Call for agency liability change
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by David Craik • A disgruntled Hertfordshire haulier is calling for driver employment agencies to take more responsibility for their workers after an agency driver damaged one of his trucks.
Maurice Machado, company secretary of Hemel Hempstead-based Transhaul UK, says: "We took a relief driver from Big Jobs Employment Agency in St Albans. He took a 17-tonne lorry up a narrow country lane, tried a three-point turn but left the road and went down an embankment."
Machado says the damage cost Transhaul ,C627. The company was subsequently told at Watford County Court that it must also pay the driver's fees of £388.
Machado says: "Other hauliers should be aware that employment agencies wash their hands of personnel they send out. They use a get-out clause saying that all personnel are selfemployed and they are not responsible for insurance."
Big Jobs says: "We simply stood behind the Federation of Employment Services/Road Haulage Association joint code of practice."
Roger Wrapson, area manager of the RHA, concedes the working code of practice needs improving. "It is not unreasonable that when a driver hired out does something wrong his agency takes responsibility," he says. But he adds that hauliers should be aware of their position with agencies over drivers.
Belinda Brook a solicitor for FRES, confirms that legally agency drivers are self-employed. "Supervision and control are the role of the client."