Van roll aways

Post by **Warriorpostie** » 15 May 2018, 09:30

A colleague got the sack recently for a van roll away which he is appealing. Anyone know the win rate of an appeal? There are so many accidents like this happening & I think royal mails policy now is just to sack the employee rather than keep them on & take them off driving.

tommyrep · Post by **tommyrep** » 15 May 2018, 12:18

Pressure on delivery times. Intimidation on work performance. Stress. Fatigue caused by overwork. Monotony of getting in and out of vans constantly breeds brain fog and forgetfulness. Distractions, chasing time to deliver 1.00 pm specials. Chasing time to do collections. Routine mundanity of shitty job for 5 hours plus with no rest, in pissin rain and gales, even extremes heat. Not feeling well, under the weather. Poor sleep pattern. Medication.
Faulty handbrake. Simple human error. The 3 Cs. Removal from driving duty ( haha, as is that would be punishment).
Additional pressure and responsibilities of coping with driving a RM van with no recognition of added reward or unfair work load.
Has he been coached - lately - on procedures. Signed recently, drivers training at WTL.
Has he a poor driving record, has this happened before. Was he already on a warning,conduct coded ???

Post by **hothothot** » 15 May 2018, 13:37

Every postie is put under this kind of pressure on a daily basis, I'm surprised there's not a lot more accidents. In my office 4 months ago a guy left the handbrake off and crashed into another parked car causing a lot of damage. We all thought he's in the shite now. But you won't believe this he got banned for 2 days that's it. It wasn't as though it was his first accident, over the years he must have had at least 10. He thought he was in for the sack he couldn't believe it. Nor could we!

Seymour Buts · Post by **Seymour Buts** » 15 May 2018, 14:17

ALWAYS switch off with the van in gear. You're in and out constantly, it's easy to forgot the handbrake but if you switch off without going near the gear stick you're always gonna be in gear.

Post by **hothothot** » 15 May 2018, 15:22

If you have a roller way ( handbrake left off) never admit it. Just say you had an ordinary accident. They won't no. then you might end up with a ban for a few weeks and not the tin tack.

Jpro747 · Post by **Jpro747** » 15 May 2018, 15:41

I had a roll away accident 2 years ago. I applied the handbrake but didn’t leave it in gear. Handbrake failed and van rolled down a slope and hit a pillar box

. No one was hurt and no damage to any third parties. Got suspended with pay for 3 months while they investigated the incident

. They concluded as I was never given drivers training when i started, they couldn’t sack me. Managers tried everything they could to put the blame on me. I was given a 2 year serious and was told i was lucky to have a job!

apple · Post by **apple** » 15 May 2018, 20:11

more than half the office dont know how to use them, press the button on the end then pull up, its not supposed to make a noise when you pull it on

Creditshampoo · Post by **Creditshampoo** » 15 May 2018, 20:53

postietom wrote:ALWAYS switch off with the van in gear. You're in and out constantly, it's easy to forgot the handbrake but if you switch off without going near the gear stick you're always gonna be in gear.

See I had driver training recently and he said to never leave it in gear

Ozzvaldo · Post by **Ozzvaldo** » 15 May 2018, 21:27

We had somebody sacked a while ago for this, but RM probably felt obliged to rule in this way and not consider any mitigating circumstances (such as those outlined by Tommyrep) because a pedestrian received life changing injuries after being hit by the van.

Redvannon · Post by **Redvannon** » 16 May 2018, 07:53

apple wrote:more than half the office dont know how to use them, press the button on the end then pull up, its not supposed to make a noise when you pull it on

That's the opposite of what I was told, both on my actual driving test 15 years ago and by the pertemps instructor. I'm genuinely curious as to who told you to push the release button in before applying the handbrake.

Xr4 · Post by **Xr4** » 16 May 2018, 09:44

Redvannon wrote:
apple wrote:more than half the office dont know how to use them, press the button on the end then pull up, its not supposed to make a noise when you pull it on

That's the opposite of what I was told, both on my actual driving test 15 years ago and by the pertemps instructor. I'm genuinely curious as to who told you to push the release button in before applying the handbrake.

My old instructor said that it was to stop wear on the rachet mechanism. I recon it was to save his nerves with the constant clicking everytime you had to stop lol

Post by **PHARRY** » 16 May 2018, 10:52

Most cars now have electric handbrake why not on a van ?

Post by **Warriorpostie** » 16 May 2018, 14:30

Could easily happen to anyone with the pressure we are put under most days. A small lapse in concentration & thats you’re job gone. The handbrakes are over used in post vans & wear very quickly. Yet people who hit vans & drive into things off their own bad driving get away with a warning? Doesn’t seem right to me.

Post by **fb1969** » 16 May 2018, 15:37

I wonder how many of these are on Vauxhall vans?

I've owned 5 Vauxhall cars over the years and the handbrakes were crap on all of them - always needing adjusting within a few hundred miles of being adjusted.

Post by **Murdoch** » 16 May 2018, 16:41

I've gotten into the habit of always shutting off engine & leaving my van in gear at every stop with a gradient. It becomes muscle memory pretty fast. I don't think there's any real mitigating circumstances for roll always to be honest. Leaving vans in gear with wheels pointed to kerb, is a standard practice fail-safe.

I had a handbrake failure a few months ago, it was left in gear so it rolled about 2 feet and stopped on the kerb when I did my loop, I wouldn't have known if an elderly customer hadn't been watching