Government duck you over and over and over

Well I can honestly say I am glad I passed my test when I did. Things were simpler then, ahh the good old days,

ratty said:

I have an NVQ level 3 in how to drive.

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LOL :hysterically_laughi

ahhh, iv'e seen those, apparently if you get to level 4 your aloud to take the hand break off un-supervised

David Stoner said:

LOL :hysterically_laughi

ahhh, iv'e seen those, apparently if you get to level 4 your aloud to take the hand break off un-supervised

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Apparently it's because some unscrupulous people who an drive, are sitting driving tests for other people who can't but would quite like to have a driving licence anyway. Instead of stopping this happening it means that those of us that actually DID pass a test have to now pass another one to prove that it was us that passed the first one.:doh:

On the plus side I can now get an additional 15% off my insurance just cos some bloke took videos of me driving down the road, checking my vehicle over and putting fuel into the fuel tank.

ratty said:

On the plus side I can now get an additional 15% off my insurance just cos some bloke took videos of me driving down the road, checking my vehicle over and putting fuel into the fuel tank.

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That was, of course, the right fuel Ratty . Don''t know about you, but we are still getting about 2 calls a week for numpties putting petrol in teir diesel tank!

Beneagles said:

That was, of course, the right fuel Ratty . Don''t know about you, but we are still getting about 2 calls a week for numpties putting petrol in teir diesel tank!

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Company wise we do quite a few per week. Personally, I'll go a week without doing any and then suddenly have 3 vehicle queued up to be done one after the other. I rekon, on average, I'm probably doing a couple per week when I'm on nights and one week when I'm on days.

Out of fuel jobs seem to be pretty common at the moment, as do management lights that have apparently 'just' come on. People don't seem to realise that a lot of cars will tell us how long and for how many miles the MIL light has been on.:doh:

I don't know what the level of work has been like for you but we'd been pretty quiet from about march/april time until around the last week or so of the school holidays. From then until now we've been flat out.

There've been a lot of recovery companies go bust around us.

We've been pretty steady over the summer...enough that new trucks are back on the agenda.
Large percentage of breakdowns seem to be on cars < 5 years old....shocking! but my pet hate is "puncture, no spare!!!" The big boys will be hurting with that one...£300+ recoveries...just coz the bloody manufaturers want to save £50 a car...and the great british public never think of insisting on a spare!

Beneagles said:

We've been pretty steady over the summer...enough that new trucks are back on the agenda.
Large percentage of breakdowns seem to be on cars < 5 years old....shocking! but my pet hate is "puncture, no spare!!!" The big boys will be hurting with that one...£300+ recoveries...just coz the bloody manufaturers want to save £50 a car...and the great british public never think of insisting on a spare!

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Most of our work tends to be the newer stuff too. There seem to be an awful lot of vehicles under 6 months old going wrong at the moment. My fix rate does seem to still be staying consistent though which is good news.

I carry a puncture repair kit which is great if the flat tyre hasn't been driven on but no use if it has.

Exhaust faults seem to be getting more common too. I've just had to re-stock on exhaust clamps and still need to get some more exhaust paste and bandages.

mr ratty how long have you been doing recovery in that long enough to know whether people are more stupid now than a few years ago

Most of our punctures happen at 70mph....so the can doesn't even look at them...and so-called "run-flats" are a waste of time up here...they never get more than 20 miles
Accident damage keeps us busy too....
Also helps that we have a large pick-up area all to ourselves...and act as Agency to all the big companies.

jamesmartin said:

mr ratty how long have you been doing recovery in that long enough to know whether people are more stupid now than a few years ago

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13 years. Yep, They seem to get more stupid by the day.

We jump start a car, check the charge, and then if we can't establish the cause of the flat battery or think the battery is faulty we then send the driver for a 20 to 30 min drive and tell them to get the battery tested after the drive. It's amazing how many customers will then stand there and argue with us about how they don't see why we can't test a flat battery or don't see why they should have to drive their car to charge it up as thats MY job.


If I ask someone when they last checked their oil and water or tyre pressures the standard response goes along the lines of.... 'well it had its mot in april':doh::doh::doh:

Getting people to understand that we can't carry every part for every car can be hard work too. They seem to think that we can magic parts out of thin air.

Beneagles said:

Most of our punctures happen at 70mph....so the can doesn't even look at them...and so-called "run-flats" are a waste of time up here...they never get more than 20 miles
Accident damage keeps us busy too....
Also helps that we have a large pick-up area all to ourselves...and act as Agency to all the big companies.

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We deal with virtually all the clubs too. We do seem to have had quite an influx of rtc's just recently. They all seem to be completely buggered rather thangetting some with jsut light damage.

I gotta agree about the run flats. The sooner the car manufacturers give them up as a bad idea the better.

