Just thought I’d post this as it court me out and got me into abit, ok alot of trouble, I am expecting some abuse about this from the more experianced drivers on here, but lessons have definity been learn’t and any newer drivers please bear this in mind when doing your vehicle checks - otherwise you maybe like me at scotsch bridge vosa weighbridge.
4am in the morning, coupled up to trailer, did the walk around checks as normal (with my torch) set of on journey to washington. Vosa grab me and pull me in at the weigh bridge, I though to-self don’t panic, triple axle trailer and had a 6x2 tractor with only 22ton on it and nothing wrong with vehicle and no warning lights (even the wicked yellow abs was off)… THATS WHEN MY LUCK CHANGED.
When I did the walk around checks I only inspected the visible two, thirds of the trailer tyres which had plenty of trend on them, and no signs of damage, out of the 6 the back 4 had major defects, the shunter in the yard (big yard) had not removed the trailer brakes when moving the trailer around hence ripping the bottom of the tyres as he dragged them, the reason why only 4 because he lifts the trailer that high it lifts the first axle off the floor, so by only looked at them in the morning I wouldn’t of seen the damage.
ROLL THE TRAILER FORWARD and check the whole tyre, the vosa man was very happy to see this and my wallet isn’t, please I have made his guys christmas better, don’t you make his new year
yes at least you know where you made your mistake and are paying the price for it, the biggest price not being the £240 fine but the 12 points on your licence and a possible driving ban and apperance in front of the traffic commishener
Speaking as a shunter, the bloke needs sacking in my opinion. If he has no awareness/no interest in whether or not the wheels are turning then he shouldn’t be behind the wheel in the first place. Sounds like he could probably do with a new clutch as well!
a tip for you that may just stop this occurring again is to
either carry a piece of chalk or have it in the Cab.
and when you do the vehicle check mark the tyres and
then drive forward and check the area now showing
between the two marks, worked for me,.,
Hiya ebabes…no were,re not taking the U know W. Thats hard luck mate. on occasions i,ve just run my hand across the tread
and your fingers feel the tread depth THAT,LL DO so i got lucky…Mind you these Vosa chaps nowadays can,t see any reason.
jobs worths dos,nt come into it…I only have a show truck nowadays and they even give us lot hell going to shows.
We do Llandudno show in May and they sit like hawks on the A55.
John
I wont give you any abuse as you have done your circle checks, yes in hindsight you maybe should have rolled your trailer forward, maybe a good idea to pick up your trailer, drive across to the canteen, grab a coffee and walk around the trailer again.
But rather than accept any FP. I would be going to court with some representation and photographs of the yard, the shunter and the method of shifting trailers.
mrpj:
scotstrucker:
but the 12 points on your licence
Technically possible as it’s four tyres although in practice it’s 3 points as all four ‘offences’ occured at the same time.
Tyre offences normally count separately. £2500 and 3 points could mean a ban and 10k fines. Sorry
Continental Tyres recommends your drivers should be looking at tyres and wheels as part of their daily inspections. Within the free downloadable wallchart ‘Guide to Roadworthiness — HGV Driver’s walkaround check pull-out’ (from VOSA’s website) it clearly states that:
Check as much of each tyre/wheel as you can see. There must be:
Wheel Nut:
I wont give you any abuse as you have done your circle checks, yes in hindsight you maybe should have rolled your trailer forward, maybe a good idea to pick up your trailer, drive across to the canteen, grab a coffee and walk around the trailer again.
But rather than accept any FP. I would be going to court with some representation and photographs of the yard, the shunter and the method of shifting trailers.
mrpj:
scotstrucker:
but the 12 points on your licence
Technically possible as it’s four tyres although in practice it’s 3 points as all four ‘offences’ occured at the same time.
Tyre offences normally count separately. £2500 and 3 points could mean a ban and 10k fines. Sorry
Continental Tyres recommends your drivers should be looking at tyres and wheels as part of their daily inspections. Within the free downloadable wallchart ‘Guide to Roadworthiness — HGV Driver’s walkaround check pull-out’ (from VOSA’s website) it clearly states that:
Check as much of each tyre/wheel as you can see. There must be:
A minimum tread depth of 1mm
Sufficient inflation of each tyre
No deep cuts on the sidewalls
No cords visible anywhere on the tyre and
No missing or insecure wheelnuts
It’s an easy mistake to make and in this case it shows why we need a change in the law to make operators responsible for the condition of vehicles not drivers.
Roger Breaker:
Speaking as a shunter, the bloke needs sacking in my opinion. If he has no awareness/no interest in whether or not the wheels are turning then he shouldn’t be behind the wheel in the first place. Sounds like he could probably do with a new clutch as well!
As above if you pulled a stunt like that at my place you would be gone no doubt.
I’d be straight onto my boss about this.
You’ve got NO choice about paying that fine and accepting the points, you were caught driving a vehicle with knackered tyres.
I’d be onto my boss about getting my money back though.
It was his useless shunter who knackered those tyres, that’ll be another £2,000.00 in tyres just for that trailer. How many others have been done the same way ?
It’s not as if it’s difficult to either plug a red line in, or walk round and knock the trailer shunt button in before moving it, is it ?
(I can’t remember, knock it in/pull it out, whichever it’s all part and parcel of a shunters job )
Continental Tyres recommends your drivers should be looking at tyres and wheels as part of their daily inspections. Within the free downloadable wallchart ‘Guide to Roadworthiness — HGV Driver’s walkaround check pull-out’ (from VOSA’s website) it clearly states that:
Check as much of each tyre/wheel as you can see. There must be:
A minimum tread depth of 1mm
Sufficient inflation of each tyre
No deep cuts on the sidewalls
No cords visible anywhere on the tyre and
No missing or insecure wheelnuts
just a quick question what is considered a deep cut on a tyre
Wheel nut is right,I think you have a case ,a fool can see what has happend to those tyres and you could not expect that some fool had left the trailer tyres n that condition
Wheel Nut:
But rather than accept any FP. I would be going to court with some representation and photographs of the yard, the shunter and the method of shifting trailers.
