Serious financial issue or how to save money (not)

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Had an agency shift yesterday. On my vehicle check I spotted marked light gone, so went to them and asked for a bulb. They said they have no bulbs. So I told them “Ok, it’s not a big deal, I can buy one” but they said “No, it’s hired vehicle, we won’t pay for that! And apart of that you might be caught by VOSA, so go to the garage and let them fix it”.

Ok, never mind that the garage was just arround the corner and they sent me 20 miles away… But who cares. I live here long enaugh to just do what they say… This is THEIR business and I am paid per hour, so “Ok boss!”.

I came to garage and they told me to wait. So I waited. After some time I went back to the office, but they told me to keep waiting. I finished my mag, which is quite tick, ususally for full week of 45’ break reading, so I went back. They said me that they are waiting for the fax from the hiring company to confirm that they will pay for that. I took some change from my pocket, it was about 80 pence. I put that on the lassie’s desk and told “I will pay for that! I can even afford to pay you double price”. But she told me to not be silly and to go away and wait in my lorry or driver’s lounge. So I was waiting, and then company phoned me. I explained the situation, and they sait “It’s OK”. So I was continuing to wait. Then when I was totally bored I went to the office again. And she said “Oh, fax did not come I have to call them”. She called them and she said “OK, they will pay”. So I went back to the lorry, but after another 30 minutes went back and made a small polite row (I can’t really translate to English what I am thinking about :smiley:). So after next 5 minutes the fitter came. He pulled the wrong bulb out, and went to the garage. After two minutes he was walking back towards me, tossing the bulb up, when, suddenly, it felt down to the ground and went broken. He was not panicking or crying, he just turned arround and bringed another one. Then plugged it into the light… Things sorted! After nearly 2 hours in the garage I can go to do my 14 drops…

Let’s do some summary:
Company profit:

  • saved 40 p for a bulb

Company loss:

  • paying for two hours more of agency driver’s work
  • paying for fuel up to the garage and back
  • 5 deliveries undone (too late)
  • one collection undone (too late).

Maybe I am strange, but I don’t get it…

And there is one big serious financial issue: WHO will gonna pay for the bulb broken by fitter?

2

And you wonder why some people whinge about changing thier own bulbs… Just goes to show what some companies end up paying just for one smal bulb… Madness. :unamused: :unamused: :unamused:

3

I’ve a feeling that it wasn’t the price of the bulb that concerned the garage… I reckon it was probably more to do with the labour charge. :wink:

4

I was ready to do it for free - you don’t even need the screwdiver to do that in Renault Premium… But I got your point. Filling in paperwork and sending faxes here and there, and dealing with annoyed driver - that can cost a few quids…

5

It is all rather silly and we, drivers, are not clever enough to understand :laughing:

I had a period working for my Brother in his garage, we were quite busy and had some “good” corporate customers. I worked as parts advisor but we mucked in and did each others job as necessary. One day I took an irate call from some spotty oik in a lease company office about an invoice. The service department had overcharged this company by £2.40. It turned out that the garage had done a service on 3 of their fleet vehicles, each time we had charged 80p for brake cleaner sundries. We had to credit them because brake cleaner was not on the service schedule. Anything that deviated from the MSS needed a signed fax

We could only do what was on the manufacturer service schedule. Nothing changed, we did exactly the same and included the 80 pence brake cleaner cost to the price of an oil filter in future. :wink: