Who should maintain a company vehicle

spike7451

When I was at NTL/VM,we had to fill in an online report every month with not only our mileage but certify that we carried out weekly checks on the car,including oil,water,lights ect.Any purchases for oil ect went onto the fuelcard as well & this was input into the report as well.
Checking the oil ect is the responsibility of the driver..Who'd he blame if the police pulled him over for defective lights?...

SHIPSHAPE

Tough titty for the employer.

There is clearly no policy on this as the OP has said so.

Regardless of the employee's questionable common sense, they were not obliged to carry out checks, even if most would anyway.

More fool the employer, I bet they will have a policy from now like they should have had in the first place.

vax2002

So the employer wants half ? will he be claiming tax reliefe on the repair costs as well ?
If the Oil had fallen to such a level then the oil warning light would have come on, thats what it does, the fact it did not suggests the garage are pulling a bit of a fast one.

Notmyrealname

phingers wrote: »

Evening all!

A colleague drives the company van for company business. The van is serviced annually and this is up to date. The van broke down. The reason the van broke down was because it had run out of oil. There were no warning lights in the van to say oil was low or had run out. The cost of a reconditioned engine is £2000. The employer says my colleague has been negligent in looking after the van and must pay half the repair bill.

Is this right? There is no written car policy at all.

Any help massively appreciated. TYIA

Yes this is right. Oil, water, lights and tyres ARE DAILY CHECKS on a company vehicle. If you are stopped at a VOSA roadside vehicle check, the first thing they'll ask is have you done your daily checks? Even on a private car those checks should be a WEEKLY check. He has been negligent by not checking the oil in accordance with the manual.

As a lorry driver I had to do a daily check of all these things and fill in a defect book whether there was anything or not. In most companies something happening the same as it has with the OP would be gross misconduct and instant dismissal.

Checking the oil level isn't just something that should be done at a service. One wonders how much oil is in his car.

Notmyrealname

SHIPSHAPE wrote: »

Regardless of the employee's questionable common sense, they were not obliged to carry out checks, even if most would anyway.

If a defect was found at a roadside VOSA checkpoint such as a bulb, a person driving a company vehicle WOULD have been expected to have done a daily check and they wouldn't listen to you and issue you with a fine. If you had proof you'd done a daily check then it would be taken that the defect happened during the day and you'd just get told to fix it.

marlot

vax2002 wrote: »

So the employer wants half ? will he be claiming tax reliefe on the repair costs as well ?
If the Oil had fallen to such a level then the oil warning light would have come on, thats what it does, the fact it did not suggests the garage are pulling a bit of a fast one.

No.

On most cars it is an oil pressure light, not an oil level light. By the time it comes on the engine has already been running with very low oil pressure and the damage has probably happened.

SHIPSHAPE

Notmyrealname wrote: »

If a defect was found at a roadside VOSA checkpoint such as a bulb, a person driving a company vehicle WOULD have been expected to have done a daily check and they wouldn't listen to you and issue you with a fine. If you had proof you'd done a daily check then it would be taken that the defect happened during the day and you'd just get told to fix it.

The question posed is an employment contractual issue and it should be in the employment section.

Regardless of what you say, he, and nobody else, would be breaking the law if they don't do daily checks on company work vehicles unless directed to do so by the employer.

However, obviously one should not be driving an unroadworthy vehicle but that is a different matter.

Not having oil in your car is not breaking the law so why you mention VOSA is beyond me.

And you wouldn't get fined by VOSA for a blown bulb if you knew nothing of it, it could have happened just a minute beforehand.

Nobody knows why the vehicle lost all the oil so why are you blaming the driver? It could have happened at any time depending on what has happened to the vehicle, even the sump nut could have come free and disharged all the oil on a long motorway journey.

Why should the employee pay for that if that is what happened?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

my previous employer would have us sign two contract 1.employment contract 2 vehicle contract as per terms of the lease. we were responsable for checking the oils windscreen water coolant brake fluid tyres bulbs and locks (because a defective lock on a rear door of a van carrying things is lethal if its bumped open easy and shed it load) other than that we had reminder texts of when our vehicle needs a service at dealers and what type before the target mileage was due because we had to hand over time sheets with our mileage on, this mileage was passed over onto the lease side of our systems, people tried to fiddle the mileage not to have a bollocking for personal use but the dealers always gave the lease the actual odometer readings, when asking for permision to work on the vehicle and a hand me down bollocking was given.

i didnt say in our terms and condition that if we ever let the vehicle run out of oil we would be diciplined, but private out of buisiness hours was a diciplinary.

i suppose if he got sacked and theres no terms in his contract to such vehicle checks, there would be a case for unfair dismisal especially if the person had no previous warnings for anything.

i would pay for an independant report carried out on the vehicle and specific instruction for the employer to tell the garage not to touch anything. get hold of the union rep if he is enrolled in one and go from there.

forgotmyname

Driver is responsible to check the vehicle is in a roadworthy condition.

My old firm would have sacked him instantly, BUT they did have a system in place where each driver had to sign
a sheet to say they had done the checks.

If nothing was in place then a warning and a big lesson to start a system.

What about the oil light? Did he ignore that?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

forgotmyname wrote: »

Driver is responsible to check the vehicle is in a roadworthy condition.

My old firm would have sacked him instantly, BUT they did have a system in place where each driver had to sign
a sheet to say they had done the checks.

If nothing was in place then a warning and a big lesson to start a system.

What about the oil light? Did he ignore that?

this maybe the case as per company policy, but all companies have to stick within employment law, even if their policy states gross misconduct in not maintaining and checking your vehicle.

our company policy was if you go home early you put it on you time sheet, failure to do so is seen as gross missconduct by the company. but yet a employee got away with the sack not once twice or three times but 4 times by going to his dicipliniray hearing with a union rep, then we had new contracts that stipulated that if we go home early we must contact our team leader, we must enter the correct time and dates failure to do so would result in a official warning issued to you, after your third writen warning you would be summoned to a diciplinary hearing where you can have a company reprasentative or union reprasentative present this is due to the company not using the three strike system against that person 4 times in a row and the union rep did his job at keeping the employment law at the forefront of the hearing and not company policy, hence the change in contract.

so whilst the company states it will sack you whether it will be a legal dismissal is will be down to a tribunal.

as the employer is asking for half the cost to repair this vehicle, it is resonable that he requests a second opinion from a independant report.