(19 Feb 2025, 12:14 pm)Chris 1 wrote I'm led to believe there's a not uncommon scenario where a driver will request a replacement vehicle due to warning lights. They will then be requested to carry on, and if they refuse are then asked 'are you refusing to carry out a reasonable request?' Between a rock and a hard place.
To which the answer would be "no, I'm refusing to drive a defective vehicle" surely?
(19 Feb 2025, 6:45 pm)col87 wrote If it was me I would actually pull over and tell the passengers and ask if they wanted to continue or not considering the problems.
Saying that I don’t think this is a problem that is just at Go North East either as Stagecoach seem to have buses out on the road with faults as well although I think the difference here is that Stagecoach have not made the drivers that it’s there fault if they is an accident.
It does seem like Go North East have took cost cutting to the extreme where it’s potentially now putting both drivers and passengers at risk and the drivers rightfully are not taking it.
GNE haven't done this either. The driver of a vehicle is legally responsible for ensuring their vehicle is roadworthy and can be fined and issued penalty points if they drive an unroadworthy vehicle - regardless of whether someone in control has told them to or not. GNE's bit of paper makes no difference re fault, it is just an exercise in stupidity from management and you'd think would actually empower drivers to be more cautious in following 'advice' from control if this places them or their passengers at risk. For the company to successfully discipline someone for refusing to drive an unroadworthy vehicle, they would have to admit they were requiring their workforce to break the law and in fact be acting unlawfully themselves as an operator.