Im not one for knocking the VOSA or Police at every opportunity, but the above post from The Bear and the article in this weeks Commercial Motor about a driver refusing to stop for VOSA in Yorkshire illustrates the fact that maybe they do need to look at their own operations and practices. The driver was confused by the stopping methods used by the VOSA woman.
These two incidents plus the recently reported complaint of a driver been parked up in Wales with no food or toilet facilities after being escorted past a service area.
There is no reason why the drivers cannot be treated with some civility, it seems anyone with a reflective jacket and a government badge thinks it is a licence to be pigheaded and rude.
This isn’t just a VOSA attack because this week I have had similar treatment from a refinery security guard acting like a feral yob and another incident that involved a port traffic marshall who resorted to swearing at me when I was asking him for assistance. The layout of the port had altered in the last year and the required paperwork had altered since my last visit.
MacDoog:
Hi Gogzy
Port roads are on private land, but the roads that run into them if used by the public turn them into public roads subject to all the laws that relate to said public roads.
If its a port only open to port traffic and no public access is allowed then its a private road on private land.
A road to which the public have access springs to mind - you can, I believe, be done for drinking and driving on a private road if the public have unrestricted access to that road (don’t know the excact letter of the law), and the same would probably apply to any other moving traffic offence. (The public do not have unrestricted access to the track at a track day, only those paying for use.)
table in a scania window
i can’t see a problem with this
Neither can I but VOSA can. I must say mine is much better made than that one!
Both of you must be blind then.
It’s not factory-fit, therefore is not type-approved.
End of discussion.
Thank you very much for your input. You have illustrated perfectly the type of rigid adherence to the law lacking any common sense that I’m talking about. It antagonises people. Thank you. End of discussion.
table in a scania window
i can’t see a problem with this
don’t know about Scanias, but I saw someone fitting tables in a FH once - made the front blind spot a lot bigger - enough to lose a small car ! so maybe that’s why Vosa don’t like them ?
One of my workmates has had the same problem with the table in the window.
He was stopped and was going to be given a pg9 unless he removed the offending table (which he did).
But my gripe is we drive MAN TGA,s and the tables are fitted in the factory (with 2 small spring screws) , if they are illegal then why are they allowed to be fitted in the factory ?.
And as said before what about the cars with the bloody sat nav stuck either in the center of the screen or worse in front of the drivers face!.
Mike you are quite quite wrong about what the Armed Forces are about. Putting on any uniform does not turn a person into a trained killer, nor does it turn that person into a power mad jumped up dictator intent on ruining someones day. Clothes do not maketh the man. The only person I knew who had killed and maimed thousands of innocents in the army was dressed in cooks whites…
We will obviously never agree on anything. I know who I am thanks very much and intend on remaining honest and as open as I can be.
Hiring a poacher to catch a poacher does not really apply to me…I never ran bent nor ever expected any of my drivers to either. As stated in my other posts Ive been sacked and walked away from jobs because of the possible repercussions. I believe as an ex driver and TM that Im well aware of what its like out there and can relate to drivers, perhaps better than some.
Its obvious there are people on here who dont like the ‘authorities’ full stop. It wont matter how much I try and explain myself to those that have that problem.
To those that have a problem with the service VOSA provide I suggest that they take their complaint further…there is a procedure in place.
To get back to SLs original thread…hope you get a response soon.
Some interesting viewpoints and comments on enforcement agencies on this thread.
It got me thinking -
would it be fair to say that most of us have the view, in some degree or other, that we like enforcement agencies when they are doing things we agree with but scowl when it is us on the receiving end.
Most have a view about what and how each of these agencies should or should not be doing and when they should or should not be doing it.
But what is right - the way, as individuals, we want them to do it or the way they have been told to do it by the people we, as a nation, elected in the first place
Good points Rog. I love the police when they are helping me out with problems…but getting stopped by them is an embuggerance you can do without ( I have never been in trouble by the way!!!)
As I stated in an earlier post there is the letter and the spirit of the law. Every enforcement agency, government body, local authority have targets to be met. How they go about reaching those targets is up to the people who are directing their ‘front line’ troops.
Thanks for playing the devils advocate card mate!!!
Im off out to run over some old ladies and make some small babies cry. Will look forward to carrying on this debate later!!
First Welcome MacDoog I hope you stick around despite the flak you’ll get as VOSA.
Some of the bad experiences that people have with VOSA surprise me. The only explaination of what happened to MrBear is that after messing him about they had to find something.
Now I haven’t been pulled by VOSA for many years as I do very few miles in the UK, so either all these people are unlucky or VOSA’s attitude has changed.
The occasions I got pulled on one I had a dodgy card, I told the man and he looked at it and look at my other cards and said “I can’t see where you were stuck in traffic but I’ll give you the benifit of the doubt.” and that was it. I was on my way.
I was also pulled over because the dodgy old tilt trailer was making a hell of a noise from the axles, I couldn’t hear it in the cab, but they heard it as I came past thier car.
IT turned out that the bushes were missing from the links on the middle axle and therefore it was moving back and forward under braking. The VOSA man PG9’ed it giving me enough time to tip and get back to the depot I got it from. Can’t say fairer than that
And MrBear gets a GV9 for a slight bulge when he was only a few miles from base?
