park and loop and sickness

[eastie]

I am a walker and my partner who is the driverin our park and loop has gone sick .
In our office only about 60% are drivers and the rest refused to drive for various reasons.
Question I am asking is that the DOM asked me if I would drive myself out today as he didnt have anyone else to do it.
Plus with 8 bags I would have needed bag drops etc and big packets needed to be delivered on my part of the loop and the other round was left as docket.
Am I covered if I have an accident driving as I havent been trained, or is it OK.
I expect this will happen quite often and hasn't been thought out properly

[fishtank]

Am I covered if I have an accident driving as I havent been trained, or is it OK.
I expect this will happen quite often and hasn't been thought out properly

No it's not OK.
You haven't been assessed.
You shouldn't be driving a Royal Mail vehicle.

[pokos27]

dont do that, it will get chucked back at you.

[demon]

no you are not

[spoodoo]

is this in the agreement?,,, If theres not enough drivers in office ,then guys who are pretty senior(who dont drive) could end up getting moved to another office , as other drivers from another office get moved to our office? Also guys just in the door (a few months) but can drive ,will jump miles ahead of you if you dont drive ,in re pick for jobs?

[POSTMAN]

is this in the agreement?,,, If theres not enough drivers in office ,then guys who are pretty senior(who dont drive) could end up getting moved to another office , as other drivers from another office get moved to our office? Also guys just in the door (a few months) but can drive ,will jump miles ahead of you if you dont drive ,in re pick for jobs?

Bits in here...
http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 42&t=26209" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, as a principle, all reasonable steps will be made to find alternative duties within the parent unit for people who can no longer perform a driving duty.

[fishtank]

Q. What if an individual is unable to drive i.e. no driving licence or cannot drive for health reasons?

A. If there are employees in your unit that are unable to drive you will need to consider what other duty options are available. You may need to accommodate these employees on shared routes as a planned non driver. (There is a limit to the number of non drivers you can accommodate on shared deliveries. It is, therefore, recommended that this is not an option to employees that can drive but choose not to.) You should explore what other opportunities there are to accommodate the individual within your office. If individuals cannot be accommodated in your office, you may be able to accommodate them via a move to another unit within a reasonable distance, where suitable work is available. Where this is not possible an employee may effectively become surplus and in this instance you should take advice from your Regional ER/IR Manager.

[Lincox]

Question/ Was the manager asking you to drive out in your own transport or in a RM van. If it,s the former, tell him to go and do one, and if it,s the latter, report his request to the health and safety executive.

[POSTMAN]

Q. What if an individual is unable to drive i.e. no driving licence or cannot drive for health reasons?

A. If there are employees in your unit that are unable to drive you will need to consider what other duty options are available. You may need to accommodate these employees on shared routes as a planned non driver. (There is a limit to the number of non drivers you can accommodate on shared deliveries. It is, therefore, recommended that this is not an option to employees that can drive but choose not to.) You should explore what other opportunities there are to accommodate the individual within your office. If individuals cannot be accommodated in your office, you may be able to accommodate them via a move to another unit within a reasonable distance, where suitable work is available. Where this is not possible an employee may effectively become surplus and in this instance you should take advice from your Regional ER/IR Manager.

From memory i don't think we've had anyone report on here a colleague being shunted to another office because they can't drive,or refused to drive.
I wonder if it's actually happened.

[fishtank]

From memory i don't think we've had anyone report on here a colleague being shunted to another office because they can't drive,or refused to drive.
I wonder if it's actually happened.

Can't see it happening to be honest.
Shaky ground legally,plenty of non-driving jobs with park&loop...maybe a reserve just in the door.

[eastie]

Did it the once because he said I was covered if I had an accident.
now I know I'm not covered wont do it any more.
They were stumped, after taking out 5 duties there are not enough drivers.
Plus the reason why only 60% chose to drive was because we thought we would be moved from our duties for this very reason of sickness.

[R@YAL F@IL]

Health & Safety rules state you must have what is called a Changeover before driving any Royal Mail vehicle. You must mention this to your Manager.

[bandit650]

If you are not a Royal Mail driver you don't drive the vans,you are not covered if you have an accident they will throw the book at you,no staff should use equipment that you have not been trained on,you are employed under contract if you were not a driver before your office revision they can not force you or send you to another office to work just on your not a driver,if you drive without change over then you are not insured to drive a Royal Mail Van,you may want to inform your DOM that if by some unfortunate circumstance that you should have an accident and some person is injured or is killed then he will be up in court along with you because he/she sanctioned you to drive and in doing so puts himself/herself in unpleasant position as they have a duty of care toward staff and that includes not allowing or putting staff in a situation so they are able to break the rules.

[fishtank]

What happens if your driver goes off sick but you can't drive?

That's why reserves need to be drivers.

[bandit650]

Then if your driver goes sick then that is the problem for the manager of the office,he/she is payed alot of money per year to work things out like that not yours to worry about,make them earn their money.