Throwing The Towel In

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OWNER AND FLEET OPERATORS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
81

Things were a lot easier when the boss was the boss and giving him a bit of lip would get you a mouthful back, or a clip around the ear or even the sack of you pushed too far. All but getting the sack would be water under the bridge by the time the wage packets came out and everyone went for a pint on Friday.

Now you have to dot the i’s, cross the t’s and have a paper trail for everything you do and you can’t simply get rid of someone who is useless, because they have “rights”. It’s your neck on the line and at times you’re powerless because of conflicts in the laws/rules that you have to follow. A driver that doesn’t follow procedure can land you in hot water with the ministry, or whatever they call themselves this week, yet if you get rid of him without following strict procedures to the letter, you end up on wrong side of a tribunal. It’s madness and a miracle that you’re not hooked up to an intravenous drip of valium.

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82

albion:

chaversdad:
[zb] me when did you come back :open_mouth:

Lured back by the feedback forum… :wink:

:stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

83

newmercman:
Things were a lot easier when the boss was the boss and giving him a bit of lip would get you a mouthful back, or a clip around the ear or even the sack of you pushed too far. All but getting the sack would be water under the bridge by the time the wage packets came out and everyone went for a pint on Friday.

Now you have to dot the i’s, cross the t’s and have a paper trail for everything you do and you can’t simply get rid of someone who is useless, because they have “rights”. It’s your neck on the line and at times you’re powerless because of conflicts in the laws/rules that you have to follow. A driver that doesn’t follow procedure can land you in hot water with the ministry, or whatever they call themselves this week, yet if you get rid of him without following strict procedures to the letter, you end up on wrong side of a tribunal. It’s madness and a miracle that you’re not hooked up to an intravenous drip of valium.

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You can’t say anything these days slightly out of line. :neutral_face: I’m lucky I have decent staff, but things can change. If I ever get into the situation where it looks like I need to dismiss someone and they are going to cause trouble, I’ll finish the firm instead. Done one tribunal, absolute ********* nightmare.

84

I’m lucky I got out before it got too silly, I ended up with a great bunch of guys before I sold up and moved to Canada, I’m still in touch with most of them now. I did have one guy that came with such good references it looked as if his mum must have written them, but they all checked out, unfortunately he never lived up to them, he was a one man destruction derby, more than just a run of bad luck too.

One incident was funny though, he dislodged a portacabin sat on top of another whilst delivering to the Reading Festival, of all the ones he could have hit, he had to hit the one belonging to Thames Valley Constabulary and to compound matters, he dragged the staircase with him too so the coppers inside were all leaning at 45deg and had no way to get down! Luckily they saw the funny side and it wasn’t a big deal in the end, the portacabin crew were still on site and repositioned the wonky one FOC.

Getting rid of the driver was a nightmare though, up until the point where I’d had enough I had not followed procedure, so had to go through the verbal and written warning palaver before I could even think about giving him his marching orders. When that day arrived the swine beat me to it and handed his notice in before I had my chance! I gave him his two week notice wages and finally got shot of him.

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85

Friend of mine got into trouble dismissing one that was nicking diesel. He was caught on camera, so there was no argument, but because she didn’t follow procedure he got a pay out.

The tribunal guy was an oddity in so far as another driver brought a grievance for bullying, which unofficially we knew that was what he like, but without proof/someone willing to say something, then you can’t do anything. As a driver he was OK, not exceptional but nothing we couldn’t live with. Went through the process, dismissed him, spent 25k on defending it ( worst of all was it was the same year as we had some major financial problems and we had to ask the lads to take a wage cut for a few months) as he decided to go to tribunal which took a year. In the end after thinking he would get 43k, he got a shade over 2k. The reason why? Because instead of involving all four managers, we involved three in the process. Solicitor reckoned they awarded it because that meant he couldn’t appeal and maybe he was right.

Laughed my socks off at the end though. I was persuaded to offer him 7k against my better judgement as that would still be cheaper than a four day tribunal and he turned it down :laughing:

86

Any case that ends up in court only guarantees a win for the legal team, every phonecall, text, email or letter and it’s kerrrrching for those guys. If you’re unlucky enough to lose and most of the time you will, as the whole thing is biased towards the ‘victim’ by its very nature, you can count on double the award when you add legal costs to it. This could easily bring a firm to its knees, years of hard work by the company and its employees gone up in smoke because someone never followed the correct procedure. It’s a crazy world that we live in.

