The amount of wagons off the ferry from Ireland running down the road with no number plates is more common than running down the road WITH a number plate.
Couple of years back i hired a van and trailer to move cars around the country and used a carboard plate. Never got pulled once and at least its making the effort unlike not using a plate at all which just makes you look like your trying evade traffic offences.
By law you were right but given the situation i would have done the cardboard plate.
Could you not have arranged to bob into a Halfords on route? They make up plates in a few mins
HIGH FLYER:
switchlogic:
Drivers don’t stick togther and if I’d have to stick togther with a load of ‘I’m not doing that’ jobsworths then I’ll carry on as I am thanks. Also, there is no need to get so uppity, I’m only giving my view.Having always worked for smaller companies (apart from a stint on agency) I’ve become very self reliant, as smaller employers can’t afford drivers who behave like this. You may say they shouldn’t be in business and your getting your way, it’s why UK transport scence if becoming exclusivley big compaines doing bland boring work and the reason I have to go to Ireland to find a fun job!
All I’m saying is drivers need to be a bit flexible. Please don’t respond with another angry rant!
you are right drivers need to be flexible but my point is if the company pays the fine and take the points then i would of gone along with it the thing is mate you work for virginia transport nice trucks by the way your manager would probably back you by the sound of it his manager was telling him to get on with it like i said you either stay right side of law or you dont
p.s can we have a photo dairy pleaseon you next trip
Thank you. I do see your point when you put it like that. I suppose the thing is my ‘manager’ actually owns the company! It helps having a direct line to the chap who pays the wages. Its one of the reasons I like working for smaller companies.
I shall do a diary on this trip if you like. Loading at moment in Cork for 1 drop Luxembourg and 2 in Germany.
shuttlespanker:
it is illegal to drive without a trailer plate, as far as i am aware, if you make a plate out of cardboard, you are admitting the offence because the cardboard plate does not meet the required standard.in my opinion, it is far better to drive without the plate than with a temparary made up one, you can always use the excuse “it must have fallen off whilst i was driving officer”
as for your original question, you was right.
And plod will do you for a vehicle which was insecure in having things that drop off
Switchlogic You were right in what you did 100% when you went and got your spare plate did you have a secondry plate made ■■?
When we had our new units they only came with one plate so the first thing I did was get a spare made up at the VMU before leaving the depot.
I’ll always check I have 2 plates in my vehicle checks. You can always say you were looking
A. after your own licence
B. the Image of the company
C. Looking after the guy’s opperating licence.
ajt:
Could you not have arranged to bob into a Halfords on route? They make up plates in a few mins
I thought you needed the vehicles log book to do this?
Awkward one that.
Ultimately it’s a personal decision on if you feel comfortable in technically breaking the law.
I know on the one hand it always cost a lot of £ to get a fitter out, but in this case you can argue it as much the company’s fault for not having a spare plate in the cab.
Think about it. A wagon does 1000’s of miles a week & it’s sod’s law that even a minor fault which would cost a few quid to fix if it was base during office hours will occur at daft o clock in the middle of nowhere. So carrying things like spare bulbs, fuses, & no plates, & of course making sure the driver can change 'em make’s a lot of sense.
Your supposed to do a walk round check before you take the truck out. Where do you draw the line as a driver when a “minor fault” is one that stops you taking it out ? Missing plate ? Blown bulb ? Worn tyre ?
Doent matter how much a Traffic Office might moan though, because it’s the driver who’ll carry the can should a Traffic officer decide to give them a pull when they spot a faulty light of missing plate.
.
I thought that you have to produce a registration document these days to have a number plate made up to stop vehicle cloning etc so getting a replacement might not be so easy.
jessicas dad:
i would have gone with the cardboard one, let the office know and pick one up later.i think you are just being picky and taking too much off people on here. there are a lot whiter than white on here who i dont belive for one minute. now at your rdc you have a bad name that will take a while to clear.
i say the same as jd.similiar thing this week at our place,a driver refusing a truck,because the cab was dirty and a deck lock was inop.wtf■■?,has he never heard of soapy water and spray grease.its that type of mollycoddling attitude thats partly brought this country down.
