Paul, do you mean that the driver knew the weight of the goods but loaded anyway?
I think you’ve got your answer right there then. Unless (and I’m not actually suggesting that you would do this) you and the subcontractor mutually decided to ‘turn a blind eye’ to the fact that he would be a few kg over, or if you misled the subcontractor about the weight, then it’s entirely his fault and the costs are legally and morally his responsibility.
Posted under Legal Issues, Vans
Posted by Alec at 2:42 pm, June 24, 2008
The percentage overload is a percentage of the GVW, not the payload.
As I said, if there was no blame on your part then it’s the subcontractor’s responsibility. I take it that neither you nor they selected a vehicle at random, so what weight did you tell them it was when you booked it.
I was thinking that myself Mark, but then again if I asked you for the wrong sized vehicle your driver wouldn’t just load up and go no matter what the weight would he.
Les, surely that argument only goes as far as justifying a call-out charge for the 7.5t and an increased charge for a larger vehicle, or a charge for a second vehilce to carry the excess goods.
I’m happy to bow to your experience on this but isn’t it an important part of the driver’s job to know what weight he can carry and not to load more onto his vehicle than it can legally carry? It’s not as if he’d have had to guess the weight, it was on the paperwork.
I know that most (well, many) van drivers don’t have a clue what their vans can really carry but I’d assumed that companies operating at 7.5t and over would ensure that their drivers knew exactly what their limits are. I’m obviously wrong about that.
An excellent solution. I was thinking that the cost of the second vehicle should be the subcontractor’s responsibility but you’re right, it’s probably the customer’s.