private or professional use … so DCPC may or may not be needed.
There’s also a lot of duff information flying about. Wifey passed her PSV in May, had been on a government-funded course through the Jobcentre placed with a local firm. He decided after she’d gone full-time that he didn’t want to pay the wages so when she broke a light lens he gave her the push claiming he couldn’t afford her on the insurance; she found out later he’s that kind of ■■■■■■■ and treats a lot of drivers like that.
She got a new job within a week, but still hadn’t completed the last part of the NVQ, the walk round check, due to a ■■■■-up at their end with the booking; asked the training centre if she was OK to drive for the new firm and was told yes. She then went to do the module; it don’t get no dafter, she got above the overall pass mark but because she got less than so many per cent on the one question she got wrong, was adjudged to have failed! And was then told that she shouldn’t have been driving as from the day she left the original company, as the exemption for trainees is not transferable!
Thankfully she’d made a good impression with the new firm, they put the pressure on for an early re-test which she passed the following week, and is still with them and happy in the job.
In summary, a lot of these organisations who administer this stuff don’t seem to know what’s what, and it’s always the poor bloody driver who ends up stuck.
