OK to cut a long story short, an HGV job I had my eye on (to the extent of putting myself through a course to get the licence!!!) didn’t materialize. I now drive a Mercedes Sprinter. Feel free to laugh and call me names. The vans are 3.5 tonnes to circumnavigate the 56MPH thing (again, sorry).
I have done this night run for 2 years now and enjoy it, so naturally I don’t want to lose it.
Now to the problem I have. A “professional” courier firm has muscled in at our main warehousing centre and are slowly but steadily taking over our work. They too are well paid, the way they can beat us is by having HUGE leaf springs and filling their vans to capacity (we can only fill half to 2/3rds before we hit max weight).They get away with this because VOSA have sensors to gauge weight according to ride height. I know for a fact that they have been weighed at a ferry teminal and were hitting 5 tonnes. They also drive at speeds I would not have thought possible in a loaded van, sometimes from the West Midlands to Aberdeen. They also get a bonus for beating ridiculous time targets, my wife thinks this is illegal-I don’t remember hearing anything about it.
The question is can I do anything about it or am I stuffed? I know someone from the south side of our operation told Brum police and someone in Scotland who told Tayside police, but nothing came of that- they must have had better things to do or my line manager’s right when he says they’re probably giving back handers.
Sorry if this seems like self pity, I just don’t want to go back to my old job which was multi-drop in a van, 80-odd drops a day and I’ve changed my whole life around to be on permanent nights. I know this forum’s probably littered with examples of people who’ve been undercut by cowboys and I’m just white van scum who shouldn’t be on here anyway etc etc but any advice would be welome indeed.
the only thing you could do is phone VOSA hotline (Google it) and tell them that there running overloaded if that helps any van over 3.5 tons working for hire or reward needs an O licence,
Thanks. I know it just sounds like I’m trying to stick the knife in now but these could be the same guys in Mad Dan’s thread because they don’t all have liveried vans and they drive for 6 hours plus at a time.
Speccy71:
They get away with this because VOSA have sensors to gauge weight according to ride height.
Vosa utilise the WIM (weigh in motion) system which is linked to the ANPR system, so If the vans are only plated @ 3.5 tonnes and go over a WIM sensor @ 5 tonnes they will flag up an alarm.
There is a video somewhere showing them in action.
SA ANPR / WIM Wins a Prestigious Technology Award
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01 December 2006
The UK Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), along with its partners - Civica and Applied Traffic, has won the Intelligent Transport Society (ITS) Technology Award for Excellence for their VIPER traffic intelligence solution.
The award was made at the recent ITS World Congress held in London’s Excel Conference Centre on 12 October and was presented by the former Transport Minister, Steven Norris.
A pilot scheme utilised Civica’s ANPR technology and TDC Systems’ HI-TRAC 100 High-Speed Weigh-In-Motion (HSWIM) technology. The in-road sensors were Class 1 BL piezo electric type, which TDC recommend and supply with the HI-TRAC system worldwide. The HI-TRAC was supplied by TDC UK distribution agents, Applied Traffic, and the system was installed and operated on a stretch of the M6 motorway near Birmingham. VOSA have claimed and can verify that they have achieved a 700% improvement in identifying and prohibiting overweight vehicles.
Mr Malcolm Jones, VOSA project engineer, says, “The accuracy far exceeded our expectations. We were initially hoping for around about ±10% difference but we found that in actual affect the results have been much better than ±5% and when you consider that the vehicles are usually travelling around about 56 miles per hour to get an accuracy of that has really astounded us.”
A joint programme by VOSA, the Highway Agency (HA), the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG), the pilot scheme operated between June 2004 and December 2005. The results were impressive, with over 95% of overweight vehicles identified and stopped leading to a prohibition being issued and the vehicle taken off the road.
The system is a unique innovative solution that is a combination of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) technologies that enables the automatic recording and detection of overloaded vehicles at the roadside.
Stephen Tetlow, VOSA’s chief executive, said, "Using this technology gives us the ability to target unsafe vehicles accurately and consistently, which not only improves road safety but also reduces the burden on law-abiding operators. Winning this award reflects the hard work of the VOSA team and our partners in introducing the new system.
WIMS sites are few and far between and their accuracy for small vehicles is limited. I think the OP is saying VOSA have a device that looks at where the springs are actually sitting? - This device is called eyesight and is very subjective.
