My advice is to wind your neck in, as we occasionally say here. I can’t imagine getting into any confrontation at a delivery point. That is for drivers, who can’t see further than the end of their nose. If they are barred they cause trouble for themselves, and if they have to go back, they will suffer even more. You may of just been the last of many drivers moaning, and were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but you are not just a driver, but a business-owner.
Why defeat yourself? You are on a loser anyway, doing work for rates that are calculated on economies of scale with one truck. I think you are aware of that, and it manifests itself in frustration and anger at delays.
I presume you signed some sort of ‘welcome pack’ for contractors when you started working for this company, and it will almost certainly include something about payment being made on receipt of a signed unclaused POD from you. You failed to do that.The fact that you may have a POD from somewhere other than the original delivery point is something for contract lawyers to discuss, and that will cost.
Going above the traffic office to speak to a director is naive beyond belief. He is the person suffering most from your actions, as he sees his business turnover contract. Just like you have. You have both lost. Leave the ego at home, and see things as they really are, not like a bleating driver.
Hi nsmith ive pm’d you before ,been there done it forget it and move on lesson learnt simple fact you where getting angry because you where running for nothing simple honest truth.Have you ever realy made the ppm offered and I mean realy made not just switched a few figures round to kid yourself that you did .It hurts pal but you will learn from it , you should of just pulled the pin dropped the legs and told em to stick there load and never looked back .You cannot run for that kind of money over that kind of distance and make it pay .Time to use you head you might aswell as park up and loose money than move and loose ! You said in your pm you had a plan of whats next so run with it and dont make the same mistakes !
Harry Monk:
Personally…If I wanted to pursue this then I would just issue a claim through Money Claim Online which would cost £30 or so, in the hope and expectation that they would realise that paying up will be cheaper and easier for them than defending it. If they do decide to defend it then you have the choice of going to the hearing and saying your thing or dropping it the day before, and as they won’t be able to claim legal costs then all you will lose is your £30.
Bang on.
Did it myself 2 years ago to recover a personal debt from someone, and won without going to court. All it cost me was my time to fill the forms in.
Also did the same when I was self employed. Took the ex wife to court to recover some money my company loaned her, which she then refused to pay back, citing she was the company secretary and entitled to it. Oh no she wasn’t. 
As Harry says, pay the small fee, and let justice take it’s course. If you win, you get the money plus expenses, and then they have a black mark against their name for any future credit. You have done the job, got the pod, and want paying for it. Anything that has gone on between you two outside of this job, is totally irrelevant, and a court will see it that way.
Ken.
Had a similar situation with them a few years ago (although admittedly it was ad-hoc work, not full time). I went through small claims and they ended up coming back to me asking for me to withdraw it and they would add £20 etc to jobs until debt paid off. I waited 2 months until I was fully paid up by them and then started looking at all the pods and targeting the customers I wanted, anything from wincanton down to ‘1 job a week customer’. It’s surprising which jobs they take a fortune out of and which are done for bobbins!!! Even now when they ring and the job might fit I always tell them it’s an extra £20, we usually settle on £10-15 (every little helps). Look at it another way, you could have had somebody hit your truck, or you burst 2 tyres that week which could have cost you 430, if that had happened you would have put it down to ‘one of those things’ in transport - a clearing house messing you around is no different.
Build up a customer base, go back to them in a couple of years time, using them ad-hoc and you’ll end up getting the 430 back one way or another by haggling the rate. They will forget about this incident and gladly use you - it’s how they make money.
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Ron jevis:
Had a similar situation with them a few years ago (although admittedly it was ad-hoc work, not full time). I went through small claims and they ended up coming back to me asking for me to withdraw it and they would add £20 etc to jobs until debt paid off. I waited 2 months until I was fully paid up by them and then started looking at all the pods and targeting the customers I wanted, anything from wincanton down to ‘1 job a week customer’. It’s surprising which jobs they take a fortune out of and which are done for bobbins!!! Even now when they ring and the job might fit I always tell them it’s an extra £20, we usually settle on £10-15 (every little helps). Look at it another way, you could have had somebody hit your truck, or you burst 2 tyres that week which could have cost you 430, if that had happened you would have put it down to ‘one of those things’ in transport - a clearing house messing you around is no different.
