VOSA - An interesting night

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Had a run in with the nice people of VOSA the other night who turned what should have been a nice easy run into a friggin nightmare. Started in Glasgow at about 1.30pm and headed for Inverness at just after 2. At about half 4 (just about an hour from Inverness) got pulled into a check point. Now, the wagons this company (a large bakery firm) aren’t the smartest or newest pieces of kit on the road, but as they are all rentals they are kept well maintained and all above board, needless to say I was still worried as this was my first time being stopped at a check point, or being stopped at all…

Drive into the rest area and sit for about 5 mins twiddling my thumbs before I finally get beckoned forward onto a bay, jump down out of the cab and the very nice man from the VI comes up and says “you got your charts there mate”. “Only the one from today, haven’t driven in over a week”. “You should still have the one from the last day that you drove”. “News to me” said I. “I was under the impression you had to carry the charts for the current week”, of which I had not drove. “Nope, need the one for the last time you drove if less than 21 days ago”. “Oops, sorry guv, honest mistake, wont happen again”. “Well, need to put you off the road, now you can either go on to Inverness and then be off the road for 24 hours or take your full load back to Glasgow” :open_mouth:

Phoned the TM and explained the situation, he wasn’t too chuffed to say the least, let’s face it, not exactly the best thing to phone in and say :smiley: . Only option, take the wagon to Inverness, tip it there and I’ll send another driver up with the last truck tonight. :smiley: “But they wont be up til midnight and it’s 5 now”. “Tough [zb], should have kept your charts”. Fair enough, so off I trundle now truly miserable with the thought of a 5 hour wait in Inverness.

Get into Inverness at about 6 and tip the wagon, re-load empties and park up, “7 o’clock now, only got about 5 odd hours to kill”. “Hmph”. “Och well, no point sittin here and wasting away”, decided to take a walk into the main (so called town centre)… :open_mouth: never seen so many boy racers in my life with their Vauxhall Nova’s and Cavaliers : :laughing:

Stopped into a quiet little pub and had an orange, “sod this”, “not much to do in Inverness on a Sunday night, there’s always the cinema” was the advice from the friendly bartender, a 5.00 taxi ride later and I end up sitting in the cinema on my lonesome (loser).

I know you will all be sitting thinking how stupid I am for not keeping the chart from the last day I drove, it was an honest mistake and you know what they say… Wont happen again cos I know better now. Anyhoo, thanks for reading this, just thought I’d share my experience as fun as it was.

Also, anyone know where I can get a good job in Glasgow, HGV1 with 1 yrs experience and 23yrs old… anyones boss looking for a reliable hard worker… might need to stick with the agency for a while :frowning:

Edited for language by AndyM - Sorry tony, if it needs stars, then ya know it not allowed :laughing: :laughing:

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Are you working for that BB mob or is it the other lot?

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working for agency at the mo… BB??

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British Bakeries

5

Ahh… Was allied bakeries - Kingsmill

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That was well arsey of the ministry man. Never had that problem before, in fact, to be quite honest, wasn’t aware you had to keep the last tacho if it’s within 21 days but you haven’t worked in between if you follow me ?

I know to keep the last tacho of the previous week (if you’ve worked it) but wasn’t aware you had to keep them that far back. That was bang out of order in my opinion.

However, saying “news to me” to the traffic man probably wasn’t best. A “yes sir/no sir/whatever you say sir/I’m so sorry I didn’t realise” approach is definitely recommended in future. Works wonders.

I’ve been pulled up that way before too as well, although I was enroute Aberdeen from W Yorks, not Inverness.

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Just looked up the wording " & the last chart of the previous week that that they worked."
So if you had “worked” in a job that did not require tacho’s during the previous week you were legal.
EU law clearly states the previous week worked not driven under tacho law, so no tacho required no tacho kept or requiring production, still possibly best not to argue with a jobsworth.

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I find that the friendly and if needed, the “Very sorry, won’t happen again”, approach works best on almost every occaision. Theres absolutely no point getting upset about it, and getting snotty in any way what so ever, is likely to get you parked up.
However hard you try to keep yourself straight, mistakes happen, we are only human. The ministry man/woman has a pretty hard job to do (same as you), they are out to try n catch the cowboys red handed. To do that they have to stop n check everyone. They often get dogs abuse from drivers, which tends to make them a bit sensitive (Not making excuses for them). So don’t offer any reply which could be mis-construed. Bear in mind that the drivers hours rules are there for several reasons, one of which is to put all truck operators on a level playing field, working hours wise. Another is to try to prevent employed drivers being exploited by unscrupulous operators. Do you know of another, fair way of catching “dodgy” operators, other than stopping everything that moves, at a certain place, over a certain length of time?