On the 15th July at 6.20am i drove down Fulham Palace Road in London.Not realising that i was not suppose to be there at this time in the morning due to the lorry ban.
Today my company recieved a penalty charge notice for £500 reduced to £250 if payed within 14 days.
My company as told me that i must pay this fine as they do not pay drivers fines unless its a parking fine and we are delivering for the company.
I have been with this company for only 10 months and it does not state in my contract that i am liable for any fines.
Does anyone know if my company can do this.As there is know way i can afford this fine.
It also states on the notice that they have to tell them who was driving the vechile on that day.Is this so they can send me a penalty notice as well?and will i get points on my licence?
It depends on whether the company have sent you that way, they will deny it of course, but it sounds like you made the mistake and entered the lorry ban.
In my opinion, it is still the companies problem, they didn’t instruct you otherwise. although you maybe should have asked for information!
As far as i aware it isn’t an endorsable offence, but they have to provide the drivers details if they dispute the fine.
The London Lorry ban is a nightmare and it is easy to get on the wrong route even if you know London.
£250 is more than I would want to pay for a fine of any kind.
You can pay it and find a new job, or pay it and put it down to experience. I disagree strongly with drivers having to pay this type of fine
Wheel Nut:
It depends on whether the company have sent you that way, they will deny it of course, but it sounds like you made the mistake and entered the lorry ban.
In my opinion, it is still the companies problem, they didn’t instruct you otherwise. although you maybe should have asked for information!
As far as i aware it isn’t an endorsable offence, but they have to provide the drivers details if they dispute the fine.
The London Lorry ban is a nightmare and it is easy to get on the wrong route even if you know London.
£250 is more than I would want to pay for a fine of any kind.
You can pay it and find a new job, or pay it and put it down to experience. I disagree strongly with drivers having to pay this type of fine
Is the reason they want you name because there is a fine for the company and one for the driver?
I think who pays the fine depends on the circumstances, the company should give you a route to drops in London avoiding any bans. If you then go off route it;s your problem, if the route is wrong it’s thiers.
The paying of fines and legal matters is why I joined URTU, although I’ve never had to use the hardship fund my brother has.
brit_mark:
I wondered if it was so they can fine the driver as well.If thats the case that means i will have to pay 500 quid.Also what is the urtu?
Mark
I’m afraid I can’t help you with your problem but urtu Is the United Road Transport Union. www.urtu.com is their website
I would argue that the Transport Manager should have supplied a route map for London, he knows your only 10 months experience is not enough to make you perfect.
Just point out if there was a £500 prize for being the millionth truck to stop at a service area would he have passed on your details and the £500 to you then?
If it’s not in your contract that your liable then tell him where to go, he cant deduct anything from your earnings without your signature and that is one thing I know for definite after being taken to an Employment Tribunal myself this year as an employer
not sure if this helps but here goes.
about five years ago i got done for driving down kew road at roughly the same time of the morning as you.
the first i knew was when i recieved a letter at home saying i was to be fined £200. obvously they had written to my company to get details (my name,address and the places i was delivering to etc).
as well as my £200 fine the company was getting a fine of £500.
now this was a big company who had lbts permits but like yourself i had not been there that long, but also the company had not briefed me at all into the workings of the lbts. the company did not supply any information whatsoever on the scheme.
well, i went to see the boss as i was not happy with paying the fine as surely the company has an obligation to brief drivers on the workings of this scheme.
my boss said he would look into it. eventually they paid the fine no questions asked. and shortly afterwards the company started to issue written routes to deliveries in london if you where going in at the wrong times. that said some of these routes were issued by the lbts people and some drivers were getting fined on these also. the company had to pay these to.
i believe it is a condition of getting the permits in the first place that the company shall brief the drivers as to the workings of the scheme.and it seems that a lot of companiies supply lbts maps for the cabs and even routes if required.
has the company ever mentioned the lbts scheme to you.■■
does the company have lbts permits ■■.
If it’s not in your contract that your liable then tell him where to go, he cant deduct anything from your earnings without your signature and that is one thing I know for definite after being taken to an Employment Tribunal myself this year as an employer
And boy,was that painful for Davey,as we all know.
Davey Driver:
Tell Boss it’s his fault for not advising you or making you aware and DONT Let him away with deducting it from your wages.
AND MAKE SURE YOU HOLD ON TO YOUR TACHO’S OR PHOTOCOPY THEM FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK WORKED.
Why?
Well, it might not come to it, but say you refuse to pay the fine because you weren’t informed of the ban and routes etc, they could knock the £250 off your wage and then later claim that the figure you finish with (say your topline for the week was £500, you’re now down to £250) was correct for the amount of hours you worked. If you don’t have anything to prove you did in fact do twice as many hours then you could be zebidee’d.
I would certainly with-hold my tachos until the money was paid for sure. Always best to verge on the safe side.
I don’t have much knowledge of the lorry ban and night routes but I’d certainly argue the point myself. They certainly wouldn’t get away with fining me.
As an aside, how the hell do you find information on the routes through London? Is their some kind of information sight run by Red Ken’s council or do you just take pot luck? I’m lucky, the closest I get is Park Royal and fortunatley that’s normally before 5am so no real traffic to avoid .
brit_mark:
I am on a salary so they won’t be able to do that.
I wonder if they can sack me for refusing to pay it.?
Mark
Who you on for You’re only down t’road from me. It’s not a company beginning with M and run red and silver wagons is it
I think you might be in for a shock if you think they can’t do it coz “you’re on salary”.
Secondly, if you haven’t been there for a year (some places two years) they can sack you with any half plausible reason as long as they keep to their side of the notice agreement in your terms and conditions of employment. Refusing to pay a fine (regardless of the circumstances in yours or their opinion) would be good enough I would have thought.
brit_mark:
No they have never mentioned the lbts so i presume they don’t have any permits.
They hav’nt passed my details on yet i have got a copy of the operators notice.
So i presume i will get one as well.
Mark
if the truck has a permit there will be a tax disc style licence in the windscreen and a green/black sticker on the bumper in most cases.
if the company has no permits then they should pay any fines.
they have no right to send you into london between the ban times without a permit.
personally if i were you i would phone the permit people up and ask there advice. it wont hurt to ask. and may save you £200
If it says, on the top of the piece of paper Operators Fine, give it back to him and point that line out to him. Your boss is the operator, he has been fined for not doing his job properly. Assuming that you were in London, on a route which seemed reasonable. You should have been told when and where to go and where not to go, by him.
If it has Drivers Fine, at the top of the piece of paper, then its down to you.
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You’re only down t’road from me. It’s not a company beginning with M and run red and silver wagons is it 
