We hired a box recently from a “company”. The day we got it , the T/L didn’t work - As their shunter made a point of saying it ran on 12v - A little odd, but hey.
So got it back to our yard, fired it up and surprise, didn’t work. So called the hire company and they sent out a fitter, when the guy was at the gates, the ■■■■ thing fired into life when I changed it to 24v as all other trailers use. He went on his merry way and we got a bill for £130 - Even though their shunter made a point of giving the wrong info.
Obviously this guy is denying it to his back teeth.
A couple of days later, said trailer has a wonky wheel arch, comes off under the tyres and cuts the air. Truck grounds to a halt, police shut the road and I have to pay a driver an extra 6 hours wage. Their fitters then appear, replace tyre even though it’s fine and repair air lines, they did try to charge for this but we told them the facts, thankfully so did their fitters.
And upon return of the trailer, a big scratch has appeared on the side. One that was already present, however the above shunter quickly ran around the trailer to sign it off as it was ■■■■■■■ with rain and to be honest - So did I. I saw the scratch along with the rest but never thought to point it out, as if he did his job correctly he would have noted it. But now their staff are being very cheeky and demanding over £400 for damages and call outs that are not our fault. Turns out the scratch noted on the sheet was another smaller one and not the one im getting blamed for.
Any suggestions on what to do? I’ve had to fork out an extra £300 for drivers because of this hassle and now they want an extra £400!
We hired a box recently from a “company”. The day we got it , the T/L didn’t work - As their shunter made a point of saying it ran on 12v - A little odd, but hey.
So got it back to our yard, fired it up and surprise, didn’t work. So called the hire company and they sent out a fitter, when the guy was at the gates, the ■■■■ thing fired into life when I changed it to 24v as all other trailers use. He went on his merry way and we got a bill for £130 - Even though their shunter made a point of giving the wrong info.
Obviously this guy is denying it to his back teeth.
A couple of days later, said trailer has a wonky wheel arch, comes off under the tyres and cuts the air. Truck grounds to a halt, police shut the road and I have to pay a driver an extra 6 hours wage. Their fitters then appear, replace tyre even though it’s fine and repair air lines, they did try to charge for this but we told them the facts, thankfully so did their fitters.
And upon return of the trailer, a big scratch has appeared on the side. One that was already present, however the above shunter quickly ran around the trailer to sign it off as it was ■■■■■■■ with rain and to be honest - So did I. I saw the scratch along with the rest but never thought to point it out, as if he did his job correctly he would have noted it. But now their staff are being very cheeky and demanding over £400 for damages and call outs that are not our fault. Turns out the scratch noted on the sheet was another smaller one and not the one im getting blamed for.
Any suggestions on what to do? I’ve had to fork out an extra £300 for drivers because of this hassle and now they want an extra £400!
Nowt you can do unfortunately. Your word against their own staff’s. Regarding the large scratch that ‘appeared’ (but yet was already present, according to you… ) then that will be a costly lesson to you to make sure every single imperfection is noted and marked in the boxes at the start and end of the lease. These companies prey on people like you to not pay attention as that’s where they make the bulk of their money. I agree that it was unfortunate it was raining but you still should have been given the opportunity of comparing the collector’s damage sheet with your own before signing it off. If there were damage marks in places that you didn’t have on your sheet then you should have physically checked them/disputed them before signing the return.
It’s your job to check it over, and agree on any damage before you take it. A bit of a bummer I know, but I think your on a looser mate. Best of luck with it.
It is the reason car hire companies take a swipe of a credit card when you pick a hire vehicle up. They can then charge for “damage”
I have had two occasions where the company has shafted me, the first was a trailer from TIP, they charged me £45 for 3 missing tilt boards and one that I broke. The problem was that I never noted the 3 missing boards and expected to be maybe charged for one broken board. You have to watch them when they measure tread depth too as the gauge they use is rather generous to them.