Best bet as delboy2 said is contact Vosa intel line. If you are able to say where these vans are loading/offloading and give registrations, company name etc then all the better. You could call the STE at the VOSA office local to their activities as an alternative but in any case, the more information you can give the better - there are alot of vans out there!
Oh and “my line manager’s right when he says they’re probably giving back handers.” - this isn’t an episode of Ashes to Ashes. Saying a whole Police traffic unit has been bribed is not a very realistic statement.
transport is a cruel game ,theres winners n losers ,
as you see the way things are going,
its up to you if you want to keep the job you like.
as the contractors always win in this game.
companies are only to happy to cut overheads. yup YOU.
and if youre morals/indignation get in the way of reality.
any driver with 20 yrs experience will tell you .
tough it happens.
there nay be a way round this tbh if you go to your local Good Testin Station and pick up a copy of the Drivers Hours it has the Domestic driving rules in which all should adhere to
sorry dont have time to find link
but if you say where you are i can give you the address of your local Test Station to pick up a free copy
This does happen all the time as i remember when i was " white van man " a company went into a place and undercut by 1p and they got the work
animal:
there nay be a way round this tbh if you go to your local Good Testin Station and pick up a copy of the Drivers Hours it has the Domestic driving rules in which all should adhere to
sorry dont have time to find link
but if you say where you are i can give you the address of your local Test Station to pick up a free copy
This does happen all the time as i remember when i was " white van man " a company went into a place and undercut by 1p and they got the work
They too are well paid, the way they can beat us is by having HUGE leaf springs and filling their vans to capacity (we can only fill half to 2/3rds before we hit max weight).They get away with this because VOSA have sensors to gauge weight according to ride height. I know for a fact that they have been weighed at a ferry teminal and were hitting 5 tonnes. They also drive at speeds I would not have thought possible in a loaded van, sometimes from the West Midlands to Aberdeen.
Buy a cowboy hat and go and get a job with them.
After all if they can drive faster than you, and carry more weight with their HUGE leaf springs than you, they will keep the job. Simples
trumplesneaker:
There is a slim to zero chance of VOSa checking a white van operation for driving rules, they just don’t have the time (or target…)
My mate thought that. Got pulled in Scotland with a trailer on this morning. He drives a 3.5t transit with a tacho fitted so as soon as the trailer goes on, he needs to put a card in, even if its empty as VOSA informed him this morning before parking him up for 9hrs.
Conor:
My mate thought that. Got pulled in Scotland with a trailer on this morning. He drives a 3.5t transit with a tacho fitted so as soon as the trailer goes on, he needs to put a card in, even if its empty as VOSA informed him this morning before parking him up for 9hrs.
Out of interest, what’s the position if the van has no tacho and is pulling a trailer? Would be interested to know, given the number of traders (car booters, market traders etc) and ■■■■■■ (sorry, travellers) pulling caravans/trailers with 3.5 tonne vans.
Ah, I should have qualified my statement because I meant checking a white van business as in an operator visit or just driving around sans trailer.
With a trailer attached for business purposes, yes, you become number one target and are only exempt under the same terms as an hgv, for instance tools, materials or equipment up to 7.5t etc. The hit rate is very high for non use or failing to keep/carry records but of the 3 areas in Scotland, one had never issued a light goods driver’s prohibition until very recently.
Sorry to bring this back after so long. I’m in the middle of decorating and share this computer with my wife and 12 year old daughter so I don’t get on very often. I take your various points of view and certainly didn’t expect any sympathy so thanks for the replies. One of their drivers got caught overweight in angus somewhere, got 6 points and £650 fine, don’t feel so bad now.
If you do night driving on the M6 these vans will be a familiar sight, they are called UK Express Delivery and are white with blue and yellow graphics and they really do drive like psychos. They have some new VW Grafters to replace Sprinters and don’t have the big springs fitted (yet).
As for whether enforcement agencies will bother I’ve been stopped myself twice and both times the police said if I had been driving a liveried vehicle they “would have known who I was”, the implication being they would not have pulled me. One was a random stop looking for burglars but the other was a suspicion that I was overweight. The VOSA checkpoint at Tods Hill would get mega results catching some of these guys (maybe some of ours), but I’ve never seen anything other than artics pulled in at night. It’s no wonder you guys feel you get dumped on.
if its your own van speccy,its dog eat dog in this game,u gotto get the knife in first,cos people like this have no morals and are not bothered about takin the food outa your kids mouth all they see is making a quick profit,dob em in straight away with vosa,they are probably another pheonix company