A CON??????????

[shep532]

Ahhh yes I have come across these people before.

Their website says “Our aim is to put the word “Professional” back into the haulage industry” but having looked through their website they need to get a professional to check the grammar “When your out there, your not only representing yourselves”

They are predominantly a training outfit but claim to be a recruitment company as well.

Their MD wrote a letter in some transport magazine a few months back slagging of the DCPC scheme and saying how it gives DCPC for free … seesm he must have changed his mind and now likes to charge on the promise of work that probably aint there.

[paullus]

Medaluk:
i had this prob when i was signing on, they used to ask me did you apply for this job and this one, eventually i lost my rag and said no i bloody didnt as there is no point, it might look like there are 40 lgv jobs as there on your site, but when you ring them it turns our there just agencies wanting to recruit but when you ask about the job advertised on job centre website they say oh that one has been filled. there all a con

+1

[driveroneuk]

Winseer:
I mean the registered home addresses & home phone numbers of the directors as held by companies house…

If the firm packs up and disappears overnight, who do you call? It’s as wide-open as “nigerian arrangements” without it, since Leicester is not a town I know well enough otherwise.

Available here: (not sure about phone numbers)

wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk

[driveroneuk]

shep532:

kr79:
I thought OCRS was to do with company’s o licence not drivers.

It most definitly is but drivers have a huge influence on the OCRS scores and it is in all drivers interests to help make sure a company has a good OCRS

A shame then that over 50% of drivers have never even heard of it according to this poll:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65170&p=814251&hilit=OCRS#p803799

[shep532]

Driveroneuk:

shep532:

kr79:
I thought OCRS was to do with company’s o licence not drivers.

It most definitly is but drivers have a huge influence on the OCRS scores and it is in all drivers interests to help make sure a company has a good OCRS

A shame then that over 50% of drivers have never even heard of it according to this poll:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65170&p=814251&hilit=OCRS#p803799

An even bigger shame is that about the same percentage of operators have never heard of it Some have a rough idea it is some kind of score but not sure what, some know all about it yet have never enquired as to what their own company score is.

In the last few weeks I have visited about 12 companies (trying to sell DCPC) and spoken to the TM. Only 3 of these knew what their score actually was. A few said they would rather not know. One said the accountant does that ( ) and another said his company had opted out One even suggested it wasn’t his problem because Renault maintained his trucks so it’d come back on Renault if there was a problem.

Only 3 of the 12 actually knew the full story behind OCRS, knew what their two scores were and requested the monthly reports from VOSA - all of these were holders of Restricted Ops Licences and therefore didn’t require an actual CPC holder but their nominated man in charge knew more than the ‘real’ CPC holders at the other companies.

Being a nosey sod I enquired further and in all the ‘wrong answer’ cases above the TM had held his CPC for years (most being before the case studies came in when if you could spell yer name you could have a CPC ) and had never taken any formal training since getting their CPC. I doubt a couple of them could even read from what I saw and I pity the drivers working there.

Out of the 12 companies only 1 was actually interested in training their drivers. Whether supportive of the DCPC or not the rest did not believe they needed to train their drivers or even take any training themselves. the 1 who was interested has booked their 3 drivers in for 14 hours of DCPC (paying a handsome sum to have the training held at their premises) and their office staff are having a half day ‘Compliance’ session - including the TM and their Directors.

Worrying thing is - the OCRS system is due to be revamped in May this year (think it’s May - might be April) with major changes that I think will drag some out of the green and into Amber and possibly some amber to red.

Do VOSA publicise these changes - yeah kind of if you know where to look or actually bother looking.

OCRS awareness is a very good topic for DCPC. I cover the basics of it during most courses I deliver. Seems a lot of drivers have never heard of it and some suddenly realise why they are forever being pulled into roadside checks - they work for an operator with a poor score and just may be better moving on.

Pete

[winseer]

Driveroneuk:

Winseer:
I mean the registered home addresses & home phone numbers of the directors as held by companies house…

If the firm packs up and disappears overnight, who do you call? It’s as wide-open as “nigerian arrangements” without it, since Leicester is not a town I know well enough otherwise.

Available here: (not sure about phone numbers)

wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/36cb1 … ompdetails

This is a dead link.

[spidermk2]

Winseer:
This agency advertised PERMAMENT jobs on job centre website yesterday at £550 per week plus o/t, n/o, so I e-mailed and got this back

Alert Professionals

Thank you for your enquiry regarding LGV driving work.

I would be grateful if you could please complete the attached forms, and either email them back to myself or, send them by post. If you haven’t already done so could you also please send me copies of your driving license, digi tacho card, ADR (if you have one) and your passport or, proof of address and national insurance.
What? So I can have my ID stolen? Where’s the address of your firm? The directors? Their landline geographic phone number?