Space savers aren't much better mind. I reminded a guy the other day that he shouldn't exceed 50mph and he then started asking if he can do 60mph.:doh:

i am finding that modern man is just a cliche of **** either they spent enough at the gods of service or there too important for **** to happen,

jamesmartin said:

i am finding that modern man is just a cliche of **** either they spent enough at the gods of service or there too important for **** to happen,

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Apparently cam belts should only be changed when sir has time to take the vehicle to the garage and checking oil is the garages responsibility. There are some people that you have to try hard not to smile as you break the news about the engine rebuild that they now require because of their stupidity.

It also seems that car munufacturers put red warning lights on the dashboard purely cos they look pretty.:doh:

One of the most common lines I get when I tell em they have a flat battery is... 'It can't be a flat battery because my lights still work'.:doh::doh::doh:

Or the good old....

'It's not a falt battery because I've tried jump starting it'.... Ooooooh. My eyesight must be getting bad then cos I could have sworn the dash lights are dim and my volt meter is showing me 9 volts.

tis true then landy mechanical people are the last real ,normal ,competent souls ,now wonder the country is in ****

jamesmartin said:

tis true then landy mechanical people are the last real ,normal ,competent souls ,now wonder the country is in ****

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If the planned replacement defender is put into production I get a feeling that it'll be the end of home landrover mechanics within 10 years.

its been going on a while ,soon and now i cant get parts to fix modern units for vehicles,like tellys once repaired now impossible

David Stoner said:

Does that not say that the vehicle has to be more than 30 years old at the time i drive it to be exempt .... i'm looking at stuff up 10/11 year old max.

And it's not a mini bus by classification, it's a car... is it not?

I don't think those exemptions apply to my circumstances? I'm going to ring the DVLGay tomorrow and act a bit tupid on the fonne to them and see what they say. thanks

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Don't think you need to act

David Stoner said:

It wasn't supposed to make you spit the dummy out ... this is though.

i understand the rules of the forum... as long as your making the jokes it's all cool.

And as for freindship and advice... i've seen your examples of both on here, and 90% of the time you offer nothing much more the school yard sarcasm...

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I'd say more 95% - 5%.

Oh, it takes a bit more to make me spit my dummy, I have a rotten disco so i'm used to people taking the ****.

David Stoner said:

Just realised, i'm not allowed to legally insure a 110 station wagon without taking a mini ****ing bus test (and passing D licence).

You know why... cos i passed my driving test after 31st December 1997.

Anyone who passed their test after 31st Dec 1997 is limited to 3.5T vehicles, 750kg breaked trailer and maximum of 8 seater! So for me to legally insure a 110 SW registered for 12 occupants i need to take a ****ing mini bus test to get a D/D1 which allows me to drive vehicles over 8 seats!. Wrong!!!

And before anyone suggest removing some seats to get a maximum of 8, that won't work because the vehicle is registered to carry in excess of 8 people regardless if you've ripped half the seats out!!

Constantly f***** in the f******* a*** i'm gonna s*** civil f****** servants!!!

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David Stoner said:

Does that not say that the vehicle has to be more than 30 years old at the time i drive it to be exempt .... i'm looking at stuff up 10/11 year old max.

And it's not a mini bus by classification, it's a car... is it not?

I don't think those exemptions apply to my circumstances? I'm going to ring the DVLGay tomorrow and act a bit tupid on the fonne to them and see what they say. thanks

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Can you read more than 2 lines of text.

From the Direct.gov website:



Holders of a full category B (car) driving licence may drive any of the vehicles listed below:

• a passenger carrying vehicle manufactured more than 30 years before the date when it is driven and not used for hire or reward or for the carriage of more than 8 passengers

a minibus with up to 16 passenger seats provided the following conditions are met:
i. the vehicle is used for social purposes by a non-commercial body but not for hire or reward
ii. the driver is aged 21
iii. the driver has held a car (category B) licence for at least 2 years

So long as you are not going to use it as a taxi I really don't see a problem. Anyway what does the V5 say, if it is anything other than PSV or LGV your fine.

I passed my licence in Sept 99 but I have still been able to drive minibuses for charitys, BECAUSE I READ THE RULES. Rather than just going off half cocked shouting my mouth off with less than half an idea of what is going on.

mundungus said:

:hysterically_laughi

Sorry, can't help but to laugh, that was ****ing funny.

I do feel for you though. I missed the over 750kg trailer thing by about a month.

I did think the mini bus thing was based on the number of seats fitted though. Maybe worth a call to DVLA to check. I've hired a few different Ford Lutons in my time and driven several Transit sized vans, but that was fine because they only had three seats. The same sized, or even smaller vehicle kitted out as a mini bus and I wouldn't have been able to drive it legally. It just seems illogical.

Luckely though, I did get my full bike licence at 17, just before they started putting restrictions on that.

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I did my test when you still had to do hand signals with your arm out the window but it does mean I can drive a 16 seater or a 7.5 tonner with a 4.5 tonne trailer and I took my bike test on a 250..............God I feel old