So MacDoog, have I just been lucky or has VOSA changed from trying catch the cowboys and working with your normal driver and haulier to keep them informed, to an organisation that has meet targets as to how many conviction they can get to prove they are doing thier job?
MacDoog:
Putting on any uniform does not turn a person into a trained killer, nor does it turn that person into a power mad jumped up dictator intent on ruining someones day. Clothes do not maketh the man.
Whilst this is true, i still feel that i was right to point out your claim that they are all humanitarian and only human etc… Many are so completeley not, they are for a better word complete jobsworths with an inflexible attitude. Maybe what their bosses would describe as ‘focused’
MacDoog:
Putting on any uniform does not turn a person into a trained killer, nor does it turn that person into a power mad jumped up dictator intent on ruining someones day. Clothes do not maketh the man.
Whilst this is true, i still feel that i was right to point out your claim that they are all humanitarian and only human etc… Many are so completeley not, they are for a better word complete jobsworths with an inflexible attitude. Maybe what their bosses would describe as ‘focused’
There will ALWAYS be those in positions of authority who will be over-zealous or follow the book to the letter and it is usually those that also have a certain type of attitude.
We see is all the time, the cop who uses discression or the one who strictly follows the set rules without considering the alternatives or consequences which may lead to a better, longer lasting solution.
I would assume that the same could be said of agencies such as VOSA.
I don’t think there is a viable solution to replace the human element.
Wheel Nut:
These two incidents plus the recently reported complaint of a driver been parked up in Wales with no food or toilet facilities after being escorted past a service area.
I’m not one to defend vosa or the police but cases like this are just the same as prisoners sueing because their human right have been abused.
People don’t get parked up in secure places without amenities for going 10 mins over their driving time, they get parked up because they totally disregard the rules whether the rules are fair is another matter.
If you work for a firm with a reputation for running bent either clean up your act or get used to being messed about.
MacDoog:
To those that have a problem with the service VOSA provide I suggest that they take their complaint further…there is a procedure in place.
maybe there is a procedure in place, but who would honestly use it?
I had an issue on an MOT, the tester held his hand on the horn for no shorter than 6 minutes… I kid you not, (there is a post on here from when it happened somewhere). It resulted in the fuse blowing and he gave me an MOT pass with an advisory on the horn.
The truck came out of the MOT bay with a fault it never went in with and cost me £78 for new horns that same day.
I was advised later that I could report this to Vosa, but I had no wish to become a target on anyone list therefore just swallowed it, but dont want this guy testing any of my trucks again, and Vosa themselves called the guy PRS Jim, thats says it all for me.
My act is clean and I dont have a problem either with VOSA. I do have a problem about this corporate protection of jobsworths, yes there maybe is a procedure, which is geared to the corporate monolith.
What happened to bus drivers who were proud to display a bakelite badge, showing their driver number and Traffic Area code? What happened to police officers who were judged to be the best in the world and would willingly stop to give someone the correct time?
If you put a complaint in against VOSA, you will be on the hit list or possibly as an amber on the OCRS and even working for a squeaky clean firm, this will delay schedules. Companies dare not raise their heads above parapets, nor drivers, they have to accept a decision from a jobsworth if that is who does the stop. Lets say the bulge was there, it had appeared after the Bear clipped a kerb (god forbid) But to park a truck up with a PG9 instead of a friendly advisory
Recently I have had UK Border Agency staff swearing in public at me. Yes, I can complain, but I will be stopped and searched, delaying my progress even more, and i have nothing to hide. what was worse about this incident that the one using the bad language was the fattest woman I have seen. This in full view of other travellers.
In reply to ROG and MacDoog … I am not one of those that is happy wityh VOSA when they are pulling others but whinge when it happens to me!! I couldn’t give a ■■■■ whether VOSA want to pull me every day of the week for a year!! They will NEVER find anything wrong with my cards. I am too smart for them. It was their stinking attitude that upset me. I always treat UK Police, gendarmes whatever with courtesy whenever pulled and I expect the same courtesies to be shown back.
In all the years I have been driving, I have only been done twice. Once in this country and once abroad. I ahve NEVER driven with a wire on and have no intentions of starting to either. I am not saying I am an angel … far from it but I do have a very good brain. The once abroad I fully deserved it and the fine was duly paid (€1500) and the time in this country, I was interviewed under caution and the TE told me my story was so fanciable, it just had to be true and I didn’t even get a written warning … just a verbal on the day of the interview. It had involved me going from Patras to Ashford in just over three days via Feltre in Northern Italy
Mike-C:
Hang on, your a Pole, i’d say you’d be running a buisness from your home with all that traffic
Ok then. I am running a business and my hobby is to drunk drive on my private land. Can I drunk drive on my own land when customers are visiting me there?
Mike-C:
Hang on, your a Pole, i’d say you’d be running a buisness from your home with all that traffic
Ok then. I am running a business and my hobby is to drunk drive on my private land. Can I drunk drive on my own land when customers are visiting me there?
Yeah, you’ll be fine. Just keep your backside inside your window, you know what you lot are like !!
But to park a truck up with a PG9 instead of a friendly advisory