I work for a family owned (and run) skip hire/recycling company who seem to favour saving money at all costs. This seems to run to not bothering to repair trucks when they break through natural wear and tear.
My prison cell (truck) struggles to get up hills, and gets it’s knickers in a right old knot when presented with a heavy load and tends to start overheating when even remotely pushed.
All of the problems have been reported numerous times, but nothing has been done to rectify any of them. I’m really sick of it and really need another job, but who’s going to take someone who’s only had his cat C since march last year and only driven a truck commercially since september last year.
What would you do?
What would i do?
…Avoid vosa sites 
Whens its next mot? sounds like it wont pass anyway.
I take it your not showing it at Truckfest then
Write out an official defect at that point the vehicle must not be put on the road and your within your rights not to drive it … if your sacked go for unfair dissmisal . get pictures of the truck out on the road ith the said faults for your case and infom VOSA… If its that bad would you be happy if you had an accident and killed someone ( drastic I know but it does happen) you spent your hard earnd and sved cash and you quite ready to lose it by drving a bag of ■■■■ that with your discription should not be on the road
I dont think it will be long before your firm gets a VOSA calling card anyway,
Youve listed the faults on an open forum that is regularly read by VOSA personnel, (some are even members ! ) and youve got your location and picture of the truck in the user profile.
Thats about all they’ll need to find you.
Get your defence ready,
Copies of defect sheets showing you clearly defected the vehicle and any other evidence that doesnt drop yourself in it.
Keep trying for other jobs as youve now had some experience, that puts you above the newly passed drivers,
Good luck on the job hunting.
I know its difficult when youve got bills to pay etc etc but if you lose your licence or God forbid have an accident and kill someone, you wont be able to pay the bills.
Your boss cannot sack you for refusing to take out a defective vehicle. If he does call ACAS they are very feindly and are on your side and their help is FREE.
Once again GOod Luck
toowise:
Icall ACAS they are very feindly and are on your side and their help is FREE.
Once again GOod Luck
Was that a typo. 
What to do?
Option 1: Run it until it dies.
Option 2: THIS REQUIRES YOU TO FILL IN DEFECT NOTICES AND HAND THEM IN DAILY TO COVER YOUR OWN ARSE. Assuming there are faults which would fail an MOT, next time you’re passing a VOSA checkpoint pull in and drop a hint that they might like to have a look over it. Tell them that you inform them daily of the faults and that they won’t repair them, telling you you’ll be sacked if you don’t take it out…
From what you say your engine is clapped out. Inconvenient yes, but you cant really say it’s dangerous in itself, nor would it be an MOT fail, unless it’s belching out excessive smoke etc.
If you have other defects from busted lights, brakes, tyres etc then of course that’s different. In know it’s a PITA, but if your company wants to run a truck which is on the verge of breaking down then, so long as you have done your bit of checking everything over & reporting any problems, then you’ll have to drive it until you either can find a new job or it expires in a cloud of steam & smoke.
I too started my HGV career at place being run on a shoe string, & who ignored the various defects reported to them for ages before they considered getting a repair. They did pay the penalty though. I remember one wagon which had the same problems as yours eventually destroyed all it’s crank bearings & the turbo when it ran out of engine oil.( It was burning it almost as much as the diesel!). The writing has been on the wall for ages. Lack of power, high oil consumption. Water consumption. All pointing to a worn engine. Yet it was still sent out everyday up hill & down dale.
peterm:
toowise:
Icall ACAS they are very feindly and are on your side and their help is FREE.
Once again GOod Luck
Was that a typo.
Ahhh yeah sorry bout that i did mean freindly although if you are on the wrong side of them…
EBGBz:
My prison cell (truck) struggles to get up hills, and gets it’s knickers in a right old knot when presented with a heavy load and tends to start overheating when even remotely pushed.
ahh,so you drive a swedish bedford.i wouldnt worry too much,they are meant to be like that!!
toowise:
Youve listed the faults on an open forum that is regularly read by VOSA personnel, (some are even members ! ) and youve got your location and picture of the truck in the user profile.
well he had 
i know the feelin pal about the truck, my ex truck was sweet to look at but it had a piston ring gone, i used half a gallon of oil to 3/4 a day !! everythin else was fine like tyre’s lights etc but the engine was ■■■■■■ it used to leak oil aswell from 3 different places and every now an then let a ■■■■ load of smoke out but i got used to makin the engine not smoke a much as it only done it at a certain speed, but after time an time again of tellin the boss he just said to me to keep my eye on the oil and he wil get it sorted so i just defected it every day in the end the firm went bust engine never got repaired an as far as i know the truck is dump in a yard in skem !
