Damaged van

Oxygenpro · Post by **Oxygenpro** » 06 Jul 2019, 15:44

Towards the back end of May I was covering someone elses duty for a week. On the Monday they reported one of the headlights was smashed and a ding in the front apron. I was asked about it and told them the truth and that I know nothing about it. That seemed to be it and the van was taken put in the garage last week to be fixed.

The garage called our office this morning to say that the van has been in an accident and they are not repairing it until it is investigated. The duty holder is on holiday until Monday but he is going to say he knows nothing about it.

All I can think is that it's been hit whilst parked up and I've missed it on van checks (I admit this is my negligence).

Just wondered what people think the outcome might be. I 100% haven't hit anything, the managers know I'm honest due to other things that I have reported and I have no driving issues since I started 13 months ago.

antcpfc · Post by **antcpfc** » 06 Jul 2019, 15:49

Oxygenpro wrote:Towards the back end of May I was covering someone elses duty for a week. On the Monday they reported one of the headlights was smashed and a ding in the front apron. I was asked about it and told them the truth and that I know nothing about it. That seemed to be it and the van was taken put in the garage last week to be fixed.

The garage called our office this morning to say that the van has been in an accident and they are not repairing it until it is investigated. The duty holder is on holiday until Monday but he is going to say he knows nothing about it.

All I can think is that it's been hit whilst parked up and I've missed it on van checks (I admit this is my negligence).

Just wondered what people think the outcome might be. I 100% haven't hit anything, the managers know I'm honest due to other things that I have reported and I have no driving issues since I started 13 months ago.

If you didn't do it you didn't do it. As for van checks you do that before you go out ,what ever happens after you leave it at the end of duty is not your problem.

Oxygenpro · Post by **Oxygenpro** » 06 Jul 2019, 15:55

I don't think I worded that very well. I reported no damage all week on the van and the person using it Monday reported it Monday morning before going out so it's happened whilst I've had it. I know I've done nothing but know how it looks.

mattjo1@talktalk.net · Post by **mattjo1@talktalk.net** » 06 Jul 2019, 16:15

So you have been the only one driving it.

Its obviously your fault

Oxygenpro · Post by **Oxygenpro** » 06 Jul 2019, 16:18

I know I'm going to get the blame for it but I 100% haven't hit anything, the headlight is completely smashed and the bumper is all scratched.

yellowbelly · Post by **yellowbelly** » 06 Jul 2019, 16:31

mattjo1@talktalk.net wrote:So you have been the only one driving it.

Its obviously your fault

Why? Why couldn't it have happened whilst parked up in the yard after finished with on the Saturday
or on the Monday morning before the duty holder went out?

Oxygenpro · Post by **Oxygenpro** » 06 Jul 2019, 16:46

It doesn't help that our office is shockingly bad on van checks. Literally no one does them properly (if at all). After I got pulled on it the first van I saw in the yard had a smashed rear light, checked the log book and it hadn't been reported! They brushed my incident under the carpet, it's only the garage kicking up a fuss that it's even being investigated.

My thinking is that because I haven't done it they can't find proof so would probably just get a bollocking for not doing van checks properly.

Post by **hothothot** » 06 Jul 2019, 16:57

Don't own up to something you didn't do. Let's be honest virtually all royal mail vans are damaged in one way or another , you can't report every ding or scratch. As others have said it could have happened in the car park over night. Just be honest and firm , because somebody else is not owning up to the damage. Don't worry about it, a similar thing happened to me the dom tried to blame me for damage to a new van , I denied the damage was my fault and told him it was probably done in the car park ,he didn't believe me . I got my union rep involved and heard no more of it.

leolion855 · Post by **leolion855** » 06 Jul 2019, 16:59

Oxygenpro wrote:Towards the back end of May I was covering someone elses duty for a week. On the Monday they reported one of the headlights was smashed and a ding in the front apron. I was asked about it and told them the truth and that I know nothing about it. That seemed to be it and the van was taken put in the garage last week to be fixed.

The garage called our office this morning to say that the van has been in an accident and they are not repairing it until it is investigated. The duty holder is on holiday until Monday but he is going to say he knows nothing about it.

All I can think is that it's been hit whilst parked up and I've missed it on van checks (I admit this is my negligence).

Just wondered what people think the outcome might be. I 100% haven't hit anything, the managers know I'm honest due to other things that I have reported and I have no driving issues since I started 13 months ago.

Am i missing something? its July now.

Oxygenpro · Post by **Oxygenpro** » 06 Jul 2019, 17:04

Yeah it was spotted back end of May, manager questioned me on it, told him I knew nothing about it and that was that.

Since it's been sent to garage 6 weeks later they are saying it's been in a crash and won't repair until it's been investigated.

I won't admit to something I haven't done. If I wanted to be a dick about it there are so many vans with issues that aren't reported. Walked past one this morning with a tyre completely bald. It's shocking really.

Ginge · Post by **Ginge** » 06 Jul 2019, 17:20

So you didn’t notice a smashed headlight after a week of doing your daily van checks??

par4mrl · Post by **par4mrl** » 06 Jul 2019, 17:21

Smashed headlight and taken six weeks to get it to the garage? Am I missing something here too ?

Oxygenpro · Post by **Oxygenpro** » 06 Jul 2019, 17:24

Yeah they just taped it up plastic from around 30th May to last week.

Post by **priority102** » 06 Jul 2019, 17:32

About a year ago I parked my van up Saturday pm, all was fine. The van never moved afterwards but came in Monday am and there was damage to the rear door and bumper. No one knew anything about it of course, the ONLY explanation is that where it was parked was close to where the lorries reverse to get onto the loading dock and it must have been caught by one of these. We'll never know but I reported it straight away and made the DOM sign the log book to that effect.

Oxygenpro · Post by **Oxygenpro** » 06 Jul 2019, 17:42

I guess the bottom line is be thorough on van checks every day, could have happened on the Friday and I've dashed out Saturday and not noticed but I'll never know.

Can't afford to lose my job for it that's for sure. Someone in my office left a handbrake off a couple of weeks ago and it went straight through someones fence and they haven't been sacked.