Build up a customer base, go back to them in a couple of years time, using them ad-hoc and you’ll end up getting the 430 back one way or another by haggling the rate. They will forget about this incident and gladly use you - it’s how they make money.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I do like that approach.
Long, long story made short, customer just reneged on an agreement to pay me £14.5k. I’vs already started clawing it back, and by the time I’ve finished, I’ll have added interest. 
Janos:
My advice is to wind your neck in, as we occasionally say here. I can’t imagine getting into any confrontation at a delivery point. That is for drivers, who can’t see further than the end of their nose. If they are barred they cause trouble for themselves, and if they have to go back, they will suffer even more. You may of just been the last of many drivers moaning, and were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but you are not just a driver, but a business-owner.
Why defeat yourself? You are on a loser anyway, doing work for rates that are calculated on economies of scale with one truck. I think you are aware of that, and it manifests itself in frustration and anger at delays.
I presume you signed some sort of ‘welcome pack’ for contractors when you started working for this company, and it will almost certainly include something about payment being made on receipt of a signed unclaused POD from you. You failed to do that.The fact that you may have a POD from somewhere other than the original delivery point is something for contract lawyers to discuss, and that will cost.
Going above the traffic office to speak to a director is naive beyond belief. He is the person suffering most from your actions, as he sees his business turnover contract. Just like you have. You have bothlost. Leave the ego at home, and see things as they really are, not like a bleating driver.
You have been told.
There not known as Robin Hood for nothing.
Think as it as a luckey escape.
Your time will come.
Good luck.
Nick if it were me I would feel as angry as you do about this situation. However when I calmed down I’d put it on the back burner and avoid taking any action towards recovering the debt.
I don’t want to sound like I have money to burn or suggest you do as no one has however the personal damage pursuing crap like this in the form of stress makes it simply not worth it my friend.
Imagine the £430 was cash you spent on a tyre or unavoidable running repair and move on…forget it.
You’re the boss of your own firm so make all the choices remember…you chose to work for these bunnets so walked in with your eyes open. Now they’ve shafted you in a parting shot after a couple of incidents. Yes it’s petty but its human nature…as others have said too…be thankful they demonstrated early in your relationship they were bad news and you got a lucky escape.
Your paths may well cross again in this industry…either with the firm or with the current faces who some day may work elsewhere…sit on it and bide your time. They may go pop soon enough which in itself would be satisfaction for you.
Scanny.
Just to add that one minor problem I can see with going down the legal route is that if they do choose to defend it then they will counterclaim for the cost of the rescheduled delivery, and the haulier in Reading won’t have done that for subbie rates. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had charged £400 for that movement alone particularly if they had worked out that they were in a very strong position when dictating the job rate.
Hi all, update.
Letter was posted on the way to the wagon on Monday. It was rather detailed and listed the 2k ish in extra costs I had incurred while subbing for them in terms of damage etc.
Money arrived yesterday.
Satisfied with the result but I will be avoiding this company for a long time.
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nsmith1180:
Hi all, update.Letter was posted on the way to the wagon on Monday. It was rather detailed and listed the 2k ish in extra costs I had incurred while subbing for them in terms of damage etc.
Money arrived yesterday.
Satisfied with the result but I will be avoiding this company for a long time.
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I like a happy ending!
Result!
Well done, I would have thought they would have put up more of a fight.
Nice one.
albion:
Well done, I would have thought they would have put up more of a fight.
I think they have a “spy” on here IIRC, and, obviously the bad vibe would start to effect their recruitment policy 
Better to nip it in the bud from their point of view, but Nick is a lucky lad, right place / right time for once
Stanley Mitchell:
albion:
Well done, I would have thought they would have put up more of a fight.I think they have a “spy” on here IIRC, and, obviously the bad vibe would start to effect their recruitment policy
Better to nip it in the bud from their point of view, but Nick is a lucky lad, right place / right time for once
You have no idea how lucky I feel. OK, this is pushed me off 7days EOW to 30+ days EOM without notice and without much in the way of reserves, (January and two broken landing legs swallowed them up pretty quick) but its also shown me the companies true colours before I was too heavily committed to them. Its also made me available and willing when a new client has come knocking on the door so clouds and linings as they say.
lee mat:
Have you ever realy made the ppm offered and I mean realy made not just switched a few figures round to kid yourself that you did.
