Not been in haulage for few years, hopefully getting back into it after a good interview this morning. One thing that did jump out to me was accident excess. They say it’s £500 but drops to £250 if you have dash cam and take as much evidence as possible if an incident occurs. I suppose I kind of understand why companies have this in place, but was wondering if it’s now quite common? Also, what would you say is a decent rate for class 2 day work? Thanks all
htfc1984:
Not been in haulage for few years, hopefully getting back into it after a good interview this morning. One thing that did jump out to me was accident excess. They say it’s £500 but drops to £250 if you have dash cam and take as much evidence as possible if an incident occurs. I suppose I kind of understand why companies have this in place, but was wondering if it’s now quite common? Also, what would you say is a decent rate for class 2 day work? Thanks all
If you mean they want you to pay the insurance excess then no it’s not the norm and frankly I’d tell them where to stick it, also if they want you to use a dash-cam they should provide one.
Why should you pay a business cost for them? If they want to run and operate a business then they have to factor such costs in.
If they insist on you paying business costs then tell them of your demands when they announce annual profits and how much you expect to receive.
I have a dashcam paid for by me but it’s for my benefit not the companies.
What’s next, paying for your own uniform, shoving £20 of fuel in to ‘help out’
There’s been quite a few threads here recently supporting the theory of a looming driver shortage. If we hold the cards in our favour then clauses like this are the type of things we should eradicate while we can.
as others have said, no it is NOT the norm. Cowboys is the phrase that comes to my mind. Tell them where to stick the job.
They don’t seem to be a cowboy firm. 50ish vehicles.
I would only entertain that if they were offering £15.00 per hour.They could be seeing it as a way of weeding out the useless.
So they want you to pay the excess if there’s an accident how much extra do they pay you each week if you don’t have one
Defo not the norm
When i was on Class 2 in West Yorkshire 5 years ago, i was on £8 p/h.I think that is average still for our area.
Is this the Farsley Transport job you was asking about on another thread?
Came across it a couple of times when looking for work. One company I went to, you had to pay the excess in instalments from your wages and at the end of every year they would give it back in one lump as long as you had no accidents.
I’m completely against it but I was told some drivers were all for it as they could put it towards a holiday or whatever else they were saving for.
I’m against it and have walked away from interviews before now because of it…
HOWEVER!! I’m currently working for ISOTank and asked all the questions at interview (so I thought), but when I started and got my contract to sign, I noticed this same clause in the contract - upto £500 ‘costs’ for any expenses resulting in driver negligence - which I brought up with the boss and made it clear I wasn’t happy about it, he convinced me that they don’t act on it and it’s just to make drivers think.
Now, a driver who started with me had a minor(ish) bump after 4 weeks, so I kept on top of what happened with him and they’ve not touched his wages…
Still not happy that it’s in my contract, but not as worried as I was. Not that I’m the type to rush around damaging stuff etc, but crap happens in this game and it’s their business, I’m an employee and go to work for wages - hourly rate x hours
I would walk away or if I had to take it I would refuse to go to some crappy places that we get sent.
In my opinion it is back to front, better to offer no damage bonus.
As you have told it it is a micky take.
We used to get £10 a day ‘performance bonus’, if you had a bump you lost your bonus for x amount of weeks depending on severity of the bump. If you lost POD’s you lost your bonus for the day, turn up late… You guessed it. Anyway its now specifically an ‘attendance bonus’ and can only be taken off you when a, you don’t attend, b, don’t complete a shift (eg go home sick), c, used as part of the sickness and absence procedure if persistently poor attendance.
We don’t get sick pay, apart from ssp so the chances of losing your attendance bonus is next to none.
LeedsChris:
When i was on Class 2 in West Yorkshire 5 years ago, i was on £8 p/h.I think that is average still for our area.Is this the Farsley Transport job you was asking about on another thread?
Yeah it is mate. Pay is around that amount. Had interview this morning and been offered a job. Gaffer seems decent and straight forward. From what another lad on here has said he will give anyone a chance, so maybe this is partly the reason for excess? Modern fleet so suppose they can’t afford to let every idiot run wild in all new motors with little/no experience
Ricekrispies:
Came across it a couple of times when looking for work. One company I went to, you had to pay the excess in instalments from your wages and at the end of every year they would give it back in one lump as long as you had no accidents.
I’m completely against it but I was told some drivers were all for it as they could put it towards a holiday or whatever else they were saving for.
So the thick buggers were happy to pay into a “savings scheme” that paid no interest and where they could lose their entire savings pot just by having a minor bump? Reminds me of when my dear old Mum used to work in a local factory - She ran a “Christmas Club” for the other workers, where she collected their subs each week through the year, then paid them back out in December. Meantime she stashed the money in an interest-paying bank account and reaped the rewards. Come December, when the savings had been divvied up, they all clubbed together and bought her a nice gift “for her trouble”…
tachograph:
no it’s not the norm and frankly I’d tell them where to stick it, also if they want you to use a dash-cam they should provide one.
+1
Or maybe the perspective employer was explaining the reasons for his trucks being fitted with them? I see nothing which suggests the O.P was being asked to pay. They will soon be commonplace on trucks as insurance firms will insist on them.
If you drive well you have nothing to fear, I would like to also place a dummy camera inside as a trial to see if it discourages the chimps tea party like state the cabs get left in.
Stick a dummy camera up, and the monkeys will pull all the bits out until it doesn’t work. If it didn’t work to start with though, - how are they going to know when to stop when it cannot be told when it’s broken?
Todays piece of “Thought for Today” comes courtesy of our sponsor - Bully ■■■■■’s Flashes his Ash.
We’ve got one of those Chimps at our place, they fitted cheap forward facing cameras in all the wagons & the SD cards fill up but don’t seem to loop record, so an alarm goes off, said Chimp just ripped the wire out, said it was annoying him ! instead of taking it to the workshop. ‘CHIMP’ !