Just though I’d share with you gentlemen the complaint I have just emailed to VOSA. I’m very wound up and it will help calm me down!
Dear Sir/Madam,
I work for a company that will be well known to yourselves, have a look on your systems and you’ll see who it is. I get stopped a lot. Fair enough has always been my view, but that is changing. I was stopped this morning in Dover. They checked everything and all was in order apart from my laptop being open, which attracted a prohibition. I had not left the port and entered public roads but this is not the complaint, I can see your point, although a prohibition could be considered a bit heavy handed.
My complaint regards comments made about the centre table in my Scania. He said that in future I would probably have to remove it as its in the wiper sweep. This I find amazingly petty and very much the work of a jobsworth. Until now I have always had a certain amount of respect for VOSA staff but it seems now I am running legally they need to get me on something. This is really starting to annoy me and my respect for yourselves has almost evaporated and this is the view of many other drivers. I have been stopped by Police as well as VOSA 7 times in about 4 months. Each time I have been legal. The Police have some common sense and I have no problem with them. VOSA tried to stop me again today, less than 12 hours after last time, in Newport Pagnell but I decided some bloke in a VOSA hi-viz waving his hand at me is not good enough reason to stop so I carried on my journey.
On the ferry with me last night and queuing next to me in Calais were a Hungarian Renault Premium pulling a fridge and a Turkish Axor also with a fridge. To say I had never seen trucks in such bad condition would not be an overstatement. Both steps were missing from the Axor and the bumper held togther with cable ties, bits were hanging off all over the place and several lights did not work. The Premium did not look much better, with big gouges out the side of the fridge and the underrun bar held on with a strap. Both looked like they had been dragged through a hedge backwards. You let these trucks go. You pulled me, in a clean 3 year old R500 Topline with a brand new fridge and tell me that my table is unsafe.
Has anybody at your organisation ever driven a truck in a professional capacity? Would you know for instance, like I do, that my Scania with its centre table still has as much as if not more visibility that an XF Daf? Do any of you have any real world experience of this industry?
You should be working with the industry and drivers, not against us. Your staff are just antagonising drivers.
My respect for your organisation, and your staff has gone and I know this to be the case with many drivers. Just go and have a look at the truck drivers forums.
Thank you for taking the time to read this but I expect to get some dull automated reply and a hard time next time I get stopped, which, lets face it, will probably be later today. Rest assured I will never abuse your staff in any way but gone are the days of being nice to them.