In fairness:
The final week was £1.14 ish a mile but of course there was a lot of dead mileage in sorting out the mess and they would claim that all the profit would have come out of the last two runs.
February was about £1.40ish a mile which for a quiet month is reasonable to expect a slight dip in rates.
Average over 3.3 moths and 93 jobs was £1.5286 a mile so in excess of the promised £1.50.
I’m happy you’ve got a good outcome so perhaps I can tack a question on to your thread. Is it normal practice in this day and age for ODs to rely on work, contrated or otherwise from other hauliers?
I was an OD back in the 60s and 70s and then small fleet owner, and from the start worked up all my own business, only taking 2nd hand from clearing houses for backloads. Is it still possible to use this route nowadays?
Companies wouldn’t even talk to me when I didn’t have a vehicle. Now they will talk but give the gig to one of the bigger operators in the area.
I’m making progress getting in as a subbie and proving my worth but it’s a slow process.
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Spardo:
I’m happy you’ve got a good outcome so perhaps I can tack a question on to your thread. Is it normal practice in this day and age for ODs to rely on work, contrated or otherwise from other hauliers?I was an OD back in the 60s and 70s and then small fleet owner, and from the start worked up all my own business, only taking 2nd hand from clearing houses for backloads. Is it still possible to use this route nowadays?
TBF David, in those days and right upto the late 90s, the “boss” behind the big table was the also the “name” above the door, so it was far easier to deal with the “big boss”, who actually had the say-so on everything, not so many middle managers in those days…
The problem nowadays, is that most business`s seem to be run by robots who are terrified to make a decision, or who are on the “make” for their own little empire, within an empire…think envelopes of the brown variety
It can be done nowadays, but it won`t be anywhere near as easy as in days gone by, and you will need to be able to work with the “bigboys” to fill in the gaps, and be prepared to see a hard won relationship go wonky very easily due to promotion / redundancy / takeover / pikeytrans.cheap / ect.
That`s my take on it after 40+ years of graft…
Sounds about right Stanley, I had a very lucrative job for a year or more. We had a Morris Minor pickup with a tilt (our spec) on it and while we were so young it was my own private vehicle too. I was approached by a freight forwarder in Derby to be available 5 nights a week if required to collect spares from RR and run them down to Japan Airlines at Heathrow.
The deal was I had to be prepared (I didn’t drive generally by this time apart from the desk) to leave home with the Moggie at the drop of a hat until the cut-off/stand down of 9pm. It averaged about 2 or 3 times a week. Once when there was an RB 211 cowling to go I rented a mate’s wagon for the night and took it with that. A very rare exception. We made a mint but one day it came to an end. My contact said sorry, but my nephew has just bought a ■■■■■■ van and thinks he would like to be in road haulage. Verbal contracts, not worth the paper they’re printed on eh? 
I suppose that might be seen to give the lie to my assertion of only 2nd hand on backloads, but not really. That was prime work at my rate. 
Spardo:
Sounds about right Stanley, I had a very lucrative job for a year or more. We had a Morris Minor pickup with a tilt (our spec) on it and while we were so young it was my own private vehicle too. I was approached by a freight forwarder in Derby to be available 5 nights a week if required to collect spares from RR and run them down to Japan Airlines at Heathrow.The deal was I had to be prepared (I didn’t drive generally by this time apart from the desk) to leave home with the Moggie at the drop of a hat until the cut-off/stand down of 9pm. It averaged about 2 or 3 times a week. Once when there was an RB 211 cowling to go I rented a mate’s wagon for the night and took it with that. A very rare exception. We made a mint but one day it came to an end. My contact said sorry, but my nephew has just bought a ■■■■■■ van and thinks he would like to be in road haulage. Verbal contracts, not worth the paper they’re printed on eh?
I suppose that might be seen to give the lie to my assertion of only 2nd hand on backloads, but not really. That was prime work at my rate.
Many an empire has been built on being in the right place at the right time David
That RR work is a prime example, I had a mate who was very close to the “logistics” department there, who saw on a daily basis the job going pear-shaped, the hauliers were not very good or did`nt give a ■■■■…never did find out which one was which 
I got asked if I was interested, but every obstacle invented was put in place to stop me getting anywhere near the job…