My line manager has received an email from a VOSA officer requesting a meeting with me to examine documents/records appertaining to my lorry driving on my days off (this follows on from a work ‘colleague’ grassing me up to VOSA).
My question is…Am I legally obliged to meet this officers request? I have NOT been reported for any offences…ever! or had any contact with VOSA apart from a private phone call to this officer who is a ‘friend’ of another work colleague!
If vosa have requested to see tacho records etc i am pretty sure you will need to provide them with info they want as they are an agency working on behalf of department of transport and government
Puzzled as to why Vosa would contact your boss to discuss a meeting with you, to discuss something that happens whilst you are not working for him.
Surely the first contact would be with you?
Followed up by checks on your regular employment if they find something amiss.
Also I think that VOSA would make arrangements by letter rather than e-mail, which may or not reach its’ destination and is not a very safe way to start with what could be legal proceedings.
If it is genuine then I imagine that you have no choice in the matter.
del949:
Puzzled as to why Vosa would contact your boss to discuss a meeting with you, to discuss something that happens whilst you are not working for him.
Surely the first contact would be with you?
Followed up by checks on your regular employment if they find something amiss.
Also I think that VOSA would make arrangements by letter rather than e-mail, which may or not reach its’ destination and is not a very safe way to start with what could be legal proceedings.
If it is genuine then I imagine that you have no choice in the matter.
I agree 100%, i think i’d tell my line manager to tell them to contact me directly.
Are VOSA trying to ‘kill two birds with one stone’ - check out your previous records with your regular company, interview you, which then leaves them to persue the other records held by those you have driven for outside the main employer ?
Surely the first thing Vosa would need to ascertain is that he HAS been driving on his days off.
His current full time employer will have no records of that and could only produce documentation that relates to his full time occupation.
That being so I would have thought that the primary contact would be with the OP to verify that he has in fact been driving at all.
I would also have expected that if vosa were doing it this way that they would also have been in contact with whoever the OP drives for on his days off.
maybe just me but it all seems a bit odd!
especially when there seems to be a personal relationship between the colleagues and the official
I wonder if it is an offence to send an e-mail pretending to be a vosa official?
or even for a vosa official to send an unauthorised e-mail such as the one mentioned
I would ignore it, until they send you an invite by post to your home address.
Also it’s for them to prove you guilty, not for you to prove your not, I wouldn’t show them anything that doesn’t relate to your full time job.
Sounds like they are ■■■■■■ off with your moonlighting, and this threat may stop you doing it!
I take it your full time job is non driving!
Ime not sure how it works when your employed but as an owner driver I’ve never had a letter but they have rang me twice direct on my mobile to arrange a time to check my vehicle and documents
In light of the above link, I am making a guess that Vosa are simply clearing the air and checking that nothing is wrong.
I can now understand why they have contacted your boss to arrange a meeting with you as it seems your boss has already been in contact with them and it is probably the simplest way forward.
If your hours etc are all in order, don’t worry.
I’ve had that before, had to go to bloody Exeter to meet them from Perth, was interviewed under caution and was told anything I say my employer has the right to request a copy of my statemented
You canny win
Vosa have got nothing unless they know of a second employer who’s allowing a full time driver from somewhere else to run say, a 7 day spread, or more than a 90 hour fortnight for example.
If this second employer fails to provide vosa with adquate compliance data to show that the driver they chose to employ had enough hours/days left to perform duties there, then the 2nd employer and moonlighting driver are going to be in big trouble. If they’d done the checks, and refused to employ him, or got a disclaimer signed, and then employed him in good faith, then they are in the clear - if those disclaimers are actually worth anything in the eyes of the law?
If VOSA find out that someone has driven a lorry with a day 7 trace OR has no trace at all for a day that a 2nd employer has them out driving for them, then both 2nd employer and driver are in trouble.
Because both driver and 2nd employer are united to fall together here, I would expect anything dodgy to be kept away from Vosa, so the only grassing up that would have any effect is if joe bloggs grasses up by photographing fred smith leaving a known 2nd job yard on a suspected illegal driving day, which would then prompt that investigation of the 2nd employer.
VOSA are not going to get anything damning from 1st employer (all looks OK on their data) or the driver’s digicard (cos he did a printout on the bent day, and “lost” it) assisted by the bent 2nd yard not checking the guy was legal to drive (lack of compliance checks, licence checks, digi checks, etc) which puts them in the wrong as well.
I’m not sure what would happen if the moonlighting involved someone with a joint LGV/PSV licence who drove a bus on “moonlight day”
If the vosa officer is a friend of the coleague who “grassed you up” then you would probably be in your rights to request a different officer I would have thought.
On a seperate note, I trust you declared the driving job to the taxman as well? A good friend of mine didn’t and ended up with an automated bill for nearly £2k in unpaid tax for last year. He was just doing a bit for agency at weekends to pay for a holiday
As said wait for the letter, if its your main employer why are they not up front with you ? the geezer that grassed you have a word with him…has he got a problem ?if so ask why ? then deal with it in your way.
If as your original post states, you have approval from your main employer and you are sure that you have maintained the rest requirements as per EU tacho rules then you’ve nothing to hide.
I do find it a little suspect that VOSA are contacting you through your employer or is it a case that they have checked up on your driving work through your agency and they now need to add in your non driving work to see if your combined working complies with the regulations?. This would kind of make sense but as long as your certain you’ve kept to the rules you’ve nothing to worry about. If the meet ever gets set up then why not attend.
One thing that may result out of this whole episode is that I doubt your agency will be pleased about any VOSA attention to them and this may have effect on your working relationship with them. If you come out of this squeaky clean and your main employer has any beef with the whole episode then it’s time for revenge and you can put the ■■■ who stirred it up in the first place into the frame.
