Courier Business Stuff

If you’re not inspecting the vans on a daily basis and the drivers aren’t signing a vehicle defect sheet every day then you’re laying yourself wide open if they were to have a maintenance related accident.

If he has been filling in a damage/defect sheet and he’s not mentioned the damage then it’s presumably gross misconduct anyway, so no notice needed.

This is one of the reasons why you’re meant to give them a written statement of their employment particulars within 2 months of them starting. It protects the company as well as the employee.
 

Posted under Employment

While it may be flattering that so many of you seem to think that our website is worthy of copying, I’m getting a bit f*****g sick of having to ask ‘Network’ MEMBERS to remove OUR intellectual property from their websites.

The next ‘Network’ member that copies ANYTHING from our website will be charged £500 as a design fee (our standard charge) AND will be sued for their breach of our copyright if they don’t remove the material immediately.
 

Posted under Legal Issues

I feel a FAQ answer coming on….
But in the meantime….

If they’re only driving vehicles that aren’t on tacho they’re covered by the Working Time Directive but not by the Road Transport Directive – so they’re allowed to opt out of the hours requirement of the WTD.

They’re also covered by the UK domestic driving rules which limits them to a maximum of 10 hours per day driving and 11 hours per day total ‘duty time’.

No written records need to be kept, but if your employee was to drive for say 11 hours a day and had an accident that killed someone (or him) you’d probably be charged with manslaughter.

Posted under Courier Basics, Drivers' Hours, Employment

lynyrd wrote:
what would be the fastest ever period going from starting a ltd company to shutting the doors?

last year 6 weeks, now another it seems?…..isnt it time the law got involved in this scam?

what actually constitutes “obtaining goods or services by deception”?

and if my booking form doesnt state “ltd” just who was I dealing with?…

This is exactly why recently formed limited companies, or in fact most limited companies now, are a bad credit risk. That’s why the banks demand directors’ guarantees before lending them money.

The Companies Act contains all sorts of get out clauses so that limited companies can act in a shonky way and get away with it – but if they get the basics wrong then the shield of limited liability is taken away from them.

If the booking form doesn’t contain their limited company details then they’re in breach of the Companies Act – which means that the directors should be held personably liable for any losses you suffer because of their breach.

Posted under Courier Financial Issues, Late Payment, Legal Issues

One week’s statutory notice or whatever it says in the written statement of employment particulars that you made available to him within two months of him starting working for you.
 

Posted under Employment

“you can not employ a driver on a self employed basis if he/she only works for you as inland rev say there is no reason why can not be paye. “

Luckily it’s not the IR who decide, it’s the courts, and they think differently. There is case law relating to the transport industry which allows companies to ‘employ’ self-employed drivers to drive the company’s vehicles – as long as the contract’s properly worded.

There’s also no specific law against paying a driver a percentage or a mileage rate. I think the reason this is seen as a problem is that if you’re running vehicles over 3500kg and you receive attention from the Traffic Commissioners following an accident or drivers’ hours offences they they’re likely to rule that a bonus scheme, or mileage based payments is a contributing factor to the problem and penalise the company more than they would normally.
 

Posted under Employment

“How do you go about getting CRB checked” – you don’t, unless you’re involved in an activity which requires it. Most couriers aren’t involved in anything that would involve a Standard or Enhanced Disclosure, so they can’t be CRB checked by their employers or customers.

All that can be obtained is a Basic Disclosure, which is only ever issued to the applicant (the driver or whoever), these are available from www.disclosurescotland.co.uk. Ignore the fact that it’s a Scottish service – it covers the whole of the UK.
 

Posted under Employment

The owners are financially responsible for the actions of their dog whether it’s on their premises or not. If they’ve got house insurance it will normally have public libility cover built into it. Pet insurance often has PL cover as well. If they’re tenants without insurance then you can still sue them, but you might not recover anything even if you win. If the driver’s an employee then you may need to notify your employer’s liability insurer.
 

Posted under Employment