As my role has 'developed', or I might say regressed, the pressure and duties have changed. My employer has been struggling for new business and despite my best efforts to encourage diversfication, I am thwarted by people with no technical ability. My main area of concern is vehicle use and job reporting and I would appreciate any feedback, especially evidence, that anyone can point to.
1. Vehicle use. My role always involved site visits for surveying, project management and commissioning acitivity. I was told I had to provide my own vehicle in exchange for HMRC business mile rates which was not a particular problem. Now I spend most of my time doing maintenance work which often involves transporting heavy electrical equipment and tools. In my private life I do volutary work which benefits from the availability of a large vehicle and I run a double cab pickup with rear canopy. However, now transporting tools and equipment that can be very heavy, I'm paying considerablyy more for fuel, the equipment would never be covered by the £500 vehicle contents cover I have and the insurance has got more and more expensive. Many insurers turned me away in Feb when I renewed, one company saying a commercial vehicle, privately owned, used for business is not liked by many underwriters. The policy was twice the price of a comparable car and I know it's going to be even more next Feb. Hands down, black and white, my job role needs a van of some sort and I happen to have one. But I've never heard of anyone doing what I'm doing without a company vehicle. Should I, as an employee have to provide a commercial vehicle to do my job?
2. Job reporting. Much of my maintenance work requires a functional check of electrical equipment and sometimes a full ECIR. For the basic checks I have a form to fill in and I was making hand notes on site and then typing up the reports back at the office. I was then told to just hand write the reports in my truck before leaving site and just hand them in back at the office. I was also told it didn't matter as the reports were not being sent out to customers! My opinion is that every customer should receive a writtent report without fail and I've set up a cloud based reporting system so I can do my reports from site, but typed and instantly available to the office. We have a meeting about this on Friday but I've heard our financial director hates the idea and wants to stick with the paper based system! My concern is that if a customer was injured or killed whilst in the vicinity of the equipment I've maintained, it looks pretty terrible if we were chased up about it and all there is, is a hand written record not shared with the customer. I am convinced any maintenance activity should include a report, even if there are no issues, so that customer and contactor have the same information.
Thanks in advance for your time.