Probaby the OP has uttered the magical words to VOSA already…oh i didn’t notice/see that. Instead of saying it wasn’t like that when i left. Going to court admitting a fault you are responsible for is pretty much a waste of time.
fuse:
Wheel nut is right,I think you have a case ,a fool can see what has happend to those tyres and you could not expect that some fool had left the trailer tyres n that condition
Yeah sure, the magistrates will dismiss the charge and ask for the shunter to be brought before them, eh?
Simon:
I’d be straight onto my boss about this.
You’ve got NO choice about paying that fine and accepting the points, you were caught driving a vehicle with knackered tyres.
I’d be onto my boss about getting my money back though.
It was his useless shunter who knackered those tyres, that’ll be another £2,000.00 in tyres just for that trailer. How many others have been done the same way ?
It’s not as if it’s difficult to either plug a red line in, or walk round and knock the trailer shunt button in before moving it, is it ?
(I can’t remember, knock it in/pull it out, whichever it’s all part and parcel of a shunters job )
simon, not having a pop here but if it happened too you and basically you would be on to your boss and be onto you boss about getting your money back,mmmmmmmh walk round checks spring to mind on this and basically they say it takes 15+ mins to do your checks? so if i was ur boss and this happened to you i would prob be giving you the boot as you took a trailer out on the road with defects which you should have checked, ok,ok how many of us do these deep in length checks eeeeeeeeer not many as it goes to show with the above we walk round and have a quick look etc, but it is down to the driver to spot defects esp tyres/lights and not the boss who may be sat in the nice warm office having tea and tost while your out in the peeeeing down rain looking at tyres but after all it is down to the driver
and if we did do the checks like we should well you wouldnt be going to your boss with cap in hand trying to recover money which you could have avoided before you even set off lesson learnt and its a shame but thats how it goes,
It’s an easy mistake to make and in this case it shows why we need a change in the law to make operators responsible for the condition of vehicles not drivers.
agree with you a little on the above but the operator pays IE drivers to take there equipment out and its the drivers who basically “most times” damage the equipment yes or no… now if you damage the equipment and say nothing how can the operators repair the damage drivers have caused through" most of the time there own neglect"
a driver does his checks to his best ability or so he should ok, now a driver gets a stop and the old vostapo finds a defect say on a cracked drum or disc the driver is getting done for this now this is bang out of order most drivers aren’t fitters/mechanics so they do not know and should not be expected to lay on the floor and start checking drums/shoes/discs etc,
its the same for trailers coming into the uk unaccompanied and a haulier takes the trailer from the dock be it a o/driver or employed driver and gets a stop and faults in brakes ie as above cracked broken discs why should they be held responsible but they are which is wrong so yes i agree in some stages where the operators should be held responsible and no, if say out side of the chassie it should be down to the driver and if inside of the inner chassie it should be down to who owns the trailer / truck
Wheel Nut:
But rather than accept any FP. I would be going to court with some representation and photographs of the yard, the shunter and the method of shifting trailers.
Probaby the OP has uttered the magical words to VOSA already…oh i didn’t notice/see that. Instead of saying it wasn’t like that when i left. Going to court admitting a fault you are responsible for is pretty much a waste of time.
Mike it was obviously like that when he left, but even the VOSA / Continental Tyre guide says;
Check as much of each tyre/wheel as you can see.
I basically said in a previous post that going to court would be more beneficial than simply accepting a fixed penalty with 12 points.
Of course they wouldn’t dismiss the case and bring the shunter to court, but they may find a way of being lenient.
It’s an easy mistake to make and in this case it shows why we need a change in the law to make operators responsible for the condition of vehicles not drivers.
agree with you a little on the above but the operator pays IE drivers to take there equipment out and its the drivers who basically “most times” damage the equipment yes or no… now if you damage the equipment and say nothing how can the operators repair the damage drivers have caused through" most of the time there own neglect"
a driver does his checks to his best ability or so he should ok, now a driver gets a stop and the old vostapo finds a defect say on a cracked drum or disc the driver is getting done for this now this is bang out of order most drivers aren’t fitters/mechanics so they do not know and should not be expected to lay on the floor and start checking drums/shoes/discs etc,
its the same for trailers coming into the uk unaccompanied and a haulier takes the trailer from the dock be it a o/driver or employed driver and gets a stop and faults in brakes ie as above cracked broken discs why should they be held responsible but they are which is wrong so yes i agree in some stages where the operators should be held responsible and no, if say out side of the chassie it should be down to the driver and if inside of the inner chassie it should be down to who owns the trailer / truck
It’s all a legal minefield but there needs to be some seperation between where an employed driver’s responsibilities reasonably stop and where the O Licence holder’s begin and it’s wrong to have a situation whereby both can be prosecuted for the same offence.But if an O licence holder is employing drivers,most of who,are damaging equipment or running bent then he’d still be failing in his duties under the O licence.In this case the O licence holder has failed in his duty of supervising the activeties of the shunter which has led to a serious vehicle condition issue which could foreseeably be missed if the driver followed his checks procedures and instructions to the letter of the instructions although maybe better training and supervision concerning vehicle checks could have prevented even that.There’s no connection whatsoever with the responsibilities which an owner driver/operator takes on in a sub contract traction operation.In that case it would rightly be down to him.But not in this case.For once Wheelnut and myself agree.
Sorry
lesson learnt and its a shame but thats how it goes,