You CANNOT go into Halfords and get a number plate made up ad hoc, you need the vehicle reg document, no documents no plates, law changed a couple (If not more) years ago.
You can however buy ‘show’ plates from places like Lymm, or ebay. None of this a lot of good at 2am on a wet and windy morning is it… 
Coddy:
shuttlespanker:
Coddy:
I would not employ a driver who would not and could not change a bulb FFS…I would sooner have a guy who could use the fogs to get it back to base and workshops in the case of a headlight bulb, than one who would insist on me spending £350 minimum in getting DAF aid out… In case you think im being harsh, just take a look at the amount of cars on the road with blown bulbs, they all get pulled dont they??
And you guys wonder why wages are so poor, whiter than white and idiots to boot…
remind me not to use the DafAid in your area if that is what they charge
over the rest of the country, the standard DafAid call out fee for out of hours service is £128
do i take it that you willingly drop your trousers and bend over while they slip you a length?
Yeah I meant to write £250, slip of the finger and not checking, hands up… By the time you take a call out, 1 hour, plus bulb etc, you can see why its cheaper th keep spares in the cab, takes 5 mins to do a CF bulb…
As for slipping me a length, noooooo though im sure there are plenty of keyboard heros who would like to stab me in the back LOL.
Same as Suzies, carry spares and have the noddle to change them, it not rocket science (Cheers for the quote DieselDave
)
sorry, but at £250 to change a bulb, i still think they are pulling your trousers down
when you do a call out, the first hour is included in the call out fee of £118 (office hours) or £128 (out of hours)
so, they are charging you double the fee
so, do they pull them down to the knees or is it the full monty round the ankles?
Eh up Shuttle, you got me wrong, one thing I would NOT do is call out a main dealer for a bulb, last time I had to call one out the bill did come to £250, but that was for something a trifle more complicated though he was still only there about 1/2 an hour, and not a Coddy fix/bodge. Guess all the dealers charge differing rates depending on your R&M contract or not as the case may be…
Afraid I really have an aversion to main dealers, having seen a PMI sheet for a mate, on it there was a note, in red, say front pads on a CF down to 1mm (Now you and I know that a light would be on the dash at that amount of wear) No lights, so the guys I used came out to him, removed pads, at least 6mm left… Cost him £20 for checking the pads, whats DAF chargeing now for a pad change?
And things like that go on all the time, he could quite easily have just said change the pads, so who be the loser??
Oh and dont get me started about the gear linkage 
ajt:
Couple of years back i hired a van and trailer to move cars around the country and used a carboard plate. Never got pulled once and at least its making the effort unlike not using a plate at all which just makes you look like your trying evade traffic offences.By law you were right but given the situation i would have done the cardboard plate.
Could you not have arranged to bob into a Halfords on route? They make up plates in a few mins
Not that easy now.You need to prove ownership,address and identity to buy plates.
after re-reading your original post about the £350 call out, you gave the impression that it was for a bulb change, if i have got it wrong, then it is of your doing
but, now you have cleared that up 
dealers do charge differing rates for labour, but the DafAid call out fee is not fixed by the dealer, it is a Daf charge for the service.
as for the price that Daf charge for changing brake pads, i can honestly say, i do not know 
i do the majority of the maintainance myself, ranging from changing brake pads to head gaskets.
one vehicle i had went into a Daf agent, not a main dealer, with an electrical problem, the nearside headlamp wasn’t working, not the bulb, they spent 2 hours looking for the fault, no fault found, but the nearside headlamp still wasn’t working
i spent 2 hours on the saturday morning looking for the fault, and eventually found it
for some reason, the headlamp fuses are the wrong way round in the fuseboard the n/s fuse does the o/s headlamp and vice versa
If this was me I would of phoned HQ told them the plate was missing and to get a new one, also asked for a spare to be made up for ‘Just incase there is a next time’ Then got on my way, the chances of being nicked are slim and you can easily blag your way out of that. This is probably not the correct thing to do but it is what I would of done.
