Courier Business Stuff

So you’ve got your Goods In Transit Insurance (up to say £15,000), you’ve got your Public Liability Insurance (up to say £1 MILLION) and you think you’re pretty much covered for everything, right? Wrong.

Unless you only ever carry goods under your own ‘Terms and Conditions’ or ‘Conditions of Carriage’, which you make available to your customers before you carry out any work for them then you could be wide open to a claim for unlimited damages from your customer or even from your customer’s customer.

Your Goods In Transit insurance might well cover you for £15,000, but what if the goods you’ve collected are worth far more than that? A consignment of computer chips or a pharmaceutical sample can be worth many times that and if it was lost, stolen or damaged while under your control you would be liable for the full value unless your Conditions limit your liability.

That’s not the worst of it though. Most couriers’ Conditions quite rightly disclaim any liability for consequential loss. Without this essential restriction to your liability your losses are potentially unlimited should a late, lost or damaged consignment cause your customer any financial loss due to your ‘negligent act’. A ‘negligent act’ could be as simple as you leaving goods in your vehicle overnight and them being stolen, being late for a delivery because your cambelt broke due to being overdue for replacement, subcontracting your delivery to a muppet or just sending a document by overnight delivery and it being misrouted.

In the absence of suitable Conditions the only defence that you may have against a claim is to be able to prove that your customer’s loss occurred Read More…

Posted under Courier Basics, Courier Business, Courier Financial Issues, Insurance for Couriers, Legal Issues

The Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (or Driver CPC) is a new scheme brought in under the requirements of an EU Directive 2003/59. It will eventually apply to all drivers of Large Goods Vehicles (LGV) and Passenger Carrying Vehicles (PCV).

The Driver CPC is in no way connected with the Operator’s CPC required by Transport Managers etc to become an O Licence holder.

This is guidance for the Driver CPC as it applies to GOODS VEHICLE DRIVERS ONLY. The rules for PCV drivers will be implemented on earlier dates.

The requirement to hold a valid Driver CPC will eventually apply to all drivers of goods vehicles over 3500 kg GVW – so all drivers driving vehicles that require C1, C1+E, C or C+E licences.

All new drivers passing their tests to driver vehicles over 3500 kg after 10th September 2009 will have to obtain an initial Driver CPC qualification in addition to passing the appropriate driving test. The Driver CPC will need to be renewed every 5 years by completing a 35 hour course.

Drivers who have already have C1, C1+E, C or C+E licences before 10th September 2009 will not have to obtain an initial Driver CPC qualification but will still have to undertake 35 hours of training to renew their periodic Driver CPC by September 2014 and every 5 years after that.

Drivers of vehicles driven under B+E licences (van and trailer combinations) do not require a Driver CPC irrespective of the Gross Train Weight

Posted under Legal Issues, Towing, Vans

Well you can serve any documents at the registered office address that’s registered with Companies House and they’re counted as being served whether they’ve moved or not. So that’s no problem.

Did you get any written confirmation of your booking? If it didn’t have the full company details on it then you should have a good case for making the sender personably liable anyway.

Posted under Courier Financial Issues, Late Payment, Legal Issues

Well it looks like you’re owed more that £750, so you could go for a winding up order – that always concentrates the mind. If the company’s worth nothing then that could backfire on you though.

If you maybe know a large customer of theirs that’s likely to owe them a lot of money you could get a third party debt order and claim your money direct from their customer.

Your best bet’s to get some proper legal advice.

Posted under Late Payment, Legal Issues

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

If it wasn’t a limited company then both partners are liable, it doesn’t make any difference if they’ve sold the business.

Are you sure it wasn’t a limited company though? You said that one of them was sacked as director and partnerships don’t have directors.
From the Business Link website

Sole Traders/Partnerships
4.1 You are personally liable for all your business debts.
• There is no limit to the extent of your liability. If you cannot pay off your business debts, you can be made bankrupt.
• In a partnership, each partner is liable ‘jointly and severally’ for all the business debts of the partnership. This means that, if the business fails, you could end up having to pay your partners’ share of the debts, as well as your own. But for income tax purposes each partner is only liable for their own share of the profits.
4.2 You personally own the assets of the business.
4.6 You can limit your liability in a partnership by setting up a limited liability partnership.
• This is a corporate body with its own legal identity and capacity.
• It has the organisational flexibility of a partnership.
• It offers limited liability to members.
• It must be registered at Companies House.
• Annual accounts must be prepared and filed. There are other filing requirements, similar to those for the limited company which have time limits for compliance.
• The partnership agreement is confidential to members.
• Withdrawals may be clawed back, if the partnership is declared insolvent within the next two years.
• If you are a member of a trade association, check to see whether it has any conditions which may apply to your registration as an LLP.
• Being a member of an LLP can minimise NI contributions

Posted under Legal Issues

Just an accident? Prosecution under Health & Safety at Work Act, prosecution for drivers hours offences, invalidated insurance, unlimited damages to any injured party.

In the case of death caused by a driver working those hours the company and its management face prosecution for Corporate Manslaughter.

Posted under Drivers' Hours, Legal Issues

No. Not even to text.

3) No person shall supervise a holder of a provisional licence if the person supervising is using -

(a) a hand-held mobile telephone; or

(b) a hand-held device of a kind specified in paragraph (4),

at a time when the provisional licence holder is driving a motor vehicle on a road.

(4) A device referred to in paragraphs (1)(b), (2)(b) and (3)(b) is a device, other than a two-way radio, which performs an interactive communication function by transmitting and receiving data.
 

Posted under Legal Issues, Mobile Phones