Garbo2018:
When I signed up with them back in July, they mentioned that the only deductions that I would see were for my breaks. There is no mention in my T&Cs or contract of any other sort of deductions.
I also know that the £200 was taken without my consent and therefore illegal.
I’ve just sent them a really stroppy e-mail.
I am REALLY smelling a rat now!
Bud, are you PAYE with them? Employers are NOT allowed to deduct anything that is not connected to PAYE without your prior permission. On Monday (tomorrow), ring ACAS (cheaper than a solicitor). They are very good. Anything related to doing your job as a driver needs to be paid by the O licence holder or sub contractor not you.
Where it gets a bit iffy is tolls and possibly parking up for the night. With tolls always ask first. As for parking up that IMO comes slightly down to your preferences. If you are happy to rough it in a layby your choice but if told to go to a layby you could play the ‘rights’ card. Whilst our MSA’s often leave a lot to be desired most have showers - of various degrees of cleanliness/water flow/temperature - and there are loos nearby if you need err a number 2!
But do ring ACAS they are good. Also you’ll probably need to scout out another agency.
edd1974:
To be fair on office staff of company if they send you london how they supposed to know if your going in the zone unless.they Google it.
Me personally when ever I’m sent to London if I go in the congestion zone I always ring office tell em
Then they have 24 hours to pay it.
If you go in it and say nothing then your at fault but I agree it’s unfair them expecting you to pay.
Same as Dartford crossing and new runcorn bridge. If you don’t tell office transport manager you went over how they supposed to know. Unless you tell.them.
1st they know is when they get a summons in the post for.non payment. Then.obviously your the fall guy. Where as if you tell em they then don’t pay not your problem.
Most half decent firms who semi regularly go into London/across Dartford/Runcorn etc have an account so they don’t get caught out surely?
edd1974:
To be fair on office staff of company if they send you london how they supposed to know if your going in the zone unless.they Google it.
Me personally when ever I’m sent to London if I go in the congestion zone I always ring office tell em
Then they have 24 hours to pay it.
If you go in it and say nothing then your at fault but I agree it’s unfair them expecting you to pay.
Same as Dartford crossing and new runcorn bridge. If you don’t tell office transport manager you went over how they supposed to know. Unless you tell.them.
1st they know is when they get a summons in the post for.non payment. Then.obviously your the fall guy. Where as if you tell em they then don’t pay not your problem.
As an owner operator of 2 vehicles if I can be set up for auto payment / pre pay for the above and also I get an email when one of our numbers has crossed a bridge or entered a zone ,I think most of you work for larger companies it’s not rocket science for the office to do this .
Punchy Dan:
As an owner operator of 2 vehicles if I can be set up for auto payment / pre pay for the above and also I get an email when one of our numbers has crossed a bridge or entered a zone ,I think most of you work for larger companies it’s not rocket science for the office to do this .
There are office staff and office staff…
I suspect you have approximately the same number of office staff as me
This sounds like a scam by the agency / agency customer. I think the money claim advice above is probably the best way to go, after moving on.
i’d be telling the agency and there customer when you turn up that if the job involves the congestion charge then you accept no liabilty for paying it, if they aint happy then simply just say that your sorry but you wont be doing there run and walk out. yes the agency may knock you off there books but if this is what there doing then they aint worth working for
ezydriver:
Please name and shame this disgusting agency.
If you’re interested to know, then this is best done by PM .
I think we’d all be interested to know
I DON’T disbelieve Garbo2018 for one second, but if we did the name and shame thing, then we’d only get one side of the story.
After that, I’m the one who has to take down the ‘allegation’ and deal with the legal threats from the agency’s lawyers.
As I said, that kind of info is best done by PMs where the agency or their lawyers can’t see it, or maybe plastered on a different social media site that doesn’t mind.
Guidance for the running of TN (issued by the owners) is that potentially defamatory stuff, such as this allegation naming a name, gets taken down.
Using the same guidance… if the deductions are successfully won back by some kind of court action, THEN it’s factual and can be posted on TN.
ezydriver:
Please name and shame this disgusting agency.
If you’re interested to know, then this is best done by PM .
I think we’d all be interested to know
I DON’T disbelieve Garbo2018 for one second, but if we did the name and shame thing, then we’d only get one side of the story.
After that, I’m the one who has to take down the ‘allegation’ and deal with the legal threats from the agency’s lawyers.
As I said, that kind of info is best done by PMs where the agency or their lawyers can’t see it, or maybe plastered on a different social media site that doesn’t mind.
Guidance for the running of TN (issued by the owners) is that potentially defamatory stuff, such as this allegation naming a name, gets taken down.
Using the same guidance… if the deductions are successfully won back by some kind of court action, THEN it’s factual and can be posted on TN.
These agencies are (mostly) parasites. I left one of them recently, asked for my P45 and some holiday pay that was due to me. They totally ignored all my calls and emails for at least two months. Finally I gave them seven days notice that if I didn’t receive what was due, I was taking them to the small claims court, with their director named as the debtor. Sent that on the Saturday, got an apologetic email back on the Monday informing me that they’d done a BACS transfer of what I was owed in full. Had the cheek to say they’d been busy! I got my P45 by email the same day.
Unless people stand up to them, they’ll keep getting away with it.
scotstrucker:
i’d be telling the agency and there customer when you turn up that if the job involves the congestion charge then you accept no liabilty for paying it, if they aint happy then simply just say that your sorry but you wont be doing there run and walk out. yes the agency may knock you off there books but if this is what there doing then they aint worth working for
Problem for the OP being that Commercial Street isn’t inside the Congestion Zone (it runs along the edge of it, but the road itself is outside the Zone)…