Wheel Nut:
toowise:
Youve listed the faults on an open forum that is regularly read by VOSA personnel, (some are even members ! ) and youve got your location and picture of the truck in the user profile.well he had
That was a swift bit of editing 
Have you asked your boss if he’ll take it out for a spin or come with you? Hopefully then if it conks out or get pulled by VOSA he’ll get the picture
I know I shouldn’t have anything to fear from VOSA because I keep myself legal, but they still scare me half to death, i think mostly because skip wagons, like tippers are prone to being pulled, and it’s nerve wracking every time it happens (fortunately I’ve only been pulled once since I started driving LGVs, and I still managed to come away with a prohibition over a puncture that I picked up whilst out that day (screw in the tread and the sealant hadn’t stopped the air leaking out.
Anyhow, things came to a head on thursday when the truck started over heating with a full tank of coolant (after the 3rd top up of the day, I pulled up in the yard and the truck went no further, and I went home, claiming that I wouldn’t drive it any further until it was fixed (the rest of the fleet being in such state that there weren’t any spare trucks). I managed to get a spare truck today in a better state (still some defects, but nothing serious) and got on with the job.
Sounds like a skip firm I used to work for in Derby, brilliant money, 7-30 to 4-30, pity what came between those hours was crap to say the least.
wagons only got fixed if they stopped, no contracts of employment and they had never heard of the ERA. 
I left after threatening to releave the yard foreman of his teeth.
Best move I made, the foremans was faster though
Personally i wouldnt even contemplate taking out a lorry with known defects. Far too risky and why leave yourself open to further prosecution by vosa /police. A good method would be to warn your boss of your intentions that you intend to write a letter to vosa. Has worked for me in the past and from thereon in any defect i report is carried out swiftly.
Try and find another employer, preferably one that operates modern well looked after vehicles.
Tell them why you are leaving your present one and if they are any good they will probably take you on.
If thay are aware that you don’t like driving wrecks they will know that you will look after their vehicle.
I was taken on by a company some years ago and I hadn’t even driven a max weight artic before. When I started at my present firm I hadn’t driven any kind of HGV for over seven years.
Best of luck with your search but remember, you are the one driving the defective vehicle and it is your licence and in a worst case scenario your liberty at stake. Prisons are not all they are cracked up to be.
The answer’s simple. If the defects pose no danger to others, doesn’t risk getting you a fine and it’s just a knackered truck, try your best to kill the bloody thing off and then they’ll have to do something about it!
I’ve been trying to do this to a Stralis for a few weeks now. It’s been running on half power thanks to some moron putting diesel in the adblue and our firm can’t be bothered to get it fixed despite our nagging, but whatever me or the other drivers try to do, it just won’t die! Can anyone offer some advice on this matter?
take it to a garage and get them to fix it.
the boss will get a huge bill and he’ll probably sack you.
but it’ll be [zb]ing funny.
manowar:
The answer’s simple. If the defects pose no danger to others, doesn’t risk getting you a fine and it’s just a knackered truck, try your best to kill the bloody thing off and then they’ll have to do something about it!I’ve been trying to do this to a Stralis for a few weeks now. It’s been running on half power thanks to some moron putting diesel in the adblue and our firm can’t be bothered to get it fixed despite our nagging, but whatever me or the other drivers try to do, it just won’t die! Can anyone offer some advice on this matter?
Your company has probably got the quote for fixing it and started to cry, ive heard its big bucks when someone puts diesel into the ad-blue system.
manowar:
Stralis, Can anyone offer some advice on this matter?
You mean you have a stralis that hasn’t fallen to bits yet ? 
i thought all stralis where Friday builds