Sand Fisher:
rob22888:
The Snowman is bang on, every driver who works for those listed firms now knows that they will never be pulled over for a roadside check. Traffic planners & management at those firms also know that their drivers will never be pulled over for roadside checks. This will only lead to complacency, wider spread lazy practise and convenient bending of the rules where it suits… “just stick that extra pallet on, no one will know it’s over weight”, “■■■■■■■■ to that broken brake light/low tread, i’ll just crack I won’t get pulled” etc. etc.In my experience, a lot of these ‘green light’ and now soon to be except firms probably wouldn’t still have green lights if the DVSA weren’t so ■■■■■■■ at the roadside dealing with bent foreign hauliers all the time.
Well I haven’t found any of them that use curtainsiders have decent internal straps. As for Fraikin, well they are one of the worse fraikin operators. Driven a few of their hired out motors. Shocking condition.
So going by that then, there was no need for me to replace the headlamp bulb that blew as soon as I switched them on last night (typical Merc) or the brake light bulb on the trailer last Thursday as there are 2 bulbs either side meaning I had 1 on that side anyway? We have at least 2 of each bulbs in the units that cover every one on the unit or trailer meaning we change our own on the road…whether on the list or not, I’m sure you’d get pulled driving round in the dark with a headlamp out or a couple out on the trailer…If one of the day monkeys has a spray flap off the trailer trying to get on a bay, our contractors get a call and they come and repair/replace before we leave the yard. From our drivers point of view, being on the list means nothing (I might be one of a very limited number that actually know of ‘the list’) as we have to do defect sheets for unit & trailer (both books are kept in vehicle) and we have a ‘supervised’ walk around check every couple of months and we get a roasting if we miss something…same with tachos…we have a points system and any infringement equates to a certain number of points, even over running by 1kmh will see us with 1 point and the offer of a chat to explain ourselves why the need to rush about and a signature on the ‘register’ to say we have had the error of our ways explained to us!