My second occasion I ended up fighting it in court and lost. I hired a car for the weekend in Portsmouth about twenty years ago. I drove to East Yorkshire and parked outside my home. On Sunday I drove back down and parked the car as arranged outside the offices. After about 3 weeks I was home again and checked my credit card statement, it had been charged just shy of £400 by the hire company. I contacted them and they said the car door was damaged when they signed it off, they sent me photographs and it was plainly damaged. It was the drivers door and was certainly not like that when I parked it, but because I was going away I arranged to leave the car where I did.
Sometime during the night someone had hit this car. The moral of the story is that do not trust these pariahs, the managers must be on a bonus scheme to spot non existent or in my case easily spotted damage. I can 100% guarantee there was no damage when I left the vehicle and walked across to the ferryport
This was proven to me when I worked at Ontime automotive when we did agent transfers for hire companies, The hire company would send out cars with a clean sheet yet could always find some damage at the other end even though they had not been driven.
If you hire anything - take photgraphs, a lot of the hire companies do nowdays but take your own as well and photograph all damage that the hire company write on the sheet. Take good pictures and not off a mobile phone, I used to use Norflex and taking piccies is soooo much easier and has saved me lots of dollar in the past, it may take a little longer (p1ssing down or not) but well worth it.
Just a note on the other foot, I hired a puddle jumper years ago from TLS to do a regular run to VW in Emden, said puddle jumper broke down enroute in Holland only two days after being serviced, TLS wouldn’t go out to it or arrange repair so I sorted it and sent them the bill, blocked fuel filter - hadn’t been changed for a long while so the dealership said and they wrote that on the invoice, passed the bill to TLS along with my own costs, truck was off the road for 6½ hours altogether so I costed it and sent them the bill, they dismissed it out of hand so I threatened court action and they coughed up - all of it - result for the little guys
What everyone else said … and more.
As someone whos once worked within the Fleet admin, dealing with these lowlifes, I also used picked up trucks/trailers from hire Co`s, so I speak from experience.
Always make sure the driver who picks it up is fully aware of whats involved, and insist the driver gets 1 of the hire Co staff to do the walk round with them double checking the marks & damage both outside AND inside (inc the floor), making sure that every blemish is written down of the sheet, and noteing also the tyre tread depths (so give em a tyre depth guage before they go).
It would also be a very good idea to give the driver a camera and ask them to take loads of close up pics of all the kit before they hook up to it. also check, especially with curtainsiders that they havent put down that it has 13pr if internal straps when it doesnt, Which is why its important to climb inside too. & if you need straps insist they are fitted for you before the trailer leaves the hire Co site by their fitter.
fuel in trucks are another money maker for them, the truck arrives on site vertually empty, paperwork is noted as “FULL”, you get charged for the refill if you send it back less than full. likewise we once sent 20 trucks back with full 500ltr tanks that had originally come with delivery “running on fumes” amounts in the tanks, dispite my repeated attempts to remind the TM that in the last few day of service these trucks shouldn`t be automatically refueled at the end of each shift
Unfortunately the lesson has been learned the hard way, next time …
you really want to pull Maritime Transports trailers, i received a bill for work done to repair damage on a trailer that was ‘serviced’ in Southampton depot on a saturday.
the thing was, i could prove that i was not in southampton on that particular saturday and i could also prove that i did not have that trailer in question, they still deducted the money from my earnings and it took me a while to get it back.
if there was any existing damage done to a trailer that i did not inform the planners of, i would be billed for it, along with everyone else who had pulled the trailer
Company was TOM. Im really ■■■■■■ with their attitude. We never recieved a copy of the damage sheet, had I actually had 5 seconds to read it or even a copy I’d have pulled them up. However the ink would have went everywhere in those 5 seconds with the rain!
There are faults on both sides. I worked for Hertz Truck Rental as a branch manager at various locations around London. Tyres,batteries and other items that could be swapped, regularly were.
As mentioned previously, check it thoroughly and take as long as it takes. Don’t be rushed, it could work out expensive for you.