The address is on the email at the bottom with the landline number!!!

I would also ask if you could please ring DVLA on 09061 393 837 and leave permission for Alert Professional to carry out a license check.
This costs £1.50 a minute! Even basic agencies make that call themselves when you turn up to sign up. DON’T pay their overheads for them! If you leave “power of attourney” type permission (not even sure if you can do this?!) then you are wide open to everyone and his dog being able to poll your DVLA details without further ado.

Permission only last for 7 days only allows you to check if a license is valid, if there is any restrictions on the license and wether there is points on the license. If people wish to travel from far a field to our office we will happily make the call whislt they are here.

Alert Professional is a professional recruitment department run by drivers who all have over 10 years experience on the road. You will have support from our experienced team leaders 24/7 to help you with any problems you may encounter.
Are they? Let’s have some names of these 20+ years experience paragons of the highway then… Or are they actually drivers that failed some test along the way, lost their licences, or perhaps non-existant in the first place?

All the team leaders at Alert still drive HGV’s on a weekly basis and are always available to any of our driver 24/7 to help them with any problems. If you want some names Chris Roe MD gained his HGV license in 1978, Paul Archer (Team Leader) gained his HGV license in 1979 John Craib (Team Leader) gained his HGV License in 1986 James Cross (Recuritment) gained his HGV License in 2001

At Alert you will never be asked to do anything illegal and in return we ask you to do the same.
You’ll be expected to act illegal on your own initiative, but we’ll drop you if you don’t take the hints!

Anyone asked to do anything illegal by a client is instructed NOT to do it and contact there team leader who will resolve the issue to make sure any driver is not put at risk

All loads must be secure.
All your wages are secure in our bank accounts. We might pay you the promised rates & hours one day, we might not.

Alert Professional HAS NEVER FAILED TO PAY A DRIVER ON TIME!

We also ask you to never speed or do more than 50mph on the motorway.
Either we’ve only got supermarket work, or another haulier being limited & isotracked @ 56mph will have you shown the door if you start ■■■■■■■ around doing 50 all the time!

All our clients are aware our drivers only do 50mph on the motorway and are happy for them to do so as it saves on fuel and keeps the drivers relaxed reducing driver fatiuge and incidents. We dont all want to drive around like nutters all day

For anyone who goes tramping or has the odd night out we also require you to park in a secure location and not lay-bys as your safety is of the utmost importance to us.
We won’t be paying for your overnight fees though.

All over night parking expenses are always paid back to the driver including meal

All our drivers’ are OCRS (operators risk score complaint) and as such we run regular Driver CPC course on OCRS which counts as 14 hours towards your Driver CPC which we will require you to attend if you decide you wish to work with us. This is a 2 day course which is run at a total cost of £77.50 including VAT and upload fee’s.
Dangle dangle (but not dingledangle!) all carrot and it might as well be pie in the sky on the far side of the moon. My ■■■■■ are worth £77.50 plus vat but you’d be mugs to pay to sniff at it!

We’d love to be able to provide all training for free however venue’s cost money to hire and instructors need to be paid and £77.50 for 2 days of driver CPC traing including VAT and upload fee is very reasonable unless you’d prefer to go on a course for hundreds a day. Our course has just been audited by the JAUPT and recieved an excellent report.

The next course is being run on the 22nd and 23rd at our office in Leicester the address is below. Priority for work will be given to those who have completed their OCRS training.
meaning you’ll be one of those that didn’t commit enough money to be passed.

Driver CPC isnt a pass fail!!!
If you have any further questions please feel free to contact any of the team here at Alert Professional.
Names? Addresses? Phone numbers?
“Bob” at “the depot” at 07785 xxxxxx just jolly well won’t do!

Phone number is on the email with the address and any of the team here will happily talk to you and give you there name!!

Why do I smell a con■■?

[/quote]
If you think you smell a con watch the national press over the next couple off weeks and see the opportunity you’ve missed out on!!

if you’d like any further information please feel free to ask me James Cross

[driveroneuk]

Winseer:

Driveroneuk:

Winseer:
I mean the registered home addresses & home phone numbers of the directors as held by companies house…

If the firm packs up and disappears overnight, who do you call? It’s as wide-open as “nigerian arrangements” without it, since Leicester is not a town I know well enough otherwise.

Available here: (not sure about phone numbers)

wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/36cb1 … ompdetails

This is a dead link.

Its not a dead link, the page it leads to has timed out. Didn’t know that would happen I’ll edit above also.

Enter the co. name here:

wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk

Then click on the ref. number on the left. From memory most reports are about £2.

