An exchange of emails with a van rental company

[mickle]

From: Mr M Allan
Subject: Driver complaint

I'd be grateful if you'd let me know the contact details of the person to whom I should direct a complaint about the driver of one of your vans.

Thankyou



Good morning Mr Allan you can give us A call on 01904 ****** and we will look into who was driving the vehicle.


Good morning,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

If you don't mind I'd prefer to conduct this conversation by email so that I have a record of it if I decide to make a formal complaint to the Police.

I had an altercation with a driver of one of your vans at approximately 9:15 this morning, northward on the A19 Main St, Fulford.

The driver drove dangerously close to me in a way which seriously threatened to compromise my safety. And then whilst no more than 30cm off my back wheel revved the engine and sounded the horn at me in an attempt to intimidate me out of the way.

I will not be intimidated by drivers who are too stupid or wilfully ignorant to:

1. Drive in accordance with the highway code

2. Drive in a manner which respects the right of other road users to go about their lawful business in safety.

The driver’s attitude towards cyclists was exposed when – after asking what the problem was - I was told that I wasn’t allowed to; ‘take up the whole road because I don’t even pay road tax’. (oblivious to the fact that Road Tax was abolished in 1937 – that many low emission vehicles are Zero rated for VED – and that cyclists are entitled (and encouraged to in training) to use the whole lane at pinch points to prevent overtaking vehicles from trying to squeeze past).

If the driver was one of your rental customers - I will be taking my complaint to the Police.

If the driver was one of your employees - Your company has a duty of care to train your drivers in the importance of considerate, safe and lawful driving. The incident this morning strongly indicates a failure of your company’s training. I’d be grateful if you’d give me the contact details of the person within your organisation who deals with driver complaints.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Mick Allan



Thanks for replying Mr Allen please can you give me the registration of the vehicle in question as we are a vehicle hire company and run over 50 vehicles, we are always grateful when someone from the general public takes time out of there day to report someone driving one of our vehicles in an unsafe manner we take this very seriously and will speak with the hirer/driver of the vehicle once you have given us the registration.


Regards


Andy



Hi Andy,

Thanks for your reply.

I didn’t get the registration of the vehicle I’m afraid. I can tell you that it was one of your medium vans, a VW Transporter.

And of course, I can identify the driver.

Am I to assume from your email that you know that the van was being driven by a customer and not by a member of your staff?

Do you want me to give you a description of the driver?

Regards,

Mick Allan



Thanks again for reply we have a number of transporters and all are out with customers. the drivers we employ all driver small recovery type vehicles not panel vans so new it wasn’t one of our employees, they are also trained and assessed by ourselves before they are on the road. Can I ask was the vehicle a silver transporter or a white one as this could help me whittle down who it may be, I am fully committed to finding out who the driver is and speaking with them re this unacceptable driving and behaviour .


Andy


Hi Andy, Thank you for your assurances. I’m very grateful for your attention in this matter, and sorry if my tone is less than cheerful – my family and my neighbours all use that road on foot, on bikes and by car and we’ve lost count of the number of times that people’s aggression, impatience and low standard of driving has threatened our safety, literally on a daily basis. You end up wondering what the hell you can do in response to such idiotic behaviour – and the only answer is to report it, report it, report it.

It was a silver vehicle. The person driving it was quite distinctive, a woman with long dark hair in her twenties wearing lots of make-up. Hope this helps.

Thanks again.

Best,

Mick




Thanks again Mick think we may know who has this van on hire we will be speaking with the manager of the business who has it and make him aware of what his driver is up to. I will let you know when we have spoken to them.

Regards

Andy



Three weeks passes .....






Hi Andy, any update on this complaint?

Mick




Hello Mick the last I heard was the driver had been suspended pending an enquiry but I haven’t spoken with the customer since

Regards

Andy



Hi Andy,

If she’s been suspended pending an enquiry that sounds promising. Obviously they can’t conduct an enquiry without knowing my side of the story - so can I expect to receive a communication from her employer?

The decision about whether I escalate the complaint to the Police or not depends on the quality of the response from the driver’s employer. Nearly three weeks has gone by, and I don’t want this to drag on. Can you drop them an email and let me know where they’ve got to with their enquiry?

Thanks for your attention in this matter.

All the best,

Mick



Moring Mick

the company involved has your side of things as I forwarded all the emails to them we had from them. We here at (Van Rental co) have done everything we needed to do and left this in the hands of the hirer if you want to escalate this to the police that’s you chose but we won’t be taking this any further .

regards

Andy



Ok, no problem. I appreciate everything that you’ve done. Can you provide me with the name of the company concerned and your contact there please or shall I just leave the police to contact you?

All the best,

Mick

 

[mickle]

Mick we won’t give out hirer information so we will leave it with you were you want to go with this.


Regards

Andy



Ok Thanks.

 

[mjr]

I've had similar problems with Northgate hire in the past. They seem to act as an identity shield for their clients as part of their service. Pass it to the police and let it go.

 

[JMAG]

Perhaps data protection laws prevent them from disclosing any information unless the request comes from the police?

 

[CopperCyclist]

I agree with them not releasing details to you, otherwise anyone could get name and address of a renter simply by inventing a fantasy event.

What they probably could do is pass your details to the renter and ask them to contact you directly (which they almost have having passed your email on). The renter may, of course, ignore it.

If you feel so strongly that it needs to go further, the police can get the details from them, if it is necessary to investigate crime.

I will warn though that I suspect it may be felt that the offence is not in the public interest to prosecute, due to the low likelihood of any conviction, the minor level of the offence, and the cost required to investigate.

 

[screenman]

"the minor level of the offence" since when has threatening, intimidating behavior been minor. I am stopping there as that response made me angry, which seldom happens.

 

[Arrowfoot]

The incident warrants a Police report. OP, you could have saved everyone and yourself involved from this song and dance.

 

[mjr]

Perhaps data protection laws prevent them from disclosing any information unless the request comes from the police?

Wouldn't that only apply if it was a private rental? Otherwise they could still tell you the company, although they still shouldn't give the driver(s)'s name or other identifying data.

 

[jonny jeez]

"the minor level of the offence" since when has threatening, intimidating behavior been minor. I am stopping there as that response made me angry, which seldom happens.

Since forever.

It is a minor offence. Are you suggesting its a serious offence like murder, rape, or even actual assault.

Lets keep some perspective here.

 

[mjr]

Client confidentiallity, if it was my business I'd tell you to bog off as well.

whereas if it was my business, I'd have a way to deal with such predictable complaints that someone was using equipment rented from me for criminal behaviour, rather than my business being seen as a safe haven for criminals.

 

[screenman]

Since forever.

It is a minor offence. Are you suggesting its a serious offence like murder, rape, or even actual assault.

Lets keep some perspective here.

It is not minor, and should not be considered as such, the next time the cyclist may not be so skilled. I am more motorist than cyclist so I am coming at it from both directions.

 

[mjr]

Yes if we only some sort of state funded judicial system in order to deal with such accusations eh?

Well yeah if you're going to leave it to the police and so on then fine, but then you'd just reply with that and not all the guff in the OP.

 

[Drago]

Northgate specialise in only hiring vans to direct.blood descendents of Ghengis Khan. Known fact.