they finally caught me 2 weeks ago. police pulled me on the M6 and took me to the checkpoint at preston (which i didnt know about) for a VOSA check. having read stories here and never having had any contact with VOSA before i was expecting to be surrounded by gestapo in hiviz jackets but it was actually a pleasant experience. the coppers were ok and took my licence away to be checked (apparently i am not wanted for anything ) and a cute lady VOSA officer did my tacho check. i didnt see the point in lying so i did openly tell her that i had 2 infringements, 1 for forgetting to change mode on a break and the other was an oversight which meant i ran over my 6 hours by 12 minutes. she came back and said i am a good boy then the mechanic checked my lights as again, being honest i told him one of my tail lights blew after i left the yard. swapped a bulb from the other side and that was it. i had a bit of a chat and laugh with them which made it a painless experience for all involved
there is one thing i took away from it though. i now have a new company policy which means i will not leave a clients site without spare bulbs. i could have been looking at a PG9 and fine for a tail light blowing during a trip and for the sake of a 50p bulb, i am not willing to risk it when i know ā ā ā ā well that no operator would pay the fine but at the same time, i dont see why i should supply bulbs which are of no use to me after i knock off after a shift
When I was stopped by Vosa, they asked if I was loaded. I replied I wasnāt and that I am on my way to a collection.
When they opened the back, they told me I had lied to them.
Apparently 2 empty pallets and a pallet truck counts as a load.
Clunk:
When I was stopped by Vosa, they asked if I was loaded. I replied I wasnāt and that I am on my way to a collection.
When they opened the back, they told me I had lied to them.
Apparently 2 empty pallets and a pallet truck counts as a load.
A couple of years ago I got stopped at Harlow, they asked if I was loaded so I said yes so they weighed me in a 26t rigid vosa bloke comes back and asks what Iām carrying as the weight is no more than the truck should weigh to which my reply was āa food sample weighing about 250gā
I was there for about 2 hours and the only thing he could pull me up on was Iād forgotten to put an end mileage on one tacho
bazstan009:
Out of interest Scanny77, did they give you a form confirming clean stop?
Donāt think they do that now ā¦ ācos it is ALL logged on the laptop ā¦ last time i was pulled @ Boston Spa ( about 9 months ago ) ā¦ lovely young lass came over as i pulled up "we wonāt keep you long ā¦ Iāve just looked (meaning on her laptop ) ā¦ I can see both the unit & trl were MOTād within the last 3 weeks ā¦ weā'll just have a quick check & check your tachoās to get you away" I sure i asked for āformā and was told they donāt do it.
Donāt forget if youāre in an artic and thereās bulbs gone on the trailer you can always take them out of the light clusters on the back of the unit, if you donāt have any spare bulbs in the cab and need some urgently.
scanny77:
they finally caught me 2 weeks ago. police pulled me on the M6 and took me to the checkpoint at preston (which i didnt know about) for a VOSA check. having read stories here and never having had any contact with VOSA before i was expecting to be surrounded by gestapo in hiviz jackets but it was actually a pleasant experience. the coppers were ok and took my licence away to be checked (apparently i am not wanted for anything ) and a cute lady VOSA officer did my tacho check. i didnt see the point in lying so i did openly tell her that i had 2 infringements, 1 for forgetting to change mode on a break and the other was an oversight which meant i ran over my 6 hours by 12 minutes. she came back and said i am a good boy then the mechanic checked my lights as again, being honest i told him one of my tail lights blew after i left the yard. swapped a bulb from the other side and that was it. i had a bit of a chat and laugh with them which made it a painless experience for all involved
there is one thing i took away from it though. i now have a new company policy which means i will not leave a clients site without spare bulbs. i could have been looking at a PG9 and fine for a tail light blowing during a trip and for the sake of a 50p bulb, i am not willing to risk it when i know ā ā ā ā well that no operator would pay the fine but at the same time, i dont see why i should supply bulbs which are of no use to me after i knock off after a shift
donāt think they would fine you for a blown bulb, especially if it blew after you left the yard
also, a PG9 (delayed) would be a bit harsh for a blown bulb too, especially if it is a side light or one of a group of tail lights
however, i have known VOSA to park a vehicle up until DAF Aid turned up to change a headlight bulb
Just clarified this with vosa, if the wheel tappers check vehicle any place other than base, you should be given a pg35ec (clean stop).
If you dont get this chances are the mechanical inspection has not been logged so dont count for ocrs.