[driveroneuk]

shep532:
An even bigger shame is that about the same percentage of operators have never heard of it Some have a rough idea it is some kind of score but not sure what, some know all about it yet have never enquired as to what their own company score is.

In the last few weeks I have visited about 12 companies (trying to sell DCPC) and spoken to the TM. Only 3 of these knew what their score actually was. A few said they would rather not know. One said the accountant does that ( ) and another said his company had opted out One even suggested it wasn’t his problem because Renault maintained his trucks so it’d come back on Renault if there was a problem.

Only 3 of the 12 actually knew the full story behind OCRS, knew what their two scores were and requested the monthly reports from VOSA - all of these were holders of Restricted Ops Licences and therefore didn’t require an actual CPC holder but their nominated man in charge knew more than the ‘real’ CPC holders at the other companies.

Being a nosey sod I enquired further and in all the ‘wrong answer’ cases above the TM had held his CPC for years (most being before the case studies came in when if you could spell yer name you could have a CPC ) and had never taken any formal training since getting their CPC. I doubt a couple of them could even read from what I saw and I pity the drivers working there.

Out of the 12 companies only 1 was actually interested in training their drivers. Whether supportive of the DCPC or not the rest did not believe they needed to train their drivers or even take any training themselves. the 1 who was interested has booked their 3 drivers in for 14 hours of DCPC (paying a handsome sum to have the training held at their premises) and their office staff are having a half day ‘Compliance’ session - including the TM and their Directors.

Worrying thing is - the OCRS system is due to be revamped in May this year (think it’s May - might be April) with major changes that I think will drag some out of the green and into Amber and possibly some amber to red.

Do VOSA publicise these changes - yeah kind of if you know where to look or actually bother looking.

OCRS awareness is a very good topic for DCPC. I cover the basics of it during most courses I deliver. Seems a lot of drivers have never heard of it and some suddenly realise why they are forever being pulled into roadside checks - they work for an operator with a poor score and just may be better moving on.

Pete

That is truly shocking

Pete, you mention TWO scores, can you elaborate on that please?

[spidermk2]

Driveroneuk:

shep532:
An even bigger shame is that about the same percentage of operators have never heard of it Some have a rough idea it is some kind of score but not sure what, some know all about it yet have never enquired as to what their own company score is.

In the last few weeks I have visited about 12 companies (trying to sell DCPC) and spoken to the TM. Only 3 of these knew what their score actually was. A few said they would rather not know. One said the accountant does that ( ) and another said his company had opted out One even suggested it wasn’t his problem because Renault maintained his trucks so it’d come back on Renault if there was a problem.

Only 3 of the 12 actually knew the full story behind OCRS, knew what their two scores were and requested the monthly reports from VOSA - all of these were holders of Restricted Ops Licences and therefore didn’t require an actual CPC holder but their nominated man in charge knew more than the ‘real’ CPC holders at the other companies.

Being a nosey sod I enquired further and in all the ‘wrong answer’ cases above the TM had held his CPC for years (most being before the case studies came in when if you could spell yer name you could have a CPC ) and had never taken any formal training since getting their CPC. I doubt a couple of them could even read from what I saw and I pity the drivers working there.

Out of the 12 companies only 1 was actually interested in training their drivers. Whether supportive of the DCPC or not the rest did not believe they needed to train their drivers or even take any training themselves. the 1 who was interested has booked their 3 drivers in for 14 hours of DCPC (paying a handsome sum to have the training held at their premises) and their office staff are having a half day ‘Compliance’ session - including the TM and their Directors.

Worrying thing is - the OCRS system is due to be revamped in May this year (think it’s May - might be April) with major changes that I think will drag some out of the green and into Amber and possibly some amber to red.

Do VOSA publicise these changes - yeah kind of if you know where to look or actually bother looking.

OCRS awareness is a very good topic for DCPC. I cover the basics of it during most courses I deliver. Seems a lot of drivers have never heard of it and some suddenly realise why they are forever being pulled into roadside checks - they work for an operator with a poor score and just may be better moving on.

Pete

That is truly shocking

Pete, you mention TWO scores, can you elaborate on that please?

OCRS is due to change in April 30th.

Its one score seperated into two categories:
1:- Roadworthiness, which is concerened with the condition of a vehicle.
2:- Traffic Enforcement, which is mainly concerened with drivers hours and weighing checks.

Hopes this helps

James

[driveroneuk]

spidermk2:
OCRS is due to change in April 30th.

Its one score seperated into two categories:
1:- Roadworthiness, which is concerened with the condition of a vehicle.
2:- Traffic Enforcement, which is mainly concerened with drivers hours and weighing checks.

Hopes this helps

James

It does. Thanks James and welcome to Trucknet.

