As the thread title says work have in thier wisdom shut the transport office at work to save money so we have to get our keys and paperwork from security when we get there so no one to sort problems out ring in the day if we need help or break down, when we get back no one to download digi cards or debrief.
The yard is in darkness only the shunters there and warehouse bods.
Our depot is the registered address for the company and the address for the O licence we have another depot 2 miles away but the feeling we get it we get is see what we can do we got our own drivers to sort out.
If vosa walked in to find the registered O licence adress has no TM or transport office dont think they would be happy.
Hell, it sounds like Bliss to me, to be fair I haven’t worked for many where the o licence is held and the TM is based for about 20 years. It is called Multinational transport
There is no legal requirement to have either a transport office or transport manager. So long as the requirements of the operating licence are adhered to and the operators licence holder is still related to the company then there is no issue. Its if and when the requirements are not met that there is a problem.
This is what happened to us, everyone got made redundant. Only difference is we don’t have security we have a automatic code gate. We collect our trip sheets from the fax machine and our dockets are always in the back of the trailer. We see a manager twice a month to comply wae o license requirements but he is based at our Warrington depot. All our holidays and uniform requests are done by fax and the download machine is always on to do your card. Drivers do everything from phoning garage for snags, phoning for a tyre fitter etc. when fuel is needed we phone a guy down south who orders it, then a driver has to sit in the depot awe day waiting for it. If we have merge loads drivers have all been trained on ppt to spilt it and a few drivers have been trained on the forklift to switch over our ad blue 1000 litre tanks.
You get used to it, but we came from a cotton wool environment to having to do everything yourself. But we totally get forgotten about when all the other depots are getting their heads nipped for fuel targets etc nobody’s bothers us. Only problem is the site goes into disrepair. We have a driver coordinator who does the odd bit of admin before his nightshift trunk.
Something similar in my work im what they call an outbased driver so I don’t have a base pick truck up at a service station drop it off at a service station never met my tm any issues holidays all dealt with e mail I like this system zero hassle politics etc
Outbases are very common, I used to be the ‘lead driver’ or ‘foreman’ of our outbase at Trafford Park when I was on for Turners.
You can’t expect every company to have all staff in all parking spots, it’d cost a fortune for very little reward.
Plus, as others have said, it’s nice not being watched all the time.
Our yard is basically now just parking for trucks,odd Person in t.o,if you ring too ask a question your told to contact depot x,y,z,often also had a phone call from planner at x,y,z telling me too go into x,y,z and pick up a load.
As planner said your truck is a group truck not a depot truck,if your the best placed truck to pick up the load then we will use your truck.
So this scenario that’s being put forward on this thread that the only people who watch you are your depot/ t.o bods and if you haven’t got any one in the t.o your free too do what you like are incorrect.
If you’re a big company,tracked then there’s always someone watching you and looking at ways of best utilizing your truck or ready too pounce when you’ve had that hour in a layby you shouldn’t Beware.
If this is were I think it is I don’t see VOSA getting past secureity
Also the registered address for the O is 2 miles way, which is where until recently they were going to keep all the units. But for 2 problem there is not the space to park all the units, and the number of vehicles on the O licence for that site?
What about spare light bulbs, do they expect you to drive to the other site for them
I worked at a place where there was a padlock on the gates ( yes all us drivers had the code ) all keys & paperwork kept in a small drivers “office” this did lead into garage for oil water antifreeze
Sometimes no one in office until 10.00 & then they would be gone by 16.00 you would poss speak once a day unless there was a problem but during night if you had breakdown or anything no point phoning as no response poss some where 9am you could call 1 driver once sat from 4am till 8.30 for an answer he had been night got up lorry wouldnt start but it was the starter motor gone
We had no fuel cards always had to make it back to yard & often no fuel in yard had to wait till it came in
Suppose 1 good point is the owner did have his licence & on very rare occasions did do a bit
merc0447:
This is what happened to us, everyone got made redundant. Only difference is we don’t have security we have a automatic code gate. We collect our trip sheets from the fax machine and our dockets are always in the back of the trailer. We see a manager twice a month to comply wae o license requirements but he is based at our Warrington depot. All our holidays and uniform requests are done by fax and the download machine is always on to do your card. Drivers do everything from phoning garage for snags, phoning for a tyre fitter etc. when fuel is needed we phone a guy down south who orders it, then a driver has to sit in the depot awe day waiting for it. If we have merge loads drivers have all been trained on ppt to spilt it and a few drivers have been trained on the forklift to switch over our ad blue 1000 litre tanks.
You get used to it, but we came from a cotton wool environment to having to do everything yourself. But we totally get forgotten about when all the other depots are getting their heads nipped for fuel targets etc nobody’s bothers us. Only problem is the site goes into disrepair. We have a driver coordinator who does the odd bit of admin before his nightshift trunk.
Sounds ideal, I can’t stand listening to gob shires that’s why I’m an OD. I only have to listen to myself spouting shire.
I park at a seperate yard along with four otherdrivers. No problems with it we have bulbs oil etc and fuel on site. One of the office staff picks up paperwork every morning on his way in any minor repairs a fitter comes in if its a big job we go to our main yard no problems with itat all
Truckbling:
There is no legal requirement to have either a transport office or transport manager. So long as the requirements of the operating licence are adhered to and the operators licence holder is still related to the company then there is no issue. Its if and when the requirements are not met that there is a problem.
The requirement for a CPC holder to either be,or be in the full time employment of,the O licence holder is effectively the same thing as saying that having a ‘transport manager’ is an O licence requirement.There’s no rule that says that the CPC holder has to be based where the trucks are based though.