I do think that some drivers do need to be a little bit more flexible, and to be able to think for themselves…
Just as an after thought does the person who started this thread stick to ALL the laws of the land or only the ones he wants to■■?
To be honest with you we had a few issues with a Daf main dealer in Kent, wont name em but they are based in Strood and Ashford…
Think you might find that the sidelights are strange as well, if the nearside sidelights blow a fuse, then the off side top front marker will go out
One other thing I had, that was sorted by luck, on the mixers the PTO was wired to the drums, any way one day could not get cruise to work, nor would the revs rise for the drum speed during loading, another guy who had followed me up the road, sees me scratching my head, then informs me I dont have brake lights… Seems someone had wired the mixer and cruise via the brake light circuit, replace fuse, all OK…
I’m with Deepinvet. Not ideal, but would have been better than mullering the whole job up.
Coddy:
To be honest with you we had a few issues with a Daf main dealer in Kent, wont name em but they are based in Strood and Ashford…Think you might find that the sidelights are strange as well, if the nearside sidelights blow a fuse, then the off side top front marker will go out
One other thing I had, that was sorted by luck, on the mixers the PTO was wired to the drums, any way one day could not get cruise to work, nor would the revs rise for the drum speed during loading, another guy who had followed me up the road, sees me scratching my head, then informs me I dont have brake lights… Seems someone had wired the mixer and cruise via the brake light circuit, replace fuse, all OK…
i know the dealer you talk of, i have had good service from them whenever i have needed to use them
but, from what you have written, some of the problems that you mention, they are not a DAF fault, they would have been done by the bodybuilder
also, from what you have said, your trucks used to be orange but have recently been repainted white?
if that is correct, i like your company, my invoices keep being sent there, someone in accounts needs to pay more attention
Deepinvet:
If this was me I would of phoned HQ told them the plate was missing and to get a new one, also asked for a spare to be made up for ‘Just incase there is a next time’ Then got on my way, the chances of being nicked are slim and you can easily blag your way out of that. This is probably not the correct thing to do but it is what I would of done.
I do think that some drivers do need to be a little bit more flexible, and to be able to think for themselves…Just as an after thought does the person who started this thread stick to ALL the laws of the land or only the ones he wants to■■?
here here my friend 
at last common sense p.s.,when you text me that message earlier…“MAGGIE IN THE DYKE”…i thought jesus no please…then realised 
in the eyes of a “decent” owner driver…totally wrong,but then again if you got a steady “shopping trolley” type job,then fair play to ya
tyler4164:
Before i start i would like to say i work from an outbase in severn beach near avonmouth & the main r.d.c is in Birmingham.
Anyway i start work at 05.15 every morning delivering on a set route to somerset & south wales, a total of 8 drops every day. Normaly when i arrive the night driver has arrived back from Birmingham in plenty of time for me to start work. Today 7/5/09 i arrive to find no truck on site so i ring the main r.d.c & was told about an accident on the m5 & that the night driver would be late back. At 06.20 he arrives back at the yard & as he’s reversing i notice theres no rear numberplate on the trailer. When i asked the driver where it was he said it was on there when he left Birmingham & off he went. I rang the r.d.c to inform them he was back & then told them i couldn’t leave as i had no rear numberplate. They told me to make one using cardboard. I said (1) no because it was illegal & (2) as it was raining it would just fall apart anyway. The reply was…so your refusing to take the truck out. I said yes but only because it’s not 100% legal.Anyway to cut a long story short i got the impression they thought i was being over the top & causing them grief when there was no need to. They had to make some calls & i was told to get my ■■■ to a place in avonmouth to get a new plate. Only problem was it didn’t open untill 08.00. They decided to call in another company to take some drops off me so by the time i had taken the drops off & got the plate i didn’t leave untill 10.00. All in all not a good start.
Couple of questions
1…what would you have done?
2…Was i right or wrong■■?
3…does anyone know what exactly the law says on driving with a made up plate etc etcThanks for any replies
Well OTT !!!