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87

newmercman:
Any case that ends up in court only guarantees a win for the legal team, every phonecall, text, email or letter and it’s kerrrrching for those guys. If you’re unlucky enough to lose and most of the time you will, as the whole thing is biased towards the ‘victim’ by its very nature, you can count on double the award when you add legal costs to it. This could easily bring a firm to its knees, years of hard work by the company and its employees gone up in smoke because someone never followed the correct procedure. It’s a crazy world that we live in.

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My girlfriend is a hr officer and as you.say the hoops to jump through are crazy. Her previous employer used to defend on principle (assuming they were in the right of course) and she said that whilst she understood that she also advised them that it cost them thousands more each time in costs compared to making a settlement

88

have you tried it over here yet NMM ,its like getting ■■■■ of a blanket!! all they have to do is claim they have an addiction ie alcohol …other ones are available,and YOU have to pay to get them treated IIRC up to 3months then take them back to work. :unamused: and not to the 3rd written neither they get to start at the verbal warnings!!!. I had a real eyeopener when on camp work as tthis was the way “some locals” made sure they got paid full wages at shutdown time. Come the last month before winter shutdown the supervisors refused to write up anyone as they knew what was going on. On another note in MB my mate Tom had a driver play demolition derby on a forest road ,tom went to sack him …ohhh I’m an alki /weed smoker I need help …blah blah and rather than 3 months on full wages Tom gave him a couple o $k to get him away …needless to say Tom just runs his own motor now.

89

I chose my driver carefully Jimmy, I wish I could clone him tbh, the shortage of decent drivers is the only thing stopping me putting more trucks on the road. No need to worry about disciplinary action with the right drivers.

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90

Respect is a 2 way street…if you treat a driver well he will treat your assets well.

A driver doesn’t quit a company, they quit a manager/s

91

That is most definitely a two way street, I’ve been both ways on it too. As a driver a new bloke was brought in as TM, little by little his mates started with the firm and us older (in service) drivers were shoved to the bottom of the pile. It was a difficult situation as going militant would cost the company and we all really got on well with the owner, I had grown up with his son and so had a couple of the others, we were part of the family so to speak. Luckily the new drivers were a bunch of clowns and the owner stepped in and normal service was resumed, the TM went back driving for a living AFAIK.

The other direction was when I started as GM at a company, it was a strange situation, the owner was going though a very messy divorce and the company was going to pay the price. I started there in the knowledge that it would be a temporary gig, I took it because I wanted the experience (it was in Canada and I wanted to know how it all worked here before buying my own truck/s) and I was offered the opportunity to take over the payments on a couple of the trucks when the company closed its doors, there were two that I really wanted.

There were two drivers there that were a royal PITA, both of whom I knew before I started, not quite friends, but mates, anyway one of them started giving it the big un, right from day one, it’s a long story, but he basically sacked himself, I talked the owner into keeping him, he was mediocre at best, but he got the job done, the owner who was a bit of a hothead agreed to leave it alone in the hope that it settled down, it didn’t, but the bloke kept his job purely because it would have been immoral to have to take a new driver on if the company was going to shut its doors in a couple of months. As it turned out the owner sold the company to another company and the driver kept his job with the new owners, a very lucky escape for him. I did make his life a misery for a while though, as I began to regret talking the owner around after a few weeks of the pathetic behaviour of the driver.

The other bloke, was just a donkey, his problems were all self inflicted and he was coerced into being a PITA by the other bloke and a couple of others not working at the firm, as they love a bit of drama. He left of his own accord, citing me as the reason, but it was open knowledge that he was looking for a way out anyway. At the end of it all I never bought the two lorries I was interested in, they had a longer than legal wheelbase and required a permit to operate, but I couldn’t use them for the work I wanted to put them on as the permit didn’t allow them to be used for that operation. I did earn very good wages for 6months though and it kept me off the road for one of the worst winters in history, although I did manage to drive my car into a ditch during a white out blizzard on the way to work one morning, which wasn’t much fun lol.

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92

(puts her Intl CPC into folder and decides to stick with driving…!!)

93

good_friend:
(puts her Intl CPC into folder and decides to stick with driving…!!)

Dont bury it too deep in a cupboard. Theres more than one awkward driver in the world…

94

Steve H:
So today has been an interesting turn up for the books.

After a little word in the ear of one of the “trouble makers” yesterday, this morning I was met with his resignation sat on my keyboard. No notice given, just a straight “I don’t want to work here anymore”

Suits me down to the ground that, one down is the way I see it… :unamused: :unamused:

So you carried on then ?Or quit ?