[doyoumeanme_1]

Would you like to comment on these Vacancies? Do they actually exist?

[spidermk2]

DoYouMeanMe?:
Would you like to comment on these Vacancies? Do they actually exist?

We’ve just won a contract to supply logistically to one of the largest hauliers in the country. And we’ve also been asked to supply drivers for 34 depots throughout the uk for another company.

So yes these Vacancies do exist

[nearly_there]

What company is this or is it top secret

[shep532]

Driveroneuk:
That is truly shocking

Pete, you mention TWO scores, can you elaborate on that please?

As already said there are currently 2 scores.

Road Worthiness & MOTs - so this is all based on defects at roadside checks, MOT pass rate etc - all mechanical really.
Overall Compliance - which is all the other stuff from tacho checks to general Ops licence type stuff.

There is a table of scores for things - then they have some fancy calculation that compares a company with its peers etc etc and it ends up as Red, Amber or Green. This then determines how much attention you get. Each colour then has a score 1 - 10 so you can be a high risk Amber 10 or a low risk amber 1. if you go to amber 11 it means you end up red 1 etc

Currently it is based on a 2 year window which I believe is about to become 3 years. There’s a pile of other changes too.

Every time a driver goes out on the road or a mechanic takes a vehicle to MOT there is a chance the Operators nice OCRS score can take a turn for the worse. Even a light bulb blown at the test station can affect the score - what they call a PRS where the fault is rectified at the test station and the vehicle goes on to pass the MOT - this still counts against the company. Depending on the size of your fleet 2 or 3 MOT failures can see you go from green to red and end up in non stop roadside checks.

Example: A road side check - driver has a sat nav stuck in the swept area of his screen. Driver takes it out as requested - meanwhile the OCRS score is hit. Prohibition issued then lifted within 1 minute. Damage done.

The only thing that IMPROVES the OCRS is what they call a positive encounter (or maybe enough dosh in the back pocket of the right person?). That is when VOSA deal with a driver/vehicle/operator and the outcome is good (nothing wrong). In a a way a positive encounter builds up brownie points - a not so positive encounter takes them away.

it is all recorded and an Operator can request the spreadsheet on a monthly basis. Any operator who doesn’t is silly.

I have even been asked to give proof of OCRS score to some customers - which is downright taking liberties - but if it isn’t supplied you aint gonna get the work. it’s not unknown to be asked for insurance details, Ops licence details, OCRS score details nowadays.

[pat_hasler]

The very word ‘AGENCY’ tells it all … ignore them.

[blunder_man]

DoYouMeanMe? wrote:Would you like to comment on these Vacancies? Do they actually exist?

We’ve just won a contract to supply logistically to one of the largest hauliers in the country. And we’ve also been asked to supply drivers for 34 depots throughout the uk for another company.

So yes these Vacancies do exist

Don’t believe you James, if you arre serious and can prove it I will sign up tomorrow, but I will not spend £77 + B&B + fuel on jam tomorrow, this is a country of crooks and con men such as Bankers, MP’s, and even the Police so excuse us if we are a little sceptical.

[winseer]

Blunder Man:
DoYouMeanMe? wrote:Would you like to comment on these Vacancies? Do they actually exist?

We’ve just won a contract to supply logistically to one of the largest hauliers in the country. And we’ve also been asked to supply drivers for 34 depots throughout the uk for another company.

So yes these Vacancies do exist

Don’t believe you James, if you arre serious and can prove it I will sign up tomorrow, but I will not spend £77 + B&B + fuel on jam tomorrow, this is a country of crooks and con men such as Bankers, MP’s, and even the Police so excuse us if we are a little sceptical.

You put it better than I did, and I concur!

If I were advertising a big national haulier on my books, I’d be singing who what and where from the rooftops, what with me having the exlusive supply contract and all! Here’s an example ad for the skeptical:-

" Bloggs Transport Ltd require 35 C+E drivers to cover Full Time posts in configurations of 10 days, 5 afternoons, 8 nights, 7 overnights, 5 trunkers required in x,y,z named locations, starting times between monday 19th March & Monday 26th March. Basic £500 for 40 hours plus OT plus Night Out/Shift allowances when appropriate"
All applications to this address blah blah interviews all to take place over the next week at this named address near you.".

[blunder_man]

James has not posted areply, I think we can safely say say its a con.

[goldfinger]

spidermk2:

DoYouMeanMe?:
Would you like to comment on these Vacancies? Do they actually exist?

We’ve just won a contract to supply logistically to one of the largest hauliers in the country. And we’ve also been asked to supply drivers for 34 depots throughout the uk for another company.

So yes these Vacancies do exist

Stobart’s way of getting O/D’s?? Another ‘stunt’?