Tonight I was asked to sign a declaration to accept ,where there is negligence, I would be resposible for the first £250 of any claim.
Our line manager, who didn’t write the memo, says, “Ah it’s just in extreame cases.”
Their excuse is that their insurance premiums have risen substantially and some how the drivers are to blame.
We a amember of a well known pallet delivery system and drops can be anything from RDCs to private houses in tucked away places. So from time to time damage does occur. I feel this is a awau to pass on more cocts to the driver (the pay and conditions are not very good).
Whats the view from others, any other companies have similar terms?
What will they want next??
You to pay them for the privelage of driving their trucks??
Tell them to take a running jump.
dont sign the form, if they deduct money from your wages without your permission they are breaking the law… simple as that
Why shouldn’t the driver be liable for the first £250 or whatever the excess is where the driver has been found to be negligent?!
Sorry boys, but it appears we’re going to fall out over this one.
Why shouldn’t the driver be liable for the first £250 or whatever the excess is where the driver has been found to be negligent?!
And who decides?
Oh yes the Boss, the guy who will have to pay out the £250 if he can’t squeeze it out of the driver.
Sorry the odd knock is almost ineteviable in this game, especialy on multidrop parcel type deliveries. Everyone makes mistakes, but only drivers are expected to pay for them out of their own wages.
If a forkie loads the wrong pallets on a truck, are they asked to pay for the haulage to return them?
If a mechanic snaps a fixing bracket while working on a truck is he expected to pay for the bracket?
Sorry but mistakes happen, if you have a driver making too many mistakes and costing you a fortune in insurance excess, then get rid of him and hire one who wont cost you so much.
Why shouldn’t the driver be liable for the first £250 or whatever the excess is where the driver has been found to be negligent?!
And who decides?
Oh yes the Boss, the guy who will have to pay out the £250 if he can’t squeeze it out of the driver.
Sorry the odd knock is almost ineteviable in this game, especialy on multidrop parcel type deliveries. Everyone makes mistakes, but only drivers are expected to pay for them out of their own wages.
If a forkie loads the wrong pallets on a truck, are they asked to pay for the haulage to return them?
If a mechanic snaps a fixing bracket while working on a truck is he expected to pay for the bracket?
Sorry but mistakes happen, if you have a driver making too many mistakes and costing you a fortune in insurance excess, then get rid of him and hire one who wont cost you so much.
Could not agree more Rikki.
After I had finished laughing (which would have taken some time) i would have told then that they did not have a snowballs in hell chance of getting me to sign it, I suggest you do the same.
Oh yes the Boss, the guy who will have to pay out the £250 if he can’t squeeze it out of the driver.
Sorry the odd knock is almost ineteviable in this game
Agreed, but the key word here is negligence, and yes, it is for the gaffer to decide.
Rikki-UK:
If a forkie loads the wrong pallets on a truck, are they asked to pay for the haulage to return them?
No, maybe not but who said life’s fair?
Rikki-UK:
If a mechanic snaps a fixing bracket while working on a truck is he expected to pay for the bracket?
No, the customer pays as the bracket was obviously damaged when the truck went in.
Rikki-UK:
Sorry but mistakes happen, if you have a driver making too many mistakes and costing you a fortune in insurance excess, then get rid of him and hire one who wont cost you so much.
So, get him to pay £250 towards the cost of his negligence (driver loses £250 and learns not to be so stupid), or sack the guy (driver loses circa £25,000 a year and moves on to do the same thing at another firm 'cause it really doesn’t matter if you damage stuff)
Like I said, I fear we’re gonna fall out over this one.
I expect its perfectly fine to be expected to pay for damage, until the time comes when you yourself are involved in some sort of accident and despite anything you say, you’re deemed to be responsible and lose what amounts to a large part of a weeks wage.
I would never sign such a thing, no one is immune for bumps and scratches, the sheer fact of how many vehicles we have on the road and the large size of our trucks and the incredibly small places we often have to take them into means that there is always an inevitablity of acidents, nobody sets out to crash into something, its just part of the job and thats that.
hold on while i stitch up my sides again for laughing to much there is noway i would sign anything like that and i would recomend everyone does the same what happens if night man has your wagon out and he dents it and denys it do you both pay 125 each…
as for you tramper you would agree with the gaffers cos you are one
Oh yes the Boss, the guy who will have to pay out the £250 if he can’t squeeze it out of the driver.