This bugs me big time cus it means that statistics are being slanted.
I think the hours checking is logged automatically cus the use puter to to do the checking.
Clunk:
When I was stopped by Vosa, they asked if I was loaded. I replied I wasnāt and that I am on my way to a collection.
When they opened the back, they told me I had lied to them.
Apparently 2 empty pallets and a pallet truck counts as a load.
That was kind of you to let them have a nose at whats inside, VOSA have no power to search vehicles.
Clunk:
When I was stopped by Vosa, they asked if I was loaded. I replied I wasnāt and that I am on my way to a collection.
When they opened the back, they told me I had lied to them.
Apparently 2 empty pallets and a pallet truck counts as a load.
That was kind of you to let them have a nose at whats inside, VOSA have no power to search vehicles.
I would have thought the do, now that they can enforce load restraining. They obviously need to see inside your trailer to satisfy this.
Clunk:
When I was stopped by Vosa, they asked if I was loaded. I replied I wasnāt and that I am on my way to a collection.
When they opened the back, they told me I had lied to them.
Apparently 2 empty pallets and a pallet truck counts as a load.
That was kind of you to let them have a nose at whats inside, VOSA have no power to search vehicles.
I would have thought the do, now that they can enforce load restraining. They obviously need to see inside your trailer to satisfy this.
I would imagine for them to prosecute or inspect an insecure load they would have to see evidence of it and not randomly search a vehicle to look for evidence. In anycase no matter what i imagine, they have no power to search as confirmed by themselves in the above link.
i was driving for DHL on the booker contract. apparently the haydock lads dont get pulled but their units are marked. livingston have had security problems so apart from a couple of old trailers in full livery, the booker fleet is all plain white
the only thing about this that did concern me is the fact that the police pulled me onto the hard shoulder a short distance from junction 29 which isnt the widest hard shoulder on the M6. why not just pull me off the motorway onto the sliproad away from the fast moving traffic? which is where is was coming off for a break anyway as i really dont like charnock richards
i was driving for DHL on the booker contract. apparently the haydock lads dont get pulled but their units are marked. livingston have had security problems so apart from a couple of old trailers in full livery, the booker fleet is all plain white
the only thing about this that did concern me is the fact that the police pulled me onto the hard shoulder a short distance from junction 29 which isnt the widest hard shoulder on the M6. why not just pull me off the motorway onto the sliproad away from the fast moving traffic? which is where is was coming off for a break anyway as i really dont like charnock richards
regular occurance being pulled on the hard shoulder up there used to be two coppers there who did it all the time they have now retired thankfully. When they were working that area the only people pulled into that checkpoint were Irish and Spainish, spent many an hour in there was on first name terms with all the VOSA men who are actually quite decent in there
Clunk:
When I was stopped by Vosa, they asked if I was loaded. I replied I wasnāt and that I am on my way to a collection.
When they opened the back, they told me I had lied to them.
Apparently 2 empty pallets and a pallet truck counts as a load.
That was kind of you to let them have a nose at whats inside, VOSA have no power to search vehicles.
I would have thought the do, now that they can enforce load restraining. They obviously need to see inside your trailer to satisfy this.
If they have evidence to support an unsecured load, they can ask you to open up and let them look, otherwise you can refuse. But if refusing is just going to ā ā ā ā em off, why would you. I donāt know about you, but I donāt pull dangerous goods and according to this:
if they find an unsecured non-dangerous load, all they can/should do is offer advice, (provided an attempt has been made to restrain it,). I dont know about you but I am always happy to be given advice.
We had a driver stopped about 2 weeks ago. Took about an hour as they gave it a good going over, found no faults. We were on a timed delivery for a customer and it made the load 5 minutes late and miss the slot, ended up getting tipped 4 hours later.
As has been said, VOSA donāt provide the driver any paperwork to say heās been stopped. We get fined Ā£120 by the customer for being late and they wont waive the fee as we have no supporting documentation for the load to be legitimately late.
) and a cute lady VOSA officer did my tacho check. i didnt see the point in lying so i did openly tell her that i had 2 infringements, 1 for forgetting to change mode on a break and the other was an oversight which meant i ran over my 6 hours by 12 minutes. she came back and said i am a good boy 
then the mechanic checked my lights as again, being honest i told him one of my tail lights blew after i left the yard. swapped a bulb from the other side and that was it. i had a bit of a chat and laugh with them which made it a painless experience for all involved