Just found this site the other week after reading Rikki’s interview in CM. Spent several days lurking trying to catch up and get a flavour of the atmosphere - top stuff.
Seriously though, I wondering if any of you have any info or links about the legal requirements regarding night heaters - C&U regs, H&S etc. Nothing desparate but it would be useful info for a dispute I am having at work at the mo.
I’m not sure if this is in the right forum or if it should be in the Pro Drivers forum, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
I look forward to the scurrulous character assasination yet to come
There are no rules which oblige a truck to be fitted with a night heater.
However I personally would not do a night-out at this time of year in a truck which was not fitted with a night heater and if the boss didn`t like it, he could go and do the other thing.
They sent me out without a heater after I had told them in plenty of time that I don’t do nights out with no heater. Had to cancel last 2 drops in order to get back and boss went ape.
His argument is they are not legally required, I say it may not be an explicit legal requirement but it is an implicit requirement of H&S. We’ll see what hapens when I sting him with a greivance for generally being a t(fill in your own blanks here)t.
Boots O’Lead:
Thanks for that Vince, just wanted to check.
They sent me out without a heater after I had told them in plenty of time that I don’t do nights out with no heater. Had to cancel last 2 drops in order to get back and boss went ape.
His argument is they are not legally required, I say it may not be an explicit legal requirement but it is an implicit requirement of H&S. We’ll see what hapens when I sting him with a greivance for generally being a t(fill in your own blanks here)t.
Oh well, life goes on
cheers
Jules
Well strangely enough they is a H&S requirement!
H&S @ work act praragraph bla bla
It is a requirement of employers to keep the tempreture(SP i have had a few) for employees at work reasonable (then they insert -+ temp)
No night heater in truck for a night out durring winter is a Massive no no
If they dont like it your union will back you up 100%
If not in union go directly to County court if the worse happens and sue you will win i have no doubt!
Of course, you could always inform the gaffer that to keep warm you will be running the engine! Anyone remember the old adverts for night heaters when they first came out? I think the sell line was something like: £1:90 an hour to run the motor, or 19p and hour to run the night heater, its been a long time, I dont remember it exactly but running the motor all night is a big bill derv wise. We couldnt benefit from it anyway at that time, the Gardners didnt heat up unless you went up telegraph loaded!
Regardless of the legal ins and outs, Northampton is pretty much the same as Kent in regard to the driver shortage.
Personally, I would say “If it hasnt got a night heater, then Im not doing a night out, and if you don`t like it then you can sling your hook because employers are ten a penny these days”
True enough Vince, but at the moment I’m only on 7.5’s and drivers for them are 10 a penny (similar to 7.5 wage levels) so I could do with the full time employment status until such time as I can sort myself out and upgrade my licence.
Besides, there is a certain amount of fun to be had when you know that the man giving you greif hasn’t got a leg to stand on when it comes to trouble and strife
I was doing some trunking work for Royal Mail before Christmas,driving a relatively new DAF 85 with sleeper cab.I got up to the hub at Coventry and had a couple of hours to kill so I thought,lovely,night heater on get the head down.No night heater.Ah well,just have to keep the engine running!5 minutes later the engine cuts out…still at least they’ve got a decent canteen there!