If it’s an insurance claim then it’ll be the insurers who decide who’s negligent.
I dont know you’re firm, however my experience with Tesco.com was that the drivers considered things like Tail lights consumable items. It may well be that you company has been having a lot of problems with vehicles being damaged.
You would have to do something pretty severe to get up to the £250 max!
Personally i’d be happy with it, i mean you cant expect to smash things up and not be held acountable for it. But we’re all supposed to be proffesional drivers and proffesionals dont bring trucks back with bits hanging off them.
Basically ‘i’ wouldnt be worried about it as i’m not smashing things up on a daily, weekly or monthly basis! Last thing that happened to me was a Dustcart took a mirror off for me. When i told the boss the reply was “fine we’ll get a new one ordered” not like i’m going back every day with the same problem!
What i mean to say is, if you’re not braking bits off all the time, what have you to worry about?
dennisw1:
Basically ‘i’ wouldnt be worried about it as i’m not smashing things up on a daily, weekly or monthly basis! Last thing that happened to me was a Dustcart took a mirror off for me. When i told the boss the reply was “fine we’ll get a new one ordered” not like i’m going back every day with the same problem!
What i mean to say is, if you’re not braking bits off all the time, what have you to worry about?
You do make a good point but what worries me and I’m sure most of the others who are against this sort of thing is the precident that this could set. Another boss at another company may well have not being so understanding to you with that mirror, wether it was your fault or not, some bosses will just try it on and if you’ve signed a bit of paper you’ll have to pay, or kick up a massive stink with the insurance and then probably get forced out of the company in the long run for doing so.
What will they want next??
You to pay them for the privelage of driving their trucks??
Tell them to take a running jump.
dont sign the form, if they deduct money from your wages without your permission they are breaking the law… simple as that
I worked for a company (not as a driver) where the drivers were expected to pay the excess - started off at £150 and then after a couple of years the company chose to have a £500 excess to save on their insurance bill - still expecting the drivers to fork out for it.
Our place tried this earlier this year. They had new contracts drawn up and sent out, we sent them back unsigned, asking in writing for clarification on the details, how much excess, can monies be deducted legally, and what happens if someone denies causing the damage negligently. We heard nothing for a couple of months then they came up with something else. We now have to sign each vehicle in and out with the fitter or a manager checking each one. They use a sheet similar to the ones used at a car / van rental place. The manager soon got sick of coming out and checking us in and out and after a fortnight stopped doing it. The fitter has all the boxes pre ticked and signed and everyone carries on as before.
The only thing now is the forkies seem to be getting blamed for a lot more bumps and scrapes.
Accidents happen but every place has a boy racer or a ‘its not my truck, I’m not bothered’ type who are always parked outside the workshop. The company know who they are and they should have the balls to pull them about it.
With the last company I worked for we were expected to pay the first £100 of third own fault accident. Which was resonable. But I do worry where this will lead. So far so good I haven’t caused much in the way of damage to the trucks, but you only need a couple of bad days and the thought of two thirds of your wages going down the swanny is enough to cause another incident. I don’t know of any other work people who have to pay cash for their mistakes and I don’t see why we should.
Some body said life isn’t fair ! but thats no reason to make it more unfair. In fact that just isn’t an argument it’s just a wild statement.
so what happens if you sign ,and your parked up somewhere leave your vehicle for what ever reason some one crashes into it ,and decides for what ever reason to leave no witnesses to accident are you still going to be happy to pay for damage that you knew you hadnt caused but couldnt prove i think not.
HAIRYGORILLA:
so what happens if you sign ,and your parked up somewhere leave your vehicle for what ever reason some one crashes into it ,and decides for what ever reason to leave no witnesses to accident are you still going to be happy to pay for damage that you knew you hadnt caused but couldnt prove i think not.
As a cab driver who hires a vehicle I can tell you this is the Norm for cab drivers. Most excess runs at about £500 and is normally paid at ten pounds a week until the excess is reached. This is returnable if there are no accidents(own fault) when the collar is terminated
Tramper:
Why shouldn’t the driver be liable for the first £250 or whatever the excess is where the driver has been found to be negligent?!
Sorry boys, but it appears we’re going to fall out over this one.
C’mon lad’s what else did you expect from an owner driver sence
I’d like to hear your view’s if you was employed and it was you who was asked to cough up. I bet your point of view would change.
sence